Cloud 9 Transportation, Inc.

Wedding planning can be very stressful. The most stressful part for me was dealing with James Levy from Cloud 9 Transportation in Scranton, PA. Perhaps I should have been immediately turned off by Cloud 9's primitively designed website, full of dead links, random stock photos, and lacking actual pictures of the vehicles they offer. I thought perhaps this was a new company, which would explain the website's condition, but it appears Mr. Levy has operated Cloud 9 Transportation for more than fifteen years. What I did like about the website was the listing of hourly rates for different vehicles. As per Mr. Levy's website, a 20-passenger vehicle is $250 per hour locally, with a minimum of 4 hours, or $210 hourly with a minimum of 6 hours. I emailed Mr. Levy an outline of what I needed: the type of vehicle (20 passengers), the times (3-7 p.m.), and an itinerary of the four local pick-up and drop-off locations (residence, venue, reception, and back to residence). I even included mileage, which was under 25 miles in total. As per Mr. Levy's website, $250 x 4 hours is $1,000 plus gratuity. It all seemed straightforward until the phone call from Mr. Levy came. A few days after my email, I received a call from a phone number I did not recognize. No voicemail was left. I returned the call, which went straight to a voicemail that identified "Cloud 9 Limo and Jim Levy Satellite Systems and Direct TV installation". After several additional attempts, I spoke to Mr. Levy on the phone. I should rephrase: I listened to him talk at me for several minutes. I have never felt so uncomfortable on a phone call as with James Levy from Cloud 9 Transportation. "Hi Jim, I'm returning your call in response to my email about..." That's about all I could get out before being cut off. Mr. Levy asked questions and then proceeded to talk before I could respond. "What is this for, like a business meeting?" "There were a few stops, right?". "I can do the job for $1,850, plus gratuity because my time is valuable." I began to ask, "Okay, let's talk through this as the rates on your website say..." He then cut me off again, "yeah the rates on the site are there, and if you can do simple multiplication, you can figure out how much it costs. It starts from when I leave headquarters for pick-up. Then there's a 20% gratuity because my time is valuable." Charming. I began to speak again, as this literally didn't add up. Despite having a Master's Degree and a handy calculator, a $250 hourly rate x 4 hours is $1,000, and even adding an extra hour to the equation would bring the total to $1,250, not $1,850. I quickly Googled his listed business location as he rambled about his valuable time. As per Google, his "headquarters" is located in Scranton, under 2 miles from the pick-up point, in what Google Maps shows as a storage shed. Mr. Levy cut me off again to talk for the third time about his 20% gratuity, at which point I firmly said, "Yes, I understand how gratuity works. Are you going to let me speak, please?". At that point, he gave an annoyed exhale and an irritated, "I gotta go. One of the drivers is calling," and hung up. I shouldn't be surprised; his time is, of course, very valuable.