Taxi scam or not? No change given.

Re: Taxi scam or not?

daltonr said:
I once needed to get to Griffith College in time for a night lecture. I needed to be there at 6pm. I didn't want to be late under any circumstances, so I got permission to leave work at 3 and called a cab company that the place I worked with had an account with.
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Where were you working that 3 hours was not sufficient time to take a chance on hailing a taxi in the street, use public transport or even walk? Just curious...
3:30 came and went, 4:30 came and went.
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At that stage I would have tried the alternatives that I mentioned above.
 
Re: Taxi scam or not?

If I ever get into a cab and only have a €50 I'll ask them at the start if they have change and if not get them to stop at an ATM along the way. I have had the odd far rounded down by 20 or 30 cent by the driver.


A few years ago when I was out in Limerick and got into a cab, we were heading just over the border to clare, 3 of us were getting out about 2.5 miles from the city centre and the other guy was getting out about 2 miles further out. The taxi driver claimed he was going to charge 2 differerent fares, which we pointed out to him that it was a load of bo!!ix and got out of the cab and told him we would report him to the carriage office and walked back down to the taxi rank wthi him shouting after us. The driver followed us down, hopped out of the cab, got a cop who was on the beat and brought him over to us. The cop asked what was going on and we told him the cab driver was trying to rip us off and we would be reporting him to the carriage office. The cop told the taxi driver to get back in his cab and get lost.... forgot the taxi number the next morning as we didn't have a camera phone so couldn't report him.
 
Re: Taxi scam or not?

paddyc said:
If I ever get into a cab and only have a €50 I'll ask them at the start if they have change and if not get them to stop at an ATM along the way. I have had the odd far rounded down by 20 or 30 cent by the driver.
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Given that a lot of ATMs won't dispense anything smaller than a €50 this wouldn't be much use.
 
Re: Taxi scam or not?

paddyc said:
If I ever get into a cab and only have a €50 I'll ask them at the start if they have change and if not get them to stop at an ATM along the way.
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Eh? If the driver has no change, is the meter still running while you are at the ATM? Either way, you should not have the inconvenience of queuing at an ATM. These guys are supposed to providing a service!
 
Re: Taxi scam or not?

Bacchus: live about 3 kms from town centre - taxi rank. fare should have been 3.80 +2.85= 6.65. son was on his own last saturday , normally he would be in company. normally charged €5 regardless if 2/3 of them came out together. in this case I dont know if taxi driver would have still charged €5 or charged the new rates if there was more than himself. personally I would have walked it ( and there are busses) but the new generation ...........
 
Re: Taxi scam or not?

live about 3 kms from town centre - taxi rank. fare should have been 3.80 +2.85= 6.65
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These are the maximum fares allowed to be charged.
 
Re: Taxi scam or not?

ok. but at least he didnt look for it, which by the sounds of the earlier posts is the least the dublin cabbies were looking for. ie.probably would have told him they had no change out of a €10.
 
Re: Taxi scam or not?

Can i ask the follwing question: If a taxi drops me home and the fare is, say, 10 euros and I only have 20, what is my legal right as a consumer if the driver has not got any change?
 
Re: Taxi scam or not?

cuchulainn said:
Bacchus: live about 3 kms from town centre - taxi rank. fare should have been 3.80 +2.85= 6.65. son was on his own last saturday , normally he would be in company. normally charged €5 regardless if 2/3 of them came out together. in this case I dont know if taxi driver would have still charged €5 or charged the new rates if there was more than himself. personally I would have walked it ( and there are busses) but the new generation ...........
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I don't get it them... taxi drivers went on strike because of the new fare structure...
Under new fare this guy could charge €6.65 instead of €5... What's the problem from his point of view? i can see a problem from the consumer point of view all right...

May be taxi driver loose out for longer distances..

Has anybody got any figures to share as to how much they have been charged under old fare / new fare for greater distances?
 
If a taxi drops me home and the fare is, say, 10 euros and I only have 20, what is my legal right as a consumer if the driver has not got any change?
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Your right is to either get your change and a receipt there and then or tell him to bill you and you will pay either by post or if he drops back at another time.As with all these things you should take the plate number which is clearly visible on the roof and report to the taxi regulator.
 
I spoke to a very nice lady at the taxi regulator's office and she stated that the taxi driver is obliged to carry enough change to cover all eventualities.

She also referred to their website [broken link removed]

Contacting Us by Telephone
For consumer information or advice on how to make a complaint or commendation, ring our lo-call consumer information line at 1890 60 60 90.
For general industry information or advice, ring our lo-call industry information line at 1890 347 347 .
To book your small public service vehicle in for a test, or to enquire about vehicle licensing, contact the dedicated NCTS phone line on 1890 92 79 77.
Other queries can be directed to the Commission for Taxi Regulation’s offices at 01-6593800.

Contacting Us by Post, Fax or Email

The Commission for Taxi Regulation,
35 Fitzwilliam Square,
Dublin 2.
Fax: 01 659 3801
Email: commission@taxiregulator.ie
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ci1 and rabbit,

Please post generalised rants against the taxi industry in the LOS section.

Keep this thread to discuss what to do when a taxi driver is not willing to give change.
 
My Husband had an argument with a taxi driver over a similar "no change"
incident. He rang the local Garda Station who told my husband to pay whatever he had, leave his name and address and the onus would be on the Taxi Driver to collect the rest of the money.
 
If i have only notes i always ask for a receipt first , fuffle around with my wallet and come up with note/s. By this time the Taxi driver has stopped the meter and printed off a receipt , usually a trip to the nearest Spar to get the change does the trick but it does not cost me any extra.


I have on other occasions handed a tenner over and the guy has said no change , just got a receipt for the fare with an IOU for the balance, handed the IOU to the Carraige office if the funds never arrive and they collected same for me.This system is now in place [broken link removed] so dont be conned just be smarter.
 
My main gripes with taxi drivers from a rip-off point of view....
- whenever I book a taxi for a certain time and they arrive early, they have the meter running. Surely if I book a taxi for 9pm and it arrives ar 8:50pm, they can't start the meter until 9pm?
- Taxivans charging per person. They make €30 when there's 15 of us onboard for just a 2 mile journey. This in particular applies to villages in the country where there are no taxicars.
- A talkative friend of mine was chatting away to the taxi driver and the taxi driver was being especially chatty back. After handing the exact fare of €10, the taxi driver asks my friend for a tip. I told him not to eat yellow snow. I've seen it a lot since, where chatty taxi drivers will ask for a tip when you give them the exact fare. Since when did you have to pay for conversation in this country?
- Spanish and Polish friends of mine have told me of lots of incidences (particularly after being out drinking) where they're waiting on change back from the taxi driver e.g. €8.40. The taxi driver turns around and gives them €3.40 and turns back to his/her normal driving position without saying a word and remains motionless. The passenger will then have to ask for the rest of the change and the taxidriver usually goes "Yeah, yeah, I'm just looking for it" even though they've been motionless for the last minute. The amount the taxidriver tries to rob with this scam varies from €2 to €20. It's obviously working for them if they're still using it.

If I could spare the money I'd spend a whole day at Dublin airport repeatedly getting into taxis at the rank and asking for a destination just one mile down the road!
 
Joe Nonety said:
- Taxivans charging per person. They make €30 when there's 15 of us onboard for just a 2 mile journey. This in particular applies to villages in the country where there are no taxicars.
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15 people in one cab?! Cosy.
 
thought the new rules covered extra passangers but maybe only to the one destination ie going to a nite club or wedding etc.
 
Head-wrecked said:
My Husband had an argument with a taxi driver over a similar "no change"
incident. He rang the local Garda Station who told my husband to pay whatever he had, leave his name and address and the onus would be on the Taxi Driver to collect the rest of the money.
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