Contact 6 looks into limousine company's strange behavior



MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- A mom just wanted to make her nine-year old daughter's birthday special, but instead, she was taken for a ride.

"I mean, I was so excited all day to see her face when that limo pulled up" Ann Gallo said.

Gallo spent $88 on a discounted limo ride from the website, LivingSocial.com.  The deal was for "Milwaukee Limousine, LLC" which, according to the Better Business Bureau, also uses the names "Milwaukee VIP Limo" and "VIP Limousine WI, LLC."  The company required its own additional fee of another $70 to pick the girls up at Ann's house as opposed to downtown.

That never happened.

"An hour before pick up, they called and left me a voicemail stating that they were having mechanical problems and they would have to either come a little later or reschedule all together," Gallo said.

Gallo said "later" would work out just fine - but "later" didn't happen.

"The limo never came and I've called numerous times" Gallo says.  "I have notes on it.  I've called numerous times, sent emails, I have not received my money back and obviously I did not receive the service."

After FOX6's Contact 6 received Gallo's complaint, is was discovered the company has a "F"-rating with the BBB for failing to respond to 12 other complaints.  It was also learned the company is registered to a "Justin Joseph Costello" both with the BBB and the Department of Financial Institutions.

When Contact 6 called the company, someone named "Joe" said Justin is no longer with the company, and another person named "Jeff" then said he recently took over.  He also said that "there was some damage done" at the company and that "a couple customers weren't taken care of properly."  He asked us to email the complaint to him - so Contact 6 did - but never heard back.

"They don't respond to complaints that are received," says Wisconsin's BBB Vice-President, Liz Fredrichs.  And she says she's not so sure about the claim that new management is in place.

"I would think that a new business owner would want to make sure that they have a current report with the Better Business Bureau and separate themselves from the old ownership," she says.  "That's a simple phone call and communicating with us.  So it wouldn't be difficult to do that but we haven't been contacted."

We also contacted "Living Social" about Gallo's complaint.  The company agreed to refund the $89 Gallo originally paid, and admits "other customers also had issues" with this company - which still has not returned FOX6's calls or refunded Gallo's money.