My cabdriver forced me to pump gas bec. he didn' take cards

In the middle of my cabride, my cabdriver mentioned he didn't take credit cards. Since I didn't have an ATM, the question became how to pay for my ride.

His answer, 'fill up his tank.'

Not only was I forced to pay for my driver's gas (as that was the only way he took credit cards)...he even made me pump!

Always have cash to pay for a cab

My biggest nightmare was when I was delayed at LaGuardia and arrived at O'Hare around 1AM on a Thursday (so Friday at 1AM) and had a conference call at 8AM. After getting back to Lakeview around 1:30AM, the cabbie said his credit card machine broke and offered to drive me to an ATM. I lived literally next to a Jewel, so I went there, and took out the money (with the ATM fee).

My cab ride was 41 dollars, and he received 43. I said "if you would have let me pay by credit card, I would have gave you a nice 20% tip, but because you wanted cash, and made me walk to an ATM at 2AM, I deducted my ATM fee and some extra". Boy, was I pissed...if I wasn't so exhausted, I would have called 311 on him...I know he could have called it in. It was 2AM, I had been in a suit since 7AM the day before, and I couldn't wait to get home!

My advice? Always bring extra cash for cabs...it makes it a lot easier all the way around.

Current process for Charging a Credit Card

First, let’s review the current process for those of us who try to pay for a ride around the city with plastic. After the jump, of course. You won’t regret it.

• 1. Try and determine if the cab has a VISA sticker on the outside.
• 2. Get in the cab and tell the driver first that you have to use a card and risk being told that they don’t accept cards. OR wait until payment time comes and risk being told that “it don’t work” and is magically broken today.
• 3. Threaten to simply not pay for the ride or to report them to the taxi cab authority (which I doubt would accomplish much).
• 4. After they begrudgingly agree to take your card, they take no less than 4-5 minutes to find a pen and start to fill out the little form. This often requires you to tell them how much you want to tip before they have even run your card.
• 5. NOW the fun begins. They then pull out the 1980’s style, absolutely archaic slider machine that creates a carbon copy of your card info by manually moving a heavy piece of metal and plastic over the top of it several times (and they usually do is lots of times just for effect).
• 6. Next is time for them to hand you the form and your card…and for them to drop the pen. Once they’ve found the pen again, you can sign the form. Sometimes, if you are lucky, they even ask for your phone number so they can call you if “they have any problems”.

Hazards Of Paying A Taxi With A Credit Card

EVANSVILLE - NEWS 25 learns your private information may be getting broadcast across the Tri-State.

When you pay with plastic, cab drivers need to make sure that card works. They call in the numbers over the radio and anyone who has a scanner can listen in. That's your information in the hands of a stranger.

Bill Bayne has been driving Evansville taxis for 14 years.

Three months ago he started his own company: Cardinal Cabs. The reason Bayne branched out? Safety. He says when passengers pay with credit cards in other cabs, the taxi driver calls in the card number to make sure the card's good.

"Anybody and everybody who listens to a police scanner get to listen to your credit card transaction," Bayne says. He says a few of his customers were ripped off when their card numbers were copied. "The scammers don't care-they're geeks and freaks who are trying to get your money any way they can."

When paying for a taxi ride using a credit card at the Cardinal Cab Company, you swipe your card through this machine. No numbers read over the radio. Bayne says it's the best way to keep your personal information safe.

"Maybe two percent of our business is credit cards-it's not a very large part of the business at all," says Heather Williams, Vice President of River City Cab.

It's the biggest cab company in Evansville and it doesn't have credit machines in the cabs. Drivers write the card number on charge slips; they can also call in the number.

"It's a private radio frequency," Williams says.

NEWS 25 asks: can't people listen in on that radio?

"It's not legal to do so if I understand correctly with that. I was just dealing with that because we had somebody listening in-doing some things illegally with that," Williams says.

"It really doesn't hit home to you on how it's happening until some Joe says look...I've seen this happen, I prefer you not to do it this way," Bayne says.

River City Cabs is trying to get money to install a GPS, credit card system inside its cabs. The vice president says it should happen later this year. She says she hasn't heard any customers complain about fraud.

Free taxi ride vs. paying for it by card.

I took a $12 ride from a bar to my hotel room, as I got close I realized I didn't have enough cash. I asked the driver if he accepted credit cards and he said that he didn't, but he would be ok if I went to the ATM at my hotel. When I arrived at my hotel, I went to the ATM and it didn't have any cash available for disbursement. The driver asked to take me to another ATM, which I declined...so he said ok, then I won't charge you for this ride.

-Brian

The police had to help me pay for my ride by card.

On route to New York City from Newark Airport, the passenger asked the driver if he could pay by credit card. The cabdriver said he did not accept credit cards, but he would be happy to drive the passenger to an ATM, but that extra stop would result in an extra $15 fee. The passenger was clearly upset about the matter, as well as didn't have the cash to pay for the ride so the cabdriver called the police to settle the dispute. The police arrived and forced the cabdriver to not charge the passenger a $15 extra fee for the stop so the passenger could go to an ATM to pay for his ride.

Choking on Credit Cards

An aggravated-assault charge was reinstated yesterday against Ronald Blount, the head of the Taxi Workers Alliance, stemming from a March incident in which he allegedly choked a woman who wanted to pay her fare with a credit card.

"He starts choking me," the woman, Megan Saunders, testified yesterday as she put both of her hands to her neck in demonstration. "He slams my head" against the roof of the taxi van.

"He continues to strangle me," Saunders, 32, said. "I'm like, 'Oh my God, I'm going to die in broad daylight.' "

Saunders said that Blount's "bulging" eyes looked "evil."

Common Pleas Judge Frank Palumbo reinstated the aggravated-assault charge against Blount, 49, at yesterday's hearing.

Blount, president of the Taxi Workers Alliance of Pennsylvania, has opposed credit-card payments for taxi rides for many reasons, including that drivers lose 5 percent of each fare to fees.

He now faces trial in Common Pleas Court on the felony aggravated-assault charge as well as misdemeanor charges of simple assault, unlawful restraint and related offenses.

At a preliminary hearing in May, Municipal Judge Jacquelyn Frazier-Lyde dismissed the aggravated-assault charge, but held Blount on the other charges. Prosecutors then refiled the aggravated-assault criminal complaint.

Saunders testified that about 6 p.m. March 6 she was at Philadelphia International Airport, having returned from a business trip. At the taxi stand, she was assigned Blount's taxi minivan.

Blount drove her to her destination of Rodman Street near 6th, Society Hill. Saunders said that she then told him that she needed to pay with a credit card.

"He said his machine was broken," Saunders said. "It didn't look broken."

She said Blount then said, "Let me take you to an ATM," which she didn't want to do. He then electronically opened the back-passenger door for her, she said.

"I guess you got yourself a free ride," Saunders quoted Blount as saying as he stood outside her door.

Saunders said she was confused by his comment, and as she was about to step out of the back seat behind the driver's side of the cab, he started choking her.

Blount then slammed the upper back part of her head against the outside roof of the van, she said, then threw her upper body back into the van, so that her head landed on the passenger side of the back seat.

Throughout the ordeal, which lasted about two minutes, Blount continued choking her, she said.

"What were you thinking?" Assistant District Attorney Kathleen Shields asked.

"That he was going to kill me," Saunders said.

Saunders fought back by kicking Blount "in his fat stomach," she testified. She then tried punching him, but at that moment, he released his hands from her neck, she said.

She then jumped out of the cab and walked toward the back, where she tried to remember his license-plate number.

Saunders said she yelled: "You can't do this to somebody!" and told Blount she would call police.

"He was saying very arrogantly, 'I don't give a f--- who you call,'" as he slowly drove away, she said.

Saunders said she sustained a migraine and an injury to her right-cheekbone area from the attack, and that she couldn't eat solid foods for a while.

Blount's attorney, Paul Messing, argued that this was not an aggravated-assault case, contending that there was no serious bodily injury or attempt to cause such injury.

Shields argued that choking someone for two minutes is an attempt at serious bodily injury.

The judge held Blount for trial on the charge, noting that at the preliminary-hearing level, the commonwealth is entitled to have the testimony viewed in its favor.

After the hearing, Saunders declined comment.

Blount, who is out on bail, and his attorney did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Blount is still working as a taxi driver, Philadelphia Parking Authority spokeswoman Linda Miller said later. She said that a judge at the Taxicab & Limousine Division allowed him to continue working as long as he checked in daily with the Enforcement Department. *