MARIETTA, Ga.,None — What was supposed to be the best night of their school year turned into a big mess for dozens of metro Atlanta students. They said the bus company hired to take them to prom left them stranded.
"They are outside in the pouring rain and he is nowhere to be found," said parent Tamara McLean said.
McLean and another parent, Linda Ertel, told Channel 2's Jovita Moore that it was one of the worst experiences ever. While their children attend separate schools, they both hired US Party Bus for their teenagers' proms on Saturday night.
"He got there at one o'clock to pick them up in the morning," said McLean, whose child attends Lassiter High School.
"It's thundering and lightning and raining," McLean said, referring to a storm system that passed through north Georgia over the weekend.
Another group from Etowah, who also contracted the same bus company, said they never made it to prom at all.
"He was telling me he was lost because her (Ertel) children were on the bus on the way to the restaurant when he was supposed to be on the way picking up my children," said McLean.
One group was dropped off at a restaurant for dinner but was never picked up.
The parents believe the same bus driver was shuttling between their groups, ruining the night for both.
"They finally sent an alternate bus about 11:30, but those kids had been standing there since 7 o'clock," said Ertel, an Etowah high school parent.
By then, Etowah's prom in Marietta was over.
The Lassiter group arrived at their prom at the Foundry in northwest Atlanta two hours late and waited until after midnight for the bus to return.
The moms said they got a receipt listing a Chicago address. But the company's website lists a southwest Atlanta address. Channel 2 went by the address and found it to be a residential neighborhood. There were no buses outside.
Moore called the Chicago office and was told buses can be dispatched from anywhere. The moms want their money back - and for others to be warned.
"There's just no way I would ever make that mistake again and put our kids in the care of those people. There's no way," said Ertel.