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A Saturday CF thread. Annoyed I wasn’t more assertive!

59 replies

OhToBeinDeutschland · 19/02/2022 12:26

Interested to see how you would have handled this in the moment. I’m not a pushover at all and am happy to make a point (nicely!) if something isn’t right in a restaurant etc so am very annoyed at how I dealt with this last night, but in the moment I just wasn’t assertive enough.

We were away in a hotel for a couple of nights. Went down to reception and asked them to call us a taxi to a bar in town where we had a booking and we’re meeting friends. Waited a while and there was another couple waiting also. A taxi arrived and they went out thinking it was theirs. It wasn’t and someone else went out and got in. Eventually 3 taxis turned up so they went out and so did we. We’d been told the name of our cab company and only one of these cars was from that company. They approached this cab and gave their room number and we waited behind. The driver said no and asked us our room number. It was our cab. The man from the other couple said something about they’d been waiting longer (they had to be fair!) and it was annoying because they were going to the same place as us anyway. We immediately said oh get in with us then! They did, and the driver apologised saying he had to take the people from the room number he was given. They understood and came with us in the cab. No problem. The man of the couple sat in the front and said we’ll pay for the cab as we jumped in your taxi. We said oh we’ll buy you a drink. We laughed about not carrying cash any more and the taxi took card. They said no need to buy a drink. The taxi was just under £6 and he paid. We got to the bar and met our friends and they went to their friends. The barman came and asked for our drinks order. I said to my partner we’d better offer the other couple a drink. I motioned to them and the man came over and said yes please, a double gin and lemonade and a pint of moretti. Totalled £17! I just ordered them and took them to them. Why did I do that? What would you have actually done in the moment? I keep thinking I should have either just ordered a single gin, or laughed and said ‘wow that was an expensive cab journey!’ or something,

How would you really have reacted? Were they CF? Not a problem? Was I a pushover?

Great (very rare!) night out anyway and a bit of a story to tell the teens later when we see them. No biggie but interested in your thoughts!

OP posts:
ReviewingTheSituation · 19/02/2022 12:49

I'm impressed with a cab fare as cheap as £6! I could go the 2 miles from here into town in an Uber for that, but a normal cab is usually twice that.

tkwal · 19/02/2022 12:49

Maybe for them that's a standard drinks order ?

ParkheadParadise · 19/02/2022 12:53

You offered to buy them a drink

When I'm out in the City Centre pubs I always order a double, measures are crap🍷🍷but if someone offered to buy me a drink I would say
Brandy n Coke thank you.

Twinstudy · 19/02/2022 12:53

I probably wouldn't have specified a double but you were always going to be significantly out of pocket buying them two drinks in exchange for half of a six quid cab ride!

FragileLikeABomb · 19/02/2022 13:01

You did offer, and also take into consideration you paid for two drinks, not one.

Also, it might have been an expensive bar. If it had been in Wetherspoons (👀) it probably would have been cheaper. 😌😌

whynotwhatknot · 19/02/2022 13:03

even a single sounded like would have cost you about a tenner which is still more than the cab fare

PinkSyCo · 19/02/2022 13:12

I don’t think they set out to be CFs as they did try to tell you that you didn’t need to get them a drink (probably precisely because they knew it would be an expensive round for you) but you kept on insisting, so they conceded to shut you up. Don’t be so flash next time and accept no as your answer.

OhToBeinDeutschland · 19/02/2022 13:14

Haha I can assure you I wasn’t being flash! I thought I couldn’t order a drink with them nearby without at least checking again they didn’t want one

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Canhearthemice · 19/02/2022 13:15

I definitely wouldn't have offered when I saw the taxi was £6. You were always going to lose out there unless they ordered a couple of cordials. You did them a favour. Not great that they ordered a double gin but in thd hear of the moment, they might not have been thinking straight. Offset against the £6 cab, you lost £11 and lesson learnt

Inertia · 19/02/2022 13:20

They were cheeky in making a song and dance about the cabs, but you offered the drinks.

You should carry some cash - what if the cash took cash only? Then you could have split it, job done.

BankersBonus · 19/02/2022 13:26

@OhToBeinDeutschland

Haha fair enough! I just wouldn’t dream of asking for a double anything if someone was offering me a drink to make up for a cab fare.

How am I annoying? 😂

I used to work in a pub years ago and one regular offered to pay for a round for a few people at the bar.

I served everyone and one guy asked me if I had served him a single-I had as I took it the other man was buying everyone A drink. I had to go and ask him for more money because the doubles man insisted I put another shot in. His reasoning was he always drank doubles and someone was buying a round & his drink in the round was his usual double.

Maybe taxi man always drinks doubles?

KatherineJaneway · 19/02/2022 13:29

Next time, don't offer to pay for drinks if you clearly don't want to.

WeAreTheHeroes · 19/02/2022 13:31

I don't know any taxi that only takes cash in these pandemic days.

Sunnysidegold · 19/02/2022 13:31

I don't think anyone did anything rude here. You offered, they accepted, it was probably just their normal drink order, it wasn't like they asked for doubles of the most expensive whiskey or anything.

Maybe next time don't jump in with "we will buy you a drink" - you were always going to be out of pocket.

WonderfulYou · 19/02/2022 13:31

So they were kind enough for pay for the taxi and now you’re annoyed because they accepted the drink you kept offering?

Honestly just forget it.
Maybe next time something similar happens split the cost of the taxi which is a fixed costs instead.

Jojibear · 19/02/2022 13:35

I think ordering a double is a bit cheeky. I'm not sure I'd think twice though if I'd offered to buy them a drink.

I definitely wouldn't be posting about it online or planning to recount it to teenagers - you weren't a pushover, it's a non event (I mean this kindly!)

TheAverageUser · 19/02/2022 13:36

I don't think you should have offered the drink but once you'd done that then the order they made is fair enough.

RubyRedRoses · 19/02/2022 13:55

@WeAreTheHeroes

I don't know any taxi that only takes cash in these pandemic days.
Actually, my local cabs still mainly take cash only. It isn't a requirement everywhere and they're expensive to install (so the driver I had recently told me)
JunkIsland · 19/02/2022 14:17

Yes, you asked and you were always going to be the ‘loser’ here, but the double was too much. I like cocktails, but there’s no way I’d let a stranger buy me one under these circumstances. If a single g&t is really so awful it can’t be drunk even as a freeby, then they could have got two beers and ordered the g&t separately.

MindyStClaire · 19/02/2022 14:25

I think when you're past the broke student stage, then stuff like this is more "one good turn deserves another", rather than about monetary payback.

Given both couples were staying in a hotel and getting a taxi for a night out in a bar, I'm guessing the tenner difference won't be significant for either couple so I don't see it as particularly CF.

BorderlineHappy · 19/02/2022 15:07

Did you really thing they where only going to order a drink for £6. For 2 of them.

Did they know there was a cut off point.

You sound like you want the praise for offering the drink but not actually to pay for it.

EarringsandLipstick · 19/02/2022 15:16

I agree the couple weren't being CFers

The issue was the tiny fare. At £6, buying any drink was going to way exceed that. So it doesn't at all relate to the cost of the taxi fare - it's the gesture of buying a drink. They asked for what they'd drink & you then have to pay that amount.

OhToBeinDeutschland · 19/02/2022 15:16

Haha some of you are very funny. No I didn’t want praise and of course I knew it would cost more than £6, oh and of course I was happy to buy a drink because I offered. Of course, my issue is the double gin. Just felt a little cheeky, like when someone’s buying me a meal (as our parents often insist on doing if we go out together), I wouldn’t order the fillet steak, even though I might well do if we were paying ourselves.

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BorderlineHappy · 19/02/2022 15:24

Yes but you asked them what they drank.And they told you.
Its not cheeky of them..And maybe thats why they declined your offer teh first time.They knew it was expensive.

But you insisted,they relented and now you are on here moaning about it.

OhToBeinDeutschland · 19/02/2022 15:34

I didn’t ask them what they drank. I asked them if they would like a drink and that’s what they chose. I still think, like others on here, that I personally wouldn’t order a double in this situation. Some others think it’s fine so fair enough.

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