Sterling Transportation was responsive, flexible, and even upgraded us to a limo bus without charging more when we wanted to change vehicles. They were on time and overall easy and great to work with. Because of this, I would, usually, recommen...d their services, but an incident occurred right at the end of our wedding that makes me want to do business elsewhere and warn potential clients.
The driver for our limo bus was Falcone and he greeted myself my wife and our wedding party, before the wedding, with a smile and some humor. He transported us to the venue without incident and we left feeling comfortable and assured. On the way back, however, Falcone greeted our Black friend with the comment “I like your tan” when our friend responded “That’s the color of my skin” he responded “Yeah I like it.” He then said “I’m 2%, so it’s okay.” We rode the limo bus back in shock. When we arrived at our hotel, Falcone apologized, stating that it was a joke and he was sorry if he offended anyone but the damage had already been done.
A few days after the incident, we reached out to Ron Robinson, general manager for Sterling Limousine and informed him of what happened and asked him what steps were being taken. We were told steps were being taken but he couldn’t disclose what exactly was being done to ensure that something like this did not occur. What we did receive was a boilerplate response stating that steps were being taken but they could not be divulged outside the organization. While we understand that there are internal decisions that cannot be divulged, I must say that when it comes to issues of race, bias and inclusion, it is best to be transparent with customers in order to build trust and Sterling broke that trust the moment one of our guests and loved ones was made to feel uncomfortable. They reinforced that break in trust when they were unable to reassure us that this wouldn't happen again in the future.
Sterling Transportation needs to do more to ensure that drivers understand why and how this was wrong. We live in a world where everyone falls in love and gets married, where families and friends of all backgrounds gather — and each and every single one of them is entitled to celebrate and to be safe, without their gender or race or identity being commented on, especially in such an ignorant way. This may have been an isolated incident, but maybe not. Nonetheless, we could not write a review without being totally honest in our experience.
Because of the incident and the response we received, we will most definitely not be using Sterling Transportation again.
- Elizabeth & Clayton