Katie wrote on 08-07-2012

Bad experience

Riverside came highly recommended to me by a family member who is friends with the owner, Susie.  I was coordinating a bridal shower for my soon-to-be sister-in-law and thought it would be fun to do a wine tour of western NC and a luncheon.  I told Susie that we wanted to do one of their winery tours for the shower, and that I expected between around 10 people.  She confirmed that they had (I think) two 15 passenger vans. Riding together was really important, and was really the entire reason I wanted to hire a tour service in the first place...  this was the first time some of our family members were meeting each other, and, with the drive time between destinations being pretty long, it would give us some time to get to know each other. Susie was so nice initially, and helped set up our itineracy.  3 days before the trip, Susie emailed me and said that their large vans were booked, and that her and her father-in-law were going to take us in their personal minivans. She said it's because there were fewer people going, but I had told her "around 10" from the beginning, and we had 8 confirmed.  Because the minivans would only hold 6 each, we would have to spilt up... thus defeating the entire purpose of us hiring a tour service.  Additionally, riding around in their family minivans wasn't exactly the professional service we had in mind. I emailed Susie back and said this really wasn't what we wanted to do, and that we had thought that they had reserved a van for us.  I told her that if she had told me when we first talked that she didn't have a van available, I would have gone through a different company.  On the other hand, if the vans weren't booked from the beginning, but became booked after we have made our arrangements, we should have had precedence because she committed to us first.  Either way, I expected her to make it right. Susie responded on Thursday and apologized, and said she was going to try and find a large van for us. My mom and I, assuming she was going to have to rent a van, even felt somewhat bad (for no reason really, since we didn't cause this) and were prepared to give her a 40% tip the day of, to maybe compensate for the unexpected expense.  On friday, I got an email from Susie saying that we would still be in the 2 minivans.  I asked if she tried to rent us a van, and she replied that she had not, but that I was welcome to try and find a van myself.  I started getting nervous, wondering why she suddenly didn't really seem to care whether we did this or not. I responded and said it would be pretty much impossible at this point, considering it was almost 5pm on Friday, and that it was less than 24 hours notice, and everyone was traveling and were not at a point where we could find another alternative.  She responded and said, "I believe that whatever I do will not please you at this point.  For this reason, I will have to ask you to go on your own."   I think that because the couple was friends of the owners, they offered us a discount for their services.  Then they became busy and committed their vans to their other (higher paying) patrons, leaving our group with their personal cars.  They probably realized that between gassing up two minivans to take all over western NC, and charging the discounted rate they had given us, they would most likely loose money.  So rather than honoring their agreement like most reputable and professional business owners, they left us hanging. She blamed me for "miscommunication"  but that's simply not the truth.  I asked her to provide a service, and she said she could. She implied that we were hard to please, but not wanting to ride around in her personal minivan for what was supposed to be a nice bridal shower is hardly being picky or high maintenance.  I just wanted her to do what she said she was going to do.