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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think full vomit charge was unreasonable?

125 replies

Sabrina145 · 12/06/2023 23:22

So my friend vomited in the taxi home from a night out last weekend. She was in the front seat and a very small amount of sick went on the gear stick. The driver stopped quickly and she opened the door and continued getting sick outside. The driver wiped the bit of vomit from the gear stick with a tissue. He charged us the full price of the soiling fee-180 euros. Now I totally think the fee is fair, don’t get me wrong, if someone throws up in the car. But this was only a small bit and he wiped it off so should
it have been maybe half the fee? Anyway, we paid and that’s that. I guess I’m just wondering AIBU to think maybe she should have got a partial charge instead? Or am I totally wrong! I do understand it’s horrible for the driver to have any amount of bodily fluids in their vehicle!

OP posts:
Clafoutie · 13/06/2023 05:07

Bagpuss2022 · 13/06/2023 02:40

Hmmm I’m on the fence nasty for the driver but that does seem steep.
I paid £120 last autumn my DD was sick all over the back seat (no alcohol she’s too young for that yet! But it was allergic reaction to some food) he did waive the taxi fee though.
I will always be grateful to the taxi driver who took me home walked me up my drive made sure I was safe never charged me anything and I was sick all over his car but that was the 90s when people I think were kinder

It is not about kindness, or lack of it. The point of the fee, as pp have said, is as a deterrent so that people who are drunk take some personal responsibility. Passengers who are sick due to illness, food allergy, or motion sickness as someone else described, may not be charged because there is a recognition there that the passenger is not responsible for being sick. The OP wanting the friend to be eligible for a discount due to only being a little bit sick is missing the point entirely, (as well as suggesting that people are not being rational in their responses!) The point being, taking personal responsibility for yourself and recognising that your actions do have a bearing on others, however insignificant and minor they may seem.

LadyH846 · 13/06/2023 05:18

You're being totally unreasonable. Vomit smells terrible.

Advicerequest · 13/06/2023 05:29

My five year old vomited in a black cab. I kept asking the driver to open the window but he said he couldn't because of the aid conditioning. I asked him to pull over but he was too slow and she vomited in the car. Ended up decanting us onto a busy shopping street. I cleaned up loads while trying to manage two five year olds alone. I had passers by offering to help. The driver asked for fifty quid to clean up and I gave it to him. I don't think he should have asked though as if he'd opened the window as I kept requesting I don't think it would have happened.

Outofthepark · 13/06/2023 05:33

OP if you're prepared to get so shitfaced you puke in another person's vehicle, you should be prepared to pay the clean up charge without any question. It's not a sliding scale of 'vomit less, pay less' 😄.

IAmAnIdiot123 · 13/06/2023 05:38

DIYandEatCake · 12/06/2023 23:30

Can’t imagine how someone can vomit in a car but only get a tiny splash on the gear stick?

I have vomited in many cars and am pretty good now at not getting any sick on any part of the vehicle.

None of my sickness has ever been in relation to alcohol though so maybe not the same as no mental impairment.

listsandbudgets · 13/06/2023 05:42

She should pay.

That said, I was once picked up.from A and E ( I didn't think I should have been discharged since I was in severe pain and couldn't even open my eyes but that's another matter). Driver took one look at me, helped me into the car, opened the boot and handed me two towels and a bucket. I was sick 3 times on way back.. I think it was the oramorph.

He was quite clear.that if he'd picked me up for any journey that wasn't to/ from the hospital I'd have had to pay the cleaning fee. Apparently he had been driv9bg taxis fir 15 years and long ago decided a bucket was an important piece of kit

powershowerforanhour · 13/06/2023 06:03

"a very small amount of sick went on the gear stick. "

You were in the back, it was dark, you (presumably) had had a few as well. She was in the thick of the action but- also dark, she was so hammered she was puking. Neither of you best placed to judge exactly how much puke went where.

Also, if it became known locally that there's a taxi driver who is open to negotiation with a carful of drunks about the vomit charge...he's not gonna make himself popular with the other taxi drivers.

Walkaround · 13/06/2023 06:09

Taxi drivers do not really want to have to negotiate with customers over how much they have or have not ruined the car. And you would not have wanted him tut, tutting as he inspected every inch of the inside and outside of his cab to assess the precise pattern of your friend’s vomit splatters - nobody is ever really just sick on a tiny area, the vomit droplets do travel. It’s also not a good look to get drunk and then argue your vomit wasn’t a problem. So, I have some sympathy with both of you, but I think a flat rate charge is easiest from the driver’s perspective.

Butitsnotfunnyisititsserious · 13/06/2023 06:11

Well if you didn't want to have to pay it, next time she needs to drink less. When you're sick, vomit can go everywhere in small amounts. It was dark, you wouldn't have been able to see if all the sick was gone or not.

Elderflower14 · 13/06/2023 06:12

Outofthepark · 13/06/2023 05:33

OP if you're prepared to get so shitfaced you puke in another person's vehicle, you should be prepared to pay the clean up charge without any question. It's not a sliding scale of 'vomit less, pay less' 😄.

This with bells on!!!

Emotionalsupportviper · 13/06/2023 06:12

Vomit stinks!

He may have been able to wipe it up but the car would reek. He might not have been able to work again that evening.

AngelAurora · 13/06/2023 06:14

The driver was well within his rights to charge her for it. Taking the taxi off the road to clean it loses the poor driver his wages.

Primor · 13/06/2023 06:23

Of course she should pay. An adult getting drunk to the point they’re sick is ridiculous. Poor taxi driver

funinthesun19 · 13/06/2023 06:26

I think he’s taken full advantage and got some extra cash for nothing. CF.

hattyhathat · 13/06/2023 06:27

It's clearly a flat rate thing. The driver doesn't have time to be assessing surface area. She threw up in his car and exposed him to bodily fluids. It doesn't matter how much - it's grim. I can't believe you are quibbling over it. And if you really were unhappy at paying the full charge then negotiations should have happened at the time. If your friend was sick because she drank too much then I suggest she drinks less - that way she won't puke PLUS she'll save money.

hattyhathat · 13/06/2023 06:29

Also to point out - they might have gone and got the taxi cleaned anyway. Just because he wiped off the vomit on the stick doesn't mean there aren't droplets of vomit all over his car.

JandalsAlways · 13/06/2023 06:32

GracePalmer33 · 13/06/2023 04:58

The comments on this threat are rather extreme.

The car is a write off ?
She can't be an amazing person ?
Your friend is a disgusting person ?

None of those things are true.
I don't advocate throwing up in taxis. But the judgemental superiority complexes on this thread are beyond off-putting.

I think people are judging because OP thinks she shouldn't have paid the clean up fee, which is quite an abhorrent attitude. Not sure how many people would be happy if someone was sick in their car! Hmm

Ylvamoon · 13/06/2023 06:33

There isn't a pay-by-volume system where you get charged by the amount

🤣

newhaircut · 13/06/2023 06:41

JaukiVexnoydi · 12/06/2023 23:49

Nope yanbu.

The fee is not just some kind of "this is the cost of cleaning a taxi". The actual "cost" of a full car valet (to a taxi fleet who must do them weekly anyway) is probably less than £50. The charge isn't a cost-of-what-you-used that can be discounted if the effect wasn't too bad, it's a penalty and a warning and a disincentive that exists to teach people that it is totally unacceptable to get yourself so drunk that you might throw up and then get into a taxi. People who aren't mature enough to understand this aren't legally allowed to drink anyway. For those who have reached the noble and respected age of 18 it's not hard to get your head around: if you drink, stop before you get to the point that you might vomit. If you don't do that then don't get into a taxi, walk home. If you can't restrain yourself from drinking to vomiting point, stay within an easy walk of home to do so. If these simple rules are too much for you you are too much of a baby to drink at all.

The fact that the majority if the vomit went out of the taxi does not alter one jot the shittiness of her behaviour in getting into a taxi whilst that drunk. That was luck, not skill or good judgement or any kind of moral superiority that could justify a reduced cost of the behaviour.

This. You have no idea the kind fo threatening abuse taxi drivers get fron drunk customers. If there was a vomit pay scale according to the amount of vomit, you can imagine the kind of arsey behaviour from some people arguing the vomit amount was "too small" to be charged for.

Its a standard fee to prevent this kind of disgusting behaviour. Vomit reeks and even if he cleared it up, customers might be put off by the smell so he will lose trade. You are being very unreasonable.

moonlitwalks · 13/06/2023 06:46

CrazyArmadilloLady · 13/06/2023 03:57

When it comes to vomit, it isn’t a spectrum.

Either vomit was present, or it wasn’t.

In this case, it was. So - you get a fine.

There is zero reason or incentive for taxi drivers to have a range of fines, depending on the amount or placement of vomit. Why on earth would they do that?

If vomit is present, you get fined. End of.

Agree. Its not a sliding scale FFS. "oh, since it didnt contain sweetcorn, I'll knock a fiver off".

Grow up. You vomit, you pay for it. Dont like it- dont waste your money on alcohol, your friend didnt seem to mind paying for that and puking it back up again. Thats a far more wasteful use of money.

ThePoshUns · 13/06/2023 06:53

If you were sat in the back and had been drinking also how do you know it was only in the gear stick?

ClairDeLaLune · 13/06/2023 08:18

She vomited on the gear stick where he has to put his hand to change gear? That’s disgusting. Why are you minimising it? She deserved the full fee.

MrsPetty · 14/06/2023 17:53

I’m with the consensus. He had every right to charge the full cleaning fee. It’s gross. Maybe your friend will learn a lesson.

Preps · 14/06/2023 17:56

The fee is also there as a protection/disincentive. They hope knowing that you'll be charged mean you won't get in if you're likely to be sick. It's not just about the cleaning.

laylababe5 · 14/06/2023 19:06

Maybe the €180 fee will make her think twice next time about drinking so much that she vomits in the taxi. You puke you pay.