Stranded in Houston thanks to SuperShuttle

I've been a professional services marketer for the past 16 years and spent a considerable amount of my career as a member of the Society for Marketing Professional Services. Maybe I should rephrase that...I've been an active member of SMPS since 1997. My involvement has included board positions on the New York and Long Island chapters (I'm currently president of the LI chapter)and I served on various national committees.

This past weekend, I went to Houston to be one of the jurors of the Marketing Communications Awards. Historically, the judging takes place in the city where the current committee chair is based and over 100 judges and volunteers get together for this "meeting of the minds."

Friday was a travel day and some networking took place, we reviewed close to 200 entries on Saturday and Sunday was a travel day. Well...it was a travel day for everybody but me.

I made my reservation in advance for SuperShuttle to pick me up from my hotel and take me to the airport. Included in my reservation profile was my flight information. THE VAN NEVER SHOWED UP. When I noticed that 10 minutes had passed and there wasn't a sign of the van's arrival, I called customer service to find out what was going on. As a New Yorker, I understand traffic and realized the possibility that the van might be stuck in traffic...I'm in DT Houston, there's an Astros game in the vicinity, a bunch of festivals, etc. Imagine my surprise when traffic wasn't an issue but the van couldn't even be found. To add insult to injury, the local office was even answering their phones.

Needless to say, I'm frantic. The van is late/can't be located, I have to get to the airport, go through security, make a flight, and the customer service rep can't give me any answers. I spent over an hour on the phone (mostly on hold) while the customer service rep was locating the van, locating a dispatcher, locating a supervisor...meanwhile I'M STILL IN THE HOTEL LOBBY WAITING FOR A RIDE. At the conclusion of the call, the only thing the customer service rep could say was "I don't know what to tell you." What kind of a response was that?

I ended up paying out of pocket for a private cab to get to the airport but missed my flight. By the time I got through security and to my gate, the doors were already closed and I saw my plane leaving without me.

The best the airline could do was have me go standby on the next flight...leaving the following morning. There was a seat for me on a flight leaving 18 HOURS LATER!!! I'm stranded in Houston due to the gross incompetence and negligence of SuperShuttle and based on the response (or lack thereof) from their staff, they really couldn't give a damn.

If you've been following me on Facebook and/or Twitter, you know that I spent Sunday night & Monday morning putting SuperShuttle on blast. In addition, I filed complaints against them with various agencies and disputed the charge on my credit card.

Yesterday afternoon, I got a voicemail from Corporate to find out what happened. I gave my side of the story, was given an apology and was told that there was an obvious breakdown on their end (ya think?). I was also told that I should've been taken care of by SuperShuttle in terms of a better response time (an hour on the phone is unacceptable), better follow through, a cab on their dime, hotel stay on their dime, etc. What should've happened and what actually happened are two streets that never met. To tell me what "should've happened" after I finally made it home falls along the lines of the proverbial "day late and dollar short."

In the meantime, SuperShuttle is "researching" my case and will be in touch "in a few days." Whatever.