I get a lot of mini cabs from a local firm. It's not ideal but as I can't drive due to medical issues it's very often a necessity.
I am known to many of the drivers and they're a great company. Tonight I ordered a taxi to take me, DD1 and DD2 to Brownies which is a mile and a half away...we ride our bikes in the summer but when it's so dark I prefer to cab it.
I (as usual) asked the driver to take us to the venue which is a church hall in a naice residential area and then once I have left DD1 in the hall, to take DD2 and I to some shops about a mile away...then DD2 and I often buy a few bits and walk home.
He asked where the hall was and I told him the street.
We got there and it was only as he pulled up that I realised he'd done what a few drivers have done which is to pull up at the side of the hall...not in the car park...but it's only a trot across some grass and then the hall is there....it's a bit of a sprawling site with trees and grass between church and hall....the other drivers have always let me see DD across the grass...then I return to the cab and carry on to the shops.
I said this to the cabby and he said "You don't even know the street!"
I said "Yes I do...I told it to you..this is it but you've missed the entrance..." and he said "No..no..." his English wasn't great but I said "Well I don't mind just seeing her into the hall and then coming back if you don't mind waiting for a minute?"
I had by this point got the DDs out and was half out myself and he LEAPED out and said "No! NO! YOU PAY! YOU PAY!
Like we were in the frigging Bronx rather than a small Cheshire village!
I said "Right.." and paid him but I was upset...A that he thought I was going to do a runner with two smallish kids and B that he shouted at me.
He then drove off leaving DD2 and I stuck in a vast residential area, in the dark. I saw DD1 into Brownies and then called the company to complain and ask for another cab.
They said "Right...we've had too many complaints about him he won't be driving for us again Caroline...he's done for now."
And I protested...I said "Oh well I didn't want him to be sacked...maybe just have some things explained to him..." and they said "No we can't lose business...he's had chances and this is it for him now."
So now I feel bad and also worried that he knows where I live!