A Cautionary Tale About Using MyTransfers.com For Japan
Update: Please note that we contacted MyTransfers.com about our problem with their service in Yokohama and they were very responsible in responding and provided us with a reasonable resolution.
Often, when traveling internationally, you need to take a lot on faith. Will your flight arrive on time? Will the arranged driver actually be there? Will taxis accept credit cards? Do we have all the necessary documents? Is it safe to prepay for a service?
First, in our case we do everything we can to avoid paying in advance and that often means paying a higher price. Better to pay a slighter higher price than get in a conflict involving larger refunds.
Just recently we were traveling across Asia and that included a cruise ending up in Yokohama, Japan. The plan was to transfer to Tokyo to spend some additional time. In researching our plan we discovered that the trip would take between an hour or two and prices are really high. We were traveling with friends with a fair amount of luggage so we needed a van.
After some looking I selected MyTransfers.com and it turned out that I would need to prepay – no other options. The details were pretty specific:
- Reservation – 4 passengers w 10 pieces luggage max
- Pickup – At pier
- Destination – Tokyo Hotel
- Pickup time – 9:00 am
- Max wait time – 15 minutes
- Meet details – Driver will be inside terminal holding sign with your name
- Total price – US$160
We had selected 9:00 as the meet time to allow extra time to clear the ship, get through immigration and collect our bags. We we inside the terminal at 8:30 waiting for our driver. There were lots of drivers walking around holding signs with names – just not mine. 9:00 and still can’t find my name. 9:15 and we have the terminal paging our driver. Nothing!
Prior to this moment I had received several emails from MyTransfers and an additional email from CleverTryp Transfers S.L. (I assume that this was the Yokohama company) but there was never any contact names or phone numbers provided. The terminal information booth tried to help us by looking up CleverTryp Transfers but could not find a listing. By 9:20 we called the international contact number for MyTransfers. Their first comment was that the driver was in the terminal and had been there since 8:30. After a lot of back and forth they discovered that we should be looking for a man holding a sign that said “BB Trip”. Standing in the front of the greet area was a young man holding that sign “BB Trip”– he had been standing right next to me for over a half hour!
As best I could tell this young man was acting as a dispatcher for a number of services including a taxi company. He had a sheet of paper with well over 30 reservation names that included mine. He spoke almost no English and a number of people were complaining that they had been dealing with him for 30 or 40 minutes without connecting with their rides. After 10 minutes he assigned us a driver that turned out only had a car not the needed van…
After another 15 minutes we got our van and were at our hotel 2 hours later.
The Intentional Travelers 