Tiffany Towncar Forgot us!

[StaceyA]

Yesterday we were forgotten by Tiffany to get to the airport for our flight home!
If it was the flight in, not a big deal but this was the last flight going to our home airport and I needed to be at work this morning at 7am!

I called when the driver was 20-25 mins late and the guy that answered the phone had our names down, but the driver that was scheduled to pick us up said he had nothing down for a pick up.

The dispatcher (guy that answered the phone) said for us to pay for a taxi and he would refund us the $$, I told him I wanted a refund for the one way that we weren't getting from them as well ($45.00) he said no, one or the other...cab refund, or town car refund.

Mind you, I had really no cash on me, I used the room charge for everything so that I wouldn't have to carry much, so by the end I had maybe 40.00 on me and I have no clue how much it costs for the Taxi to the airport (I could have gone to an ATM but then I would have incurred more fees)
Also, how do I really know he would refund me? I paid cash for the towncar, so he didn't have my credit card to issue a refund...I would have taken his word for it, and then could have been out the $$ for the town car and for the taxi.

I told him I needed a car there pronto (at this time it was 4:00 and our flight was 5:35) he got ahold of someone and had her come and get us, she arrived around 4:15, we got to the airport around 4:45 (I was about to break into tears at any moment) we went through security and RAN to the gate (MY poor 66 year old mom was really running) and we got to the gate while they were boarding.

I won't use them again, this just shouldn't happen, especially since you are paying in advance for the trip home.

I thought the driver called in to let them know they picked up the guests, when it has been a half an hour since the guest should have been picked up, you would think the practice would be to check in with the driver (that the dispatcher should check in with them)

If your driver is even a few mins late, call the town car service!!
I gave the benefit of the doubt since we had used them so often and never had a problem, I assumed it was traffic...I should have called even if he was 5 mins late and not waited.

 

[seashoreCM]

Part of the 3 hours before flight time Magical Express schedules for you is to allow for mishaps such as this.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/magicx.htm

 

[luvmarypoppins]

So sorry this happened to you. We always use Tiffany and never had a problem, but we have the van for the 5 of us and I only request one driver, Berkley Edwards because he is the best, there waiting before we even bring the luggage out. Hope your trip was great other than the transportation problem.

 

[tjmw2727]

I was forgotten once by another town car co, I don't think it is in business anymore. Luckily I called the towncar co after just 15 minutes and realized I neede a cab. The bellman at the dolphin got me a cab and also an idea of how much the trip should cost to avoid an overcharge to me.

Upon my return home the towncar co refunded me both the taxi fare plus tip and the portion I had pre-paid them for the return trip. I thought they were professional in the handling of the situation and I hope Tiffany will be with you as well.

FWIW I have used both Tiffany and another company more than 2x each and both have been great.

Good luck with a resolution and thanks for the head up on not waiting to call if your ride is late.

TJ

 

[CarolA]

And they think the Disney greeters are costing them business??? Stories like this have occured way to often for my taste...

 

[StaceyA]

I was forgotten once by another town car co, I don't think it is in business anymore. Luckily I called the towncar co after just 15 minutes and realized I neede a cab. The bellman at the dolphin got me a cab and also an idea of how much the trip should cost to avoid an overcharge to me.

Upon my return home the towncar co refunded me both the taxi fare plus tip and the portion I had pre-paid them for the return trip. I thought they were professional in the handling of the situation and I hope Tiffany will be with you as well.

FWIW I have used both Tiffany and another company more than 2x each and both have been great.

Good luck with a resolution and thanks for the head up on not waiting to call if your ride is late.

TJ

I guess the only resolution is that they were able to get us to the airport in the nick of time (LOL)

Since I didn't have to pay for a cab I won't need that refund and since Tiffany held up their end of the bargin (so to speak) I don't expect a refund on that either.

I thought to keep repeat business he should have offered to refund the $45.00 we already paid for the trip (we had paid in full when we were delivered to the Poly on the first day of our trip) and what we would have paid for a cab if we had taken one, but when he said one or the other I started to wonder about them and thought, what if I don't get refunded for either??

Just glad we made it home!! And our trip was great other then that

 

[Disney_1derland]

This happened to us with another company. We did have to take a cab, scrounge up $52 to pay the cab and then deal with the towncar company on the backend. They handled it to my satisfaction. Refunded me one way + cab fees and offered me a free round trip for our next trip.

So, I guess my point is that I would NOT be satisfied with how Tiffany handled it and I would report them to the Orlando For Hire agency. I was satisfied with how our towncar company handled it.

Reporting it to this agency and to the airport itself might show them that the towncar companies are very capable of doing themselves in and don't need disney's help (which is currently their big complaint.)

 

[goofy4tink]

Wow Stacey, not a good way to end a fun trip!!! You know, I did say in a different post that I would probably use the towncar services again when DME starts charging but I'm not so sure about that. I really don't mind sharing a bus with other happy folks going to WDW. I enjoyed the two times we've used DME.
Stories like yours make me more concerned about the level of service being provided by some of the towncar services. I have had a few issues myself. I know that there are people out there that have had good service with different car services. But, when it's my vacation, I don't want to have to worry about whether or not I will be picked up...either way, but especially for the return trip to the airport!!!

 

[foolishmortal]

This happened to us onSunday before Labor day with a limo company, but ours was on arrival. They never showed up, but the funny thing is they never answered thier phones for over an hour, but magically I got a call from the director of operations???????

While by now I was already boarding ME since I wasnt going to waste any more time waiting with no answers. So since it was labor day weekend they weren't in is what I was told...umm ok, but you have cars running I thought. He said he will call Tuesday to make things right. Fine for now.

Well tuesday night rolls around and still no call. So on the phone I go. So I get the whole oh we are busy spiel..fine whatever what are you going to do about my situation??

I told them we lost over an hour of park time, we had to buy essentials from the resort store ince we didn't get our grocery stop,,,,all that jazz. Well he gave me 2 options. Either way they will refund grocery money which was cool with me...now pick 1 either get a luxury car for a few hours 1 of the rest of our days, or refund the money from Sunday's mishap. Well I said I will take the refund and I asked what is going to happen on Saturday (our return trip). So they upgraded us to an suv limo for free. fine.

So I got groceries free, upgrade free and money returned from bad day...fine right???????

Wrong... I told them on Wednesday 9/7/05 that I wanted the refund....guess when I got it..YESTERDAY 9/26/05.

So now they will never get my business (btw it is http://www.starcruiserinc.com/ )

and based off of the op's experiance I will also be writing off Tiffany's.

To me it is inexcusable for a company to forget a paying customer...even if it is only a 1 time thing that is 1 time too many for any company that wants to keep business.

 

[StaceyA]

So now they will never get my business (btw it is http://www.starcruiserinc.com/ )

and based off of the op's experiance I will also be writing off Tiffany's.

To me it is inexcusable for a company to forget a paying customer...even if it is only a 1 time thing that is 1 time too many for any company that wants to keep business.

You are so right, I don't blame you for never giving them your business again.
I told the man that I spoke to (I didn't get his name, I was so irritated) that I had used Tiffany numerous times and would never use them again.

I'm still really surprised he was so adamant about one or the other, refund on the Taxi or the Town Car, I didn't want my $$ back for the first leg of the trip, just the $45.00 I paid for the return trip.

You would think they would be happy to have return business, I was thisclose to telling them that I would use Magical Express from now on.

 

[Lori-n-NY]

Hi Stacey...

What a way to end your trip. I hope your mom is ok...lol Your legs are alot longer then hers...I can picture her running to keep up with you.

I hope everything else was good. Send me an email when you can.

Talk to you soon,
Lori

 

[StaceyA]

Hi Stacey...

What a way to end your trip. I hope your mom is ok...lol Your legs are alot longer then hers...I can picture her running to keep up with you.

I hope everything else was good. Send me an email when you can.

Talk to you soon,
Lori

Lori!
You are right...LOL She is barely 5 foot and im 5 foot 7!!
she was really running!

 

[mom_rules]

The exact thing happened to us with Tiffany-but we did end up taking a cab. The cab driver pulled out all the stops and we just made our flight!
(Tipped her big time).
We did get a reimbursement cheque ($50 for cab fare) from Tiffany - after 3weeks and 2 phone calls.
We will never use them or any of their affiliated companies again.

We've had really good service from FLTours and from Happy Limo.

 

[StaceyA]

The exact thing happened to us with Tiffany-but we did end up taking a cab. The cab driver pulled out all the stops and we just made our flight!
(Tipped her big time).
We did get a reimbursement cheque ($50 for cab fare) from Tiffany - after 3weeks and 2 phone calls.
We will never use them or any of their affiliated companies again.

We've had really good service from FLTours and from Happy Limo.

Im sorry to hear this happened to you especially since I know what it feels like to be Just on time for the plane, it is a sick feeling!

Im glad to hear you got your $$ back for the cab, and I see they didn't want to reimburse you for the one way to the airport either, im glad I was able to get the Town Car to come because I just have a feeling that I would have never gotten back that Cab fare.

 

[NHAnn]

Interesting!

We've used Tiffany several times in the past few years with no trouble at all.

Last January we booked with Murray Hill because they had a better price for a van (we had 5 adults and 2 kids this trip). No driver upon arrival at MCO, called them, they'd apparently "lost" the info on our arrival flight change that I'd called and e-mailed about 10 days prior. So after a 20 minute delay they got someone over for us. Offered to give me the stroller rental ($25) for free...but I'd cancelled the stroller when I notified them of our arrival time change (we decided to bring our own)...and they did not make any other offer of compensation. No matter, we were happy to be at WDW, and the total delay was maybe 30 minutes.
What really bothered me was that the driver was not on time to pick us up for return to the airport, though I'd called the day before to confirm!! I callled at the scheduled time to complain, and again 10 minutes later. They kept insisting the driver was on his way. What really ticked me was the driver seemed annoyed that I was unhappy and said " I was only a few minutes late and besides it wasn't my fault" I won't use them again....have been debating on what to do for our Xmas trip this year. Don't want ME...we like a grocery stop.

 

[mom_rules]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to take ME and then a cab to get groceries-not quite as convenient but probably a little less stress.

 

[pennyplanner]

Thanks for the post Stacey!

I won't be cancelling with Tiffiany in November BUT I will be confirming BOTH pick-up AND drop-off this time. Have used them for three trips and hope that this one is as smooth as those were. No complaints so far.

I don't think your requests for reimbursements are out of line. I hope you resolve this to your satisfaction. Your mom is a trooper!

--penny

P.S. Will you be posting any restaurant reviews for us?

 

[StaceyA]

Thanks for the post Stacey!

I won't be cancelling with Tiffiany in November BUT I will be confirming BOTH pick-up AND drop-off this time. Have used them for three trips and hope that this one is as smooth as those were. No complaints so far.

I don't think your requests for reimbursements are out of line. I hope you resolve this to your satisfaction. Your mom is a trooper!

--penny

P.S. Will you be posting any restaurant reviews for us?

LOL im not very good at reviews....BUT you can see my pics of the food we ate on the Disney Dining Food Picture thread (or food porn as some call it )

I guess our only resolve was that someone came to pick us up and we made it on time to the airport (in the nick of time!!)

Yes she is a trooper LOL

Thanks for your post!

 

[tjmw2727]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to take ME and then a cab to get groceries-not quite as convenient but probably a little less stress.

I am going to try this next week (yeah). Prior to DME we always used a town car with a grocery stop. This time we are trying DME with grocery deliveries from wegoshop.com. They will do your order from any store you wish or their recommendation and deliver it to the resort for a minimal fee. IIRC between 15 - 25 depending on the $ amount of your order.

So far all the contact with wegoshop has been wonderful and quick. I will post a review if anyone is interested when we return.

TJ

 

[JodyTG]

I am going to try this next week (yeah). Prior to DME we always used a town car with a grocery stop. This time we are trying DME with grocery deliveries from wegoshop.com. They will do your order from any store you wish or their recommendation and deliver it to the resort for a minimal fee. IIRC between 15 - 25 depending on the $ amount of your order.

So far all the contact with wegoshop has been wonderful and quick. I will post a review if anyone is interested when we return.

TJ

Definitely post a review. We are thinking about using DME also for our December trip and would love to know how wegoshop works out for you.