This booking went very badly and causes me to conclude Amera isn't competent to handle my business. Your driver was a contractor. First mistake. Second, he lied about picking me up to your dispatcher then had no excuse for being so late. He should be fired. It took four calls to you to get the issue resolved. Only because my MD could accomodate me coming in late was I able to keep my appointment. He was 45 mins. late with absolutely no valid excuse. For the money you charge, you need to ensure by whatever means necessary that they fulfill their commitments. This is not ordinary taxi service, it's medical transport. You absolutely CANNOT screw it up, not even once.
I have attempted to contact Elena Rivers, CEO of Amera, by LinkedIn to discuss it. I will certainly do so if she contacts me. Failing that I will use other ways of tracking down her phone number and calling her.
Ms. Rivers needs to make changes to ensure quality control and that drivers are not lying about their whereabouts or doing things they shouldn't be on the clock. I suggest putting GPS on all their cars like is done with trucks. Also hiring contract drivers is a very bad idea. There is no accountability or commitment. It's like moving cos. outsourcing to local contract movers. Very bad idea.
I will not be using your service again and am rating it one star on various business review sites. Frankly after your very bad performance today I should insist that you not charge me at all. The only reason I don't dispute the charge is because you EVENTUALLY showed up only after repeated phone calls to you.
Rating: one out of 5 stars and be glad you get one star.
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6/1:
Update: Ms. Rivers contacted me. I explained the two things Amera needed to do to fix their problems: stop using non-employee contractors to pick up people. This isn't Uber, it's medical transport. Liability is much higher and they can't afford to mess around with unknown people. Second, put GPS trackers on all vehicles. Like the trucking industry, they need to know where their people are at all times. Ms. Rivers' response was that she didn't need a business consultant but instead just wanted to talk to me as an upset client.
Umm, no. That's not how it works. I am the marketplace, not you. The business serves the market. The business does not get to determine what the marketplace says or does nor define the frame of conversation.
Our conversation degenerated rather quickly. She was being arrogant and haughty. She refused simply to thank me for my sound advice and instead chose to argue over the politics of our conversation. Eventually I hung up on her, as well I should have.
I am disappointed that the CEO of this company is not open to sound advice from customers re how to fix their glaring problems. I don't know if Amera is public but if so, I recommend you SELL. I further recommend to Amera's Board of Directors that they review Ms. Rivers' tenure at Amera as CEO.
6/4:
Response to Elena, CEO of Amera, who just replied below.
I did request to speak to a supervisor -- twice. The one I spoke to was in fact the model of customer service. She stated what she was doing and when I could expect to see a driver. Your driver was very apologetic. This perhaps because he knew he screwed up ROYALLY by simply not doing his job. I asked what kept him. His reply was he lost track of time. That is no excuse.
As a contract driver (something you need to stop doing) and lacking accountability re his whereabouts (something you could insure by using your own actual employees instead of per-ride contractors like happens with ride-sharing companies and use GPS transponders like truck fleets do), of course he had no incentive to do a decent job.
This isn't Uber. This is MEDICAL TRANSPORT. You cannot afford to screw it up. Your liability is too great.
Instead of thanking me in our call for my feedback and leaving it at that you got all high and mighty. That was wrong. I am NOT one of your employees nor would I ever be. I am the customer. You completely dropped the ball. It was a fail. Instead of just dealing with it and moving on, your holier than thou response has created a huge PR mess for you. You have only yourself to blame.
You do not get to define the terms of our conversation. You instead are on the hook for listening to the customer and thanking him for even taking the time to try to talk to you and tell you exactly what you need to do to fix your problems. Instead you chose to be arrogant and self-important.
ALL business is customer service. ALL business. You either never learned that in school or never learned it at work. How you got to be a CEO I'll never know. But you have no business being one. You should be sacked and replaced with someone substantially more competent.
As long as you are CEO of Amera and it continues to use unaccountable contract drivers, people should not chance it with your company. Period. read more
