Claim Details
Company: | Limo Brokers LTD |
Type: | Car hire |
Country: | United Kingdom |
City: | Cardif |
Postcode: | CF10 5EE |
Address: | Coptic House, 4-5 Mount Stuart Square,Cardiff Bay, Cardiff |
Claim title: | Wedding Car No Show compensation |
Claim value: | |
Incident Date: | 16/05/2009 |
Mature Content: | yes |
Photos included:
There are no photos for this complaint
Files included:
There are no files for this complaint
Our wedding car that was booked and paid for in advance did not arrive on the day of our wedding to take the wedding party to our wedding nor did it arrive to transport us from the reception to our hotel.
We were never informed that they would not be arriving. I (the bride) ended up being driven to my wedding in my neighbours corsa, the bridemaids - in a neighbours people carrier, my brother had to drive the groom and the best man, and the make up artist took my mother ! We had to borrow money for a taxi to take us from the reception to our hotel in the evening..
All in all an extremely distressing, stressful and embarrassing situation. and the wedding video and photographs we're ruined.
After 5 weeks of phone calls and emails, we finally received a refund (after being promised it on numerous occasion and it never arriving)... but still no written explanation or apology and despite another 4 emails to the company, no sign of any compensation or even a response to my emails !
Not only did our wedding car not turn up, but the customers service we have received since has been disgusting.
See below for a extract from one of the earlier emails I sent to them.....
"I am writing in reference to the above booking for a Black Lincoln town car that we booked to take us and pick us up from our wedding - 16th May 2009. As you are aware the limo did not arrive for either of the day time pick ups or for the evening pick up, as agreed on our booking confirmation. We were not informed on the day that the car would not arrive. As I'm sure you can imagine this caused us a huge amount of stress and embarrassment on a day which should have been very happy - something that we will never be able to forget. We are yet to be offered any satisfactory explanation ( we have since been told that the limo broke down, but on speaking to the limo company itself they inform us that we weren't even on their job list for that day) As of today we are still waiting for a refund of the full amount which was paid in advance, we have been promised this on numerous occasions since our initial contact with you on this matter on 18th May 12:40 pm. During this initial phone call our bank details were taken and we were advised that the money would be credited to my bank account within 3 -5 working day. We were also advised at that point to write a letter of complaint, which we did, and posted it on the 18th May. On arriving back from our honeymoon of the 1st June, the refund had still not been credited to my bank account and no response to the complaint letter had been received. On the 2nd June we contacted you again regarding this matter and once again asked for an explanation regarding the limo not turning up, our refund, and a response to our complaint letter. Again we were told that the refund would be processed that day, we were also told that our complaint letter had not yet been received. Now, on the 10th June - No refund has been received, no explanation has been received, and no response to our complaint letter has been received. We have made numerous phone calls to yourselves on this matter and are always promised that it will all be sorted by the end of the day and to expect a phone call back. We have never received a call back. I now write to seek the following;
- a refund of the full amount paid and confirmation of the date we should be expecting this by
- an explanation regarding our limo not turning up for any of the 3 trips scheduled.
- a response to our complaint letter
- suitable compensation for the appalling service received, and stress and embarrassment caused.
After speaking to Gareth this morning, I understand that you are expecting this email and will be responding today. I look forward to having some initial response by 5 pm today."
Comments
[21/07/2009] Richard Helsdown (Limo Broker): Unfortunately the original vehicle broke down en-route to this booking and the driver failed to inform us of this fact. When the customer contacted us to say the vehicle had not arrived we immediately arranged a replacement upgraded vehicle to be sent out as soon as possible. The customer was informed the vehicle would arrive at around 3:45 (original booking time was 3pm). The vehicle arrived at 3:40 but unfortunately by then the customer had arranged alternative transport.
This whole issue was the result of a mechanical breakdown (which we cannot be held accountable for) and once made aware of the issue we did our best to arrange alternative transport.
Since then a full refund has been issued along with our apologies for inconvenience caused.
[21/07/2009] Katie Hudson: Dear Richard
Not only is your response factually incorrect (our limo was booked for 1pm, I stayed at home waiting until 1:50pm, our wedding was at 2pm. Also we were never informed of a time at which another vehicle would arrive) but nor does it address why the limo did not arrive for the evening pick up booked for 12:30 am. Nor does it address the real issue of compensation.
I will delete your original settle message from the site and await your next settle attempt.
Katie Hudson
[22/07/2009] Richard Helsdown (Limo Broker): Katie,
My apologies you are correct, I had misread the message from our customer service team they had written 13:00pm and 13:45pm. I've spoken personally with the member of staff who dealt with your complaint and they assure me that you were made aware of the arrival time of the replacement vehicle. So in this situation it is a simple case of your word against his.
In regards to the evening pick up this was cancelled on the instruction of yourselves when we contacted you after the replacement vehicle arrived to find that you had made your own way.
As I said in my initial response, this whole issue has been as a result of a mechanical failure which is entirely out of anybodies control. The standard procedure for these situations is to simply cancel the booking immediately whereas in this case an attempt at sending another vehicle was made but unfortunately it was not possible to replace it in time. Although I do acknowledge that our initial communication was poor.
Of course you have our apologies in regards to the situation and you have already received a full refund from ourselves. Therefore we have already done everything we can to remedy the situation which you must acknowledge has been outside our control from the beginning.
Cheers
[23/07/2009] Richard Helsdown (Limo Broker): Katie's reply:
Richard
I feel that you are being seriously misled by your staff. You may say that this is our word against theirs but this is no way to operate a business, especially one which relies on customer relations. Quite frankly from the service that we have received from your customer services team it is quite clear that they are unable to provide a satisfactory service to customers. I can only imagine that this story that you've been given is a simple fabrication to cover that company's back.
Again I reiterate, we were never informed that a replacement vehicle would arrive and certainly at no point given a time. We were merely told that 'you would do your best to sort something out'. I was at the pick up address until 1.50 that day, so can assure you that no limo arrived at 1:40. If fact I have no evidence that a limo ever arrived at all.
At no point did either my husband or I ever ask you to cancel the evening limo. We were waiting outside our venue until 1am waiting for it to arrive, a strange thing to do if as you say we cancelled the limo ourselves.
Finally, we have spoken to the limo company directly who have told us not that they broke down enroute, but that we were not on their 'job list' that day. I had bought that to your company's attention numerous times.
I believe this whole issues has been caused by a catalogue of administrative errors thus not “outside our control from the beginning" as you have said.
This was our wedding day, and day that is being remembered now for all the wrong reasons.I will persue this until I get a satisfactory answer.
Katie Hudson
[23/07/2009] Richard Helsdown (Limo Broker): Our reply:
Katie,
As I have written previously I understand that this was your wedding day and we have apologised for the problems that occurred on the day that will have effected your enjoyment of the day despite the fact that the problems were outside of our control. I have spoken directly to everyone who was involved on the day, including the people you spoke to in the office and the operator who was responsible for the vehicles on the day (this was changed a week or so before the booking therefore the operator you spoke to was probably the original operator who would indeed not have any record of you) and they have corroborated what I have already stated in our conversations. I have dealt with these people for years and we have fulfilled thousands of jobs successfully in this time and I have come to trust them as a result of this.
We have provided you with a full apology and refund for the booking and, due to the uncontrollable nature of the problems on the day, we are unable to do anything else than this because we were not responsible for them. I hope that you can understand our position and we can put this matter to rest.
Cheers
Richard Helsdown
Development Manager
[16/02/2010] Mark moore: I find reading this forum that limo broker staff seem to be in a complete world of there own thinking. How you survive with the poor standards an limo broker is allways right attitude is beyond belief. I wouldnt reccomend this company to my enemys.
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