First Reston Coach came and they picked us up at the airport in a van that looked like it was just in an accident. The paint was all scraped over the previous company logo, it had dents in the side...it just was not a van that you would think to come pick you up. The driver who looked like he just woke up from a party, said the van was too small, and didn't even give us any time to try and put the luggage in, drove off and said we didn't think you had luggage. Note to company, Airport pick-ups usually equals people with luggage. So without any notification we received a new van and away we went. We asked Hugo if it was ok to stop and he said of course. He wanted to take us to a restaurant, but we just decided to grab chipotle and eat in the van. At Chipotle, the dispatcher told Hugo he needed to get 600 cash from us for the bigger van, or he was not allowed to move the vehicle. He would have to leave all the passengers at the Chipotle, which included an armless man and three small children. I talked with the dispatcher and he said it was not his fault we couldn't fit...I told him it wasn't our fault they brought a van that wouldn't accommodate. So I guess the next thing he did was call Guy Nickum who was on the contract, to tell him...so the next thing I knew we were on our way. As we were driving there were a total of 2 major wrecks which delayed our travel time extensively. So after 3+ hours on this bus everyone, including the driver Hugo, had to go to the restroom, so we stopped at a gas station. As we continued to drive, all of a sudden we pulled over on the side of I-95. We wondered why we were stopping, and Hugo told us that the dispatcher said we needed to pay 500.00 cash right now if I wanted the bus to move any further. He said we used the van too long, and made too many stops. We made 2 stops total. 1 where Hugo said we could, and the 2nd so we all could use the restroom. The dispatcher said he didn't care he wanted 500 cash now. We were only a pick up - drop off. If Hugo would have said we couldn't stop anywhere we wouldn't have, but he was ok with us going to get something to eat and BUYING him lunch too!! I told him no way we were paying anyone an extra dollar and to drop us off at the next exit and we would figure it out from there, since we were still 30 min from our destination and we were sitting on the hwy stopped.
Hugo put all of us in danger including 3 children by pulling over on the side of I95 for several minutes instead of exiting safely and allowing us to get off. Then after arguing with Hugo's boss on the phone and advising we were not going to pay him a red cent but demanded he drive to an exit and let us off, he refused. At this point we felt like hostages because he refused to exit but drove to guitar center to meet up with the Salvation Army van which was 30 minutes prior to the destination we were originally supposed to be dropped off at.
Once at guitar center we exited the van but also noticed Hugo was not getting out of the van so we started getting our luggage out. I being one of the last people off due to my disability, Hugo starts to drive off!! At which point we all started yelling stop because again he was putting us all in danger. We knocked on the side of the van to get his attention. One of the band members then walked in front of the van to get Hugo to stop, but he turned his wheels and sped away quickly AGAIN and we barely got all of our stuff out...AGAIN putting us all in danger. He then went and parked in the parking lot with his back door completely open, while we stood outside waiting for Salvation Army van to pick us up. Of course his intention for driving us to the drop off location and waiting was to attempt to bully the Salvation Army out of $500 cash as he thought we did not get all of our luggage out of the van. Very stressful and threatening experience for all passengers involved.
This has to be the WORST company in the world to get a ride from... The customer service was horrendous, the driver almost ran people over and the demand for cash money and stopping on I-95 was inexcusable. The BBB will hear about this, and First Reston is lucky if I don't file a police report for dealing with a disabled man the way they did. read more