First Student

I would never use this service. I had a complicated event that included an overnight for my students. I spent over three hours total on the phone with them. Huge amounts of time on hold. I had to call three different times and each time I had to start with a different customer service representative. I asked if they could work on the bid and call me back. The do not work that way. The customer has to sit on the phone while they put the bid together. Then the next day, the customer is required to call back to confirm what was just agreed upon. I had to start all over with a new person. Another huge waste of my time. After all of that, I was told that they would send the bid out to the correct office and would get back to me with confirmation. I never heard back so after a week, I called them. The rep told me that they could not place the order because they could not schedule the driver. Fine. I get that. But they never even bothered to call me back. How rude. Do not trust these people.

We recently rented three buses to transport our wedding guests from the hotel to our wedding venue. The buses seemed to be coming on time to our venue and dropped off guests when they needed to. The big problem occurred at 1 AM after our reception. The buses left our venue without picking up the last set of our guests. Therefore there were about 50 of us who did not have a ride back to the hotel after the reception. We had the numbers of the bus drivers, but nobody picked up the phone when we were trying to get hold of them. At 1 AM, after a long wedding weekend, we had to call several taxis last minute to get everybody back to the hotel. This was not the way we wanted our wedding weekend to end! It was just very irresponsible of the buses to leave early and not make sure that they picked up everyone from the reception hall, which is what they were told to do several times. I am just warning that if you do use their services, just make sure you have a number that they will pick up just in case of emergencies. Double check your bookings (even though we did do all that), because you never know…

First Student was good for the cost. For us, they were a fairly inexpensive way to get our mostly out-​of-​towner guests to the ceremony and reception (two different sites) from the hotel. They were prompt in arriving — though they did leave the hotel for the church too early before everyone had boarded. We’d recommend going through the phone number on the website; every time I called to update the itinerary or make other changes, they were super helpful and responsive. We also heard that the way back was particularly fun for our guests — the driver joined in on some Irish singing!

I recently rented two buses to transport my guests from a hotel to my wedding venue. I will start off by saying this was the cheapest option compared to renting shuttles or luxury charter buses. Unfortunately, in this instance, I definitely got what I paid for. I noticed the week of my wedding that they had input the wrong pick up address, which I luckily caught and had them correct. I became concerned at that point at the inattention to detail and attempted to solicit bids from other vendors but couldn’t find anything within our budget. The day of our wedding was a disaster. Despite having the correct drop off address, the buses dropped our guests off at the wrong location not once but TWICE. We got married at the zoo, to which there are two entrances. Our guests were supposed to enter at the West Gate. The buses first took them to the south gate, where everyone got off the bus and was confused as to how they were supposed to enter. One of the guests referenced the invitation and informed the driver they were at the wrong address. The drivers then attempted to take the guests to the proper entrance, but dropped them off approximately a 5 – 10 minute walk from the actual entrance. As a result, our guests had to walk far longer than they were expecting (and some of our older guests were not very mobile) and due to the added walking plus the mistake in the drop off, our ceremony started nearly an hour late. I was and am so furious at the bus company and found their response after the fact to be lacking. The customer service representative talked to the bus drivers and «They state where you wanted the guests dropped off it was in the traffic flow and not a safe place to release the passengers.» This is quite frankly BS — the address where I requested drop off was a parking lot and certainly not in the traffic flow. In sum, I do not recommend this company — the price savings is not worth it. We lost an hour of our wedding day because of their carelessness. Spend the extra money and ensure that you actually get from Point A to Point B, rather than random Point C that they determine to be an appropriate drop off location.

Watch out for Frist Student Buses and Drivers.
I Recently had first hand experience with a fender bender where the First Student Bus actually cut into my lane on a right turn and nailed the front left fender of my car. I had to chase the driver to a service station where they finally stopped. We exchanged insurance info and went on our way.
One of my friends who works at the Bellevue School District told me first hand they are notorius for not honoring or paying claims and for poor road etiquette and driving skills.
My insurance company and I were stiffed by First Student who sent a letter stating the accident was my fault (even though I was not moving when I was hit) and refusing to pay.
They appear to be a company run by dishonest and ethically challenged management not to mention bus drivers with poor driving skills.