Complaint Review: All-Star Limousine - Newport Beach California

On August 7, 2003, my 50th birthday, my roommate rented a limo from All-Star Limousine Service. My mother, who is a senior citizen, my 13-year-old daughter, our 2 neighbors and another friend (7 people total). We headed to a restaurant called Papadakis in San Pedro, California for a night of fun, and celebration.

My roommate charged $360.00 on her American Express Card for 4 hours. She was quoted up front that if we were to go over the time limit it would be an additional $75.00 per hour. Our driver Tahoe arrived at 6:00pm. We took pictures. At about 6:20 we headed out. We had previously given All-Star the name and address of the restaurant and town we were going and also I had a map that I had printed out from my computer and gave it to him.

Tahoe seemed a little confused as to where San Pedro was located. He told us that his G.P.S. system (similar to On Star) was down and thanked me for the map. To make this long story short, we arrived at the restaurant at 8:15pm. To say that the driver was lost was an understatement. It should have taken about 45 minutes from Westminster to San Pedro. Our reservations were for 7:00pm. We had called to inform them we would be late. The restaurant is a dinner and show and they kindly were waiting for us along with my brother who met us there.

Dinner was finished at 10:45pm. Everyone proceeded to get into the limo. My roommate talked to the driver about the fact we were over-the-time-limit and that because it had taken us so long to get here maybe the difference could be waived or something could be worked out. Tahoe said, He needed to talk to his boss first.

From this point on the evening turned very bad. The boss wanted to talk to my roommate. He said we had to come up with additional $150.00 cash in order for us to get a ride home. My roommate was appalled and tried to reason with him. She did get angry with him after a while wouldnt you try to defend yourself? I also tried talking to him. I informed him that I had a child and a senior citizen in the car and I thought he was being unreasonable. He told us to get out of his limo or he was going to call the police. He was angry, rude and extremely unprofessional. So at 11:15pm we were all out of the limo and on the curb. The restaurant called us a cab - we took 2 cabs home. It cost us $130.00 plus tip.

Getting the money back or another chance to ride is not what I want. People should know what happened to us. This owner was very irrational and unreasonable. Poor planning on the drivers end and bad business ethics on the owners part gave us all around a bad deal.

For the record, my brother spoke to the driver and was kind enough to make sure he had correct directions to get us back home that night. (He was driving him- self home) He told me in confidence the next day, the driver was very jittery and agitated and he suspected he might have been on something. Being a volunteer drug & alcohol counselor 10 years - I believe my brother would know.

Also, we had 8 people total at the restaurant - 4 of which dont drink.

M

Huntington Beach, California
U.S.A.