To say my experience with Legend Limousine (Smithtown NY) was unpleasant is an understatement. I don't think I've dealt with such an incompetent group of "professionals" in a very long time. Legend Limousine was the company my fiancé and I had hired to provide transportation for our wedding and we viewed the below incident as a "test run", one we are glad we experienced as I'm positive this is a reflection of how they would have handled any issues on our wedding day.
On July 19th Legend Limousine was hired to drive a bachelor party from Patchogue into NYC and back to Patchogue. Our driver, Bill, was scheduled to arrive at 4:30 (we had a 6pm reservation at Delmonico's Steakhouse) but called to let us know he'd be "15 minutes late" - he didn't arrive until 5:15pm. When we arrived in the city he was paid for the entire evenings fare (over $600) and offered to let us leave personal items in the vehicle as he would be picking us up in that vehicle later (no receipt was offered). Around 12:30am we called to switch the pick up location and was told it wasn't a problem, they'd see us at 2am. 2am rolls around and a new driver with a different car was waiting for us. This driver had no idea we had already paid Bill and demanded payment before he pulled away from the curb. The new driver had called the night manager who informed us that we could either pay again and be driven home (and given a refund if we were owed one) OR we could refuse to pay and be left in NYC. At this point our original driver had shut his phone off for the night making it impossible to corroborate our story of prepayment. To be fair, we had been drinking all evening and frankly the last thing any of us wanted to (or were capable of) deal with was a bunch of people telling us, basically, pay us AGAIN or get left in the city. Eventually the new driver took off without us in the vehicle and we had to wait in Penn Station until the 4:43am train came in. This obviously left a pretty sour taste in our mouth, one that didn't get corrected when we went to speak with the owner Robert on Monday morning.
On July 21st Robert, the owner, called to attempt to right the situation. I spoke with him briefly and told him I would be in with my fiancé later that evening to discuss the situation face to face. When we arrived at his office we were given back the $300 and the bottle of scotch that had been left in Bill's vehicle. Robert did not offer an apology nor did he attempt, in anyway, to calm our fears about his companies actions on our wedding day. We sat with him for approximately 25 minutes while he ran through a litany of possible scenarios that could impact his company's performance come the day of our wedding. He said "I can't sit here and tell you it'll be perfect; there are too many things that happen. I can't tell you your car won't break down, your A/C will work perfectly, that your driver will be on time or that we won't get lost. I can't promise perfection and I'm not going to." Robert didn't offer to do anything to keep our business but rather he "offered" to refund our deposit and let us go elsewhere. Robert bashed his own employees calling Bill "not all there" and "often times too willing to help even though it will more than likely hurt the situation". He stated his wedding day drivers, limousine drivers and passenger van drivers are all on different levels of competency and that obviously Bill was driving a van "for a reason." Any competent business owner would have apologized and offered to right the situation; Robert acted as if he could care less and eventually said "we're beating a dead horse, what more do you want?" Mind you, not once in our conversation with Robert did we get loud, rude or curse. We were as calm and respectful as possible.
Robert eventually did refund our initial $200 deposit. However, I was credited only after my bank (Chase) filed a claim and conducted an investigation on my behalf. It took 8 days, but I was finally credited the amount.
If this is "legendary service", I'll pass. My advice to anyone looking for a competent company to provide transportation would be to hire ANYONE but Legend Limo. The lack of communication between drivers and management and the overall rude, careless attitude of its owner is something I hope to never encounter again. read more