Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/27/2023

  Type:Product 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 daughter (16 y.o ) was looking for quotes for party buses for homecoming 9/21. Was given quote via email 9/21 at 1200 hrs. My daughter inquired about 25 vs 30 pax on 9/21 around 1715 hrs. Was told only 1 bus left of each. My daughter asked 9/21 at 1847 hrs if they could do 30 pax. On 9/22 at 0955 hrs the company emailed my daughter and gave price of each along with a link the email to book her reservation. They spoke to her on the phone and according to my daughter was told that it would be final once the contract sent over was signed. The company says they told her it would be charged as soon as the credit card info was received (apparently regardless of contract signature). I contacted the company hoping to cancel since they are $1000 more expensive then other companies. However was told it was nonrefunable, I could still cancel if I'd like. I still couldn't believe that they charge the full amount, nonrefundable, without a signature. And then when further trying to understand the process, was told that a deposit is usually received which is non refundable if it's more than a month out with the reservation. Which was never explained in the renting process. Admittedly, I was very upset - it's alot of money for the excursion compared with another company. Did get upset with the agent (9/27/2023). Had told her it wasn't appreciated that I received a text from the company after requesting a cancellation or partial refund that "[my] daughter is educated and so are you." (9/26/23) And then was told by the agent today after I explained to her that yes, I was upset for the way the billing proceeded and was told that I should be upset at my daughter for representing herself as me in my own home.

  Business Response

  Date: 10/30/2023

  The customers daughter ******************* submitted a quote with us for her event on September 20th, 2023. On September 21st we reached out to her VIA email, submitting a price quote of for 3 hours $2279.65.She then reached back out to us asking about wanting a bigger bus and possibly having additional passengers. September 22nd, 2023, at 9:08pm **** and her mother then submitted the reservation form we have on one of our websites for their event on October 7th, 2023. The form was signed *********************** electronically with all their reservation information uploaded on the form including credit card information. Saturday September 23rd, 2023, I started entering the information into our system for the reservation. I noticed that it was missing the security code on the form so I then proceeded to call **** and ask if she could get the security code for me or let me speak to her mother. She said her mother wasnt home, but she would get the code for me and call me back. Within a few minutes she had called me back and had the number for me. She had to text her mother to get it, so she told her what it was for. I then asked **** if was aware how much we were charging, and she said “yes”. She then asked me when we were planning to charge the card for the reservation, I told her “Today, I am entering your information into our system and then I will charge the card today. Once I am finished, I will send over the contract for your mother to sign and upload her photo ID and Credit Card front and back so we can verify her identity for security purposes.” She said that was great and she would have her mom sign everything when she came home.

  A few days had gone by and still no signed contract. So, on September 26th, 2023, I reached out to **** and asked if I could have her mothers information. I needed to ask her to sign the contract and upload all the necessary items to the contract we send over to our clients VIA *****.  She gave me her mother’s phone number; I called her and no answer, so I then texted her. I told her I sent over the contract and needed her to sign it so we could wrap up the reservation in our system. She messaged me back and said, “Her daughter went in a different direction, but thank you.” I then proceeded to call mom again and try to figure out what was going on. She told me that she and her daughter made a bunch of reservations with different companies and even though she filled out the reservation form and her and her daughter both authorized the transaction, they were going in a different direction. I explained to her that in our terms and conditions on the reservation form they filled out that it says, “All payments are non-refundable and that they signed and agreed to these terms when they filled out and signed the reservation form.” She told me her and her and her daughter didn’t know what they were signing when they signed it and I told her that it was all right there in the form and that when I Called her daughter the Saturday before to get the security code from her that I went over the total amount with her again and told her that I was charging the card right there and then and her daughter said “Okay sounds good”. She asked me to resend the contract that her daughter had deleted the email out of her mother’s email account. So, I sent it again to the mother’s account and waited for her to sign and upload all documents. She messaged our work account later that evening and said, “Can I call you tomorrow?  My daughter didn't realize when she was filling out the form that the contract was final regardless of whether the form was signed. When she gave the credit card number, she thought it wouldn't be charged until signed.” We then told her again all payments are non-refundable and if she wanted to cancel, she would have to forfeit all funds. Asked her to advise us of what her plans would be for the reservation. She texted back and said, “Apparently my plan is to keep the bus”, meaning she wanted to keep the bus for her reservation after all. She explained the reason behind her wanting to cancel was that she found another bus with a different company for a cheaper rate and her daughter went around to different companies putting down deposits for all of them. Since we were the most expensive option, she wanted to cancel with us after already reserving the bus and paying for the reservation.

  
  The next morning on September 27th, 2023, I called ****** ***** to ask her to please sign the contract again and she kept on about how it wasn’t fair we wouldn’t let her cancel and she had her daughter’s friends calling our business asking could they pay $300 if we would let them cancel with us. I told her there was nothing I could do for her at this point, the reservation was already made, and the payment was authorized and processed and that again our policy is that all reservations and payments are non-refundable. She then signed the contract the contract later that day. She asked us since the reservation was technically for a minimum of 5 hours to make sure that we wouldn’t charge them for any overtime for going over the original 3-hour period that was asked for on the reservation form. I told her we wouldn’t charge her anything unless she went over the 5-hour period.
  
  Then there was no further contact from there until confirmations were made about the itinerary and confirming the reservation 24 hours in advance. I have all text messages, emails, recorded phone calls and any type of correspondence between us and the *****’s to back up our side of the story. We did not tell the client that once the contract was signed that the reservation would be final. According to the reservation form ****** ***** was the one who submitted it. The only thing I confirmed with her daughter was that they were aware of the price we discussed previously before her, and her mother submitted the reservation form and for the security code since the number that was on the form was not a full number. All companies are different, I explained to her daughter and ****** herself that we only do deposits when the event is more than a month away. We’ve had a lot of issues collecting all the money from customers when waiting to charge them at the last minute. There is no law or anything that says we can’t charge the full amount at once or charge the prices that we want. The price was advertised on our website for her and anyone else to see. If they didn’t want to book at that price, then they shouldn’t have filled out the reservation form. It’s not fine print, it’s a largely printed terms and conditions paragraph at the bottom of the reservation form page that explains all the things we allow and do not allow, our policies for charging and how the booking process is run. When the reservation form was sent over to us, it was sent with an E-signature, signed by ****** ***** herself. With the reservation form they were committing to the reservation process and booking their bus with us for their event. The customer knew how much they were being charged, they knew the total amount before booking, the price was advertised on our website and as the customer explained in her response, I told her daughter how much the total amount was going to be VIA email and over the phone before charging the card ****** ***** Signed the contract and agreed to the trip and used our services. We shouldn’t have to issue a refund or a discount just because other companies charge less than we do and her and her 16-year-old daughter didn’t read the terms and conditions. If you need me to, I can upload all conversations and correspondence between us and the *****'s to show you where all parties were in agreement, and nothing was hidden or kept from them. Thank you. 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/27/2023

  Type:Sales and Advertising 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.

  I reserved a party bus with American Eagle Limousine Company (AELC) for Fri 4/28/2023 from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm. I gave credit card information to reserve the party bus and was charged immediately. They sent an ***** digital contract with the wrong date/time. I called AELC *************) and had ONLY the choice to leave a voice mail. I did, stating explicitly that I was not comfortable signing the inaccurate contract and asking for someone to contact me. I received a text from ******* at ************, which showed he had not listened to my message. During the texts with *******, I stated I was not satisfied with the terms on the reservation details and requested adjustment to the terms to match my original intended purchase. During this process, ******* insisted that I sign the contract and upload as written. At no point was I given a solution that worked to my satisfaction. I felt pressured to sign the paperwork despite the fact that it was not what I purchased. ******* called me 4/25/2023 to state my original reservation could not be honored. Later that day I called to discuss the details and was told I HAD TO ACCEPT a substitute bus which was NOT what we had originally purchased. ******* pressured me to sign/upload the documents WHICH DID NOT REFLECT MY INTENDED PURCHASE. I was told that the purchase was not refundable, even though the service I had purchased was not available to me. The attached screenshots of my texts with ******* do not reflect the full extent of the phone conversation, purposeful manipulation and miscommunication conducted by AELC. I was forced to submit a "corrected" invoice with the details ******* insisted on. Because AELC was unable to deliver on my intended reservation for bus type, date, time, and activity, I cancelled the reservation via email  ([email protected]) and by text. I received a response from [email protected] stating the reservation was cancelled and I would not receive any refund of my $1136.65. 

  Business Response

  Date: 05/27/2023

  **** ******* ******** booked a party bus with American  Eagle party bus service for April 28, 2023, for 4 hours via self checkout shopping cart and filling out reservation form for  event LAST MINUTE. She agreed on a price of $1136.65 for the  4 hours service her booking time was for 4 hours rental. The reservation contract submitted with signed agreed terms and  condition of rental period times customer emailed and wanted  to cancel the reservation. We advised her all payment are not  refundable as per original email it was mentioned that it’s a  busy weekend and last-minute booking and we accommodated  her reservations and turn down other business.  
  Which we try to work helping customer with many emails back  and forth, so they don’t loss their nonrefundable payments  According with all reservation form IT CLEARLY EXPLAINS ALL  TERMS AND CONDITIONS WHICH CUSTOMER READ AND AGREE  WITH THERE FULL NAME  
  Please let us know if you have any questions, GOD BLESS AND  BE SAFE  
  

  TRULY YOURS  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/06/2023

  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
  
   Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  All that I was able to view was a screenshot of part of our texting exchange.  I am not satisfied with this as a response from the company. They charged me immediately and then were unable to provide the service I paid for, yet they were unwilling to refund the money that was charged. This is an unacceptable business practice.
  
  Regards,
  
  *****************************