Horrible business practices and customer service! TWO THUMBS DOWN! I had a very bad experience with Stout Transportation on the most important day of my life - my wedding - and I would NOT recommend them for anything. My experience with Stout started out when I exited my hotel to go to my wedding venue. The limo driver was no where to be found so the shuttle driver we booked to transport our wedding party and 60 guests staying at the hotel told us to get into the limo and he would look for the guy. He proceeded to call the limo driver several times but did not get an answer. After about 15 minutes, the driver finally appeared in the distance WALKING back from a trip to Wendy's. He did not hurry in the slightest bit. The shuttle driver spoke to him out of our earshot and the driver got into the limo, raised the partition and started to drive off. He did not give us a word of explanation or apology for making us late. We arrived at my wedding venue for the first look photos and once I got out, the driver started driving around the venue in circles...I can only assume he was eating his food from Wendy's.
If this was the only incident with Stout I might be able to let it go and not write this review, but unfortunately things got worse from there. The shuttle driver was instructed to do 4:30, 5:30, and 6:30 runs from the hotel to our wedding venue to get our wedding party and guests to the venue on time. After dropping off our wedding party on the 4:30 run, he pulled the shuttle to the side of the parking lot and took a nap!!!!!! While we were taking photos around the venue, our guests were anxiously awaiting their pickup at the hotel and the driver never showed. Eventually, guests started getting into contact with people that made it to the venue and told us that the shuttle never came back. At that point, my brother looked outside and saw the shuttle in the parking lot. He went over to talk to the driver and found him sound asleep with his shoes off!! He pounded on the locked door for about 10 minutes before the driver finally woke up. The driver claimed that our "wedding coordinator" came out and told him that all of our guests were here and we did not need him to make any additional runs. Funny thing is we did NOT have a wedding coordinator and his instructions were clearly written out for him, but more on that later. So, at 6:30 he left the venue to get the guests that didn't end up driving themselves to my wedding. The wedding was supposed to start at 7pm, but since 1/3 of our guests were not there we had to wait until 7:20 to start. As a result of this, our cocktail hour had to be cut short so we could get to all of the things planned for our reception. The driver single-handedly ruined a major part of our day!
We still had to use this shuttle to get people back to the hotel, so the driver did an 11:30 and a 12:30 run. My husband told him we needed him to come back and get the remaining 15 or so people that could not fit on the shuttle (bride and groom included) and he pulled out the schedule saying he was only supposed to do three runs: 10:30, 11:30, and 12:30. No one got on the 10:30 since my wedding ran late because of him! The fact that he had the nerve to pull out the schedule after messing up so badly is unbelievable and absurd! My husband told him that we had no way of getting back without him and the driver said he would come back. The entire time we waited (roughly 45 minutes) we were nervous that he would not come back for us. In the end he came back for us, which is the ONLY redeeming thing I have to say about this company and this driver in particular.
In the aftermath of this screw up, my mother dealt with the owners. The day of the wedding multiple messages were left with instructions to call back my brother or sister's cell phones since my mom's phone was back at the hotel. We never received a call. The day after the wedding someone finally contacted my mom and said they were shocked, would look into it and get back to her on Monday. After several days of phone tag back and forth she finally spoke to someone who said they would check with the owners for a full refund. She had to argue with them numerous times before finally receiving a refund on the limo, not a cent was returned to us regarding the shuttle blunder. It's better than nothing I suppose, but it will never give us back our cocktail hour or the stress that these drivers caused us on our wedding day. If anyone is considering using this company for their wedding or any other important event, I would definitely think twice. The drivers were unprofessional and inconsiderate and dealing with the company after this debacle was very frustrating. read more