West-Way Limo Service

Review: [redacted] sent me a photo of the VIP party bus I rented for my wedding on 9/13/14. Days prior to wedding I called him asking if there was seat belts in bus bc I have two children under 3 are in car seats so I need seatbelts to hook them in he assured me that they did! Day of the wedding I found out his version of car seats are JUMPER CABLES! He said he uses them ALL THE TIME to tie down car seats! So my EMT friend had to barrow the extra seatbelts from the ambulance squad which caused my wedding party to be late to pick up my other half of the wedding party including my in laws! When I entered the bus it was filthy filthy filthy nothing like the photos he presented !!

Not only was advertisement was misleading but not having seat belts and using jumper cables instead is illegal and beyond dangerous and unacceptableDesired Settlement: I do not want to pay for the 200$ for the extra hour over time due to the fact he arrived 15 min late to my house and caused an extra 30 min delay bc my wedding party had to go to ambulance squad building to get seat belts for the safety of the children. He lied to me on the phone stated there was seatbelts when there was none! Just jumper cables posing as seat belts

Business

Response:

In this case the Party Bus was rented and yes the customer asked if there were seat belts in the Party Bus. We responded yes to that question when they booked the bus. They never told us why they were asking. The seat belts in this Bus are lap belts and are not set-up to accommodate sophisticated Child Car seats. It is a highly unlikely event that customers bring infants on our party buses for weddings and require car seats. That was never explained to us when they booked. On the day of the event we arrived at the pick-up location 5 minutes late and the party was not ready for about 25 m minutes. The seat belt problem came up about 25 minutes after we arrived and the driver tried to improvise by using the only think that he could tie the seats down with available to him at the time. At the suggestion of one of the brides maids we went across the street to the first aid station and she got some seat belt extensions which were able to be applied to the lap belts to extend then to hold the seats in place. That took about 5 minutes and then we proceeded to the Church at the direction of the bridesmaids and bridal party on the Bus. A second stop was eliminated by a phone call from the Groom who was concerned we would be late arriving at the Church. Although the Driver assured them that there was sufficient time to make the second stop they said they did not want us to make it. At the Church apparently because of a mechanical failure of the Grooms own or a friends vehicle we then waited 45 minutes after arriving for the groom and groomsmen to arrive.The balance of the day with the exception of rain went off as planned. There was about 1 hour and ten minutes of overtime which after some discussion with the Groom at the reception site was not collected or charged. The driver told the Groom that he did not want him to be upset on his Wedding Day and that he could contact the office after his Wedding and Honeymoon to discuss the overtime charges and left without collecting the overtime amount. I am not sure what the Bride is requesting since they never paid the overtime on the day of the event and have not contacted us since. The balance of contracted bill was paid on the day of the event and there was no overtime ever paid. It should be noted that on the day of the event both the Bride and her Mother who had contracted a car separately complimented both drivers for there good service and thanked them for the additional assistance due to the Rain and difficult conditions in getting the pictures in the park. We had to walk each member of the bridal party back and fourth with umbrella's due to the heavy rain conditions. We assisted the Bride and Groom and the Bridal party with there bags and other materials into the Reception Hall and saw that everyone was safely and comfortable at the Reception site before leaving at the end of our contracted job. We feel that this job was completed in a highly professional manner with the up-most of care and consideration as we have provided other customers in our 32 years of service to Bridal Parties and the community.

Consumer

Response:

I am rejecting this response because I am writing this response to refute the claims, misrepresentations and outright lies set forth by west way limo. I specifically asked about the seat belts on the bus due to concerns about car seats for my niece and nephew who are over 2 years old and part of the wedding party along with their parents. It is untrue that I never asked. I made a specific inquiry and explained why I was asking. These were not infants in car seats. Additionally, at 2 years old, they need to be in a car seat for safety reasons. It is not a highly unlikely event to have a toddler in a wedding party and that the toddler would need a car seat to be transported. There were no lap belts in the bus provided. The driver was specifically asked and he claimed there were none thus his use of the jumper cables to “secure” the seats. He told my bridal party that he had never had any problems with children on the bus before and never had to hook up a car seat. In fact, I was told that parents often just hold 2 and 3 year olds on their laps. The parents involved did not wish to hold their child on their laps and this was conveyed to the driver. The bridesmaid referenced is an EMT and was very upset about the jumper cables being used so she sought an alternative as there were no lap belts. If there had been, the lap belts could have easily been used. The belts obtained at the ambulance squad were not attached to lap belts. In fact, they were attached by the driver through the safety harness such that it was impossible to even harness the children in. At that point, the bridal party was running so late that they just had to go. All that time was wasted with the seats when it could have all been avoided if I was told the truth at the onset. Additionally, the driver made light of the fact that these toddlers needed to be in car seats. This issue was brought up by me specifically with the company prior to the wedding day. It was not brought up 25 minutes after the bus arrived. As for the second stop being eliminated, the driver informed the bridesmaids that the bus would not get to the church on time if they made the second stop. The bridesmaids did not know the directions to get there and therefore, could not have made that decision on their own without any input from the driver. He never assured them that there was sufficient time. The bus was late in arriving at my house. In fact, the driver admitted to my husband that he was 15 minutes late to my parents’ house. He was actually 25 minutes late. Additionally, if we had to wait 45 minutes for the groom and groomsmen to arrive at the church then why didn’t the driver get them at that point? The answer is because we were not waiting that long for them. Furthermore, my mother’s limo broke down and was replaced with a dirty one. It smelled and had dirty champagne glasses in it. The glasses in the bus were also dirty. As for complimenting the drivers, this is untrue. The only person I complimented was the driver’s young son. The driver was in many photographs because he was taking things upon himself that were not his job or place. The photographers had to tell him to get out of the shots several times. He was telling people what to do at the church and the Deacon told him that he was inappropriate and not to give orders in his church. He handed out bubbles when I had given that job to someone already. He tried to take charge of my horse and carriage. He was tending to things that I already had people in place for while not tending to the bus. He was repeatedly told to turn down the air conditioning and radio. He often left the bus to get involved with things that were not his business leaving the bus door open. It was a rainy and chilly day. Finally, after telling the bridesmaids that he had such a safe record and there would be no problem if the toddlers weren’t in car seats, he was in an accident in the parking lot of the reception venue.

Business

Response:

e have received the second comments on the above Wedding Event that we had provided service to. I have provided what our position on this job was. As far as the Driver and his handling of the matter we feel that he handled it in a professional manner as he has in the past. We do over 750 vehicles on Weddings per year for the past 32 years and we feel that we provide a professional service and in this instance apparently the Customer was unhappy with the Service. We have very few complaints in the 32 years but in this instance we forgave ( did NOT Charge ) 2 plus hours over overtime for which we should have been paid under the contract between the Customer and our Company. We feel that this is compensation for any service that the Customer was unhappy with. Although we do not wish to get into a continued back and forth disagreement with we will briefly comment on the issues that are mentioned in Ms. [redacted]'s second complaint which see to now have come as a afterthought. The Customer was advised that the Bus had Seat Belts and the Bus has Lap Seat Belts as mentioned in our previous correspondence. No one ever said that the customer did not ask. It is our experience in 32 years of service that when there are small children and/ or toddlers involved in a bridal party they are not normally transported in the Party Buses but usually with a parent or grandparent separately to the Church and the for pictures and then are taken home. That is our experience and we have been doing Weddings for over 32 years. Not withstanding this in this instance seat belt extensions were placed on the car seats through the good gracious efforts of a bridal party member the children were transported safely throughout the event and and dropped off with the bridal party at their final destination. The driver advised the bridal party that he handles children's parties on a regular basis and has never had any incidents. That was correct nor do we have any complaints on file about how he handles Weddings and other parties. We normally are complimented on his service and efforts. It can be noted that he was given a extra tip by this bridal party which naturally leads me to question Ms. [redacted]'s comments in her second correspondence not her first. His record seems to speak for itself as far as we are concerned. To the best of our knowledge nor do we have any report of the Bus being involved in any accident at anytime during or after this event. The driver has a perfect spotless accident free record with this company for his 32 years of service with our company. With respect to the Bus arriving 25 minutes late this is simply untrue. He was 15 minutes late due to construction on the roadway leading off Route 80 adjacent to the Customers house. The Bridal Party were not ready for sometime after his arrival and then the Bus was loaded with their seats, property such as clothes and bridal materials that were being taken to the Wedding. The Bride did not ride in the Bus but another car that had been separately contracted from another Company. However she did ask our driver to tell her Mother that if she did not get into her Limo she was leaving without her after waiting for about 15 minutes. The Bus arrived at the Church ahead of the scheduled Wedding Ceremony but the Bridal Party stayed on board waiting for the Groom who arrived about 45 minutes after our arrival at the Church. The groom had made his own arrangements for transportation to the Church via a private vehicle. We are sorry to hear that this Customer was unhappy with the service and as a good will gesture have not billed or charged here for the overtime which would have amounted at the very least $222.00 per hour including taxes and tips. That fee has been waived. We feel that this should close this matter for all parties involved. We feel that this should sufficient state our position on this event. We also understand that sometime parties are not happy the way events are handled and the Bad Weather and some unfortunate events that occurred on this day were stressful for this Bride and we are truly apologetic for any additional stress that we may have brought on this day. We however feel that at the end of the day the event was completed with a successful outcome everyone was transported in a comfortable and responsible manner in the Vehicle that the Bride and Groom has chosen. They were able to use all the facilities that the bus and limo provide and were given there Champagne Toast and sang and danced and had a pleasant time en-route to their reception. WEST-WAY LIMOUSINE SERVICE