Chicago Limousine Ruined wedding, charged for services not provided, endangered my family and friends Chicago, Illinois

Incompetent and scary. They turned my wedding day into a near disaster. The simple fact that they showed up 45 minutes late to get my wife to our wedding, ruining our carefully planned ceremony is enough. But after that their amazing incompetence really began to shine: they got lost multiple times (already super-late to the ceremony they took a 10 minute detour just a couple blocks from the church!...did they even look at a map before they left??), the driver was terse and inattentive, the driver spent the whole ride sending text messages while driving (DANGEROUS!) causing him to miss multiple lights, and during and after all of this representatives and managers of the company were unconcerned, petty, and dishonest.



They said that everything was fine because we EVENTUALLY got where we were supposed to go. They sent me an email afterward saying they would charge us for the full amount of the scheduled service even though they did not show up until 45 minutes late and left early...they said I had to prove that they were late (even after admitting that they were!) and later threatened to have their lawyers make it difficult to dispute the charges. They claimed (lied) afterward that they would have been on time if not for a street closure near our pick-up point even though they were warned about it well in advance and were nowhere near the area when we called to find out where they were at the arranged pick-up time. All of our other venders (florist, photographer, etc.) managed to get to the same location on the same morning early...but it is supposed to be believable the professional driver just couldn't get there any sooner than 45 minutes late?...clearly they think we are braindead.



It should also be noted that the driver left the car multiple times without telling anyone, putting passengers in danger.



Chicago Limousine was to take the my wife, her bridesmaids, her parents, and our photographer on a 3 mile trip from the hotel to the church. According to Google Maps they actually could have walked there faster, by a full half hour. Not only did the limo arrive 45 minutes late, it was in the wrong location. When the livid but relieved maid of honor finally found the limo, it was EMPTY. There was NO DRIVER (nor was there the promised and at this point much needed Champaign). The driver had decided to wander through a nearby street fair, she had to chase him down like a line-backer to get him to turn back. This did wonders for her carefully arranged wedding hairdo.



They tried to blame the driver's lateness on the small street fair that the driver was wandering through when the maid of honor sacked him. Again, we called to warn them hours earlier about the street fair. Plus, come on!, 45 minutes late because of a street fair? This is *Chicago* Limousine after all, who is going to believe that that makes any sense? Really, they are just lying to avoid having to own up to their mistakes. We called Chicago Limousine's dispatcher at 12:00 when the driver was supposed to arrive (and we called at 12:10, and 12:20, etc.) he was nowhere near the area. They were just plain late...AND THEY WANTED TO CHARGE US FOR THAT HOUR!



During all of this chaos, I was waiting at the church (I took a cab!). The plan was for both of us to arrive early and visit with our friends and family as they entered the church. These are people who arrived from all over the country and world whom we rarely get to see. My wife missed out on seeing them as they arrived. She missed the bag piper which we had paid to play outside the church. The church director started to work with me to cut parts of our ceremony, and warned that another was starting shortly after ours, and it seemed that we might need to delay the ceremony altogether. It was really a horrible way to start our wedding, we missed out on a lot of moments we can never get back.



In the days after my wedding the representatives and managers we spoke with (who were nice enough if a little disorganized when we booked the service, BTW) started to get mean, even blaming their mistakes on us. A simple "this was our fault" or "there was no excuse to be as late as we were" would go a long way, but this company has refused to directly accept responsibility, or even express sympathy beyond a perfunctory, flat-toned "we apologize, these things happen". I am really sorry to be wasting any more of my life dealing with this group, writing this review, but I know that if I do not try to help other Chicagoans avoid them I will regret it.



If you don't care where you go, when you get there, or how unpleasant the experience is, then this is the limo service for you. If on the other hand you are not in a mood to place endless calls to combative customer service representatives, to chase your limo down the street on foot, or to teach an inattentive and surly driver to steer in a straight line (while he text messages!) then find another way to get where you need to go.