Busses - Paris Transportation - VirtualTourist.com

Last month, I made arrangements with Paris Shuttle Service to take me from the 11th arrondissement to Charles de Gaulle airport. A friend had told me her friends used it and hadn't complained so it must be okay. Well, my experience with Paris Shuttle Service was not at all "okay". In fact, it was stressful, maddening, and extremely costly.

I contacted Paris Shuttle Service, made my arrangements for a 1:30 flight, and they gave me a spot on the 11am bus. Although PSS assured me that that was plenty of time to get there, I should have known otherwise. Anyway, I trusted their judgment, as this is their business. The web site request form asks for information from your flight number to your phone number to the time your flight leaves; thus they had all the information needed to contact me in the event there was a change in my reservation.

The morning before my flight, I had still not received a confirmation (as the web site indicates one will) that I was being picked up, so I quickly called them to confirm. The man on the phone told me, yes, he had me down for the 11:30 pick-up. I told him he had told me 11am the night before (it was the same man). He said it would be the 11:30 shuttle, and that was still enough time for my 1:30 flight. Ha. Hearing fear in my voice he told me it would be 11:15 or 11:30. Indeed it was nowhere near either of those times when the van finally arrived. My friend and I called incessantly after 11:30 asking where the shuttle was. The man would never give me an exact location; he would only tell me "il arrive, il arrive" (he’s on his way, he’s on his way”). He told me that every time I called (until he stopped answering, that is), and that I would still have enough time. The van arrived at 12:00 pm.

The driver was apologetic, and he too assured me I would get there in time. We jumped in the car very quickly and headed south. I immediately wondered what in the world he was doing going south. Being in the 11th, I had to be one of the last, if not the last, pick up. Soon after, I heard him tell someone he was headed to Place d'Italie. At that point, I just about died. If you're familiar with Paris, you know that from the 11th arrondissement, Place d'Italie is not at all in the right direction for CDG. We continued south to pick up not one but two more people. You’d think at this point having asked for our phone numbers with the initial request would come in handy. We went to one hotel… the person had left. We went to the second hotel… the person had left. And we had now just wasted at least 20 minutes crawling through traffic in the complete wrong direction. The driver maintained his delusional positive thinking: “on sera a l’heure, Mademoiselle” (we’ll be on time”).

I arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport at 1:00 for my 1:30 flight. I had missed my chance to check in for a U.S. flight (they forbid check-in past one hour before departure). The driver had told me in the car to run in and begin checking in, and he would follow with my two huge suitcases and carry-on. Indeed he ran in behind me, but he left immediately, just as the words “it’s too late” were coming out of the airline employee’s mouth. So, not only had they caused me to miss my flight, they had ditched me at the airport despite knowing we were cutting it extremely close.

In the end, I paid 130 euros to change my flight, 30 euros to store my luggage at the airport overnight, and 18 euros for a round-trip ticket on the RER B. That’s $275. Paris Shuttle Service refuses to respond to my emails and calls, and refuses to refund the money. That’s Paris Shuttle Service. That’s customer service in France. And they don’t care one bit. Don’t make the same mistake I did.

Busses, Paris

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