Elite Limo/Club VIP

Elite Limousine and Club VIP are the same company and are running two websites for their Limo's and buses. The websites have their name, phones numbers and addresses on them. The "Nightcrawler" bus shown on their website shows a poker table, DVD's, CD's, and video games. Customers are lead to believe everything above is in the bus but instead are taken for a non-refundable deposit before learning that the bus has nothing on it but some poor condition leather seats and holes in the walls and floor where the video games and poker table used to be.

When I first called Elite Limo to rent a bus I spoke with the owner or manager Kevin and let him know that we had found them on the internet. I wanted to get a good description of the bus and a cost. I asked him if the internet description was accurate, he said it was. We got the price for 6 hours, a little over $1000 including tip.

I put down a $300 non-refundable deposit, with an additional $700+ in cash owed upon pickup. I had them pick 20 of us up on Friday, August 31st at 10:30 for my friends bachelor party.

When the bus came I went inside the bus and was appalled. The video games had been ripped out of the wall, the poker table was missing, both TV's had no signal, the driver claimed that the CD's and DVD's were stolen. The driver also claimed the video games had been taken out because people spilled drinks on them.

I had 20 people and we were two days from my friends wedding, it was too late to back out so we paid the additional $700 and decided to try and make the best of it. I didn't really have a choice at this point, I'd have to send 20 people home including the Groom and lose my deposit on top of it. That was just the start of a bad night. When I approached the driver and asked where everything on the bus was I was called everything but a liar. I was told that no such website existed and that Kevin never would have promised those things to me. I was told that I was obviously making it all up to get a refund. At this point the driver also thought it was a good idea to tell me the bus overheated if it went over 45 miles an hour and if we ran past our alloted time he would collect a $300 late charge in cash or throw us all of the bus on the freeway. I was fuming.

We ended the night on a very sour note. We got back to the hotel 10 minutes late because we had to drop some of my friends off 15 miles away and he drove 45 miles an hour the entire way on the freeway. I refused to pay the 10 minute late charge the driver told me would be near $300. At that point he agreed to not charge me for a late fee if I tipped him some additional money(there was already a $200+ tip included). I folded up some ones and gave them to him in disgust.

After the incident I contacted the owner Kevin by email and let him know how displeased I was. I also wanted to know why he was running a website that advertised one thing and then delivered entirely the opposite. Kevin explained to me that he bought the company several years before and the websites were the old owners sites. He didn't know how to take them down and said they had been a headache to him in the past. Whether or not this is true is beside the point. He knew that there were websites driving him business every day and he failed to tell me that the bus had nothing on the website on it when we called him. In-fact he did quite the opposite and told us that the website description was correct.

After waiting a week and a half for a response, Kevin finally wrote me an email stating the following.

They have no control over the website that's in their companies name with their up to date business and telephone number. The driver denied ever soliciting a tip from me in exchange for no late fee. Because they didn't charge me the late fee and they "went out of their way" to drop my friends off they would not refund me any money.There was never a stipulation of mileage or drop off locations in their contracts I signed. He just was giving me a hard time because it was further than he wanted to drive.

Please help me to get a refund for the night or at the very least have them shut the website down so that other consumers such as myself are not tricked into getting a vehicle that has nothing on it. Their two company websites are below. The bus we rode in is called the "NightCrawler". The bus clearly says “Club VIP” on the side.

http://www.club-vip.net/club_vip_low.swf

http://www.888elite10.com/Partybusses.htm

Both contain phone numbers and addresses of their business. Call either number and they will answer the phone by the name "Elite Limo". The Better Business Bureau says that the business is not a member and has an unsatisfactory record. They had 10 complaints in the last 36 months. That’s funny because at the bottom of the 888elite10.com website it says they are a BBB member. Here’s a link to the BBB http://data.phoenix.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bid=9000810

Again another case of mis-representation. What should I do at this point? Is taking them to small claims court a good idea? What other routes can I take to get their website shut down and possibly get a refund?

Their phone numbers are

602.629.1010

602.277.7286

and 1.866.477.7286

The manager or owners name is Kevin Duggan.

Please help!

Aaron

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