Carmel - Car, Taxi & Limo 4+

I was travelling to Newark Airport from Manhattan. The booking process was very smooth, my driver arrived on time and was very courteous and pleasant. I did have a problem trying to pay the full amount on my credit card to include the fare, tolls and a gratuity. When I wasn’t able to do this I chose to pay the basic fare - I had no problem making payment. Just be aware, as you will need cash to pay for any tolls and the gratuity to the driver. (This is why I dropped one star.) I have used this company many times and have always been very pleased with the service.

For a business that had been “running for decades” could have been a lot better. APP pretty good, better than website. Booking process easy and instant email confirmation. All good here. But, no reference or instructions in the confirmation email to the APP. It says phone this number when you collect your luggage, but it does not say if you check the APP you can call the driver, see the car type etc. Neither does anyone tell you this when you phone up, which is what you are told to do. Being able to check the APP, phone the driver etc would have been useful, but not if no-one tells you about this feature. Got luggage 8 minutes before pre-booked time, told car would be there within 7 minutes. Arrived 18 minutes later. Journey fine, price OK, lucky we only had 2 suitcases as the Toyota Camry trunk does not fit 3 normal sized hold luggage suitcases even though it says the car will carry 3 people and 3 suitcases. Pretty good, but as I say, could be a whole better!

Short story: use Uber! Long story: I have never been treated as such a fool before.. when booking the app was saying $55~ but as soon as we reach destination the driver wanted to charge us $75! Driver simply washes his hands saying it’s not his call and that we should talk to the manager. Called the manager on spot just to receive a response of a non-stop-talking parrot yelling and never letting you discuss the situation at all! The police had to come and that’s when the driver spits out that it was an $12~ fees (which is neither detailed in their receipt) and 15% of self imposed tips that he was hiding from the very start. The only reason we chose Carmel was because it was way cheaper than Uber but they simply hide the actual price in the app until the very end of the trip when you (without doubts) end up with a surprised face. Uber was $65 but telling you from the very beginning and without trying to scam you. Conclusion: why bother downloading a new app which simply steals your data and won’t ever be honest with the price until the trip is finished?