I'm a bit conflicted; this is more of a 3.5. Kevin is a nice guy. We just had a crap experience. Here's the skinny ...
PROS
- Kevin is really nice and always answers his phone, even when I called PST time thinking I'd get to leave a VM I think it goes right to his direct cell. Our first phone interaction, he seemed really professional.
- Pricing is GREAT. Very reasonable, and our booking was for late night.
- They take payment via PayPal (thank God) -- if you're handling people for an event or an organization and you have to do prepaid and don't want to go out of your own pocket, this is VERY useful. I used this to pay the deposit up front ($50 to hold reservation) and then I paid him the diff right in front of him with a tip included at the end of the night.
CONS
- We spoke on the phone re: our booking and then he told me to send him an email with all the details (I think this is probably the job of the company you book with, not you), but given the rate, I was willing. This was a Sunday night. He said he'd reply with an invoice. Given that our event was Friday, and I wanted to pay him and be booked/set, I sent the info Sunday afternoon and didn't get the invoice from him until after 9 pm Monday. I had questions re: the payment address and sent an email. I had a feeling that I wouldn't get an answer any time soon, so I called him to get my confirmation. Then he answered 3 days later on one of my questions (re: settling the bill the night-of via PayPal). All of this is basically -- he works mainly off phone, and is not as responsive over email re: getting you all booked and handling payment, even if your event is just days away.
- Our booking was for a pickup from Times Square. He knew that a whole week in advance, and he is local so he knows how bad traffic is on a weekend right on Broadway. Our 10:45 pm pickup turned into an 11:15 PM pickup, and that gap in time was me in the crowd on my phone yelling trying to hear him and be heard, wandering back and forth as he tried to give useless directions. I was in charge of the group event and looked incompetent trying to figure out where he was and him trying to call out directions to me to come find HIM at some intersection on the opposite side of Times Square, telling me street names/etc when 1) I am not local and 2) it's HIS job -- not mine -- to coordinate our group pickup. So we were wandering in the heat of summer, in heels, dressed up, late night, and ran late and this TOTALLY killed the mood. We were coming from an event at the Marriott going to an after-party and we got there bedraggled, stressed, tired, and hot. I absolutely did not understand why he did not make sure to coordinate getting his ass to the hotel -- in front of it, not blocks away -- on time. I was pissed. And when I rhetorically asked our group WTF, one of them, a local, said, this is NYC, of course he's not going to come to you, he's going to make you come find him, that's how it is (sarcastically).
- The van was hot. It had A/C but that A/C clearly hadn't been prepped in advance so we were steamy and hot IN the van on the way to the venue.
- The ride was bumpy (as in, he was driving too fast and like a nutty taxi driver in some instances). We were literally grabbing on to seats and handles as we bounced across and down streets when there wasn't traffic crawling.
- When we got there, he parked and said he was going to make sure we were safe since the neighborhood looked sketchy. It didn't look sketchy at all and was filled with people going about their business. Not crowded, but definitely safe looking. Our local rider by this time was over it; she said, this is NYC, he doesn't know where he is and is just making something up.
- He waited outside and took us back on time as expected and we were just glad to get home and get on. However, after I'm done paying and ready to head out, I see a food truck and haven't eaten since lunch (it's 2 am) so I hit the truck. Walking back to the hotel he's still parked at his original dropoff spot and he asks if I have a spare key because ... get this: he locked his keys in the van, and his cousin is 45 min away.
He was hoping I'd go run up to my room and find my house keys and bring them down to help him unlock his van. If I'd had them on me, sure, but no, I'm not going to put myself out at 2:30 AM after an exhausting 18 hour day managing large events for my own organization for your own inability to manage your own details.
The cons outweighed the pros to the point I rounded down to 3 stars. Again, Kevin's a nice guy. YMMV. The other reviews look like he'll be great for managing group events that don't involve being in Times Square. If you plan to be somewhere busy, you might want to work out / ensure he adds on travel time so his van is where and when you need it to be. read more
