On April 29, 2012 I decided to go through las vegas balloon rides to propose to my gf at the time. Everything seemed to go as planned until I actually got there. I wanted the private flight to make it more romantic so I payed $900 for that. I then asked Doug if he could put a camera in the balloon and he said it'd be an extra $200. I was ok with that and paid the additional charges.
The day of the flight, my gf and I waited at the meeting point at 5:30 am. Other people started showing up for the ride also. So Doug and his crew showed up in a couple vans to transport us to the launch site. Doug said to everyone that we'll all be flying together and mentioned the amount of time we'd have in the air. I was trying to keep this whole proposal as a surprise obviously. So I asked to have a word with Doug away from the group. My paperwork that he had must have been mixed up. He said he had me under flying with the group. I was very aggravated at this point! I mentioned that I'm paying over $1100 for the private flight and the camera. He understood and assured me that we will get our private flight, but said because it wasn't arranged that we'll only be able to stay in the air for 20-30 minutes. I was not ok with that! For that amount of money I wanted this to be a memorable experience. I stated my opinion and he said he'll try to keep us up there for as long as possible.
The remainder of the experience was quite pleasant. His crew seemed very nice and the pilot was very friendly and funny. The view was beautiful and the proposal went as expected which they actually let us stay up in the air for 90 minutes. When we landed everyone was applauding and shaking my hand congratulating us. The champagne was good, the breakfast was just little fruits and cheeses. Right after we had to go eat because we were starving.
So Doug explained how he would have to get the footage together and we can make a meeting spot later for me to obtain the footage. This is where this experience went horrible. I asked him to put it on a burnable dvd which he did. He wanted to meet closer to where he lived so I had him drop it off where my gf use to work at that time. When she got home we were so excited to watch the footage. We popped in the dvd and nothing happened. It wouldn't read on the dvd player or the computer. So we plugged in the flash drive he also gave us and it worked! We were starting to watch it and we noticed that one of the crew members installing the camera accidentally adjusted it in a way where it cut off all sound. The whole hour and a half video was silent. I was so upset. The great conversations we had, the funny jokes from the pilot, my proposal... All silent! So I contacted doug and he said I must have bumped the camera when I got in. That pissed me off even more! Instead of viewing the tape he would rather point his finger and blame me which clearly in the footage you see his crew member doing it. Even though it was an accident I still asked for a discount since I will never be able to truly rewatch and relive that experience. After many text messages which a lot of them he ignored. He finally said he'd refund me $75 which I asked for $100. After more text messages where to meet for the refund since I paid all in cash, he then decided to ignore me all together and not refund me at all. This was some of the worst service I've ever experienced. He was very rude, defensive and argumentative. Clearly it's his way and not the customers. If he treats all of his customers like this I'm truly surprised on how his business could still be up and running. If anyone is planning on flying with him. Just buy your package, get it over with and refrain from asking him more than you need to. I will never use them again.