Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/25/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  My 10 year old son is a 5th grade student at West Hills Intermediate School, located in Kittanning PA, which is a part of Armstrong School District. This is a new school for him, he is a new student and just started at this school on August 22nd, 2023. He also has a medical condition that involves his heart and because of that he has an IEP and is supposed to receive special supports due to his medical condition. One of those supports is that he requires a school van to transport him to and from school and is to pick him up and drop him off, daily, directly in front of our home. Since the beginning of school, which has only been 1 month, they have switched his van and his driver twice. Today, 09/25/23, my son waited outside for his van/driver for 30 minutes and they did not show up. When I called Barker Bus Garage, I got an ignorant attitude from two empl**ees and was told that both my son and I were liars and that the van driver did in fact, show up and reported my son as a "no show". I personally pulled up my own video footage from our home and told the bus garage that she did NOT show up, at all, to pick up my son and that was in fact a lie. I requested for them to please change his van and gave him a reliable and stable driver, so that he does not continue to miss school due to their negligent transportation and empl**ee issues. I was told by Barker Bus Garage that they would see what they could do and call me back with the arrangements for transportation and I got no phone calls from them. I called the principal at the school and informed them of the situation and she informed me that no one was answering the phones at the bus garage. As a result, my son missed school today and will be missing school the rest of the week, until Barker Bus or the school makes other transportation arrangements for him. I am disgusted with Barker Bus's ignorant and unreliable transportation and disgusted by the way my son and I were treated and lied to, and being called liars!

  Business Response

  Date: 09/29/2023

  Thank you for giving Barker Busing the opportunity to respond to this complaint. Some of the complaint is accurate, for instance, Barker Busing does transport this mother's son to a school in the Armstrong School District, we do pick him up and drop him off at his residence, we did change his assigned van because the original driver had a family medical issue and we had to change the hours of her run and we did assign another driver and van. The mother of the student in question did call our office and spoke with our dispatcher and myself, the transportation supervisor, however, this is where  the inaccuracies begin. The parent of the student in question was agitated when she called and demanded rather than requested an explanation for the reason of her complaint. When the parent began using extremely foul language with the dispatcher, the call was transferred to me. I asked the parent the nature of her call and the abusive and foul language continued in her response. I listened to her complaint and asked her to stop using this offensive language, as we are adults and could workout a solution and get her son to school. At this point, rather than accept the offer I presented her with, she threatened the driver of her son, saying she would do physical harm to this driver if she showed up at the residence to take him to school. The parent kept insisting she had camera footage showing the van did not show up at 7:30AM - I agreed with her, the van did not show up that day at 7:30AM because the pick up time for her son was 7:50AM and we also had camera footage from the vehicle documenting we were at the residence at the scheduled time and date. When this mother threatened to do physical harm to the driver I told her the conversation needed to end and all future correspondence would be conducted through the Armstrong School District or ARIN IU 28. After we hung up, I called ARIN IU 28, this is the IU whom Barker Busing is contracted with for transportation and explained what occurred with the parent to their transportation supervisor. It was determined we would reassign the student to another van with another driver. I explained to Mr. Gregory C** the IU School Transportation Supervisor this will take a couple of days because it would require switching students from other vans to create space for the student in question. Contractually, we have three days to complete this change, it was finalized in two days. Since, we have reassigned this student, he ridden the van without a complaint from the mother. It is unfortunate situations like this arise with parents, however, in the forty plus years Barker Busing has transported students throughout Armstrong and other surrounding Counties our focus has been insuring a safe ride for the most precious cargo we transport daily.

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/02/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********* and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, we would like to know your view on the matter.]

  First off, let me begin by calling out ALL of the inaccuracies regarding Barker Bus's story and response. I have caught Barker Bus in several lies since this initial incident occured 1 week ago. When I first called the bus garage last Monday, after their driver failed to show up to pick my son up, I was told that my son was a no show. For which I proceeded to go back and forth with the supervisor and I told her repeatedly that I was personally sitting outside with my son for over 30 minutes, waiting for his pick up. Not to mention, I told her repeatedly that we have cameras in the front, side and back of our home that run 24 hours a day and there was absolutely NO footage of any van coming up our lane or in front of our home. There was absolutely nothing said about 7:30 a.m., especially since I'm well aware of my son's pick up time and also because our cameras run 24 hours a day! After speaking with the school in question, as well as with the administration and the school board of directors, I found even more things that did not add up with Barker Bus's story. The supervisor, Mary, from Barker Bus told me that all 5 kids who rode that van that day, did not ride the van. She told me that the 3 b**s (who are brothers), all had a doctor's appointment that morning and did not need picked up, then I was told that the girl that rides the van and lives in Templeton, that her mother had phoned in and told them that she was driving her daughter to school that day and didn't need the van to pick her up, then of course my son was a supposed no show but the evidence and cameras that I personally have, prove otherwise. After speaking with the school, I was informed that all 3 b**s/brothers who rode the same van as my son at the time, did, in fact, get picked up by the van and taken to school that day but that the girl from Templeton did NOT get picked up that day, just like my son, and that her mother had NO other choice but to drive her daughter to school. I was also told by the school, administration, and by another source that when Barker Bus was asked about the van footage for that particular day in question, they claimed that the camera and/or footage in question had failed that day and was NOT available for viewing purposes. Coincidence, huh? Well, my camera footage did not fail at all that day and runs 24 hrs/7 days a week. This supervisor claims that I made all these threats while on the phone with her last Monday, but yet she waited until Friday to call the local police dept and report these so called threats. That makes absolutely no sense! Why would you wait almost an entire week to make a report if someone threatened you?? Oh, and it just so happens that on Friday, the same day that this false report was made about myself, there also happened to be an important meeting at the school with officials and Barker Bus Garage, since apparently I am not the only parent or student that has had issues and complaints with this bus company and I think the school is getting fed up with them, to be honest. As a result of all of this, my son missed three days of school and had I not personally went in person to the school administration office on that Wednesday, Barker Bus would still be dragging their feet with it! It should have never taken almost four days to figure out the new route and new van, especially considering that all they did was switch my son BACK to the ORIGINAL van/driver that he had at the very beginning of the school year, prior to them changing him to the incompetent, lying driver that could not show up or do her job responsibly! Everything they say is a LIE and they honestly do not deserve to be contracted with such a good school district. If they've been around for 40 years, it's pretty hard to believe, considering how rude, negligent and unprofessional they are in how they conduct business and speak to parents with special needs children. 

  
  Regards,
  ***** *******