Prom night offers the youth of America the opportunity to learn a number of lessons — how to fill a flask, the best way to use Visine without being obvious, how to charter a 40-person party bus without getting screwed by scammers. Alas, some teens in Alabama learned that last lesson the hard way.

According to WHNT-TV, around $2,400 had been handed over to a charter company for a bus that was supposed to ferry 38 students to the annual debauch. But they might as well have paid that money to rent magic carpets, since those don’t exist either.

“They’re all sitting at our rec center where we have our prom, looking for a ride to Chattanooga that did not show,” the school’s superintendent said.

WHNT tried to look into the charter company, supposedly based out of Birmingham. But they also found that the 888 number associated with that company is also associated with a number of other businesses, including a collection agency and a site selling guitars.

From WHNT:

There are other websites with complaints about the company failing to provide transportation for others who paid for services, including a wedding party in Nevada whose bus never showed.

The website for the Better Business Bureau in Northern Nevada and the Lake Tahoe Basin lists six complaints closed in the past 12 months, and gave the company an F for Delivery Issues and Problems with Service.

Luckily, the school’s transportation director arranged for a school bus to drive the stranded prom-goers. The parents agreed to foot the bill.

“This is very unordinary,” said the superintendent, “but again, we didn’t want to ruin their night, we had the means to help them, and decided we would go ahead and help them with this situation.”

Fort Payne Students Scammed By Prom Night Charter Bus Rental [WHNT.com]

Thanks to Anderson for the tip!

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