I would not recommend hiring Party Bus Detroit because they did not transport us (a party of 10) from Mackinac City to Detroit in a timely fashion due to a breakdown of equipment. A breakdown might happen to any company, and even though they did eventually obtain replacement transportation (after about four hours), it was the manner in which Mr. Wikinson, Operations Manager, handled the matter after we returned home that causes me to offer this negative report.
On 5/23/13 we contracted with Party Bus Detroit for transportation from the Detroit airport on 6/30/13 to Mackinac City with a return from Mackinac City to Detroit on 7/05/13. The outbound trip (confirmation #15693) was paid with charges of $200/$735/$115.61. The first charge was the deposit, the second charge was the balance and the third charge for extra time was because my plane arrived a hour behind schedule. This did not take into account that the driver was not aware there was a limo pickup at the Detroit airport and took an additional thirty minutes to find a location where we could be picked up.
My dispute with Party Bus Detroit is for the return trip. We were picked up on 7/5/13 at Shepler's Ferry at 1:30 pm as scheduled. (We were a party of 10 people plus luggage.) At about 2:15 pm, the party bus broke down on Highway 75 en route to the Detroit airport. We were stranded on the road until about 3:00 pm when Party Bus Detroit hired a taxi to transport us to Cheboygan, MI where we stayed until shortly after 6:00 pm. A second bus from Party Bus Detroit picked us up and took us to Embassy Suites at the Detroit airport arriving there at our destination about 12:30 am the next day, July 6.
When I contacted the vendor, PartyBusDetroit, I spoke with Marc Wikinson, Operations Manager and he told me that since I had accepted services back to Detroit, I was obligated to pay for the return trip. He said they would not charge me for the taxi company, for the extra hours we were on the road because of the break down, nor would they charge us for the cost of the second bus and driver. Mind you, the second bus, driver, taxi, and meal were required only because their bus broke down on the road. While we were standing on the side of the road, I made every attempt to obtain alternate transportation. First, I attempted to contact car rental companies, as well as taxi companies. I was not able to do this so I contacted American Express Global Assist. Global Assist attempted to secure for me rental cars, transport buses, as well as taxi companies. Since it was the 4th of July weekend no alternative transportation was possible.
This transportation was in conjunction with our 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration and we were denied the final celebration dinner we had planned for the evening of 7/5/13, not to mention the fact that we had to depart the hotel less than 5 hours after our arrival.
Karl Smith read more