When I flew into Queenstown on 6th February, I was so impressed with the friendliness and efficiency of my SuperShuttle driver that I kept his company card in case I needed another airport transfer later in my trip.

Fast forward a month and three days, and I found myself in Wellington needing a ride to the airport so I dug out the card and gave SuperShuttle a call. They arranged to pick me up outside the place where I was staying at 8:20am to get me to the airport for a flight at 9:45am.

Then at 7:47am on the day of my flight, I received a phone call to say that actually they were going to be in the area a bit earlier and would now be coming to get me at 8:10 instead. There was no apology for the inconvenience, it was a very abrupt and matter of fact phone call.

I have a condition called colitis which means my bowels don’t work like other people’s. The mornings are a tricky time for me, I have to take medication and spend quite a lot of time on the toilet. Every minute matters. There is a lot of stuff I have to factor into my morning routine that other people don’t even need to think about. I will spare you the details, but the first forty minutes of my day are by far the hardest.

So giving me 23 minutes notice that my pick up time is being brought forwards by ten minutes is actually quite a big deal. But as I always try to be five minutes early and was therefore already intending to be at the pick-up by 8:15, I hoped that I would be able to claw back an extra 5 minutes to get there by 8:10.

I was there by 8:13 after a fairly stressful, rushed and panicky time. I heard a horn beep as I was coming out of the lift. The receptionist told me that the SuperShuttle man had just left and that she had tried ringing the room but I hadn’t answered so the guy had left. Surely you would realise I hadn’t answered because I was already on my way down to meet my vehicle?

I am furious that SuperShuttle have done this to me. The afternoon before the flight, they told me 8:20am was the time I needed to be there and that is what I was working towards. If they had told me yesterday that they wanted me there by 8:10 I would have been there by 8:05 but with 23 minutes notice it was too tall an order.

Presumably they wanted me to meet them earlier because they were fitting in other customers who had booked later than me. I appreciate bookings come in all the time and you don’t want to lose business, but upsetting your existing customers in order to please new ones is not a good idea. Obviously I didn’t get to meet the SuperShuttle driver because he left without me, but the hotel receptionist told me that he was rude and impatient.

Luckily my hotel receptionist booked me a taxi with a different taxi firm. A lovely man turned up a few minutes later and took me to the airport. By Tenaki Street we had already caught up with a SuperShuttle van, presumably the one who couldn’t wait for me, and we soon overtook it and got to the airport before it. This cost me $29 instead of the $22 I was supposed to pay to the SuperShuttle driver so I am $7 out of pocket because of this morning’s performance. Well actually $12 because I chose to give my nice driver a tip. I doubt I would have wanted to tip the SuperShuttle driver if he was as rude as the receptionist said.

Obviously the lovely memory of the nice SuperShuttle driver back in Queenstown who was so friendly and welcoming has now been eclipsed by SuperShuttle’s failure to pick me up in Wellington and also for making my morning routine even more difficult than it already is. It won’t surprise you to hear hear that I will now be throwing away my SuperShuttle card and never using the company again.

To date I have sent this to SuperShuttle twice and have so far not received a response.