Complaint Review: Sedona Hummer Tours

 Yes, I am a disgruntled former employee, but there are reasons beyond the pale of human decency with Marc Balocco.

 I am a 50+ year old ASE Certified, professional auto technician. Hired on a salary to repair and maintain the 5 running hummer H1's used in his tour business. The first thing that caught my attention was a Military M923 version of the H1, painted orange with tour logos, and running customers on a daily basis. There are NO replacement parts available for these vehicles to the public, not to mention its illegal for a private person to own one - you can get these after a conversion is done, but this is rather costly, and has to be DOT approved. When I started to find all the slip-shod, jack-leg, shade-tree, and out right n-rigged repairs that had been done in the past on these vehicles I started to ask questions of the drivers. There had been no less that 5 "mechanics" in this repair shop in the last year alone, some I was told had no clue how to fix cars and only made things worse. When I asked about ASE Certs nobody understood what this was. When I found some "repairs", especially frame cracks that looked to have been welded by drunks, I downed the dangerously unsafe trucks - Calling the reservation office, (Mrs. Balocco), and informing her that I could not let these run tours because of liability.

 Thats when Marc Balocco came unglued. He demanded that I never talk to his drivers, never talk to his wife, never say anything to anyone about the condition of his property. He alone would decide what was safe or not, and assigned another employee to direct what repairs I would do as they decided. Neither he nor his assignee had any experience in auto repair - but money is the only thing that matters to this guy.

 Now it isn't all rude-boss that made me have to leave. My wife suffered cancer for years and passed away two days before Thanksgiving 2013. When I informed Mr. Balocco that I needed time off, for obvious reasons, he literally stated he didn't care about my home life, and that if I chosse to loose 2-3 days pay that was up to me. When I said it was salary, (50-60 hours a week for $700 take home), he said its whatever he wanted it to be. After checking into the 6 months of pay stubs I found this guy had robbed me of over $1000, not to mention theres never time and a half over forty hours.

 On the day I quit, he actually screamed that I couldn't - ordered me to shut up and get back to work. To which I told him he did not own people - I really don't think anyone had ever talked to him like that - he called the Sedona Police Department as if they could force me not to quit ..................

 If anyone takes a tour on an orange hummer in Sedona Az, you do so at your own peril - they require a signed damage/injury waiver with every ticket sold. Az DOT, Fed DOT, EPA, and the Industrial Commision of Arizona (az dept of labor) have all been informed of this would-be god and his shyster business.

 Thank You