After working in the limousine and charter bus industries for over 20 years, i would like to warn the general public that most companies get away with a terrible fraud: you hire them, say a white limo, but do NOT write "white limo",license #abc 124 , on the credit card slip for company Z. YOU MUST GET IT IN WRITTING.
Quite often, behind your back so to speak ,since the Z company never intends to tell you, the Z company subcontracts the job out to another limo company X,,, that YOU DID NOT CHOOSE, or sends you the wrong color and size limo.
Imagine,,, it is your only daughter's wedding, and she has even taken the time and trouble to go to the limo/charter bus company and is offered/"sold" to pick out the "limo you want". She does this ,say a white "12 pack" that will comfortably only seat 8-9 adults, not 12. On the day of the wedding, the driver sees a "white 12 pack" on the invoice, but is told by the owner/manager to take a BLACK, 10 PACK ,,,instead. You may think this is impossible ,unthinkable, only a rarity,,,but this happens all the time and is very commom,even with v.i.p.s like football stars and music celebrities.
The chauffeur arrives and the bride is instantly in tears, the mother of the bride is usually also in tears, and the father is sooo mad, he is looking for a gun, understandably. I usually helped them immediately find a replacement limo of the proper size and color, and at full DOUBLE COST. They always are stuck paying for the wrong size and color limo they did not order !!
In the charter bus "business", I have had execs arrive at the airport and here i am in a bus from a different company than the one the client hired, usually more dirty, older, and much less well maintained, meaning cheaper. The order taking bus company,Y , such as Coach USA-Greyline, probably the biggest bus company in the usa, who get away with this all ,,,the ,,,time, say ,ahem, that they had a last minute "scheduling problem" ,,,and ,ahem, needed to have to flexiblility to, ahem, hire someone,PU, else. When in truth, they never, NEVER, intended to do the charter, just skim a percentage and hire a , usually, lesser cheaper company than the one you selected. Yes, all our elected politicans have been allowing this practice to go on for years. And the American media is not too interested either. This stinks ,i know, but is a very common American business practice, called "sub-ing" or "farming out" without telling the client, until they see the different limo/bus at the very last second.
BEWARE, OUT THERE,,,FRIENDS.
