Welcome Transportation

I am not a customer and would never be!

this company has no consideration for urban neighborhoods! i wonder if they were picking up in piedmont are montclair would they blow?

they allow their drivers to constantly blow when picking up members!

i would never use their services!

Most nerve-racking moment of my entire recent trip: Looking out the window at 4:28am and seeing no taxi.

Most calming moment: Looking out at 4:30 to see my taxi pulling up out front.

Ordering a taxi for an early morning trip can be a complete crap shoot, especially in Alameda. I was pleased to see the Welcome Transportation cab arrive exactly on time, and was even more pleased when the cab driver helped me with a little snafu involving credit cards and cab fare.

They have something like four phone numbers on their website, which doesn't exactly inspire confidence, but the service was on time, professional and got me to the airport with little fuss. How nice to have a local, go-to service finally.

You know what, Welcome Transportation? You can burn in hell, all of you. You deserve to go out of business and become homeless and starve on the streets of Oakland.

I checked Yelp, and this company has the best rating by far of any company, so despite a few negative reviews, I decided to use them. So I called in the morning at 9.45 am for a 3.45 ride to the airport. I reconfirmed the address, time and date with them and all seemed fine. I was on a fairly right schedule, so assuming potential heavy traffic and long security lines, I definitely could not afford for my taxi to be late as well.

So 3.45 comes around: NO TAXI! After giving them five minutes for perhaps running slightly late or being lost, I give them a call. NO RECORD OF MY RESERVATION. I confirm all my info with them AGAIN, and they said they'd have someone there in five to ten minutes. At this point I'm getting nervous, because a 15 minute delay could cost me my flight if it's at all busy.

So I approach a nearby stranger (I'd been staying with people on that street) who was doing yard work. I explained the situation to her and asked her if I could perhaps pay her to take me to the airport, which is only ten minutes away from there. She agreed to do it, fortunately, after a few questions of course to make sure I was who I said I was.

Right as we were about to leave, the taxi company calls to ask AGAIN for my address (fourth time today). I demand to know where the driver is. FIFTEEN minutes away still, and that's in good traffic! By this point I've already lost 15 minutes of my buffer zone for unexpected delays. Should have been at the airport 5 minutes ago! So I tell them to forget about it, and get a ride from the neighbor instead.

The neighbor dropped me off and declined payment but told me about the charity for which she raises funds. I ended up donating $100 to them, which is five times what the taxi would have cost me, though I'd much rather donate a large amount to a charity than give even a tiny amount to these taxi scumbags. Had I waited for them, I would have been delayed over half an hour and missed my flight!

For the first time ever, Yelp utterly let me down.

It would be hard for my experience to be any worse. Not one, but two disastrous mistakes were committed.

First one is that, even though I called in and made the reservation several days in advance, and checked and double-checked they had the right date and time for the pickup (to take us to SFO), the scheduler messed it up and never put down the pickup date and time in the schedule. Fortunately I called in at the exact time asking where the cab was, and fortunately they are 4 blocks away from me, so they were "only" 15 minutes late.

When they arrived the driver just sat in the car for a while until he figured out he was expected to help us with the luggage -- but in the grand scheme of things that was really a small mistake; the worst was yet to come.

What happened next is truly epic and justifies any "paranoia" one might have about wearing seatbelts even in the rear seat of a cab.

Yes, you guessed it: the driver rear ended an SUV -- in the middle of the Bay Bridge. Hadn't we fastened our seatbelts, it could have been a serious accident. And no, we weren't asked to fasten our seatbelts, we just did it because, well, we're paranoid. Clearly, we had a reason to be paranoid.

Again fortunately (clearly, in spite of everything, we were very lucky), the *person who was rear ended* was really nice, very friendly and actually was OK with driving all the way to the 5th St exit in SF, where we would be able to catch another cab (from another company) -- one that wouldn't crash, hopefully. Fortunately because the driver told us it would be "better" for us to get a cab from a different company rather than wait for another Welcome Transportation towncar / cab to show up ('cause that would, you know, take a while).

Had the person who was rear ended not be as nice, we'd probably have missed our flight -- which could have potentially completely derailed a long, extremely important international business trip.

So, Yelp: you really failed me badly here.

So far, so good. I call them the night before an early departure, and they show up a few minutes early. My only issue is that each of their cabs has smelled like smoke and fried food.

Though I haven't used the service myself Welcome Transportations Beige Toyota Sienna #91 driving down Mission Blvd continuously cut off surrounding vehicles, wove through packed traffic at high speed, and tailgated many cars (including mine). Super unimpressed by their driving and how they represent the company and was honestly scared of being rear ended as they were speeding and not afraid of being so close to my car even in separate lanes.

I will never ever call this company again I called one company and they told me to call this company they guy that answered was rude I told you I don't have a cab 1 you shouldn't advertise 24hrs if you don't have any cabs available what kind of business do you run if you don't have any cars available this is why I don't use cab or taxi company's LYFT IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A female driver in car #24 was tailgating me on San Pablo Damn Rd, I try move over, because apparently driving 45 is too slow on a residential road. But she darts in front of me and continues driving like a mad woman! And continues riding the ass of another car in front of her. All I can think of is, what a shame, she is representing not herself but Welcome Transportation.

So miles later in the streets of Alamo, who do I see? Well, it's none other than car #24! But she's blasting Drake from the car and when I say blasting, I mean it. And I know its a car service, but there is such a thing of professionalism. Again, I shake my head. I will never hire this company for any of my transportation needs.

Maybe this is a family owned company and they just hire whomever needs a job.

Rude and unsafe drivers. Driver of cab 44 on 2/13/14 blasted horn at pedestrians trying to cross at intersection of Santa Clara and Sherman, then tore through the intersection.
Obviously not well trained.

Our company uses Welcome Transport for all our needs when we need to get our clients to their appointments or from facility to home. They are always prompt, great prices, and great service. Could not be happier. Thanks Tim and Debi!