Lion Express

I recently used Lion Express to transport guests to and from my wedding. The total round trip from hotel to venue was about 10 miles, and was a straight shot on either the freeway or surface streets. Also, the wedding was Saturday afternoon — my point is that this was an easy drive. The initial bus arrived at the venue about 15 – 20 minutes later than expected. The second bus arrived 30 – 45 minutes later than expected. I understand that this is LA and traffic happens; however, I had multiple guests come up to me and tell me that the bus driver was unprofessional, slow, and did not have directions from the hotel to the venue. I was told that my guests used the navigation on their phones to direct the driver. In fact, one of my guests, and a very good friend of mine, paid a cab come and get him and his wife when the wedding was over instead of taking a bus that would have been free for him. This should tell you all you need to know. Amazingly, it is not the end of the story. Obviously the bus driver’s gratuity was affected by my guests’ experience. The more I heard negative comments from my guests, the smaller the driver’s tip shrunk. I believe that tips should be reflective of the services rendered. At the end of the night the driver was given a lousy tip, to compensate for lousy service. I had planned to call Lion Express and discuss my concerns with the manager/​owner at a later date. I was not looking forward to the conversation, as this was the only vendor we had a problem with. Well, to my surprise, I received a call from the owner the next day. He informed me that we tipped his driver badly and «needed to tip more.» You could imagine I was slightly shocked, so I explained that my guests and I were not happy with the service and explained the issues that arose. The owner put me on hold, spoke with the driver, and got back on the phone to inform me that «maybe my guests were drunk,» that there were no issues, and that his driver is more trustworthy than my guests. (Side note: my guests complained upon arrival at the venue, before they began to drink). Now I am upset. The owner again tells me I «need to tip the driver more.» I again refuse. He then proceeds to tell me that he «will tell people about me.»
Well, I was not going to write a review about the company originally. However, being told I need to tip more, and being told that my guests are dishonest, and being threatened by the owner — all that changed my mind. Do yourself a favor, use a different company for your transportation needs. From my experiences, Lion Express is unprofessional from top to bottom.
I am not sure what the owner of Lion Express hoped to accomplish with their threat to «tell people about me.» But, I now feel better having told people about them :)
PS — the wedding was fantastic. Now I get to write a whole bunch of very positive reviews about all my other vendors!