Key points:
• Unreliable but cheap.
• Disconnect between the central charter center and Lincoln Park branch.
• No contingency plans when drivers have problems.

Details:
Two busses were chartered for an important family celebration for 70 people on Sunday, September 8. The buses failed to arrive at the contracted time. Three phone numbers were provided specifically for concerns on the day of the booking. However, none of those numbers were answered (Two of them went to voicemail, the third had a message about voicemail not being set up yet)
No busses, 70 people and no one to contact, ruined what should have been a special event.

The celebration was scheduled to last 4 1/2 hours. The busses finally arrived 25 minutes late, so we arrived 25 minutes late to our event, losing 10% of the time and expense of the venue, DJ, caterers and other vendors, as well as causing considerable distress.

To give First Charter credit, they have apologized, blaming human error and unfortunate circumstances: “the first driver read the time wrong”, “the second driver should have called someone instead of waiting”. The local manager was not aware that all phone numbers for concerns on the day could not be answered.

The local branch (Lincoln Park) offered to refund 50% of the cost of the busses.
However, the contract from the charter center limits their liability to 100%.
A refund of 100% was requested because of the lost time and emotional distress on what should have been a special day.

Here are things to consider to prevent another family’s special event being ruined like ours was:

1. Have a back-up plan if First Charter’s busses fail to arrive when scheduled. From this experience, they do not have effective contingency plans themselves for when drivers do not show up on time.

2. If your special event has a fixed start and end time: consider another company. We had paid for the venue, DJ, caterers, and others for specific times.

3. From this experience, don’t make a booking at weekends. First Charter do not have sufficient staffing to answer the phone if something goes wrong

In conclusion: a bus service was provided, just not at the time the client needed nor specified on the contract. We wasted a portion of the expense of our event because of their failure. The company offered a 50% refund, making their price cheap but they were unreliable.

I booked a bus to take staff to a baseball game. The bus arrived about five minutes late which wasn't the worst because I did plan for an early arrival due to traffic and pregame festivities. The issue arose when arriving at the stadium. The driver circled the stadium a handful of times and seemed to be lost and confused which did result in the staff arriving a few minutes late to the game.

Bus driver was amazing! Kind and responsive. Bus arrive at 8:29 for an 8:30 departure so that was a little stressful.

The bus was on time and the booking reservation process was easy.
I wish the bus was a bit cleaner and free from wrappers on the floor.

Can't say enough about the ease of booking and receiving great service. Driver was awesome, professional and accommodating for our wedding run.

Everything with first student was excellent! Osborne is an amazing driver and very attentive to our campers and staff. He was also extremely flexible on Monday by coming almost 45 minutes earlier than what we had anticipated. I hope that we always get him as our driver. Thank you so much for everything.

The only thing that could be improved is letting people know who pay by check that they will not receive a receipt but that the canceled check is there missy. But otherwise everything was great.

The drivers were very friendly and helpful. Also, the buses were clean. It was a great experience overall with First charter so far.

Bus driver was great, although when we entered the bus, many seatbelts were missing or difficult to put on, which should not have been the case considering that our bus was filled with kids and we ensure to our parents that we take full precaution with our field trips that require travel. Additionally, I believe one of the emergency features on the bus were not working properly. We hit a pothole (which is completely normal) and the emergency alarms began to go off. The bus driver tried to turn the alarms off, but it did not work and he tried his best, but it was clearly a problem with the bus. We made it back safely, but this is not a good thing especially because we had kids all younger than the age of 11 in the bus, slightly panicked due to the situation. We would ask for a partial refund honestly, but that is up to your company to decide. Overall, the service was very well and the bus driver was great and was sweet with the kids as well. We thank you for providing your service to us.

So great to work with

To start the bus was very clean.
The driver was friendly and his driving was excellent.

Reliable, on time, friendly.

On time, clean, great way to transport large group!

We rented 2 busses as shuttles for our wedding. We had 1 bus take the bridal party from our hotel to the venue early for pictures, then 2 busses take the other guests. Both busses arrived early and got our guests to the venue with perfect timing to start the reception. The busses remained onsite throughout the reception and got our guests back to the hotel with no issues. Busses were clean and drivers were pleasant to work with.

Great Job! Arrived at Par Hills on time and ready to go! Buses sanitized and all windows open. Head driver "George" was ready to go. Would recommend them them for our next event! Awesome group...