Did I screw the taxi driver over?!

[DontBiteTheBoobThatFeedsYou]

A taxi driver flipped out at me yesterday. Over £1.
And I'm feeling guilty and cross about it.

I took a taxi to the train station yesterday, called a particular company who are reliable and asked if they had a card machine or do I need to organise cash?

They said they have card machines so that's fine.

The guy who took me was lovely, but said he's lucky if he makes £20 a day now. He used to make £200-£300 a day.

2 hours later I call a taxi to take us home.
We get home, I ask how much and it's £12something.
I get my card out but he says the card machine isn't working. So I say I'll run upstairs and get some cash. I have £3 in my wallet and a £10 upstairs.
I went to say "don't worry about the change" and
he then says it was £14something.

I was like, whaaaaat? He charged me for the time him and I took the bags out the boot, and for the matter or minutes it took me to run upstairs and grab the £10.

I said no sorry, I was ready to pay with my card. I'm not being charged extra while I ran upstairs and got cash, it was his card machine that was broken after all.

He starts shouting fuck you! Fuck you! You screwed me over, over £1.

I was thinking is this really happening?! He's shouting at me as he's driving away.

Now I'm thinking about what that guy said about only making £20 a day.

I feel like one of us was an arsehole and I'm not sure how it is.

Are taxi drivers furloughed??? Are things so desperate he's shouting at customers over a quid? I'm worried he flipped out because life is shit and he has no bloody food for his kids or something?!

Am I over thinking this?!

@Tinyhumansurvivalist

Oh please educate yourself.

Not everyone is entitled to the self employment help and not everyone is entitled to uc

@sergeilavrov

Let’s all try and give people a bit of breathing space right now though, things are difficult and tensions are high. He will probably have been mortified ten minutes later, but in the moment just became overwhelmed with how much financial pressure there is and nothing to fall back on.

Sorry but my dad was a taxi driver and he would never have behaved this way. Stop minimising awful male behaviour.

You sound very patronising with the let’s all calm down.

On the other hand, it’s unacceptable if taxi drivers didn’t get help during the lockdown. Aren’t they basically like small businesses?

@excuseforfights Appropriate username. I specifically said his behaviour was wrong.

He shouldn't have become aggressive over it. With some companies though, they actually do charge for stop offs and extra time. You running to get your cash could have been why it was more expensive.. but either way, he was rude to you. And it was HIS machine that was broken. None of it is your fault in the slightest, so just move on from it :) any other local companies you can use instead from now on?

if you'd had no cash in the house you'd have been screwed

I wondered myself what would have happened then

... though there's every chance that the tech would "magically" have worked again

Totally unacceptable behavior from taxi driver. Don’t give it another thought

@sergeilavrov

Appropriate username.

Great comeback.

He was out of order. I avoid using taxis wherever possible, use busses or trains or walk, I've also had bad experiences with taxis.

i would definitely phone up about the blacklisting you dont know what story hes told head office

fare prices havent gone up? where do you live

I would at minimum make the cab company aware as you weren’t able to pay your fare as the machine wasn’t working so maybe they need to confirm with clients how they will be paying if they have drivers with faulty machines so they can ensure you are able to pay.

Bottom line is that it’s not reasonable to shout “fuck you fuck you” over something like money (I was going to say never ok but obviously if you’d physically injured him or something...)

Also sounds like you were in the right about the money situation though.

Awful that they haven’t had any help from the govt though.

Ultimately I’d try to forget it though

Too much “though”, sorry.

sergeilarov, in that long post only one short sentence saying that the taxi driver shouldn't have been aggressive. That's correct, he shouldn't have been and there is NO excuse.

You posted a lot about your dad who is a taxi driver and he sounds great... this one wasn't though and your dad, if he's as good as you say he is, would be the first to agree with the OP.

Why is OP responsible for the card machine not working as if this is somehow her problem to fix? It really wasn't.

No leeway is due to people who are aggressive with customers, he didn't halt himself or apologise or do anything to make things right... he threatened the OP with blacklisting. He deserves to have no customers if he behaves like that and if I were the OP I wouldn't use him again. He has essentially forced her to a least enquire as to whether her address is blacklisted and that will probably unravel the events anyway. Foolish and unnecessary and that's on him. My sympathies are with the OP, this has obviously really rattled her.

@Puzzledandpissedoff

if you'd had no cash in the house you'd have been screwed

I wondered myself what would have happened then

... though there's every chance that the tech would "magically" have worked again

He would have offered to take you to an ATM obviously the fare will still be running, if you refuse to go the ATM he is then within his rights to call the police because its counted as being 'obtaining services by false representation' I think its called

No it isn't, I don't think any woman should go to an AATF with a taxi driver. I think it is for the taxi firm to make sure that the method of payment that OP requested (and booked on that basis) is available. If not, she can make other payment arrangements, not be frog-marched off to a cash point...

He would have offered to take you to an ATM

Ah yes, I suppose that would be the obvious thing to do and I should have thought of it

I know this isn't really relevant to the OP, but just out of interest is it really a matter for the police if someone fails to pay? I'd have thought that would come under "civil matters" ... unless someone made a habit of it I guess, which might be different

YANBU - if the company says all taxis have card readers, then any taxi without a working one needs to inform customers asap.

It would be one thing if you'd got home and he'd realised it wasnt working but he knew it didnt work and chose not to tell you. What if you didnt have any cash? Or you live a distance from an ATM? How was he expecting to get paid?

I work in a supermarket, if our card machines are broken we tell customers asap - so that they have a choice to get cash and come back or limit their shop to the cash they have in their purse/wallet. We don't wait till they have scanned and packed their shopping to tell them that we only accept cash.

Having said that, to prevent this happening in future I would ask when you get into the car to confirm. I get taxis home from work sometimes (I live in my town centre so if I work late on Friday/Saturday I prefer to get a taxi than walk through groups of bar hopping drunks) and I dont take cash to work so when I get in the car I always ask "Hey, do you have a card reader because if not then I'm going to need to stop at an ATM". 9 times out of 10 they have one but the odd time they dont have one they appreciate the heads up and can use the route that will pass an ATM vs the route that doesn't have one/will need a detour.

YANBU. I bet the card reader worked and he was trying his luck to get some extra cash and tip out of you.
Ring the cab office and complain.

@Puzzledandpissedoff

He would have offered to take you to an ATM

Ah yes, I suppose that would be the obvious thing to do and I should have thought of it

I know this isn't really relevant to the OP, but just out of interest is it really a matter for the police if someone fails to pay? I'd have thought that would come under "civil matters" ... unless someone made a habit of it I guess, which might be different

www.taxi-point.co.uk/single-post/2018/04/03/Untitled

The law itself is quite straightforward, if a passenger refuses to pay the fare or runs off without paying, this is considered to be a criminal offence.

If a passenger makes off without paying then this is considered an act of theft under Section 3 of the Theft Act 1978 – Making off without payment.

If a passenger knowingly takes a journey in a taxi without having the money to pay and does not inform the driver of this until the final destination is reached then this is an offence under Section 11 of the Fraud Act 2006 – Obtaining services dishonestly.

Finally if the passenger refuses to pay at the final destination, this would also considered an offence under Section 11 of the Fraud Act.

There is absolutely no ambiguity in the two pieces of legislation stated above. The offences are a police matter and not a civil matter.

From my experience most taxi drivers are nice but theres a significant minority who are quite nasty, who evidently dont like their job and feel it Is acceptable to give a bad attitude if they dislike, eg your destination, the fact that you've only gone two miles down the road, that you waited for your change and didnt give a tip. They give an aiitutde that wouldn't be tolerated in virtually any industry but because its just the two of you (ie not in a shop, supermarket, restaurant, museum, bank etc etc) they think they can get away with it. The guy was a totally out of line.

@lyingwitchinthewardrobe As you will know, I started my post with the statement that I wanted to address other comments, which I did, in turn. Some of the ways the taxi industry works are complex, so require explanation. The one thing that isn’t complex and doesn’t require explanation is that what this driver said, and his attitude, was wrong. Why do I need to go into detail for something that simply doesn’t require it? That’s wasting everyone’s time.

At no point did I not sympathize with OP, I voted that she wasn’t being unreasonable, and I was clear that my response was to clear up some of the comments about taxi drivers and their responsibilities. In fact, even after I posted, people continued to say it’s the taxi driver’s card machine, which is exactly the type of misconception I chose to address in my comment.

@midnightcitrus
Because our outgoings are £8000 a month