Rude, invasive taxi driver. AIBU to report?

[breadinthemicrowaveornothing]

I booked a taxi and to cut a long story short, didn't need it anymore

It turned up at my house. I had cancelled - they send out a taxi which goes a bit like this

'Thank you for booking A&B taxis. Your driver is on the way. Send CANCEL to cancel your booking'

And I sent cancel. To which an automated response of 'you have cancelled your taxi, etc etc' came through

The driver seemed to be sat there for a few minutes and I wasn't prepared. So I hoped he'd get the message (both literal and physical) that I didn't need the taxi. He was waiting some more and then stormed over the the front door! Could see from my doorbell recording app

He banged on the door and I didn't answer. He then shouted 'I know you're in there! I can see you peaking '

I didn't respond and remained silent. He opened my door! And stepped into the house. He then shouted 'TAXI!'

I was terrified and thought about calling the police. I locked the living room door. I heard some foot steps and then the street door slam. I went out and bolted it straight away, having seen him leave via my Ring camera

Do I report this? To the police or just the taxi firm?

If you've got a ring doorbell couldn't you just have spoken to him through that without needing to go outside? Lesson learned to lock your door too!

But he was absolutely in the wrong for coming into your house, having an unlocked door is stupid from a safety perspective but it doesn't give anyone the right to just enter your property! Whether you report is up to you, my only concern was he was unhinged enough to enter your property, he may decide to return.

You’re both unreasonable.

He shouldn’t enter someone’s house. He’s not unreasonable to be irritated by you peeking and not telling him that you’d cancelled so he could go to another paying customer.

You should have told him that you’d cancelled. He would have been in trouble if he’d left when you needed a few more minutes to get out of the door because of disability etc You were unreasonable to say that he should have known that a respectable woman wouldn’t have pranked him.

What exactly does 'a respectable looking woman' look like? I am picturing ankle length skirts and hair in a bun.

My teenage boy would have behaved like a grown up and gone and told the taxi driver he'd cancelled. So I guess you never can tell who's going behave like a dick 🤷‍♂️

You leave your front door open so that anyone can just walk in? How bizarre.

You could have just gone to the door and said you'd cancelled the taxi and shown him the confirmation. Instead you let him sit around wasting his time, refused to answer the door, etc tec. Honestly, you are very rude.

This is basically what I was going to say.

The online cancellation should be sufficient though. I’d have popped my head out to say I’d cancelled but then the OP might have got a mouthful from him in any case.

What he did was completely inappropriate on any reading though, and does need to be reported.

I’d never leave my front door unlocked for anyone to just walk in though

Maybe OP was scared to go out in case he got angry and clearly she had a point

so why didn’t OP use the doorbell to tell him? She was clearly watching him through it so why not just say something?

Shocking! A taxi driver going to a house; it’s appalling; the consequences if this became common would be devastating.

his defence of going in would be interesting (to be clear: i don't think it was ok to do this). For eg: didn't see the cancellation, door was open, worried she'd had a stroke/heart attack/attack of the vapours at the idea of speaking to someone like an adult and went in to check.

I am not entirely convinced it happened (if it happened) like the OP says. She seems to favour the dramatic. The suggestion someone made of him entering a porch to shout to make sure he was heard inside makes sense and isn’t that weird. It’s also pretty clear he didn’t get the cancel message as why waste his time even going if he did. I wonder if he was outside when OP cancelled. He probably thought she was just messing about with all the “peaking” around curtains and hiding behind doors.

Yes, from the OP:

"He stormed over the the front door"

"He banged on the door"

"He then shouted 'I know you're in there!"

So yes, hammering, yelling. Welcome to the fabulous world of synonyms 🎉

You've completed made up in your mind that he wasn't actually 'banging' or yelling

And since I'm the only one who was there on this thread, yes, that's how you should take it

He didn't just knock loudly. It was a proper 'bang bang bang'

It was really aggressive and he was clearly angry.

Yes because you were clearly being ridiculous and wasting his time!

And the anxious is bull shit, being anxious dies not give you the right to act like an idiot!

Op - why do you not think it's rude to waste someone's time?

Try and reverse the situation to your own job to understand. Say you work in an office, one day you are under the impression you need to drive to work to get paid. You drive there, taking up your time and petrol. But there's no paid work for you today. No one told you. In fact they specifically asked you to come. But it doesn't end there. Not only is there now no paid work for you that you've already spent time and money on, but the receptionist who cancelled the work without notice sees you in the carpark and hides. Peeking at you. You waste a bit more of your own time thinking wtf is going on. You then investigate. The receptionist who you know is in there hides more.

You did harm and hurt him, you hurt his livelihood.

Hopefully you are banned for life.

We’ll I’m anxious too, OP, and I would have rushed out as soon as I saw him arrive to explain the error… in order to avoid the kind of scenario you just described.

I think you might be using 'anxiety' to justify to yourself your behaviour in a more positive light than cowardice/guilt. I'm sure you were anxious to go and tell him that the taxi was no longer needed, because that's an embarrassing thing to have to do. You wanted to avoid the conflict. But that wasn't the kind thing to do. The kind thing was to go immediately out there, and own the late cancellation which he was clearly unaware of, 'I'm so sorry, I've just cancelled.' Yes, far harder than hiding behind the curtains, but the right thing to do.

What happened that meant you ordered and had to cancel in such a short space of time?

Memories are fickle things and your own emotions affect them.

He could well tell the story as "I pulled up, I wasn't sure they were aware so I called out. When I got no response, but I could see them in there acting strangely, I became worried. I walked up the path and knocked loudly, calling out clearly that it was the Taxi. I was worried they were either hard of hearing, hadn't heard me and weren't sure who was outside or that they were somehow in trouble and calling loudly would scare their assailant, bringing them out to cover up. When nothing happened I decided it must have been a wind up and so I slumped off, disappointed my time had been wasted"

Either could be entirely valid. And witnesses could split their support depending on their own prejudice - for example someone desperate to see all men as wicked and evil or someone with a history of absue would agree it was aggressive whilst someone who sympathised with him losing money or someone who had a family member saved by someone taking extra time at their job would agree it was caring and calm

He shouldn't have entered your home but I can see why he did. He was already on the way to your house when you cancelled so he probably didn't receive the message. Instead of being a grown-up about it and going outside and letting him know you had cancelled at such and such time, you hid hoping he would go away. You wasted his time and ignored his attempts to contact you. He might not have handled it appropriately but neither did you.

You're obviously not anxious enough - you left your door open so he could walk in.

Maybe he thought you might have called the taxi to go to hospital, perhaps he has had a previous experience where a customer needed assistance. I think he was scared of being reported as having not turned up so wanted to ensure you knew he was there. I don't understand why you didn't just say you had cancelled. Clearly he hadn't got the message so your beef, if any, is with the company's communication.

My dad booked a taxi to bring him to my house because he was feeling a 'bit down'.
I had no idea, or else I'd have gone to collect him.
When the taxi arrived, he did not come out. Taxi driver rang him - no answer. Hammered on the door - no answer.
Opened the door to shout that he was waiting and there was dad on the floor. He had fallen after a dizzy turn and cracked his head open.
I was very grateful to that taxi driver.

And before anyone says it - dad unlocked the door so he could get out to the taxi quicker.

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