Avoid Solomon's Bus Services at all costs.

Short Story:

Keep far away from Solomon's Bus Services (www.http://solomonsbusservices.co.za) if you want to avoid extreme unprofessionalism and a total nightmare. See Long Story below for details.

If you are ever so unfortunate to have dealings with Solomon's Bus Services, you can contact the Southern African Bus Operators Association (SABOA - www.saboa.co.za) who were very helpful in forcing Solomon's Bus Services to do the right thing.

Long Story:

* Monday July 8, 2019 - A reply from Ms Sandra Sheldon was sent to my original Email requesting a quote and confirmation of vehicle roadworthiness and PDP compliancy. No confirmation was given of vehicle roadworthiness and PDP compliancy. * Monday July 8, 2019 - Another Email had to be sent to Ms Sandra Sheldon requesting the missing information originally requested. * Monday July 8, 2019 - An Email reply was received from Ms Sandra Sheldon with a single word in the body of the email, viz. "Noted." This reply still did not address my request for vehicle roadworthiness and PDP compliancy. * Monday July 8, 2019 - A further Email had to be sent to Ms Sandra Sheldon to request the missing information. * Monday July 8, 2019 - An Email was received from Ms Sandra Sheldon with a copy of the driver's license of two drivers and two vehicle registrations. The license of the driver who eventually turned up was not given. * Monday July 29, 2019 - An Email was sent to Ms Sandra Sheldon that we were interested in taking up the original quote, however mentioned that in the original quote it didn't stipulate the return leg of the journey for each of the 3 days. * Monday July 29, 2019 - Received an Email from Ms Sandra Sheldon in reply to the above Email with the singular sentence in the body of the Email, "Noted thank you" * Monday July 29, 2019 - I had to send another Email to Ms Sandra Sheldon to clarify what "Noted" meant and to request that she please include in the quote the return leg of the journey for each of the 3 days. * Monday July 29, 2019 - I received an updated quote from Ms Sandra Sheldon which now indicated that the quote includes the return leg of the journey, however now the return times were left out. * Monday July 29, 2019 - I rep**** to Ms Sandra Sheldon and attached a signed copy of the quote. * Monday July 29, 2019 - An Email was sent to Ms Sandra Sheldon with an attachment showing proof of payment in full. * Thursday August 15, 2019 - More than two weeks after sending proof of payment, no reply was received from Ms Sandra Sheldon to indicate that any payment had been received, therefore an Email was sent to Ms Sandra Sheldon requesting the she confirm that payment was received and to confirm the booking of the bus. * Thursday August 15, 2019 - A reply was received to indicate that the invoice was paid. * Monday September 2, 2019 - An Email was sent to Ms Sandra Sheldon to confirm a number of things before the Friday of that week (first day of the booking). I requested that the following be confirmed: * Bus to leave strictly at 7am, which means the bus to be at the address (Corner Potsdam Road & van Doesburg Street, Bothasig) at 6:45am. * Please could the bus park next to the pavement in Potsdam Road. * Because there will be a number of older ones, please could a step be placed outside the bus. * Please could you send me the driver's: * Full name. * Cell number. * Please could you pass on my Name and Cell number to the driver so that he can contact me in case of any problems. * Monday September 2, 2019 - Received the following reply from Ms Sandra Sheldon: * "Your bookings are confirmed , Your driver will be Wellington ***. " * Monday September 2, 2019 - Because Ms Sandra Sheldon did not confirm all the points that I requested in the Email, had to send her another Email to please confirm the points that she had left out. Out of all the points she only provided the drivers first name (Wellington), not the full names as requested and the cell number ***) * Thursday September 5, 2019 - At this stage I had still not heard back from Ms Sandra Sheldon and the trip for the first day was due the following day, so sent another Email to Ms Sandra Sheldon to request that she confirm the outstanding points. * Thursday September 5, 2019 - Received an Email from Ms Sandra Sheldon to confirm the dates for the bus and once again was given the drivers first name (Wellington) and cell number ***), still ignoring to confirm the outstanding points in my Email. * Thursday September 5, 2019 - Sent yet another Email to Ms Sandra Sheldon requesting that she please answer all my questions. * Friday September 6, 2019 7:27am - I had requested in the Email to confirm that the bus should be at the venue at 6:45am, it was now 45 minutes later so I phoned the office, however there was no reply. * Friday September 6, 2019 7:28am - I phoned Wellington (the driver that Ms Sandra Sheldon had given me), only to be told by Wellington that he was not the driver. I asked him to then please give me the name and number of the driver, to which he then hung up on me and didn't answer any further calls. * Friday September 6, 2019 7:33am - Phoned office, no reply. * Friday September 6, 2019 7:35am - Phoned Wellington. No reply. * Friday September 6, 2019 7:36am - Phoned office, no reply. * Friday September 6, 2019 7:38am - Phoned office, no reply. * Friday September 6, 2019 7:51am - Phoned office, spoke to Charlotte and asked her to SMS me the drivers name and cell number, to which she rep**** she would. * Friday September 6, 2019 8:11am - Still no SMS from Charlotte, so phoned the office again and requested a second time that she send me the drivers name and cell number. Once again she assured me she would. To this day I am still waiting for the SMS. * At this stage, we we already late for our appointment and had to make alternate arrangements at great inconvenience and additional expense. * Friday September 6, 2019 9:15am - Two and a half hours later, we get a phone call from a bus driver to ask where we all are??? Note, that in all of this, this was the first time that anyone from Solomons had taken the initiative to contact us. * Sunday September 8, 2016 - An Email was sent to Ms Sandra Sheldon informing her that the driver did not turn up in time as per the contract for the Friday. * Monday September 9, 2019 - Received an Email from Ms Sandra Sheldon to say that she will speak to Mr Solomons and apologized for the "no show." * Monday September 16, 2019 - Sent an Email to Ms Sandra Sheldon to ask her for an update on her discussion with Mr Solomons as I had not heard back from her. * Tuesday September 17, 2019 - Still no reply from Ms Sandra Sheldon so send her an Email with my banking details and requested that a refund for the Friday of R1,600 be made into my account by the Friday of that week and that proof of payment be Emailed to me. * Monday September 23, 2019 - Still no reply from Ms Sandra Sheldon or refund for the "no show," hence this Email before taking the matter further.