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Welcome Pickups

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We have just arrived home from a 4 week trip to Greece. We booked this company based on the reviews I read in a previous topic on here (now closed). Both were in Athens. The first was from the Airport to our hotel, Altar Suites. That went very well. The driver was on time and very friendly. The car was immaculate.

The second booking was a few days later from Altar Suites to Piraeus Port where we were to board our cruise ship. We arranged for an 11:00 am pickup as our boarding window time was scheduled for 11:33 to 12:30. We were waiting outside our hotel at the appropriate time and I checked my email and was shocked to find the following:
"We have done our best to offer you a 5-star transfer experience for your upcoming trip. Unfortunately, there are no available drivers in Athens to carry out your transfer from Altar Suites, Astiggos 11, Athina 105 55, Greece on Monday, 29 Sep." The email had only been sent 75 minutes before! We had booked both pickups August 13th and there was no available driver? How is that even possible? To make matters worse, it was poring rain - very unusual for Athens but there we were without a means of transport! Fortunately, our hotel stepped up and spent quite a bit of time trying to find us a taxi. Initially, they were told no taxis available because of the rain but our hotel persisted and they were promised a callback if a taxi became available. It took about 45 minutes for the call back and then a further 35 minutes for a taxi to to arrive at 12:35. Our new driver was very kind and the fare was actually €12.00 euros LESS than we had paid Welcome Pickups. We arrived outside our cruise boarding time but fortunately there were no issues.

We will never use this company again. We booked with them over a month early for peace of mind and were left to fend for ourselves with little warning. They refunded our money but that isn't the issue. You pay for a service and depend on being looked after. We solved the problem but not without a lot of anxiety. Next time, I will simply book a local taxi!

Don and Bev,
Canada

Posted by
3214 posts

It's doubly ironic that these kinds of services are so often hit-or miss when the reason why people use them are to avoid the misses.

Back when currency exchange and payment methods were more of a concern I felt like it made more sense to be able to arrange and pre-pay rather than have the additional worry about potential troubles with that, but now that there is less friction in payments, there is less reason to use these services, when the hotel can call the previous night, or you can use an app.

Posted by
8429 posts

The traffic in Athens out to Piraeus can be terrible during rush hour. That is why when we have sailed out, we stayed the night before in Piraeus. Even found a Greek dance festival going on in the waterfront park 2 blocks from the hotel.

Our hotel arranged to take us the mile over to the ship the next morning. Easy & quick.

By the way, taxi drivers in Athens have a bad reputation for ripping off customers.

Posted by
4787 posts

Same thing happened to us in Paris. Booked early, got text no driver available. We received a credit though, no refund.

Posted by
3231 posts

There were several days of general strikes in Greece last September. I don't remember if there was one on September 29th, but that may be why you had trouble getting a taxi. Especially since even your hotel spent a lot of time finding one.

Welcome Pickup is just a third-party service that allows you to pre-book an official taxi using their app. Other than that, they don't have dedicated drivers.

Posted by
11409 posts

Drivers have a way of canceling when it rains, particularly in countries with dry climates...personal experience.

Posted by
2872 posts

If there was a taxi strike, they would not have had ANY TAXI. there were 4 days of taxi strikes recently. Two days between our arrival and cruise embarkation. .after our cruise there was a strike on the day we flew out. Fortunately our hotel ( Attalos ) is a block away from the Metro which we took to the airport. A friend was in Athens soon after that and luckily missed another strike by ne day.

Posted by
3717 posts

Thanks for posting. I must have read the same posts as you did about Welcome Pickups. Their prices were less than what Daytrip and Blacklane were quoting for an upcoming trip of mine.

Posted by
7611 posts

I have only used Welcome Pickups once, in Istanbul. It went well and it was a great option for Istanbul with an airport far from city center and other options weren't that great. We almost always take public transportation to a city center.

Our driver monitored our flight and gave us directions with pictures so that we could easily find him. He communicated via Whatsapp. He had bottled water for us and gave us tourist tips. I'm not sure he was a cabbie. His car did not have a meter or anything else that would indicate it being a cab.

It isn't just Welcome pickups that fails to find transportation and provides notice last minute. We've had similar with UBER and LYFT.

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