Groome Transportation

Do not take this transportation service!!! I repeat… Do not take this transportation service. They just want your money. I have used this company several times in the past and it just keeps getting worse. Not only are they overpriced but their service is horrible. That seems to happened when you have no competition. Late departures, late arrivals, customer service hanging up on you, no answers to questions about pick up… The list goes on and on.

I can only call this company a gamble in regards to being reliable. Their schedules are confusing and even on paper it’s misleading. The staff is unreliable where it’s most important and barely reliable where it’s least important. If you have hopes on catching a shuttle, but it’s a shift that might seem slow or rarely has patrons, the driver (most unreliable) won’t show. The dispatcher (barely helpful) can only say the driver «said» they were their, but «no one was there for pick up.» From that point on, you are S.O.L. When express your disgust for the service, the dispatcher will just hang up on you. I quote, «I’m answering your call as a courtesy.» For $ 49 per trip one way, you would think that money would’ve bought some reliability by now. Each van can load at least 6 people that’s $ 294 per trip. They are garbage. If they were good before, they are garbage now.

Wife & I paid for reservations from Augusta to ATL & back. The ride to ATL was fine. The driver was very careful to make sure he had all scheduled passengers on board. This was not a straightforward process — he had to go back and forth into the office and make multiple calls before it was straight. He drove carefully and got us there a few minutes early.
On the way back, our bags were the last ones off the belt, and the van was gone when we got to the pickup point. Note that Groome picked the return trip pickup time based on our flight. Obviously they cut it too tight. The plane was right on time, not late.
I tried calling the Augusta number at least ten times to make sure we’d have a ride on the next van, and never got through, except to a reservation guy in Chattanooga who was no help at all.
We stood in the cold for over an hour, because we sure did not want to miss the next van. There were about a dozen people waiting with us, mostly soldiers going to Fort Gordon. Turns out there were two empty seats, but rather than giving them to us based on our reservations, they were sold as the van drove up to two guys who did not have a reservation!!!
So I called again, and finally got through to the Augusta office. Were they helpful and apologetic? No they were not. They offered two seats on the NEXT shuttle, another 1−½ hours later. So all told we waited in the cold for about 3 hours, and got home at 1230 AM instead of 930 PM.
The reservation system should pick departure times that passengers can make.
And paid passengers who miss a shuttle should get moved to the next available open seats, not left standing in the cold. The airlines do this all the time — automatically.
Will we do this again? No. Based on how Groome works, there is a real risk of no trip home. Reminds me of the way Delta cancels the last flight of the day to Augusta if it does not have enough passengers flying.

Groome Transportation might be a godsend. I travel from time to time and most of my flights are out of Atlanta Hartsfield Airport. There’s an airport in Augusta, GA, but my fellow Augustans know what’s up. :) Anyway, the drive from Augusta to Atlanta is only 2 hours, but boy are they brutal. This is why Groome Transportation is alright with me. I recently traveled to the West Coast and I knew the time change would throw me off slightly, so I opted to use the Groome Transportation shuttle from Augusta to Atlanta instead of driving.
It was a good choice. I had an extremely early flight. I booked a round trip with the company from Augusta to the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport. The total cost was $ 98, which I didn’t mind. They even picked me up from my home. I later found out that they were conveniently located about 5 minutes from me, but that was information for the next time. The company takes about 15 trips a day and you can catch them at anytime. I was the only traveler for my 6AM flight, but the driver was really nice and he and I talked the entire trip. When we arrived in Atlanta, he dropped me off right in front of my airline and I was on my way.
My return ride was just as seamless. My flight arrived back to Atlanta at 12AM. This time there were two other passengers waiting. We waited for about 15 minutes and then loaded the shuttle. We arrived at the Groome Transportation headquarters first to drop off the two passengers and I was last to exit. Groome Transportation dropped me off at my residence. I have no complaints. I’m not sure how smoothly this goes with weekend flights, but I hope the service is the same. I departed on a Thursday and returned on a Monday. I believe that’s why there was no fuss. The company is trusted. The staff is nice and they get rave reviews during Augusta’s busiest time of year, which is in April for the Masters.
Check them out. I think it’ s well worth it.

Left me stranded at the airport! After waiting for an hour outside in the cold, I called Groome Transportation to ask where the shuttle was that I had reserved a seat on weeks ago. I was told that the 3:45 shuttle was not running that day since they did not think any passengers had reserved seats. After explaining my story to two different people, they realized they failed to reserve the correct shuttle time for me. I was told that I could wait for the shuttle that would be arriving at 8:30 pm. They did not care one little bit that I was stranded at the airport and expected me to wait around for hours until their next scheduled shuttle was coming. I would not recommend this company to anyone!