Empire International Ltd

Review: Booked a one way car service from JFK airport to my home. Spoke to Empire CLS and was quoted $158.00 for the total cost. Received email confirmation from Empire CLS the next day with the $158.00 quote. NO additional charges were discussed or agreed upon at the time of booking or on the confirmation. Ride took 2 hours 5 minutes. The next day, I was charged $638.69 for the 2 hours 5 minutes ride home from the airport.Desired Settlement: A refund of $638.69.

Review: I reserved round trip airport pick-up service using their website, which asks for flight information and requested pick up time. As my flight was arriving close to midnight, I entered the date my flight was arriving, so there would be no confusion as to what flight number it was (the date and flight number matched up appropriately). For a pick-up time, I entered just after midnight to allow time at the baggage claim. This resulted in confusion where they sent their driver out to the airport the night before I was supposed to be picked up for my return trip.When the driver arrived the night before, the office called me and I clarified that it was supposed to be the next night. The representative was apologetic and said that they would be there the next night to pick me up. HE DID NOT TELL ME THAT I WOULD BE CHARGED BOTH FOR THE ERRONEOUS TRIP OUT THAT NIGHT AND FOR THE ACTUAL PICK UP HE WAS SCHUDULING FOR THE NEXT DAY. Had I known this, I would have declined to be picked up the next day and had a family member pick me up instead as I would not have wanted to purchase an additional trip. Without my knowing it, the next day's pick up was booked for me as an additional (or third) reservation and I was charged accordingly. I did not find this out until a week later when a total of three charges showed up on my credit card statement. When I called the office at that point, they told me that they automatically booked a third reservation for me; meanwhile, I never authorized a third billable reservation and was not told up front that one was being booked. Again, their representative implied that they were coming out to pick me up and that I would not be charged for their erroneous trip.Desired Settlement: I would like one of the charges refunded as I was not properly informed up front of the fact that my actual pick up would be recorded as an additional, third reservation with a third charge. Being properly informed up front would have afforded me the opportunity to say no to this third reservation and make other airport pick up arrangements.

Business

Response:

On all inbound trips to airports we track by the flight information given to us. Mr. [redacted] entered in an incorrect time of arrival and our flight tracker technology will track the flight that is closest to date and time. Because he entered the flight arriving after midnight the dates are inaccurate. If a flight is arriving at 11:23 on 4/7 then we need the date to be entered exactly. Our agent should have advised Mr. [redacted] that our car was location and there is a late cancel charge due to our driver being on location. This agent has been addressed. We did offer Mr. [redacted] 50% off the rate as a courtesy because he was not advised of the late cancel charge. However, he was unsatisfied with this discount. We have since waived all the charges and will applying a full credit back to his credit card as a courtesy. We have reached out to Mr. [redacted] to explain our policies for future reservations. ?