If you have read some of my past posts on the Pros and Cons of TV Shuttle vs. Village Airport Van, you will see that I was fair and leaned toward TV Shuttle Service. However, I have changed my opinion.
I did have a negative experience with Village Airport Van. I went right to the "the top dog", the owner....and he not only talked to me on the telephone but also responded to me in a PM as Swimdawg. He did not know that the person who complained to him on the phone was Swimdawg.
This is part of his PM to me:
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Good afternoon Swimdawg,
I am the owner of the Village Airport Van. I frequently peruse the Talk of the Villages blog to see what the community is saying about our organization. We are always striving to improve our service, and I just wanted to touch on some of the points you brought up in a post recently, in which you compared the pros and cons of both our company and our competitor.
Firstly, I'd like to discuss the waiting area at the airport. Orlando International Airport provides benches for most parking spaces along level 1 (Ground Transportation). For some unknown reason, the spaces that we make use of (A45 and B49) are further from these benches than any other spaces. The spaces in fact have no designated benches assigned to them. Accordingly, we have contacted the director of Airport Ground Transportation, Paul Issler, to request that additional benches be furnished. We have gone as far as to offer funding for installation of said benches and have been notified by Mr. Issler that the matter is being looked into further. This request may first need approval from the Orlando International Airport Ground Transportation Committee, so we must wait for the airport to address this issue before we can move forward.
Secondly, you commented that our vans are not as clean or organized as our competitors. To that end, we have recently committed $65,000 to ensure that our vans are immaculate both inside and out. If you should ever feel that a van's level of cleanliness is subpar, we would encourage you to please notify our office of the same, either by phone or through the comment cards located in our vans. Your van should always be of the same level of cleanliness you'd expect it to be after driving it off the lot at a car dealership. Furthermore, in reference to the appearance of our drivers, we have recently invested upwards of $8,000 to equip all of our drivers with new uniforms.
Finally, in addition to always trying to improve the cleanliness of our vans, we also strive to provide the safest travel possible. To that end, we have invested $3,000 in new running boards, which are currently being installed on each and every van. Despite the medical-grade step stools that we provide, we have heard recently that various customers have experienced difficultly in boarding the van.
In closing, I hope that some of these details will help you understand the level of commitment we have to our customers. I do not exaggerate when I say that we always want to be faster, cheaper, and better than our competitors, and that we will work tirelessly to reach that goal. I encourage you to try our service again in the future, and to provide feedback on your trip through our comment cards (located in all vehicles). I cannot express how grateful I am for customers such as yourself - your feedback is invaluable and is the most important tool to helping us become the most affordable, fastest, and best airport transportation service in The Villages.
I'd like to thank you once again for your comments and hope to hear back from you soon!
Village Airport Van
www.VillageAirportVan.com
(352)-241-2000
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I have to hand it to him. He really did what he said in this PM. The vans are very clean and the drivers are cautious, attentive, well-dressed, clean and very professional. The last driver even offered us bottled water which I thought was a nice touch.
It is so nice to be picked up at my home in Swimdawg South and be taken to the airport without having to transfer via cab as I did with TV Shuttle. The wait time has been much less using Village Airport Van. Now my vote goes to Village Airport Van!
Incidentally, Village Airport Van has 24/7 door-to-door service and every 10th trip if free. The price was the same with both services.....but I did have to pay $5. extra using TV Shuttle for the cab ride to/from the Shuttle Waiting Area.
YES TO VILLAGE AIRPORT VAN!
...And I will update as time goes on. I travel a lot......zipping back and forth from Western New York to TV.