Bad experience with an airport to Disney car service

[CleveRocks]

I'm not crying, on the contrary, I know exactly what I did wrong and it wasn't charging the $20.00 extra. That is 100% legal. The OP asked for extra services (the ones we charged-not counting the ones we could have) after she had paid one week earlier (when she was droped at the Port). My driver knew all was paid for when she came to the port to pick them up to go back to the airport. She also knew there was only ONE stop on the way back, not 4. She also knew the client had already paid for the way back to the airport but the pick-up time was 9:30am not 10:15am.

I have ALL the right to charge for extra stops, extra time, and any extra service ordered by our clients or forced on us over what was paid for originaly and agreed upon on their confirmation. I DO NOT need authorization nor a signature as a service provider as long as the charges are proven reasonable and true; and again I must say, we NEVER had a charge back due to overcharging after 15.000 clients. I'm not about to start now.

Hello, Greg.

Another disinterested third party here.

I went to a restaurant last night. The menu says the kids meal comes with milk. I ask the waitress if my son can get chocolate milk instead of regular milk and she says okay.

The menu says that my entree comes with a side dish of pasta. I know that the restaurant makes a "rosa" sauce that I just crave like nothing else -- the rosa sauce uses more expensive ingredients and takes more labor to produce than the usual marinara sauce. I ask the waitress if I can get my side of pasta with the rosa sauce instead of marinara sauce, and she says okay.

The caesar salad had some anchovies on it, but I just love anchovies and ask the waitress if I can have a few more, and she says okay.

I paid my bill as presented to me, by credit card. I later find out that $10 was added to my credit card charge for the extras I requested.

If I knew I was going to be charged extra, I probably would have been okay with it. But my not knowing about it makes it a rude (and perhaps illegal) move on the part of the restaurant's owner.

I get to choose how I spend my money. It is not proper for money to be taken from me if I don't know about it and certainly didn't authorize it. No excuses.

The restaurant owner probably felt me a pushy customer with a high sense of entitlement, or perhaps that I was improperly trying to get things for free, or both! That's fine, everyone's entitled to their opinion -- God Bless America! But the restaurant owner is not entitled to take money from me that I didn't authorize.

The waitress, as the owner's agent, authorized the extra services to me, and the lack of communication between the waitress and the restaurant owner is an internal problem of the business, and should never have become my problem. If the owner thought I wasn't paying my fair share for the services I received, then I should have been informed I would need to pay more, OR I should have had those extra services denied to me.

Does this example make sense to you, and does it help you see how I and others are apparently viewing the OP's situation?

 

[Galactic Emperor]

I guess it's time for other passengers of that day to confirm what JeanneG said. Coincidentally I was the first person to contact that company for that ride, but as I live in Europe JeanneG took over after the initial mails. Contacts are easier to handle when you're in the same timezone and phonecalls are less expensive as well. Right from the first contact it was clear that there would be a pickup of 10 persons at two different locations and that it would be 10 adults with their luggage. Nevertheless that van arrived equipped with a bulky booster seat which additionally made stowing the luggage difficult. Most of that luggage handling wa done by me and the other men in our group as out of courtesy we didn't want a woman having to lug 50lbs+ luggage four to five feet high to stow them in the van's trunk.
A 20% tip is IMHO more than generous and although the lady driving us both ways was very nice, there was no reason to tip over that. Charging extra for dropping off people at two different doors at the MCO Terminal is utterly ridiculous, especially taking into account that we divided our luggage so as to make unloading a piece of cake. It was really just pulling over, picking the bags on top at the first stop and then off to the next stop another 100 yard up ahead and getting the rest of the stuff.
Charging the 20% gratuity up front is according to ***'s website only customary for non-American customers and as I made the first contact they obviously decided for that even though the majority of our group and especially our contact person (JeanneG) was American. We agreed to that, but stating as GN did, that he expected us to tip over that can only be seen as pure greed.
I have a bad feeling that I came up with using that company (Sorry, JeanneG ), but of course we will never do that again and can only advise everyone to use other methods of transportation in the Orlando area.

 

[Edd]

Gregory Nicolas, you just don't get it. You took $20.00 from the passenger without her authorization. If you worked at Mears, one of the most customer orientated businesses in Orlando, they would fire you immediately. If you have pulled that trick once I am sure it wasn't the first time. This may be the first time something has ever been said. You did it with confidence that you were right. You destroyed the faith one customer had in you by altering a document after she signed it or agreed to it being processed. You were wrong and you say you were 100% right.

Your pleading is typical of most drivers who are required to attend the Notices of Violation (NOV) meetings held monthly at Orlando International. They spin their stories to favor themselves so they don't have to pay the fines the airport levies against them. I don't sit in judgement of them, but only as an observer. They all think they are right and cannot believe it when 3 including a lawyer, administrators of the airport find them guilty of breaking the regulations set up for all transportation companies. You are typical. You just don't get it!!!

 

[Lewisc]

You still don't get it. You admit the client wasn't told about the extra charge yet you billed her credit card without any authorization. That isn't 100% legal, it's not even 1% legal.

You claim to have an excellent reputation, I'm amazed you're willing to get a charge back and a BBB complaint over $20.

Your driver could have told the customer about the extra charge or could have put the office on the phone and you could have told the customer. You don't have a legal or ethical right to just bill the customer after the fact.

I'm not crying, on the contrary, I know exactly what I did wrong and it wasn't charging the $20.00 extra. That is 100% legal. The OP asked for extra services (the ones we charged-not counting the ones we could have) after she had paid one week earlier (when she was droped at the Port). My driver knew all was paid for when she came to the port to pick them up to go back to the airport. She also knew there was only ONE stop on the way back, not 4. She also knew the client had already paid for the way back to the airport but the pick-up time was 9:30am not 10:15am.

I have ALL the right to charge for extra stops, extra time, and any extra service ordered by our clients or forced on us over what was paid for originaly and agreed upon on their confirmation. I DO NOT need authorization nor a signature as a service provider as long as the charges are proven reasonable and true; and again I must say, we NEVER had a charge back due to overcharging after 15.000 clients. I'm not about to start now.

 

[snowwite]

OK, I admit it's probably my own fault for NOT using FL Tours which we have in the past and with much satisfaction. One member of our party suggested that this time we use *** to get to the port from MCO and we all went along with this. Bad move. Basically, I have no complaint regarding the service itself. We were a party of 10 normal-sized adults in a 10 passenger van. It was quite tight, but adequate. There was very little room for all our cruise luggage, but we kept some of it on our laps and made do. Our driver was prompt and courteous and so we thought all went well. That was until yesterday when my credit card statement arrived in the mail. The charge on my statement was $20 more than the charge on my signed receipt. When I called and politely inquired about it, I was told by the owner of the company (Gregory Nicolas) that I failed to notify them of multiple drop-offs and that was the reason for the extra unauthorized charge. Our designated drop-off was listed at MCO, however he insisted that since 4 people were left off at Terminal A and 6 at Terminal B, it was equivalent to multiple stops. I told him that the driver never made any comment or indicated there would be an extra fee. In fact, the male members of our party loaded most of the luggage into the van themselves since our driver was female and somewhat petite. They even made a point of loading it so that the first ones out would have their luggage on top. Futhermore, if the driver had told us upfront about the additional charge we would have either agreed to accept it OR have everyone let off at one location and use the moving platform. But we were never given the choice. Mr. Nicolas would not listen to any of this and insisted that I had deceived him and was attempting to "steal" services from his company. He hung up on me twice so I sent him a very polite and detailed email listing all the facts (which I can fully document). He then proceeded to send me 3 emails each one more inappropriate than the one before. He accused us of inadequate tipping when we readily paid the full 20% gratuity he stipulated. Since we had waived our free 30-minute shopping stop and the men did most of the loading/unloading, all of us felt that the 20% was fully adequate. His emails to me were quite inflamatory and most unprofessional. I also can't believe he was stupid enough to put those things in writing as it can only serve to reflect poorly on him. Yesterday I notified my credit card company to dispute the additional charge and I also filed a complaint with the BBB of Central Florida. I realize it is a very small amount of money, but if he gets away with adding unauthorized charges to everyone's account, he could end up stealing a small fortune.
Sorry to post such a negative report, but I hope to spare others from the same fate.

I wish that the name had not been edited out. It would be nice to know who to be aware of so we dont get ripped off. It isnt limo is it?

 

[goofy4tink]

I wish that the name had not been edited out. It would be nice to know who to be aware of so we dont get ripped off. It isnt limo is it?

No, it is not! It is board policy to not list banned companies. If you try to put the name in a posting, it will be removed automatically.

 

[jeanneg]

Thanks, GE, for coming to my rescue....I didn't want to get you guys involved with all this ugliness. Of course this is turning into a she said/he said incident, but now you can see all the inaccuracies in his most recent post. I particularly like the one about the driver having to wait for us at the port. Our pick-up was scheduled for 9:15-9:30 and we were all there waiting by 9:00. We even called to tell the driver that we had gone through customs and were ready. Four of us had flights at noon and so we wanted to be there as early as posible. Mr. Nicolas claims that the driver had to wait until 10:15 to pick us up. If I remember correctly we were just about at the airport at that time because we ended up with lots of time to spare. Now I'm starting to think that PERHAPS the driver picked up up another fare - "off the books" so to speak, returned to the office late, and used some cockamammy story about us to cover her own you-know-what. Complete speculation, but I can't understand why Mr. Nicolas' is so angry and keeps insisting we abused his service. I am really tired of all this, but he keeps posting outright lies.

 

[jeanneg]

Snowwite: The company you mentioned is NOT the one. I don't think I can say any more unless you pm me your personal email.

 

[mickeyfan9194]

Let me get this right--the owner is complaining that you ONLY tipped the 20% gratuity automatically added on? UNBELIEVABLE!!! I consider 20% an adequate tip for very good service. We've never tipped above that amount for great limo service w/a grocery stop. What does he expect??? Maybe he should put it out front--"20% gratuity will be added to your bill (along with whatever WE feel is appropriate)".

Boy, I'm going to start watching my credit card statements a lot more carefully. I guess I'm dumb enough to believe that when I'm charged $X from a business, that that's exactly what they'll charge me. Who knew that they could add on fees after the fact?!

Thanks for the heads up, JeanneG! I'll definitely keep this in mind when we travel to Orlando again.

 

[seashoreCM]

Sorry about your [referring to the company owner] problems you ran into in the past, but you have probably compounded them for the future. .

The owner probably did more damage to himself by not trying to post somewhat anonymously let alone trying to circumvent the name filter and insert the name of his company (since edited out manually).

Otherwise this discussion could be held to more general topics such as:

(1) Is it necessary to drop off on both sides of the airport to win customers over from Magical Express?

(2) How should we deal with cruise ships and airplanes that don't arrive on time?

(3) It's not how the person looks (petite, obese) bur rather his/her enthusiasm and pro-activeness in judging where the customer could use help.

(4) Is it a legitimate charge or a credit card slip forgery?

OT: Back in an earlier lifetime, I was returning from the local amusement park, I filled up at a gas station. When I got the credit card bill the amount for this charge was inflated, forged if you will. I wrote the credit card company to dispute the charge, adding, "Although I patronize this station often my car doesn't hold that much gas". The credit card company removed the entire charge and the correct charge never re-appeared. Perhaps the credit card company decided to penalize the station. Perhaps a college kid working there either was docked and tried to embezzle back or tried just to embezzle and by the time the error was caught he would be away back at college. (peitie; obese) BTW there was no dress code at said amusement park and back then I was like the hunk in Snowwite's signature and could be ogled rather than pointed at.

 

[padisneyfan]

The big deal is you are now very nice and calmly giving you side of the story which at 90% is untrue and false. You told me there would be 8 passengers total for that trip, 6 to be picked up at a hotel near the airport, than 2 more you never met before from Germany at the Hertz rental car 2-3 miles away (you told me on the phone you never met them, in you email afterwards you said they were old friends - that statement was said after I told you we do not do shuttle service and actually can not, that if you had unknow people in your party they should have reserved a separate private car (as vehicle for hire regulation determines). I did trade you the 30 minutes stop for the wait time in those two locations!!! A day before your trip there was an extra 2 people added to the reservation to be picked up at the Hertz rental car, also not in the original reservation we agreed on. At the Port we waited over 30 minutes for you and your "friends" to come out, which we again could have charged for at a rate of $50.00 an hour (right Edd?) but did not (I told the driver to wait longer and that I would cover her next run for her). Then, after waiting longer to depart from the port you ask my driver to stop in both sides of the airport (A and B) which would be OK have you not already abused of our company enough. Another detail you failed to say; in both sides of the airport we stopped twice (2 times on the A side and 2 times on the B side). My driver, when she called after dropping you all off, said she believed you were a tour organizer of some sort and tried to squeeze the most out of us for you own profit from your "friends" (her words)...

Well this has been very interesting reading since DH and I were part of the 10 that were picked up from the hotel to the Port group. We were not involved in the Port to MCO ride as we went to WDW and 2 other friends took our place. Jeanne organized this for all of us as a friend and she is not a tour organizer. We were part of a much larger group who were cruisng together. We left the baggage area at the same time before 9am and parted ways as Jeanne and the rest of the group went to get the van and I went to the DCL bus. Our DCL bus actually passed them as they were loading into the van. I was at OKW by 10:05am. I am unsure why the driver felt she had been taken advantage of when she picked us up at the hotel and then at the Hertz pickup when this had all been preplanned. She had to wait a couple minutes when she picked us up at the hotel as she was early and someone in our party was at the front desk checking out. The men helped to load the van because the luggage was heavy and to help get it organized so it would all fit.

I am amazed that Mr. Nicolas responses on this thread are so negative toward a customer who you openly admit that you should have called to tell her about the extra charge, but went ahead and illegally charged her CC. Your responses on this thread are very unprofessional and are doing nothing to help your business.

Nancy

 

[hpguy]

 

[GregoryNicolas]

Charging the 20% gratuity up front is according to ***'s website only customary for non-American customers and as I made the first contact they obviously decided for that even though the majority of our group and especially our contact person (JeanneG) was American. We agreed to that, but stating as GN did, that he expected us to tip over that can only be seen as pure greed.

20% gratuity was added to your reservation because of the "out of town" status of it. Please go back to my site and check if you will, but I believe you read it wrong.

There were two "quick" stops (100yards apart each) on each side of the airport making it a total of 4 stops.

Greed? $20.00?

 

[PURTYPAT1]

I have a question for all,

If I get a car service & 20% gratuity tip is automatically added on, does the driver expect more???

Are we exepected to tip beyond this? Please explain, for I am traveling next week, & don't want to undertip anyone.

Jeanneg, I feel you are 100% in the right. No one should ever add to your credit card. This is stealing. Thank you for sharing this will us, this is what these boards ar about, learning from others.

Patricia

 

[GregoryNicolas]

The owner probably did more damage to himself by not trying to post somewhat anonymously let alone trying to circumvent the name filter and insert the name of his company (since edited out manually).

Otherwise this discussion could be held to more general topics such as:

(1) Is it necessary to drop off on both sides of the airport to win customers over from Magical Express?

(2) How should we deal with cruise ships and airplanes that don't arrive on time?

(3) It's not how the person looks (petite, obese) bur rather his/her enthusiasm and pro-activeness in judging where the customer could use help.

(4) Is it a legitimate charge or a credit card slip forgery?

OT: Back in an earlier lifetime, I was returning from the local amusement park, I filled up at a gas station. When I got the credit card bill the amount for this charge was inflated, forged if you will. I wrote the credit card company to dispute the charge, adding, "Although I patronize this station often my car doesn't hold that much gas". The credit card company removed the entire charge and the correct charge never re-appeared. Perhaps the credit card company decided to penalize the station. Perhaps a college kid working there either was docked and tried to embezzle back or tried just to embezzle and by the time the error was caught he would be away back at college. (peitie; obese) BTW there was no dress code at said amusement park and back then I was like the hunk in Snowwite's signature and could be ogled rather than pointed at.

Maybe I did way more damage than if I came here anonymously, but again, I still feel I'm right even when you all gang up on me. Again, I'm allowed to charge extra if an extra service was provided, even without notifying the client!!! My only "confesion" here was that I could have called but did not. I was not in the office when they were droped off at the airport, and after all the extras they used, even if they all deny it now (he said/she said), I had all the right to charge the $20.00 extra. Charging those $20.00 without a call or an explanation from me or the driver might not be the best approach and might seem to you like I "forged" something, or that I stole from them, but it is none of the above.
It is sad that you all believe that I, after many years in business here, recommended by many discussion boards (feel free to look in all other major ones), guide books (6 of them), and travel agencies would jeopardize it all because of $20.00. Again, you STILL dodn't know the whole story and If you want to know it call us, I will give you a complete explanation of all the smaller details that HAD to remain off line!

 

[kaytieeldr]

You in the other hand, think that because you are such a nice driver, that is all you are in retrospect, you have all the answer for members here. I've read many of them and many help some companies and not others. People will catch on you only talk good things about the ones that give you work...I know you have been very careful not to say anything to direct, but I know what you are doing. I, in the other hand, was naive to think that if I was writing here really helping people, never saying anything about my company, peope would know I was really helping and not looking for business.

I think you're missing the point. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Edd knows exactly who you are. He IS in the livery business in the Orlando area. Sure, he can be single-minded on some issues (i.e. DME), but he also spends a lot of (I'd guess unpaid) time researching and posting transportation issues and information about Central Florida. Is his sole income derived from tips? No, of course not. Does he solicit, or demand, or indicate as mandatory, tips? Again, no.

I got it, trust me, I got it. It doesn't mean I believe I was completely wrong in charging this $20.00. I must say again so all of you understand. I could have called the client and tell her about the extra charge.

Wrong to charge it? We all apparently think yes, but you think no. That's fine. Wrong to charge it WITHOUT THE CLIENT'S APPROVAL, OR WITHOUT EVEN NOTIFYING HER? You betcha!

Maybe I did way more damage than if I came here anonymously, but again, I still feel I'm right even when you all gang up on me. Again, I'm allowed to charge extra if an extra service was provided, even without notifying the client!!!

NO, you are NOT allowed to do that. It's called fraud.

 

[Dina]

I haven't read most of the replies to this post for lack of time. I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience with ****. I've used them 4 times, and they have always gone above and beyond for us-- including one time when hurricane Jeanne hit and we had to change our flight (to leave the day before) at the very last minute. And another time when we needed to go somewhere instead of our grocery stop to activate our APs, and Gregory called around to find out exactly where we needed to go. I thought that was so nice. This is honestly the first negative thing I have ever read about them on any of the boards I visit. I'm sorry this has turned in to such a mess.

 

[GregoryNicolas]

Let me get this right--the owner is complaining that you ONLY tipped the 20% gratuity automatically added on? UNBELIEVABLE!!! I consider 20% an adequate tip for very good service. We've never tipped above that amount for great limo service w/a grocery stop. What does he expect??? Maybe he should put it out front--"20% gratuity will be added to your bill (along with whatever WE feel is appropriate)".

Boy, I'm going to start watching my credit card statements a lot more carefully. I guess I'm dumb enough to believe that when I'm charged $X from a business, that that's exactly what they'll charge me. Who knew that they could add on fees after the fact?!

Thanks for the heads up, JeanneG! I'll definitely keep this in mind when we travel to Orlando again.

We never complained she did not tip over the 20% for what she hire us for. What I told her is that after she had used our company for all the extras, and wait time, and 4 stops, and and and above her agreed reservation a small extra tip on the return to the driver who made all that EXTRA work would have been nice.

Now, you all say $20.00 is not worth a big fight like this, well, maybe you are right, but this was a very hard case and "our" patience was gone.

What you all also don't understand is we are a small company, run by only 2 in the office. Things like that, when they happen, are way to close to me for me to just let it go everytime. Believe me, we let it go many many many times; NOT THIS TIME! I had my reasons, and again I can not say anything more than the 4 stops deal, but there is more.....

 

[jeanneg]

Dina: I too had a positive experience with the company......up until the time I received my statement and saw the charge had been altered. I called the owner and even complimented him thinking it was obviously just a mistake and he would readily correct it. That's why his hostile response was such a surprise to me. Had he agreed to refund the difference, it would have ended right there and none of this would ever be posted. He chose to defend his fraudulent action by personally attacking me and the other members of our group. That is just plain wrong and cannot be tolerated for the benefit of any future customers.

 

[GregoryNicolas]

I haven't read most of the replies to this post for lack of time. I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience with ****. I've used them 4 times, and they have always gone above and beyond for us-- including one time when hurricane Jeanne hit and we had to change our flight (to leave the day before) at the very last minute. And another time when we needed to go somewhere instead of our grocery stop to activate our APs, and Gregory called around to find out exactly where we needed to go. I thought that was so nice. This is honestly the first negative thing I have ever read about them on any of the boards I visit. I'm sorry this has turned in to such a mess.

Thanks Dina for posting. I was starting to feel no Dis members who've used us before would come up and give us some support. I do remember your case, and it was a very complicated one, but I'm sure I did not charge you extra, did I? LOL LOL