Longmont-based airport shuttle company Eight Black abruptly closed Friday, leaving customers holding prepaid vouchers and seeking a different way to DIA.
As recently as May, the company was promoting discounted vouchers on its Facebook page. Now, customers who bought them are left wondering whether they’ll receive refunds. At $32 a pop, the vouchers offered a cheaper alternative to airport transportation from rideshare companies; they were fully transferable and guaranteed never to expire. Loyal customers say they bought vouchers in bulk, saving them for future travel plans or even gifting them to family members.
“This is a hard message to write,” reads a statement posted on the company’s Facebook page Friday afternoon, which was also emailed to customers and posted on Eight Black’s website. “Like many transportation companies, we’ve been hit hard by a perfect storm — a significant increase in insurance premiums, rising airport and regulatory fees, and steep capital costs. In the shared ride model, where affordability matters most, we simply can’t raise prices enough to cover those costs while still offering the frequency and schedule that our customers expect. So with a heavy heart, we’ve made the decision to shut down Eight Black Airport Shuttle. Our last day of service will be today, Friday, June 13, 2025.”
The post had over 250 comments as of Monday afternoon. “We have over a dozen … tickets (vouchers) bought that need to be redeemed. You were running sales last week or two ago? I want my money back,” one customer commented.
Hundreds of similar comments are under the post, with some customers noting that they bought their vouchers too long ago to dispute the charge with their credit card company.
The company’s listed phone number sends callers to an automated voice message announcing the closure. CEO Simon Chen could not be reached for comment Monday.
At Eight Black’s location at 206 S. Main St. on Monday afternoon, the gates to the lot were open. Numerous Eight Black commercial vehicles as well as a few regular cars were parked outside. The doors to the business were locked, and no one answered the buzzer. However, the lights inside were on, and a couple of satchels and unfinished soft drinks were sitting on the desks just inside.
John Rogers stopped by the business on Monday after being unable to reach anyone from Eight Black by phone or email. Rogers lives in Phoenix, Ariz., but frequently travels to Colorado for work. Rogers, who has long been a customer of Eight Black, said he had five prepaid vouchers that he bought for $30 a piece during a promotional deal. But when he tried to use one of them to arrange for transportation services this weekend, he received news of the shutdown.
“They owe me $150. They just closed down. They don’t answer their phone,” Rogers said.
Longmont local Karen Modafferi arrived at Eight Black on Monday afternoon, similarly seeking an explanation from the business after reading on Nextdoor that her vouchers were no longer usable.
Modafferi had purchased a bundle of vouchers in April, recent enough for her to issue a chargeback on her credit card, but she had also purchased vouchers in December. A loyal customer for nearly the past decade, Modafferi said she had noticed a recent decline in the quality of service she’d grown accustomed to with Eight Black.
“The service was getting worse and worse,” she said, noting a recent trip in which it took the shuttle an hour and a half to reach DIA from her Longmont home. But having had mostly good experiences, she gave the company the benefit of the doubt.
Modafferi had arranged months ago for an Eight Black ride to the airport on Tuesday morning. No one from the business reached out to her to tell her that her ride was canceled, she said. “It would have been nice for someone to tell me, because I had to make last-minute arrangements to be picked up tomorrow morning.”
Rogers had a similar experience.
“To be honest, the last few trips that I booked with them, the service was bad. It was a much longer ride to the airport because they’d have more people on the shuttle,” he said. At the time, he chalked this up to them being busier than usual.
Six customers who spoke with the Times-Call on Monday said they were out hundreds of dollars, and public posts on Reddit, Nextdoor, and Facebook suggest there are more individuals in the same boat.
Chen founded Eight Black in 2015, according to the company’s LinkedIn. In 2022, Eight Black acquired Green Ride’s shuttle service between Denver International Airport and homes, businesses and hotels in the Boulder/Longmont area.
On Monday, the Northern Colorado branch of the Better Business Bureau provided a list of actions that consumers in this predicament could consider taking, noting that the BBB only offers official advice on a case-by-case basis. Those potential actions are writing a review of the business online, filing a chargeback or disputing the charge for the unused vouchers through their bank or credit card company, reaching out to the Attorney General’s office, or going through the formal complaint process with the BBB.
“For people seeking a resolution, they could go through the complaint process through the BBB,” said a spokeswoman for the northern Colorado BBB. She also noted that people are always free to call the BBB directly.
“A lot of times, people need to talk through the situation to really see what they want to do. We’ll give them the options, and if they’re sure what they want to do, we’re able to ask them questions about the situation, gauge how they’re feeling about it, and then we can guide them to what might be best in their situation.”
The phone number for the northern Colorado branch of the BBB is 970-484-1348.
