Dawn's Car Service DON'T USE HER!
 

So I went to Ireland for the holiday and 2 months ago, I booked transportation with Dawn's Car Service to Orlando Airport.

At 2:50 PM on 12/26 I get a text, "Is your flight on time? I'm leaving now".

15-20 minutes later I get a text, "I'm feeling under the weather, I'm sending my son.

It's supposed to be a 4:30 pm pickup.

4:35 he's not here and I ask Dawn if he's lost.

"He made a wrong turn and will be there in 15 minutes" is the response.

How does someone get lost with GPS?

4:50 she says "he's still not there"? "He should be there". (no kidding!)

4:55 I tell her I'm going to miss my flight and I'm leaving to drive to Orlando.

He's still not here at 5. I drive to the airport, spend 40 minutes finding a place to park, then dash from Terminal A to Terminal C, race through Security and make my flight, only because of the kindness of the AerLingus desk agent, who allows me to board the flight, late.

Now I'm stuck with my car at Orlando airport and after 22 hours of airports and flying, I have to drive back to TV at midnight last night.

Dawn won't refund my $261 and offered me a "credit towards a future booking". Oh yeah, I can't wait to depend on her again!

& as it turns out, Dawn doesn't even have a "son", I've been told.

If you used a credit card, dispute the charge, and provide the info on the lack of service, you should get a full refund.

Nightmare for sure...

Dispute charge is your friend if using a charge card.

I have. Disputing credit card charges not as easy as it used to be, as most every small business uses a 3rd party for online payments. I'm dealing with Apple though, so I suspect they'll have some leverage. We'll see.

If your credit card is with an FDIC insured bank, and the merchant accepts the credit card as payment, the bank is required to comply with the Federal credit card dispute process. I would never pay a merchant with a third party payment, such as PayPal. Merchants like to use PayPal as a way to bypass the Federal credit card dispute process. The Federal dispute law allows you to dispute a charge within 60 days from the date that the charge first appears on your credit card statement. If the merchant failed to deliver the service or product you paid for, the bank must issue a credit to your account.

Was not aware, thanks!

Sounds like a bad experience. First red flag should have been requiring you to prepay. We have used several different private drivers over the years and have never been required to give them any payment until they bring us to our destination.

Dawn and Terminal C. Bad news all around.

I didn’t know that about PayPal. I recently booked a vacation in Florida and the company said they use PayPal, and don’t take credit card payments directly. I thought that was quite unusual. Your post is interesting as to why they use PayPal. Now I’m a bit concerned. Anyway, thanks for the info.

I had several disputes with companies where PayPal was used. I presented each dispute to my bank (PNC) and they immediately took care of it. Never had an issue.

Small Operators
 

Services with only 1-2 vehicles just can’t adjust to delays and changing conditions like the larger carriers with multiple vans and drivers. Village Airport has an excellent 14+ year history and will not leave you stranded. They will instantly refund payment without question if you cancel for any reason. Groome also has a large fleet, but getting lots of negative comments since they took over Workman airport services.

What horrible stress for you! I always drive to Orlando and use Park-N-Go on Semoran Blvd for parking. With all the taxes and discounts, it costs $10 a day. I book online and pay in advance with PayPal and print out my reservation. My GPS takes me there. After I show my receipt at the office, then drive to where a van is waiting. I park where told. The driver loads my suitcase and gives me a receipt with my parking place number on it. Then the driver takes me to the airport—about ten minutes to my drop-off at Departures. When I return, I call a number and ask for pick-up. Sometimes the van is waiting, and sometimes it takes fifteen minutes. I’m dropped off at my car, and off I go.

This is MUCH easier than possibly waiting a long time to park at the airport, and the service is better. I don’t like the drive to the airport, but I have a Prius, so it’s not much more than two gallons of gas.

I use the site below to book the reservation, then choose the Park-n-Go on Semoran (there are two). There are other parking places listed, but that one is the cheapest, and it’s good, safe, easy.
https://airportparkingreservations.com/orlando-airport-parking-mco?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campa ign=campaign_APR_2023_27_DEC_ONP_CONTACT_STRATEGY& utm_term=Use%20code%20HOLIAYMCO8%20for%20$8%20off% 20your%20next%20airport%20parking%20booking%20or%2 0$5%20on%20hotel%20and%20parking%20packages.

I'm not saying that using PayPal is necessarily a bad idea. But, when PNC and PayPal handled your dispute, they used their own voluntary dispute processes. If you had paid the merchant with a credit card directly, PNC would have been required to use the Federally mandated dispute process regarding any disagreement with the merchant.

I don't have GPS, not everyone does. Not saying they were right, but do not assume everyone has the gizmos and gadgets BrianL.

I would report this to Seniors Against Crime and also the Better Business Bureau. This will let other people know of her "services."