Interesting Car Service Experience
Last night I took Eastern from Park Slope. I gave the driver a 20 and asked for 10 in change. The driver had no change and proceeded to ask 6-7 people on the street for change. One guy asked me what I needed the change for. I explained and the guy said he wanted to pay for the car service and had to leave. He said something like, “This one is on me” and quickly walked away. Both the driver and I asked the guy not to pay my fare, but he insisted. I gave the ten to the driver and he gave me the 20 back. I got a few steps away and then the driver starts following me down the street saying that the $10 was a gift from the passerby and that I still owed him $10. Well, I didn’t pay the driver an additional $10. I thought that was nuts. My wife said I could have given the driver $5 extra to be nice but did not need to (of course, then we would be back to asking for change on the street). The fare had been paid and the driver tried to scam me - I didn’t feel I owed him anything extra.
Comments
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The fare was $10 (or less, and your $10 included tip). The driver was paid full fare. It doesn't matter where it came from and he had no claim to an additional $10.....nor do I think you even needed to give him an additional $5 - especially after he was a dick.
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Yeah, I agree. A few people have actually told me they would have paid the driver an extra $10 to avoid a scene. I don't get it.
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No way! Good for you!
I hate bullies, the driver was out of his mind! -
that's, like, the craziest thing i've ever heard. if the $10 was a gift to anyone, it was a gift to you, and you can spend it however you like. that's like paying for something with a gift certificate and then having the clerk tell you that you will also have to pay in cash out of your own pocket, because presents aren't money.
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Yeah, I agree, the driver was out of his mind. Talk about being an opportunist. Unfortunately, some people would have just paid him twice. One person even said to me that the driver could have gotten violent and they would have paid twice to avoid that. I don't get it.
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I would have also called the dispatcher to report him.
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I considered calling Eastern to complain, but I doubt it would have done any good. Would they really do anything or say anything to the driver?
A few weeks ago I took Eastern and the driver told me $13. It is ALWAYS $10 or $11 and sometimes even $9 (I go to the same location a few times a month with Eastern). I asked him to check with Eastern to tell me the day their rates increased. He called Eastern and was on hold for a few minutes. Finally he says to me, "11 is okay."
As an aside, I have lived in the city for about 15 years. This morning, for the first time ever, I saw a random checkpoint for car service vehicles. There were about 6-8 taxi and limousine officers (I guess they are cops?) pulling car service vehicles over and checking licenses, etc. What surprised me a bit was that the checkpoint was visible from a few blocks away, so drivers could have easily turned off to avoid it if they were alert enough to see the officers and their clearly marked taxi and limousine patrol cars. -
I had a problem with some Eastern drivers trying to charge me $7 for what I know is a $6 trip (I've been using Eastern for 12 years, and when I broke my ankle, needed to take a lot of taxis). I called the dispatcher once and told him I was tired of being ripped off - that I always tip the drivers, but I'm annoyed by them trying to pad the fare. I found out exactly what the boundaries are in the $6 range and the dispatcher told me that he's gotten complaints about it before and asked me to please call him if/when it happens again. He said he gives out warnings and will suspend drivers for repeated offenses.
I'm not sure if that's true, but I was just sick of it. 95% of the time I have no problem with Eastern - they are fast and reliable.
There was just another thread on this recently...do a search for the discussion. -
call and report. not sure if you still can (prob. don't know the name), but that's nuts.
Good for you for not paying more.
I wish Eastern/Aricibo actually published there maps with prices. I'm always so frustrated with this. -
This story sounds fishy.
But as a general matter, you should call the dispatcher if you ever have a problem with a car service driver. Give them the car number. The dispatcher will suspend a driver (ie - not call him to pick up fares) as punishment. It hits the driver where it hurts: in the wallet.
I called the dispatcher of a car service that is a block away from me when their cars drove down my street WAY over the speed limit. After two calls, their cars all drive down my block nice and slow. -
Fishy? No. Unusual? Yes.
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Not to mention that the guy should have been able to break a $20. It's not like you were asking him to break a large bill. He wasted your time and inconvenienced you by having to go from place to place trying to find change.
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Flexichick wrote: Not to mention that the guy should have been able to break a $20. It's not like you were asking him to break a large bill. He wasted your time and inconvenienced you by having to go from place to place trying to find change.
Yes he did waste my time. He got a little lost and then didn't have change. This added a good 10 minutes to my taxi ride. Then he tried to scam me at the end.
This driver reminded me of my landlord, always trying to push it. -
I had a car service driver the other day (Areceibo) who didn't have change for $20 for the $9 fare, and told me that the ride was on HIM! It was lovely.
Then last night I had a Yellow Cab driver who told me, as he dropped me off by my house, that he needed sugar fast because he's a diabetic and was feeling poorly. Luckily I had a power bar with me to give him.... -
Apartment Blues wrote:
Yeah well he reminds me of two of my tenants.
This driver reminded me of my landlord, always trying to push it. -
I find that drivers charge based on level of sobriety. Many a night I recall drivers charging $7 or $8 for a $6 fare and I was too, ahem, sleepy to argue. A couple times they don't have change so I haven't paid.
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We took a car home the other night and it was 7 bucks I handed the driver a 20 he said he didn't have change and asked me to walk 1/2 of my block to the Bodega.... I laughed at him and told him to go get change come back and ring my bell and politely walked into my house.... He never came back. I do not understand how these drivers ride around with no change.
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What! You should have snatched that 20 back and went home. Ridic.
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I once made the mistake of flagging a car service car outside Brooklyn Inn and then not negotiating the fare up front. For the trip from the BI (Hoyt and Bergen) to Park Pl and Washington Ave, which GMaps says is 1.6 miles, he asked for $30. On being told that was unreasonable, he replied that that's what he charges, that this was a nice car--a limo (though it was indistinguishable to me from a basic Crown Victoria)--and that it was our mistake to flag him and not ask.
Well, okay: call it my rarely-use-car-services-and-used-to-imagine-they're-vaguely-like-cabs naïvete. But it was unpleasant all around. I handed him about half that, which I thought was fair. And we got called "bitches," which was actually kind of funny, later, when I stopped being mad. -
Ewww. I had something similar happen. A generous friend of mine paid for a car to take my friends one place and me another, and at the first place the driver told me he refused to take me home unless I payed the full fare. I didn't have the money (which is why my friend payed in the first place) and I was hammered, and it was the middle of the night in Bed Stuy, so I was stuck. I ended up walking home after cussing him out - the first and last time I've ever lost my cool like that.
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Hi,
I'm actually an assistant manager for Eastern Car Service, and I wanted to let you know that pricing maps, or "Zone Maps" are not currently used in any car service other than the pricier Luxury car companies. However, Eastern Car Service is in the process of being the first to make one in order for all of our prices to remain consistent. We have listened to our customers concerns, and are striving to improve our services daily. The Zone maps should be in place sometime within the first quarter of 2010. Also, we are very strict with drivers who attempt to abuse our customers, we take incidents such as over charging very seriously. If you ever feel that a driver has not performed as he/she should have, please do not hesitate in contacting us at the email provided below; we normally respond within 48 hours.
Cordially yours,
Eastern Car Service
Joseph
Assistant Manager
[email protected] -
Yeah right, Arecibo has a pricing list for zone areas posted on their 5th ave location. Drivers still try to cheat you, but they are not a Luxury car company.
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Hi again,
Most Car Services use a map, that separates Brooklyn (NYC) into zones. These maps however are NOT pricing maps (Zone maps), and pricing based on such maps are often only estimates based on the dispatchers experience (The same is currently true in all NYC car services), thus, the differences in pricing. Currently, pricing will differ about 1-2 dollars, although you may find rare exceptions where the price may vary by more than that. Eastern Car Service, however, is currently creating a Zone map that will enable us to keep our prices consistent ALL the time.
[email protected] -
P.S.
If you want to know what else Eastern Car Service is up to, then add us on facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brooklyn-NY/Eastern-Car-Service/157896487654 ). You can also print out coupons for your next ride.
Joseph
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