Complaint Review: Silver Sand Party Bus Inc.

I applied at Silver Sand Limo on August 26, 2014, as a driver.  I am qualified.  On August 28 a woman named Nancy called and said I have a wedding on Sept. 5 and a Wine Walk on Sept. 9.  Guess I was hired.  I wrote them down.  Nancy told me I would be paid $150 for the job and $150 as the tip.  I asked to have her train me as to the instruments and equipment in the bus and the addresses where I would go.  She said to 'come in at 3pm' on Sept. 5.  When I came in early on Sept. 5, I asked if the buses had GPS and Jerry, Nancy's brother, said no...they use their cell phones.  I was not prepared for this.  I spoke with Ray Stack, the owner, and asked him the questions I had that Nancy did not answer, such as how to fuel the bus, where to park it, what about the keys, phone numbers, W2, etc.  Ray was surprised Nancy had not gone over this.  It was 15 till 3 and Ray said he was calling Nancy.  I told him she wasn't due until 3.  Nancy told me later that Ray chewed her out.  When Nancy arrived she was in her limo suit, which was a surprise to me.  Nancy showed me where the trash cans are on the bus, barf bags and can trash cans.  She fliped on some ceiling lights but did not go slow.  She decided to drive.  We went to the church in Saginaw, picked up the wedding party, went to the zoo for pictures and a sports bar.  Then to the reception, which was the end of the job.  She said she would let me drive the bus back.  It was like a GreyHound bus.  In the parking lot I hit the strange bus brake and didn't like the feel.  Nancy said, 'What are you doing?!'  I told her checking the brake because it felt funny and I wanted to drive the bus around the emply parking lot to get used to it but she said, 'Don't hurt my bus' so I drove to the exit.  It was way out on Macinaw road, two lanes.  I looked for traffic both ways, checking the brake, and Nancy said, 'Hurry up and don't hurt my bus,' so I started up and she yelled, "There's a car!' which there was, and I slammed on the brake.  We were barely moving.  She yelled to 'look and look and look.'  I pulled out and she said to pull into another empty lot to drive the bus around.  I drove it well.  We pulled out and drove down Macinaw road, which is very narrow, and I had to watch my mirrors constantly, which were not adjusted right but Nancy said not to touch them.  While driving, she asked me how much gas I had and I told her she never said where the gage was.  I finally found a broken gage with a piece of paper on the left that said someting like, 'half full.'  We had used a quarter tank.  Then she stood up and looked at it.  When we got to Speedway on Wilder to fill up, I told her I had never fueled with diesel but she put her cards in the pump, flipped something and when I said, 'pump now?' she fliped another lever.  I put the pump handle in the bus and pumped $25 exactly, as she had said.  She said to pump five more.  As I watched the gage, Nancy yelled, "It is overflowing!" but it was only bubbling and did not flow onto the bus.  I told her she could drive back to the office.  When we got back, we both worked for a half hour cleaning and resupplying the bus.  She told me I would get $150 for this job.  I figured she would keep the other $150 tip money.  I asked how I would get paid and she said to call Ray Monday morning and he would issue a check.  I called Monday, September 8 and Nancy answered.  I asked her about the check.  She said I would not get a check because "You were in training.  If you drove the bus alone, you would get paid."  I reminded her what she told me on Friday but she acted like she didn't say that.  At the least, I should have gotten half the tip.  I am upset that Nancy's stories always changed.  First the Wine Walk was Sept, 9th, then Sept. 12 and finally Sept. 18.  She did not train me but I did half the work for the job.   She said I would get $150 for the wedding and $150 for the trip, which turned out to be a lie.  She asked me if I was still working the Wine Walk and I said yes because that would be MY job without her.  She called back a half hour later and said she talked with Ray and they would not need my services any longer and would not be working the Wine Walk.  I told her to have Ray call me and she said, "He probably won't.  I'm the vice president."  He hasn't called yet.  What Nancy did was unethical, deceptive and dishonest.  When I trained for school bus driver, I was not paid for the training because the bus company did for the CDL.  When I got into a bus with another driver to go over the route, I was paid for that, even with the driver there.  We were both paid.  It was not considered 'training' because I was trained and certified.  I would like to be compensated for the 4 hours i worked with at least $75 and mainly, $150 because that is what Nancy told me Sept. 5 that I would receive.  I can see now Nancy was deceptive because she would keep the entire $300 by not being truthful.

Susan P