Hey guys. Long time no blog. I plan on bringing it back as I have done a lot of blogworthy stuff recently, but this entry will simply be a PSA about a company I recently used for a private car ride from NYC to Ithaca, NY (4 hours away), Carmel Car Service. Carmel is one of the first results that comes up when you Google "car service nyc" and I had called them from Newark Airport once before and had no problems with the service. This time, I wasn't so lucky. My girlfriend Julianna and I were on our way back from Colombia (a story I will tell soon) and had been travelling all day, so we were excited to be able to just get in the car and get some sleep on the ride back, as we had busy weeks ahead of us. As you will see, that didn't happen. Here is my email to them 2 days after the trip, copied and pasted verbatim (tldr but worth it IMO):

Hello,

My name is Brian Hastings, and I recently used your car service for the second time on a trip from Laguardia Airport to Ithaca, NY on Sunday, October 24. I also left a voicemail but decided I should email too. I am writing to express my displeasure with the service I received on this trip. I believe that the driver of the car that took my girlfriend and me back to Ithaca around 11pm on Sunday, Ms. Wen Zhang, was severely under-qualified to operate a motor vehicle period, let alone professionally. Her driving caused us to fear for our safety even on mainly uncrowded roads and made us unable to sleep, which is a big deal to me since the ability to sleep was the main reason I chose to use your service rather than renting a car and driving myself or just taking a morning flight. My complaints about Ms. Zhang's driving are as follows:

-Ms. Zhang's grasp of the English language was very poor. I could have overlooked this, and I actually did at the beginning of the trip when I asked her to stop for fast food and instead she pulled into a gas station and did not understand when I told her that was not what I wanted. However it became intolerable after my girlfriend and I were sleeping for about 45 minutes only to be awoken by flashing lights. We got pulled over by a Pennsylvania state trooper for speeding, and Ms. Zhang failed to pull the car all the way off the road, leaving the car stopped but still halfway in the right lane. Both the officer and myself told her to pull all the way off the road and she did not understand what to do. I literally had to lean forward and point at the steering wheel and make hand signals for her to finally pull all the way off the road. In the meantime we were at the mercy of other drivers on the roadway for a solid 20-30 seconds and were frightened by this. When the officer came up to talk to her, she didn't appear to understand a word he was saying and she didn't speak any coherent English herself. I had to talk to the officer myself and tell him what was happening, and he just let her go without a ticket, seemingly because he was frustrated about her inability to communicate and just didn't want to deal with it. Obviously all of this is completely unacceptable.

-As I stated in the opening paragraph, my girlfriend and I were too scared to sleep the rest of the way. These fears were confirmed by the fact that Ms. Zheng routinely drifted between lanes driving on Interstate 81 (a two-lane northbound highway) during the remainder of the trip. She seemed to be half-asleep and when I told her a few times to focus and stay on the road she showed no indication of understanding or adjusting her behavior. Even worse, we came very close to getting in an accident with an 18-wheeler. Ms. Zheng was driving in the right lane when the truck started approaching from behind in the left lane, originally intending to pass. Ms. Zheng, totally oblivious of this fact, started drifting toward the left lane. We came dangerously close to hitting the truck until, fortunately, its driver realized what was going on and backed away about 100 yards without us changing speed! Yes, Ms. Zheng's driving scared the driver of an 18-wheeler so much that he backed 100 yards away from our car. Simply stunning. Ms. Zheng continued to drift between lanes and come dangerously close to the few other cars that were actually on the roadway from 11pm-3:30am on a Sunday night.

-When we finally arrived at my house in Ithaca safely (a fact that I was very relieved of), Ms. Zheng said she needed to see my credit card on file, so I ran into my house to get it and came back out and gave it to her. She then gave me the bill, and I wrote 0 for the tip, wrote down the total (about $430), signed it, and handed it to her. She proceeded to complain and beg in only slightly coherent English about the fact that I did not give her a tip. I tried to explain myself a bit but she wasn't understanding anything I said and I decided I should just contact the company instead, although I was going to do that anyway. When I went inside the house her car remained outside for about 5 more minutes before she finally left.

I had used Carmel once in the past and had a good experience, but this was absolutely stunning to me. Both my girlfriend and I legitimately feared for our safety for the majority of the trip, and Ms. Zheng's attitude and lack of ability to communicate with either us or a police officer were completely unacceptable. I feel that I should be entitled to a full refund for the money that I paid for this trip, as the service was not only unprofessional but also a threat to the safety of both my girlfriend and myself. I would also strongly urge you to take a close look at your hiring policies, as in this case the driver was severely under-qualified and, quite frankly, a threat to every other motorist on the road as well as your customers. That's all I have to say for now. I will be expecting a response soon.

Sincerely,

Brian Hastings


It has been about 9 days since that. 7 days ago I got a call back and told a customer service rep the same story on the phone. They seemed horrified and said they would get back to me ASAP. As of now they still haven't. Today I filed a complaint with the BBB and will post updates on that. I was saddened although not surprised to see that they were not BBB accredited and they had an F rating (on a scale of A+ to F) due to numerous similar complaints. Bottom line is, don't ever use this company, they are totally incompetent and the driver doesn't belong on the roads let alone driving professionally.

I will provide some life updates too, since my last blog I spent a good chunk of my summer in Vegas, traveled to Chile and Colombia, and spent some weekends in NYC and Boston and caught some Yankee games and some great concerts. I'll post some well-written pic-laden trip reports when I have more time. For now I hear FTP's new draw and 10-game tables calling my name. Also, part 2 of my high stakes PLO video series comes out tomorrow. I think it is every bit as good as part 1 and includes a good discussion of HEM stats at the end, which I will add to in comments post-video. I hope you guys enjoy it. Good luck at the tables everyone.

Brian H