Shuttle Nightmare

Beware of South and East Bay Shuttle in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sure, they're fine if you just hop on while you're at the airport, but whatever you do, never prepay a return trip.



Here's my nightmare, a note to their manager "Donia" trying to get a refund after not using a return. This was when I finally spoke to her in person early this week after calling at least three times and being promised calls back from the manager to handle the refund. When I spoke with her, she asked me to send a fax (talk about old fashioned.) Below is what I faxed and e-mailed:

"Hello Donia,

I'd like to request a refund of $36 to my credit card for an unused
prepaid return.

My reservation ID was "XXXX" and this was for a pick-up at SFO on
Sunday, Jan 6 for an arrival at 11.30 PM.

I was unable to use this return because there was essentially no
shuttle service at the time. I waited for an hour and a half in the
rain outside the international terminal in the middle of the night,
calling the dispatcher every 20 minutes because he promised a van
would be there in 20 minutes.

I let several Supershuttle vans to the South Bay drive by when finally
a South & East Bay Van did show up after 1.30 AM. However, the driver
was going to the East Bay (Emeryville) instead of the South Bay. He
said I could hop on, but it would be "a very long ride."

By now I desperately wanted to go home. I thanked the driver for
nothing and spent $140 on a cab, disillusioned with the service
offered by South & East Bay and with no other options available
(Supershuttle had stopped coming by then.) I learned that I should
never prebook and prepay a return in the future.

Now, I have called at least three times requesting a refund and have
been told each time that you would call me back to settle this. That
has never happened.

Since I spoke with you directly, I am now hopeful that you will be
able to rectify this and provide me a refund as soon as possible.

Thanks,

Joris Evers"

Well...There has been no refund and no call back from South and East Bay. If this takes much longer, I'll send a note to the San Jose Mercury News and ask their consumer advocate to get involved and give the shuttle guys some bad publicity. Maybe that'll do the trick. Geez.