taxi cab woes

It seems that I've had more than my share of taxi rip-offs over the years, the most memorable one being a ride from the Philadelphia Amtrak station to a hotel. The ride took about 20 minutes and involved several freeways. Whatever. I paid the fare, the cab driver drove off, and then I turned around and looked down the street from the hotel. I could see the Amtrak station about 10 blocks away. Another time, I gave an address and was driven all over town, to wind up 2 blocks from the train station. (And yes, wherever I am, I always ask the dispatcher what the fare will be; the dispatchers in Philly have consistently refused to give me an estimate. I think they're all in on the scam...)

Philly needs the system that the Newark Airport has -- you go to the taxi stand, tell the dispatcher where you're going, and he tells you the price and lets you pre-pay the fare with your credit card, giving you a voucher that you give to the driver at the end of the trip, along with whatever tip you want.

Comments

[Karen McQuillen]

...and yet there's this:

Philly taxi fares going up

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=5975526

[Rosemary Carstens]

Mexico City is another place to be VERY cautious! At the airport,you are fine because they have a counter you go to, tell them where you are going, pay, and they give you a ticket. Set fares. But NEVER, NEVER take a green volkswagen cab--they not only may rip you off, but they may rob you as well. I made that mistake once and ended up, because I called for help to the doorman at the hotel, getting shoved out into the street and the cab peeled off! Luckily, I was not hurt, and luckier still I had my purse shoulderstrap across my chest, so it came with me.

Berlin--sounds great! Rosemary Carstens
http://carstensFEAST.blogspot.com

[JBi]

Boston is lovely too. Picked up a cab at the airport, asked to be taken to the 'Boston Convention Center.' Driver replied that he didn't know which one we were talking about; he kept saying, "there's two convention centers in Boston, which one?"

"Well, what are the names of the two convention centers bc the one we want is the 'Boston Convention Center."

"One is Heinz and I don't know what the other is. Do you have an address?" the driver replied.

"It's definitely not Heinz, so take us to the other one."

"I don't know where it is. Do you have an address?"

"So you know it exists, you drive a taxi all day, and you don't know where it is?"

"Do you have an address?" he replied.

"Pullover, we'll just take another cab."

"Wait a minute, I think I know where it is."

We pull up in front of the convention center, and guess what was posted in GIANT steel letters on the face of the building? "Boston Convention Center"

....of course, we were luckier than a colleague who got driven through Cambridge on his way from the airport to the convention center.

[Cindy Myers]

Yep. Another "City To Watch Out For" is Amsterdam. In 2003, my family got taken on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride from the Ambassade Hotel to the Van Gogh Museum. It was like a tour, only with sharp turns and screechy stops. Later the hotel staff told me this is a common problem and told me what cab companies are honest. Next time we called up Honest Cab Co. and told them why we requested them and gave the driver an extra tip for being an Honest Cab Driver.

From this, I learned to ask hotels what cab companies to take and what ones to avoid. Doesn't help you at airports, I know, but it's something.