Carmel Car & Limousine Service

Jerry P.

Joined 4 months ago

WORST CAR SERVICE EVER- HAD A 1:45 PM PICK UP RESERVATION AT JFK

DRIVER CAME AT 2:30 AND SAID HE JUST GOT THE CALL TO PICK UP. MAY HAVE NOT BEEN THE DRIVERS FAULT- WORST DISPATCHER AND CAR SERVICE COMPANY EVER-

SPENT 45 MINUTES ON HOLD JUST TO TALK TO A DISPATCHER TO TELL US TO WAIT OUTSIDE IN THE FREEZING COLD WEATHER. NEVER AGAIN

BEWARE! UNPROFESSIONAL EMPLOYEES-

Doesn't Recommend

Laura E.

Joined 4 months ago

Don't Use this company. Their service is SHAMEFUL. Despite several confirmations of a New Year's Eve reservation I made several weeks in advance, they cancelled out on me at the last minute(two hours before pick up on a night they knew I could not find another ride on such short notice. Left me and my elderly parents with mobility problems stranded..

maria c.

Joined 6 months ago

Don’t use Carmel services! I had an awful experience with this company. It was the first time I used their service and absolutely the last one.

First the van wasn´t big enough as we booked on line, one of my daughters had to travel on the floor because there was no more place to sit.

Second, and more important, the driver they send to pick for us, didn´t know how to drive the van.

He told us it was the first day he was driving that van, and never been to JFK. How can that be possible in a company that dedicates to this???



As soon as we start, we made two blocks, with GPS on, and he got lost, getting very frustrate and nervous.

Then when we enter the highway he couldn´t manage the van well enough, he drive side to side, couldn´t getting the van on the middle of a lane. He went all the way cursing.

Also he didn’t know how to follow GPS directions nor signs and could barely speak English, so is was very difficult to made us understand.

We try to help him, giving us the directions but he was to nervous and out of him to pay attention to us.

To make things worse, in the middle of the highway, the GPS falls and he just release the steering wheel, and we were about to crash if it wasn´t for my daughter that took control of it.

He abruptly stop the van in the middle of the highway, without turning lights on and a truck almost hit us from behind.

When we finally made it to JFK 8 terminal, my daughters were in shock, crying while he denied to take off the luggage.

I sincerely thought this company was the best choice, but I was absolutely wrong.

So make sure not to choose Carmel for any of your trips you will regret it.

Hope this review help so nobody else goes through our awful experience.

Doesn't Recommend

Thomas N.

Joined 8 months ago

Stay away! Bait and switch! I recently had guests arriving from Europe and as they were arriving in the middle of the day I couldn't get away from work in order to pick them up myself. So in order to give my guests a quality ride I thought ok.. I'll book the "deluxe" car instead of a regular car. That was a rip off in that they sent a regular car, not even a town car. In fact that car was so run down that it didn't even have working seat belts. Mind you my guest had 2 children coming along. The driver then intimidates my guest who is ready to take another car at this point. The guy has lousy english but oddly perfect pronunciation of the word F***. Which he proceeds to use over and over in front of the children as they enter any sort of traffic. They then get lost of course. It took several phone calls to coax them to the right destination.

This happened in June, I wasn't ready to give Carmel a bad review because of one bad driver. However what has happened since has totally shocked me.

I've sent numerous emails to Carmel. Numerous phone calls to their "customer service" number. Here's how the scam works. The emails get an automated reply after 3 days telling one to call the number. You call the number, no one answers. YOu leave a message. No one ever calls back. They ignore the problem till you give up.

I tried opening a claim with my CC company. They said that Carmel's bank insist for proof that the seatbelts were not working. Proof that even though the original receipt says "deluxe", you need a receipt that says they underdelivered on the vehicle. What kind of scam is that? What business is going to give you a receipt that says hey we didn't deliver as promised!? As such I'm going forward with a complaint to the TLC.

Doesn't Recommend

Sara G.

Joined 10 months ago

I have used this car service for the past four years, every time I come to New York, and have not experienced any mishaps other than broken struts in one of their vehicles. That was not to be our experience this time. We came in for our wedding. We gave all our guests Carmel's information to book travel in the city as well airport service. Our service from the airport was fine, leaving us feeling secure in the rest of the bookings; most importantly taking me to the ceremony . We spoke to reservations two months in advance, then again a week before and upon our arrival to ensure all was well with our needs for the pick up and drop off for the ceremony. Twenty minutes before they were to pick me up, they called my fiance and told him they could not do the service. He told them that we had an agreement and they needed to follow through and that it was inconceivable that they would do this 20 minutes before the ceremony. They said they would not do the service unless he paid them an additional $100 plus. He told them to pick me up and he would discuss it later.

I was in the dark at this point or I would have told them to twist off and taken a cab. When I arrived at the ceremony, I ran into my disabled nephew who was just arriving by cab. Carmel car service decided they would not pick him up either. No call, just no show. He had to flag down a cab that could house his wheelchair. My, now husband, called Carmel to complain and they told him a customer sevice rep would call him back. He spoke with them the next day and told them our experience. They were so very apologetic and said they would look into it. Our bill should have been $293, but we were charged $400!

We felt trepidacious, but as we had not had problems like this in the past, we kept our reservation with them for airport pick up. OMG, you would think that they would have paid a little more attention to the booking after what had just transpired, but nope. Their capactity for screwups was not a fluke. As we waited for the Continental that we reserved, I noticed a small car drive up to the hotel. I could not believe my eyes. It was a Toyota Avalon. Are you serious? Our party consisted of three adults with three large suitcases and carry-ons. Not sure who was going to be riding on the roof, but it wasn't going to be me. We told the driver that it was not the car we ordered. He kept arguing with us that this is what we were getting. Our bellman kindly ordered another credible car service to take us to the airport. We will NEVER use this mickey mouse shamble of a crooked car service again. And neither will our wedding guests that had the misfortune of trusting our suggestion. Oh, and the refund we received? $22! These guys are crooked and incompetent. Save your money, and stress, and use ANYONE else. What they did was criminal.

Doesn't Recommend

aimnyc19

Joined 3 years ago

DO NOT USE. I WILL NEVER USE CARMEL AGAIN!!! I have used carmel for many years to get to the airport myself, and to take others who are visiting. The last time I scheduled a ride to get to the airport for my early morning flight I had a car come to pick me up at 4:30 am. I assumed that the driver who would be taking me on this trip that was scheduled ahead of time would know how to get to JFK airport, but that assumption was very wrong.

The driver who picked me up was unfamiliar with the route to JFK and got lost several times, including missing the off ramp to the airport not once, but a second time when she circled back around and was coming back the other way. When she exited the highway to circle back around, she turned left on a red light and then proceeded to drive the wrong way down a two way street. Thank goodness there wasn't any other traffic on the road, but by that point I was scared for my safety. She almost drove the wrong way down another road but a car honked at her to tell her she was going the wrong way. Although she had a navigation system she did not bother to try to use it until she was driving and did not get it up and running. She even pulled over to the side of the road to ask someone walking on the street how to get to the airport. She was also checking her phone the entire time she was driving and drove most of the way with her right turn signal on. Once I got to the airport, I had 15 minutes to get through security and board my flight. She took a very long time to get the credit card slip ready to sign and did not get out to help me with my carry on suitcase. Not only that, but she did not open the trunk to let me get my own suitcase out until I banged on the window to remind her. I barely made it on to my flight.

I called and emailed Carmel to let them know what had happened but I kept getting recorded messages. I finally talked to someone and they offered me a $10 discount coupon. I said I wanted my money back and they said they would check with the Drivers' Manager and then let me know what they could do. After several days, I still hadn't heard from them and called them back and they told me that the driver was a very experienced driver and "due to traffic" took another route to the airport and that because I hadn't missed my flight they could not give me my money back. There was absolutely NO TRAFFIC on the road to JFK at 4:30 am and the only reason it took so long was driver error. Additionally, I really did fear for my safety after she broke several traffic laws and almost drove the wrong way down two different streets (and actually did for one of them). The excuse they gave me was total BS and I am extremely disappointed with the customer service at Carmel. They do not care about their customers and actually put them in danger. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY.

Doesn't Recommend

punky21

Joined 10 years ago

LEFT STRANDED IN LONG ISLAND!!. LEFT STRANDED IN LONG ISLAND!! I called to confirm this reservation on the day before and the next time I called to confirm the reservation was 30 minutes before pick-up, which was at 12:30am. I was told by the dispatcher who picked up that they were UNABLE to get my car and there was nothing that they could do. This left six people stranded in Long Island in the snow with no way to get home to Brooklyn in the middle of the night

Doesn't Recommend

CityAstronaut

Joined 2 years ago

Cannot be trusted to pick you up!. I've used Carmel for several years. Normally they are terrific. However, last evening they stranded my girlfriend and I during a snow storm without the least bit of concern about our plight. Our reservation was booked 48 hours in advance and they canceled it 8 minutes prior to our scheduled pick up. I will NEVER use them again and strongly suggest that you use a different car service as well. They cannot be trusted to actually pick you up.

Doesn't Recommend

thinkythinkerton

Joined 8 years ago

Drivers try to force cash fares, customer svc non-existent. I have used Carmel for work travel half a dozen times in the past 2 months, and I have had nothing but problems with them. First, they lure you in with the ability to book online, and with the friendliness of their booking agents. But it's all downhill from there...

Most recently, I had 2 drivers pick up 2 colleagues at the airport at 6am to drive them to their respective homes. Both drivers claimed the corporate credit card was declined and refused to drive them unless they paid cash. One co-worker (going from JFK to Hoboken, a $100 ride with tip and tolls) was told this only after they left the airport, and was forced to pay out of pocket. After getting home, she saw that the driver also tacked on a $5 "additional stops" fee, though they never stopped once.

The other coworker was my boss, and the "declined" card was his corporate card. He called the dispatch and read his card number to them. Guess what! No problems! The driver was very rude when he learned he wouldn't be getting cash.

My boss didn't get a receipt from the driver, so I called Carmel to see if I could have one emailed to me. Since he didn't remember the exact cost of the ride, nobody at dispatch could help me. I guess providing the reservation number, name of passenger, pick up location and destination, date and time isn't enough information for them to look up the transaction. They need the EXACT amount charged. So I'm transferred to customer service, which is a straight-to-voicemail system. The dispatch operator tells me to expect to wait 3-5 business days to get a response to my voicemail message.

Since I need this last receipt to close out the budget for this account, I called them and left voicemails every day. I emailed them as well, detailing all of the information on the trip. I received an email response asking for all of the information already included in my previous email. Clearly they never read it. My response was to write, "As per my previous email:" and copied and pasted my email, putting all of the answers to their inquiries in BOLD.

Their response? They wrote, "As per your previous email: ??? Your receipt will be mailed."

Wow. Just about as rude as it gets.

Doesn't Recommend

HonestBee

Joined 2 years ago

Fraudulent. I prepaid for my brothers car journey from Manhattan to La Guardia which includes tolls and tip.

The driver took the longer route to avoid tolls and needlessly extended the journey. When I contested this with the owner of Carmel he said it was his perogative and refused to pay back the tolls and tip charged.

It will be my prerogative never to use Carmel again and I will will obtain my refund by contesting through my credit card company. Carmel obviously doesn't care about customer service. I would rather pay more and go elsewhere.

On top of this all their dispatchers are rude which doesn't surprise me when the owners doesn't seem to care.

Have seen a review further down which suggests Delancey Car Service (212-228-3301).