Evelyn

Wow, I'll never use these guys again. Called them for an airport run and told the dispatch that I needed the car at 12:45pm and I needed to use a credit card (it was on my company).

I came out of my house at 12:45 and told the driver I needed 5 minutes. He threw up his hands and made all these irritated motions at me. I thought it was a little insane for him to react that way for 5 minutes of waiting. Once I got in the car, he told me he'd been waiting a half hour. He said the dispatch told him 12:20pm. I said, I'm sorry, but I told them 12:45. He kept going on and on about it, saying in 8 years of driving a car this had never happened. His continued annoyance became really annoying.

Now because of all his hee-hawing I didn't remind him that I needed to use a credit card. So when we pulled up to LGA, he started going crazy again, saying I couldn't use a credit card because I didn't tell him. I'd have to pay cash. I said, I'm sorry, but again, I told your dispatch. I don't have any cash.

Anyway, he charged me an extra $5 because he waited a half hour. Which I laughed at. I guess he was assuring himself a tip. I needed to get on the flight so I didn't fuss too hard on it though it was pretty ridiculous. It wasn't my mistake. I said as much and he said, Well, you made me wait 5 minutes.

Anyway...never again. The funny thing was that this guy had Jesus stuff all over his car. Goes to show that religious people are mostly intolerant, non-peaceful assholes.

I just used these guys Wednesday night. In the driver's rush, he nearly turned down a one way street - the wrong friggin' way then swerved at the last second. Thankfully, it was late and there were no cars coming. Assholes.

Really? I've never had a problem with Evelyn.

>Goes to show that religious people are mostly intolerant, non-peaceful assholes.

lol....you're right...completely agree on religious people. that's why i'm atheist..

basically the reason why the entire world is at war is because of religious beliefs...

[no sarcasm here, just the truth]

stalin might beg to differ.

Anyway...never again. The funny thing was that this guy had Jesus stuff all over his car. Goes to show that religious people are mostly intolerant, non-peaceful assholes.

Really dude? I feel your pain but that part was unnecessary. I'm a Christian and I know there are Christian assholes just like there are Jewish assholes and atheist assholes and black assholes and white assholes. His believing in Jesus doesn't contribute to his being a dick any more than your (presumably) not believing in Jesus contributes to you being a jerk. Fine that dude was a hypocrite that doesn't make all religious people hypocrites. Suck it up and realize people are annoying because people are annoying.

I think being annoying is a habit you must have in order to work for a car service. I am always ecstatic when I get a driver who doesn't complain, mumble to himself, has a smelly or cramped car or whatever else there can be. Unfortunately it rarely happens. They have a great way of making you feel like they're doing you a huge favor by driving you somewhere. Amazing.

I've had some pretty ridiculous experiences with Monaco Car the last couple weeks as well. One driver had no clue how to get to Dumbo, didn't seem to know how to drive, didn't have any receipts, and then overcharged me even though I gave him turn-by-turn directions. Another guy picked me up in a car on the verge of breaking down, with someone he described as "a mechanic" sitting shotgun. Ghetto.

I use Arecibo specifically because Evelyn sucks with credit cards (I, too, use a company card to expense my work trips to the airport) and quite frankly, the drivers aren't as nice.

The worst experience I had w/a car service was once in Boston, where the driver slammed on the brakes and came to a dead stop before a lane split (the split was new, but much publicized--one side would take you to the airport; the other side would take you to Downtown). He had no idea which side of the split to take. Luckily I had been there a few weeks before and was able to talk him through. And luckily, coming to a dead stop on the interstate is something that the average Boston driver can deal with. But geez....

Most of the Evelyn drivers I've had have had GPS in their vehicles.

I've used Arecibo, too, and haven't had any problems. They're huge, and they know where they're going. I heard that Arecibo has 1,000 cars.

I had heard 300 cars, but still the biggest around. And they know where all the best spanish food is.

MonkeeJones wrote: Anyway...never again. The funny thing was that this guy had Jesus stuff all over his car. Goes to show that religious people are mostly intolerant, non-peaceful assholes.

Really dude? I feel your pain but that part was unnecessary. I'm a Christian and I know there are Christian assholes just like there are Jewish assholes and atheist assholes and black assholes and white assholes. His believing in Jesus doesn't contribute to his being a dick any more than your (presumably) not believing in Jesus contributes to you being a jerk. Fine that dude was a hypocrite that doesn't make all religious people hypocrites. Suck it up and realize people are annoying because people are annoying.

No offense. There's a lot of hypocrites out there -- it just seems like there's a higher percentage of such among those that call themselves holy.

For what it's worth, I've only had good experiences with Evelyn, apart from one very cold night when they were super busy and the car never showed. In 5 times going to the airport, they've always shown up within minutes of the scheduled time.

It might all come down to luck. I think a lot of these guys work for more than 1 place, and as for the stickers, it may very well not have been his car.

izisharp wrote: I've had some pretty ridiculous experiences with Monaco Car the last couple weeks as well. One driver had no clue how to get to Dumbo, didn't seem to know how to drive, didn't have any receipts, and then overcharged me even though I gave him turn-by-turn directions. Another guy picked me up in a car on the verge of breaking down, with someone he described as "a mechanic" sitting shotgun. Ghetto.

This sounds exactly like my experiences with Monaco. I only use them if I can't get a car from another company.

But Evelyn's always been ok for me.

Nomad, they tried to kill me on Wednesday night! Of course, I blamed Carnivore.

Anastasia Beaverhausen wrote: Nomad, they tried to kill me on Wednesday night! Of course, I blamed Carnivore.

Yes, because it's clearly my fault that you refused to take Arecibo's number from me once you heard that Evelyn was closer. :roll:

Carnivore wrote: [quote=Anastasia Beaverhausen]Nomad, they tried to kill me on Wednesday night! Of course, I blamed Carnivore.

Yes, because it's clearly my fault that you refused to take Arecibo's number from me once you heard that Evelyn was closer. :roll:

Duh. Jeez. Accept your blame!

Anastasia Beaverhausen wrote: [quote=Carnivore][quote=Anastasia Beaverhausen]Nomad, they tried to kill me on Wednesday night! Of course, I blamed Carnivore.

Yes, because it's clearly my fault that you refused to take Arecibo's number from me once you heard that Evelyn was closer. :roll:

Duh. Jeez. Accept your blame!

Just as long as you aren't blaming me...!

I stopped using Evelyn years ago. There were times where I feared for my life with the way some of their guys drive.

Never a problem with Arecibo.

I use Arecibo sometimes (they take dogs), but when I'm solo and in the hood I always use International on Washington .. they've always been fast and available. Their dispatchers are also pretty on point. Have had *plenty* of bad experiences with Evelyn and stopped calling them even when I lived on that block.

Has anyone else gotten the Mercedes G-Wagon when calling Evelyn? The economics of running a car service with a $90k+ SUV are really perplexing to me. It's not even diesel, which would at least have a really long service life.

I've had bad luck with Eastern lately (slow, overcharging, not answering.) I've actually done well with Evelyn lately. I haven't been able to get Catch-Ah-Ride to pick up the phone. Has anyone used Express 11?

Coincidentally, there's an interesting piece about Arecibo and livery cabs in
this week's New York magazine: http://nymag.com/news/features/54678

i took an evelyn car today that picked me up on the side of the street because the 2/3/4/5 trains stopped running into brooklyn this morning! ugh...cost me $10 to get to work today which should have been an unlimited metro ride.

the guy was nice enough, but clearly this doesn't have anything to do with picking up on time.