Originally Posted by
vxmike
I never take cabs b/c I find them to be one of the most despicable groups of people on earth. I always find some other way to get to my destination.
Curious though...if you get ripped off what's to stop you from just walking away and not paying the crooked driver?
I agree. I've done this a couple of times. Once in Naples, I told the taxi guy the address I was going to. Start driving and all of a sudden there was a 25 Euro surcharge since it was outside of the city limits. I told him that it was nonsense since it was only 5 or 7 km from where we were. He insists. I show him my handheld GPS and he says it is wrong. I flip him a 2euro coin (the meter was I think around 8 euro), get out and flag down another taxi. That guy pleasantly follows the GPS to the door of this nondescript apartment building. I give the guy an 8 Euro tip on a fare of I think 12 (don't quote me on teh numbers, it's been 5 years).
In BKK, I took a taxi from my hotel to my friend's apartment. IIRC it was about 140 baht. The taxi driver said 20 baht. I knew a scam was brewing but I had the change and the knowhow. He drives me there and all of a sudden it was 200. It wasn't his English either. I flip him 80 baht (IIRC) and tell him to beat off. The concierage told me I handled it fine.
In Chiang Mai (Thailand), the tuk tuk's outside the Holiday Inn was charging something like 50 baht to go into town. That was already high. some of them were really trying their luck and asking for 150. I didnt' even waste my time and turned away without even saying 'no' like they didn't exist which is supposed to be very rude. If they pushed me, I them told them to 'f*** off.' Rude, yes but they were the first to be rude. Usually I'd say to the tuk tuk right behind the rude one, "Hey how's 50 baht." I always got a "sure."
Originally Posted by
graraps
Surprising was the straightforward nature of taxis in Venezuela. Having read all sorts of horror stories, I was ultra cautious and wouldn't flag any kind of taxi on the road, until I could get to a rank or at least call one to send me a car.
Agreed although the normal taxis have horrible exhaust problems that left me with a sinus infection and I very very rarely get sick. The biggest rip off in VZ was the concierage CCS JW Marriott. We asked for a restaurant that we can walk to. They told us to go to a Plaza "on the other side of the city." We agreed upon a price (~$26 USD). We drove there in 4 minutes. Nice car but absolute nonsense. We walked home that night from where they dropped us off in 9 minutes....no exaggeration. I triple checked at the hotel and that was the actual price. I complained all the way up to corporate. That was literally the biggest rip off I've ever experienced from taxis and it was from a JW.
