Prime Transportation Services

Review: My wife and I hired Prime for our wedding - three buses to take guests from the hotel to the wedding, then the reception, then back to the hotel (also a driver and classic car to take us from the wedding to the reception). While two of the buses provided good service, the private car was disappointing and one of the buses was a disaster. Now, they are no longer responding to our efforts to resolve the situation. Here is what happened with the bus:

A) When the dispatcher called the bus captain 30 minutes prior to the bus's scheduled arrival at the Hotel [redacted], they informed her that 1) the driver did not have directions to the church, and 2) had no idea how many stops they would be making that evening -- two pieces of information the dispatcher certainly should have had. The dispatcher also told the captain that the bus was only five minutes away at several points, though the bus ended up arriving 35 minutes late (had we not timed so much leeway these guests - including the groom's parents - would have missed the wedding). Due to the assurances that the bus was near, our bus captain had guests waiting outside - in the heat - for over 40 minutes.

On the way to the wedding, the bus driver stayed on his cell phone with the dispatcher (without a headset), claimed he had directions, but missed several turns out of [redacted] and refused directions from the bus captain. The bus captain finally had to speak with the dispatcher and tell him that she had directions. Several passengers remarked to us later that they felt unsafe because of how distracted the driver was in traffic.

The bus driver did not know how to get to the reception after the ceremony--again the bus captain had to give directions--and once he arrived he told the bus captain that he did not know what he was supposed to do or when he was supposed to be back (6:30 was the time stated in the contract).

B) After the wedding reception, the driver (despite having had eight hours to inquire) did not know how to get back to the hotel. He did not know to turn right out of the reception area to get back to Alexandria, and in Alexandria made another wrong turn. My wife sat in the front seat of the bus, in her wedding dress, to give directions to the driver when he said he did not know where to go. Again, no apologies, no advance attempt to find out directions. Several guests later commented on how poor the bus service was for that vehicle.

While the driver clearly had no idea what he was supposed to do that day - or how to safely get guests to the wedding - it was also clear that he was put in a position to fail by being sent somewhere he had never driven, with no directions, and no sense of where he was supposed to be or when. If our bus captain had not been prepared with directions, the bus probably would not have arrived at its destinations.Desired Settlement: A partial refund for the portion of service (the one bus) that was totally unacceptable.