I just had a very weird travel experience. I was trying to get to Philadelphia's airport from my hotel, where I'd stayed around conducted the emerging technologies workshop. The van service, called Tropiano, ran late. Then later still. When I called to check and complain, the Tropiano dispatcher hollered at me for bothering them.
The van arrived, after I spent close to an hour cooling my heels outside a hotel.
I'm constantly reminded of just how dependent the high-tech world is on these industrial connections, car and highway, which fill the gaps between our internet connections.
I blog this here as a warning or caution. I wonder if any Trop rep will reply, or any other person comment?
No experience with Topiano, Bryan, but we've had some horrible experiences from local cab services. Twice we've arranged for early morning (~4am) pickups at our home inside the Washington beltway that failed to show. The first time was just before Christmas, and we ended up driving to National Airport and leaving the car in the parking lot (we figured at a roughly equal price to the two cab rides and 3-4 large bags we had). The second experience was just this last month, when the cab failed to take us to the airport for our flight to Great Britain. I waited for 15 minutes after the agreed on time, then called and had to be on hold for another 15 before I finally got to a dispatcher who apologized (the driver was supposedly a new one who had gotten lost) and sent us a cab.
Needless to say, I do not recommend either cab company.
Posted by: Glen Engel-Cox | September 30, 2006 at 14:39