Wow I got ripped off.

Hobbes

SOB. Got into a taxi and he had it on Rate 2, not Rate 1 (10:30am). Even asked him about it and told me it was a bank holiday.

Not thinking I didn't even get a reciept but got his number. Rang the carriage office and they told me it should of been rate 1 but I am expected to write in for them to check it.

Bit sick of it all really TBH, 3rd guy in the last two weeks to pulling crap like this. The next taxi driver to fuk with me is getting the full wrath of the carriage office on their ass.

I get quite a few taxis. I should point out that the percentage of being ripped off is very low, generally the scams are...

Warming the meter - Its already switched on long before you get in.
Milking the meter - They stop, you ask them how much and they refuse to tell you until its clicked over. (Get this one so often).
No Change - This is a common trick if they think you are a tourist. They say they have no change. The tourist generally (a) gives them all the money, (b) gets change but is then told they have to pay for the waiting/extra travel.
Bags for all - They can't charge for more then 2 bags and then even have to be a fixed size. My friend had a guy try and charge 2 bags per person.
Off the meter - Either switching off the meter, or using the fake "price cards" for outside Dublin area. Seriously, there is a guy in Dublin airport taxi rank that laminates fake ones and sells them to the taxi drivers. They seriously marked up prices (although there is no fixed rate off the meter)

Other then that the Airport is just a total criminals den when it comes to taxi drivers. The majority and I will say the majority just rape the incoming tourists of money.

Wertz

...and they wonder why drink driving arrests are up 13% on this time last year?

cajun_tiger

ok i get you i got stung there last week http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=210188

Hobbes

cajun_tiger wrote:

ok i get you i got stung there last week http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=210188

Soiling charge is that. Generally it is for them loosing a days work. However if it was a tiny bit, didn't smell or wasn't anywhere on the taxi you certainly could of questioned it by pulling into a cop shop.

Kingsize

the airport taxi drivers are the lowest of the F*CKING low, you can see the look of disgust when they hear a dublin accent cos they know theres no chance of a "detour ",i had one of these **** refuse to take me to santry cos "i'm waiting here all day buuud" - bastards the lot of 'em
During the bus strike a couple of years ago i was charged double & refused to pay the the F*CKING robdog eventually admitted to trying to rip me off.

i like to say nothing whatsoever to taxidrivers- if i wanted make conversation with a complete stranger who smells of b.o. ill get the bus

Hobbes

I generally go upstairs in the airport if I am only going to Santry. Less hassle that way. It is illegal for them to refuse a fare though.

But the airport is unreal. An American friend came over (shes American Chinese). From the Airport to Stephens green was 60 euros. She had no clue she was being ripped off, didn't even get a reciept. From Stephens green to santry her fare was 14, she gave the driver 20 and said "Make it 16" (as US people tip) and the driver had the nerve to say "I normally get 20 for this route". He never gave her back the money and gave her a blank piece of paper except for the word "20" euros written on it as a reciept.

steveland?

Well I have to say I've never gotten a Taxi driver who's ripped me off and in general they are nice people. I got a taxi the other day and talked to the guy for about 20 minutes (i was locked) about drink prices. But the guy didn't start chatting to me about it until AFTER I'd paid and the meter was off. Even wanted to let me off the 30 odd cent odds...

But yeh it does happen and it's the worst when it does. I normally just get out of the Taxi and walk the last bit if it looks like it's about to go over a tenner.

ALWAYS ask if they can do receipts if they have it on a fare you don't think is right cos it puts the fear of God into them and they'll either switch it back or say yeh and if they do you can send the receipt to the taxi officials.

And yeh cajun_tiger the soiling charge is set at €75. All taxis have to have their sheet on the dash and soiling charge is down near the bottom. I think it's up to the taxi driver how much... vomit matter has to get on the car though to enforce the soiling charge

PRE_10_DER

once, i had to get to lucan village for an interview.. left the house, walking down the road,, flag down a taxi,,, have a chat with him for the jopurney about guards and stuff and about the interview.. when i got there, he said he'd wait for me to finish my interview and give me a lift back.. that was DAMN nice of him.. i know all he wanted was a fair back, but still.. i really haven't had any bad experiences with taxi guys!

I am MAN

Ah i've got a few pricks who will try the odd trick its not very often so most times I dont say much to be honest.

Most times I get a sound lad who ya get a great laugh off, good stories and stuff

Waltons

I like the lads who boast about how fast they can get me home.
Haven't had much trouble before, to be honest..I think. *paranoid*

steveland?

I am MAN wrote:

Most times I get a sound lad who ya get a great laugh off, good stories and stuff

I love it when you get a really sound taxi driver who tells good stories about interesting fares they've had...

It helps cap off a good night to have a laugh on the way home

WizZard

Another trick that I see a lot is for them to ask you to pay before the meter has been properly stopped. The meter is still running as you get out of the car, and I presume it is then voided/cleared so that the fare doesn't show up on any records.
Still, it doesn't cost me anything extra
But I have had guys try to take 'detours', I usually just refuse to pay over what I normally pay, and if they give grief tell them to bring you to the nearest Garda Station so they can report you. Soon shuts the gangsters up!

Red Alert

i don't think the meter actually records the cumulative fares amount like a cash register does.

Third_Echelon

Sorry for dragging this thread up from the past but it was linked from a current thread

Anyway, I had one experience of a taxi driver trying to rip me off. I travel with work every so often and get expenses for taking a taxi to and from the airport. I live in the city centre so I know it is usually around €25.

On the way home from a business trip anyway, chatting briefly to the taxi driver. Im not from dublin and my colleague was with me as well and he is German, so he presumed he could take the mick with the fair as we were 'tourists'.

I noticed the route he was taking back to the city centre was very odd. All over north dublin and eventually into the city centre. (I looked at it on a map later that day and it was hilarious!)

Fair is €45. Even my German friend told him were to get off... He soon dropped it to €25 when I said that this is usually what I pay for this fair every time i take it. He tried to argue, but when I mentioned garda station/carraige office etc he soon backed down... scumbag on the take. Really pisses me off. I took his license plate number and name and reported him anyway..

I find that in other cities around the world its never like it is in dublin for ripping off tourists. I've travelled a fair bit in Europe and the price is the price no matter if you are a tourist or a local.

In Rio de Janeiro for example, a taxi driver there waited for us when we went to a military museum (pretty cool by the way). He said that it was a dodgy part of town and he would take his break (no waiting charge) while we went in and he would bring us back to our hotel. Such a sound guy. I know that this would never ever happen in Dublin....

Basq

I tend to ask how much roughly it'll be to get from A (where i got on) to B (destination).

And to be honest, they tend to stay pretty close to it then.

Learned about being ripped off after coming home in a taxi a couple of years back after Slane. Took myself and my mates around all these back streets and charged us £20 to get from O Connell Street to around Heuston... :rolleyes:

Once bitten, twice shy and all that!

Vikings

Last Thursday night I was coming home from Dublin with two friends who live in lucan. Usual price to celbridge is about 40+ euro, so what we usually do is get off in Lucan where they live and they split the 20 odd price. Then I get a different taxi from lucan back to celbridge because it works out cheaper for us all. The scumbag of a taxi driver wanted me to pay him 20 euro for the trip to celbridge that usually costs 12, 15 max so I didn't say a word till I got home handed him 12 and said its all I have. He didn't complain as he knew I was sober and he wouldnt have gotten a cent more out of me.

Really ticks me off that they prey on people lin this way.

Beruthiel

Hobbes wrote:

the Airport is just a total criminals den when it comes to taxi drivers. The majority and I will say the majority just rape the incoming tourists of money.

couldn't agree more
I had two friends come to visit me on the same day, one from france one from germany - they both took taxis from the airport to my house, so the exact same journey, one got charged €27 and the other €40, it really upset me to seem him been taken advantage of like that.

the_menace

The funniest was a few weeks ago, my mates (all residents of Malahide) were drinking in Swords village. They got into a cab there and asked the driver to take them back to Malahide. The bloody chancer drove towards Darndale and was making his way up towards the airport/M50 so he could hit the Swords Road and back to Malahide. Un-f**king-believable! He literally did a loop around Swords, came out on the Malahide Road and was on his way back to where he had picked the lads up! Now the lads, all having lived in the area for, like, 28 years and knowing it like the back of their hands, started to object around Darndale. They basically said "Listen mate, where the f**k do you think you're going?"

He kicked them out of the cab. The driver didn't make a penny, the lads were stranded beside the Malahide Road farther from home then they were when they got in the cab! They forgot about it after a few days. Personally, I'd have contacted a solicitor and had the c**t done for kidnapping. :rolleyes:

Nightwish

i would never take a taxi to or from the airport as I know how much they rob people blind on that route, I always take the aircoach from O'Connell st, its only 7.50 and its really nice. I was rightly stung when I first moved up to Dublin, by a taxi driver who was bringing me fom Camden St to Whitehall who brought me up the Malahide Rd and through Coolock. I was pretty locked but I knew what he was up to and he tried to charge me 16 quid, I threw him a tenner (the normal fare) and legged it, the cheeky fu<ker

godtabh

You do get the good and the bad.

I've had lost of bad experiences.

On Saturday I was getting a Taxi from Lucan to Lexilip, Usually fair is €10. Your man said €20. I said no ****ing way. I think he thought I was locked. Told him to turn on the meter and I'll get out side the Garda Station in Lexilip. Cost €6:50 in the end so it wasnt all that bad.

garred

I've started taxing recently but I'm a bit afraid to post here. Please don't hit me. The only thing I have a problem with is areas. I have a good knowledge of around Dublin and southside but a bit sketchy on the north side. If anyone going to the northside gets in I always ask them do they know the way. I'd know roughly the route but there will always be a quicker option. You'd be amazed how snotty some people can be when you do this, "your the taxi driver, you should know" and all that crap.
With regard to the soilage fee, if you had to clean puke out of your car at 2 in the morning. Still yet to get the soilage out of anyone even though its happened 3 times:(

WhiteWashMan

i agree.

ive stared using the airport bus, the big blue one now and just get dropped off in town where i can get a local taxi or the luas back home.

getting charged 40 euro for a trip to rathmines from the airport in non rush our traffic is a joke.

and i never tip anymore either. ever since the debacle over the millenium fares, i refuse to tip irish taxi drivers,and always wait for my entire change. no matter how much the fuffle over 'trying' to get it out.

i had to wait about 2 minutes last time for about 2.50, but im buggered if they can have my money. if they wnted to live off tips, they should become waitresses in the US as far as im concerned. tips are for jobs well done, not an automatic thing afaic.

larryone

Going to and from the airport I just use the 16a. Same route. 1 Euro 75 cent.
I alwasy talk to taxi drivers, it's rare enough I get taxis tho.
But a few weeks ago I was going to mullingar for a meeting, got a taxt from dundrum to busaras. Chattin away with yer man, made mention where I was going and what I was up to, and foolishly mentioned that my travel expences generally get covered for going to these meetings. Meter said 13 Euro. When I asked him for a reciept so I could claim it back, he charged me 20 Euro. Chancer.

jaggeh

the only problem i have with drivers is when they dont listen.

most of the drivers who use the 'gate' rank on parnell square know me and know the route but every so often i get someone who doesnt know.

a 6 euro journey can become a 10 euro journey very easily.

The worst one was when i told the driver which way to go and then she 'absent-mindedly' missed EVERY SINGLE TURN. i keep a record of bad drivers in my phone.

Dave

the 16A goes from O Connell street to the Airport and vice versa, for only 1.85 you can't beat it. Obviously not good for late night travelling.

Custom22

Third_Echelon wrote:

I find that in other cities around the world its never like it is in dublin for ripping off tourists. I've travelled a fair bit in Europe and the price is the price no matter if you are a tourist or a local.

Erm. Nope! In Prague you have to haggle before you get in the bloody car. We had two different prices quoted, one was half the figure of the other. Half! That's how much it chages from driver to driver, depending on howmuch of a sucker they think you are. If you know the exact route they should take then they shut up and just drive though.

Ruaidhri

It's a pity you know,I've only seen Dublin taxi drivers slated here.
I live in galway,and the exact opposite happens. My route home is usually 6/7euro's. But i'm always let off on 5euro. Taxi drivers down this end of the world rock! Once you're not stupidly drunk (ie fishing around in your pockets for 5 mins for change) the will be cool to you :v:

magpie

I wish we had Robo-Taxis like in Total Recall.

Knowing my luck though the Dublin ones would be programmed to come out with random racism, to smell and try and rip you off.

"What do you tink a dem Chooooineaz comin' over here and do be taken dem jobs?"

"Sorry Bud, I've no cha-unge"

Third_Echelon

Custom22 wrote:

Erm. Nope! In Prague you have to haggle before you get in the bloody car. We had two different prices quoted, one was half the figure of the other. Half! That's how much it chages from driver to driver, depending on howmuch of a sucker they think you are. If you know the exact route they should take then they shut up and just drive though.

I think it depends on the city and obviously the country. Czech Republic, Poland etc are emerging nations from the old Eastern Block so they are on the make all the time.

My taxi experiences are more from the western european nations, where most of the people aren't gangsters

stormkeeper

I find it a travesty that calling a taxi up from Naas to the Airport and back again cost €40, yet a taxi from the Airport cost €80, it's mad!


I'm aware that the prices went up since then, which must have been a year or two ago now...

NeMiSiS

Taxi from Naas to the airport is about 60 euro..
TK

testicle

City Centre -> Bray : €52
City Centre -> Shankill : €24

Distance from Shankill to Bray : 2.18 miles.

Go figure!

Tar.Aldarion

It's amazing that you can be in a taki for half an hour( the last day) and be charged 11 euro and be in a taxi for ten minutes and be charged twenty euro. Ya right ****er. I might have been wearing a tux but come on we were not going to pay that...

YeatsCounty

Nightwish wrote:

i would never take a taxi to or from the airport as I know how much they rob people blind on that route, I always take the aircoach from O'Connell st, its only 7.50 and its really nice.

€7.50 for the Aircoach? It was only €5 the when I took it this summer and in 2004.

A local taxi driver in my area (rural West Sligo) charges €10 for a one mile journey. Why don't we, the people of that area, report him? Because we're too friggin' nice and non-confrontational.

D

Never tip taxi drivers, they earn more than 90% of their customers.

stormkeeper

NeMiSiS wrote:

Taxi from Naas to the airport is about 60 euro..
TK

I thought it went up... that would make the airport to Naas 120 Euro?

Either way, it's a ripoff.

JohnCleary

YeatsCounty wrote:

€7.50 for the Aircoach? It was only €5 the when I took it this summer and in 2004.

A local taxi driver in my area (rural West Sligo) charges €10 for a one mile journey. Why don't we, the people of that area, report him? Because we're too friggin' nice and non-confrontational.

a 3 mile run in sligo only costs me a fiver

Woden

a good story:

a few years back was out with my girlfriend at the time on xmas even in my local pub we'd exchanged gifts and all that jazz and looked to get a taxi. a taxi driver stopped who wasn't on duty has just been dropping off some presents to his mam and took her home. plyd him

data

Civilian_Target

Nightwish wrote:

i would never take a taxi to or from the airport as I know how much they rob people blind on that route, I always take the aircoach from O'Connell st, its only 7.50 and its really nice. I was rightly stung when I first moved up to Dublin, by a taxi driver who was bringing me fom Camden St to Whitehall who brought me up the Malahide Rd and through Coolock.

Sometimes there's no choice - I've been stung a little on the airport route - but never particularly badly, always traffic related rather than taxi related. The only times I've ever been ripped on a Dublin taxi is when with a girl and therefore not talking to him or watching the meter, so they can do what they like. But after many international taxis - my standard par-for-the-course is to simply give them what I know the route price to be if they try to overcharge by more than about 20%, and if they argue, tell them where to shove it. They generally accept their lot.

ferdi

garred wrote:

You'd be amazed how snotty some people can be when you do this, "your the taxi driver, you should know" and all that crap

they might have a point, dont you think? in london cabbies have to take the knowledge test before they can take customers, here any cowboy (no offence) can set up taxiing without having a ****ing clue. i work in a chemists, if someone came into me and said "can i have a bottle of suncream please" and i said "sure, could you show me where it is?" would i get away with it?

therecklessone

Was out in Dublin the October bank holiday weekend (Sunday), had a bit too much to drink. Wandered the city looking for a taxi for an hour and a half but couldn't get one for love nor money (was told by a mate he'd had to walk to Stillorgan from the city centre cos of the same)

Anyway, I'm on O'Connell St at 5am and I see the Aircoach. Living in Swords, I jump on it and pay my €3 (airport staff :cool: ), then when I get to the airport I go to the taxi rank and hop in the back of a car. He pulls off, then asks me where I'm off to. "Swords" was the reply. You should have heard him...

Stinking taxi driver: Ah jaysis, thats only a tenner. If I'd known that I wouldn't have taken ya.
Me: Whats the problem, won't you be back in ten minutes?
Stinking taxi driver: Did ya see the queue up there, there'll be 80 cars in front of me.
Me: No wonder I couldn't get a taxi in town then.
Stinking taxi driver: I find that hard to believe, jaysis, I'm waiting for a fare for 2 hours so I am.

Anyway, he mouthed off all the way to my place, snapping at me for directions. Then it dawned on me...the EI104 had just landed and he'd been hoping for an American tourist he could fleece into town. Result!

Got to my place...

Me: (sarcastically) How much do I owe you again?
Stinking taxi driver: Its €10, ya know that already.
Me: Oh yeah, right. I won't tip you cos you're an ignorant wa*ker, next time you want to mouth off remember its your customers who pay your wages. Night now...

:v: :v: :v:

Sam Vimes

the_menace wrote:

Personally, I'd have contacted a solicitor and had the c**t done for kidnapping. :rolleyes:

kidnapping lol

Sam Vimes

D wrote:

Never tip taxi drivers, they earn more than 90% of their customers.

my girlfriends dad's a taxi man from the pre-deregulation days. he paid 80,000 give or take for his plate that's now worth 1000-2000 (or whatever it is now). he was planning to retire on the money from selling his plate but now he has to work 7 days a week and effectively can never retire.


the government "compensated" some of them but whether or not a driver got compensation was based on their age, not how long they'd been working. so even though he'd been a taxi driver for 25 years, he was 10 months too young to be compensated. basically the government told him that his 80,000 wasn't worth as much as someone else's who was born a year before him.

even if he was compensated he wouild have only got about 20,000 for his 80,000 plate. he's trying to fight it in the courts but he can't really because he has to work all the time



him having to work 7 days a week can have its advantages though. me and the gf often have the house to ourselves :cool: :v:

Capt'n Midnight

Ruaidhri wrote:

It's a pity you know,I've only seen Dublin taxi drivers slated here.
I live in galway,and the exact opposite happens. My route home is usually 6/7euro's. But i'm always let off on 5euro. Taxi drivers down this end of the world rock! Once you're not stupidly drunk (ie fishing around in your pockets for 5 mins for change) the will be cool to you :v:

Never had any problems with taxi's in Galway, Kilarney or Cork. About half of Dublin taxi's are rip off merchants.

There should be some people who are paid to act like passengers ( job for some foreigners ? ) and when overcharged blatently the taxi driver should loose his license and be barred from applying forever + 24 Hours. Judging by my personnal experiances and those of everyone I've ever heard a good few taxi drivers are breaking the law on a daily basis.

testicle wrote:

City Centre -> Bray : €52
City Centre -> Shankill : €24

Distance from Shankill to Bray : 2.18 miles.

Go figure!

The boundry of the Dublin Taxi zone is at the bridge at the start of Bray. A lot of people used to (and probably still do) get out at the bridge and walk or get a local taxi the rest of the way. - Been going on for years.

Capt'n Midnight

Commander Vimes wrote:

my girlfriends dad's a taxi man from the pre-deregulation days. he paid 80,000 give or take for his plate that's now worth 1000-2000 (or whatever it is now). he was planning to retire on the money from selling his plate but now he has to work 7 days a week and effectively can never retire.

Just rotten luck, if his timing had been better he could have made a packet. That's the problem with speculation.

The question is why the plates got so expensive - that would have bought a house back then.
The answer is that people saw them as a license to print money or at the worst a golden goose that would provide a steady income and you could get a cosy ( cosie ?) or two to to keep it chuning 24/7

The govt' or the council didn't see any of that £80,000 yet we the tax payer still had to buy them out. Nice to know that everyone in the country has had to part with money to pay for the Dublin taxi monopoly.

garred

ferdi wrote:

they might have a point, dont you think? in london cabbies have to take the knowledge test before they can take customers, here any cowboy (no offence) can set up taxiing without having a ****ing clue. i work in a chemists, if someone came into me and said "can i have a bottle of suncream please" and i said "sure, could you show me where it is?" would i get away with it?

Hardly the same thing. Even the guys who are doing it years do not know every street in Dublin, not north/south/west Dublin but Co. Dublin. Its only the minority who go on like this but even if they do have a valid point there are ways of putting things.

For the people going to Bray from Dublin, get the driver to drop you to the roundabout at the top (should be about 18-20 quid on the meter). When you get there offer him another 10 to drop you to your house, tell him its 2 minutes up the road. After driving all the way out there I'm sure he'd take it.

the Guru

Taxi drivers are all bastards,

Zaph

Worst rip-off by a taxi driver I've ever seen was surprisingly not in Dublin. I was in Italy in September with 4 friends, and when we got off the train in Rome we split into two taxis, with the two other guys in one, and me in the second taxi with the two women. This meant that there was at least one person in each taxi who knew how to get to where we were staying. When we got to the hotel the two lads were out front waiting for us, and one asked me how much the taxi was. I told him it was €11, which was followed by a torrent of swearing. Their guy had charged the lads €26, and to make matters worse, they gave him an extra couple of euros tip!

garred

the Guru wrote:

Taxi drivers are all bastards,

Yeah, thanks for that.

Savman

the Guru wrote:

Taxi drivers are all bastards,

He's not right, but he's not wrong!:D

Superman

some are alright and can be ok to talk to but its brilliant taking the piss out of them especially when they start talking about "blaeden nigerians", they get really annoyed if you compare nigerians to northsiders!
Got ripped off one night headin home o'connell st. to rathfarnham, detour in churchtown was €27, usually about €17, I was gonna pull a legger but decided not to bother, I really don't see why more people don't do it tho!

Worst experience with a taxi driver was ariving back at the airport at 6am one morn from a bogie flight from malta, and I walked down to get a taxi, queue was empty and went up to a driver he got really annoyed at me for not queuein and started trying to square up, I was in no humour for him and riled him up loads.
It was brilliant cause he was about 5ft and was actin all hard!

but yes they are mainly scum!