Limo company investigated after Ch. 2 story

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — One day after Channel 2 Action News reported on problems with a prom bus, the state is now investigating the limo company.

Thirty-two Alpharetta High School students thought they'd booked a luxury limo. They told Channel 2's Diana Davis they got something else.

Now, the state Public Service Commission is involved.

Parent Doug Derito said he booked a 36-seat limo bus on Partybusnow.com. Instead he said the kids ended up with a limo too small for all 32 teens and one, Derito said, that was far from luxurious.

"It looked like frankly a jalopy," Derito said.

With the limo already late, the teens and parents agreed to take the limo to a midtown restaurant. They said they were promised they would get another limo after dinner to take them to the prom and then home.

Instead they said a hotel-style shuttle bus with room for just 16 people showed up.

"I was thinking it wouldn't get any worse from here and then it did," senior Matthew Derito said.

Between a rock and hard place, Derito's father told Davis he agreed to pay the drivers a total of $1,700 in cash.

"The supervisor wouldn't allow the door to be opened until we gave him the final cash balance and everything was cash after the initial deposit. We had no other choice to get the kids to salvage what they could of their prom," Doug Derito said.

Now, one day after Davis' first report, Georgia's Public Service Commission Chief Tim Echols told Davis he's launched an investigation of the limo company.

"I've talked to Mr. Derito and let him know how sorry I am that all this has happened, and our folks will be taking a look into this particular company that provided this bus to these kids," Echols said.

Though the limo was booked on Partybusnow.com, Echols said it turns out the rental was brokered to Superior Limousines of northeast Atlanta.

After Davis' report, the PSC changed Superior's listing on its website from satisfactory to unsatisfactory.

"We've launched an investigation into Superior Limousines here, and we're going to find out exactly what's gone on," Echols said.

Someone who said he was from Partybusnow.com and Superior Limousines called Davis from Florida saying Channel 2 Action News' report got it all wrong.

He promised to email Davis the facts and perhaps show her the limos used that night.

He never got back to Davis.

Davis said she has received another complaint from a parent who said the same thing happened at her child's prom with the same limo company.