Blue Dolphin Cab Company

I’m not sure how useful it is to review a cab company because none of them are stellar, but I had the most frustrating customer experience issue ever with Blue Dolphin and I’m not sure where else to mention it.
A Blue Dolphin van took me and some girls home from a bar in Santa Barbara and delivered us to Carpenteria late one night.
Our driver was actually very nice. 5 stars for him, no issues there.
The problem was that I left a purse in the cab and in trying to retrieve it.
After a runaround with a general operator who dispatch taxis from all cab companies and who recommended the best way to reach our driver would be to go back to the location where he picked us up – very unhelpful given that I doubt many taxi vans cruise downtown Santa Barbara on Sunday mornings — I was able to find the number of a Blue Van dispatcher.
Despite that I had a very good description of the driver, that there can’t be *that* many van taxis, and that the driver took us all the way to Carpenteria and would definitely remember me (I had a conversation will him during the entire $ 45 ride and knew how many kids he had, how long they had lived in the area, etc.) the Blue Van dispatcher REFUSED to listen and simply said no one had the bag. He then hung up on me.
Yep.
So I called him back to ask if I could leave a number so that when of if someone turned in the bag (since it seemed reasonable that the driver hadn’t gotten around to it between Saturday night when I left it and Sunday night when I called to find it) — he hung up on me AGAIN.
I maintained a very calm and polite attitude during this entire exchange and never raised my voice or criticized him, he was just being such an ass. My friend tried calling as well and he hung up on her, too.
Two months later, the driver of the cab got in contact and said he had the bag. It had everything in it. I’m not sure what took two whole months, but at least it was recovered (well after everything was replaces, because who would have thought it’d ever turn up).
Anyhow, go with Über. Then you have the name of your guy/​gal in case you leave something in the car! Or make sure to take the name of the driver if you take a regular cab!

AVOID this cab company at all costs, especially, if you want a cab to actually pick you up and take you somewhere. My friends and I reserved a cab with Blue Dolphin, and they NEVER SHOWED!
We called them several times to ask the status, at 20 minutes late, 30 minutes late, and again at 45 minutes late. We got a different excuse each time: «Oh, we are really close, come outside, and we’ll be there soon», «Oh we got lost, and had to send a different driver», and again, «Come outside, we’re close». They weren’t close.
We called a different cab company, and they picked us all up right away.

Horrible taxi company. They took forty minutes over time they said and still hadn’t shown up. call any other company!!!

Not much of a cab company if they don’t come pick you up when you’ve scheduled a ride.
I called Blue Dolphin and scheduled an early-​morning ride to an LAX shuttle pickup spot. Blue Dolphin failed to show. When I called them they lied to me (probably), saying that their driver had been calling me and that my phone blocked the calls. I do not have my phone set to block any calls.
On such short notice, I could not find another ride to get to the shuttle stop, and drove myself to LAX, and racked up hefty daily parking charges.
A pretty awful company, based on my one experience.