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. *
Taxi Rage: Woman Punched For Trying To Charge Ride
NEW YORK (CBS) ― There have been a number of reports of cab drivers balking at customers who try to pay with credit cards, but a woman is accusing a cabbie of actually punching her after she tried to charge a ride.
Tamara Perez tells CBS 2 HD she still can't believe it happened.
The incident happened Tuesday after Perez ran to her East Village home to pick up some papers. Once in the cab, the 35-year-old realized she had no cash the pay the $10 fare. Instead, she pulled out a credit card, but the cabbie wasn't having it.
"He wouldn't let me use the card, he wouldn't press the button," she tells CBS 2. "I said, 'You have to press the button,' and he's like, 'No, no I don't know, I don't know how to use it.'"
Perez says the driver got out of the cab and told her to go get cash. She refused, said she wanted to use the machine and would tip well.
"I tried to walk past him and he pushed me back into the cab. I got up and told him I was calling my husband who is a professional boxer," she says. "I started dialing the phone and he said, 'I give you a punch in the mouth' and he turned around and he socked me in the mouth."
Perez tried to copy down the driver's license number, but mixed up the numbers as he took off. She's hoping police can track down the crooked cabbie.
"I want new york to find him and prosecute him," she says.
Perez called 311 and 911 after the incident and filed complaints.
"We haven't yet identified the driver, but when we do he will be suspended. It is an aberration," says Matthew Daus, Commissioner of the Taxi and Limousine Commission.
Just yesterday, the TLC announced it had launched an undercover operation in place to try and catch cabbies if they refuse to use the credit card machine. Now the NYPD will be getting involved, too.
"When she got out of the car there was some kind of pushing event that she described that we heard initially. Now the story is that she was punched which is an assault, and obviously we will investigate that as an assault," says Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
The TLC says you should be able to tell if a taxi's credit card system is working by whether or not the machine's display light comes on when you get in a cab. If a driver refuses to use it, call 311.
Tamara Perez tells CBS 2 HD she still can't believe it happened.
The incident happened Tuesday after Perez ran to her East Village home to pick up some papers. Once in the cab, the 35-year-old realized she had no cash the pay the $10 fare. Instead, she pulled out a credit card, but the cabbie wasn't having it.
"He wouldn't let me use the card, he wouldn't press the button," she tells CBS 2. "I said, 'You have to press the button,' and he's like, 'No, no I don't know, I don't know how to use it.'"
Perez says the driver got out of the cab and told her to go get cash. She refused, said she wanted to use the machine and would tip well.
"I tried to walk past him and he pushed me back into the cab. I got up and told him I was calling my husband who is a professional boxer," she says. "I started dialing the phone and he said, 'I give you a punch in the mouth' and he turned around and he socked me in the mouth."
Perez tried to copy down the driver's license number, but mixed up the numbers as he took off. She's hoping police can track down the crooked cabbie.
"I want new york to find him and prosecute him," she says.
Perez called 311 and 911 after the incident and filed complaints.
"We haven't yet identified the driver, but when we do he will be suspended. It is an aberration," says Matthew Daus, Commissioner of the Taxi and Limousine Commission.
Just yesterday, the TLC announced it had launched an undercover operation in place to try and catch cabbies if they refuse to use the credit card machine. Now the NYPD will be getting involved, too.
"When she got out of the car there was some kind of pushing event that she described that we heard initially. Now the story is that she was punched which is an assault, and obviously we will investigate that as an assault," says Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
The TLC says you should be able to tell if a taxi's credit card system is working by whether or not the machine's display light comes on when you get in a cab. If a driver refuses to use it, call 311.
Taxi Ride = Strip club?!?!
My wife looked at my credit card statement and instead of seeing a taxi charge, there was one for the same amount from a strip club. Wow, was she pissed. It seems that my cabdriver sold my credit card number to a strip club so he could get paid cash for my ride. Don't pay by credit card manually in a taxi as it almost got me divorced!
Frederick
Double Charged for ride..and then at Gucci?!?!
So, I was in Orlando giving a speech at a conference, land of “have a magical day” and paid by card in the taxi ride out to the resort. They “take cards” in the cabs - since the average cab ride is 78 they sort of have to - but not even with a knucklebuster – with a driver who takes the receipt out of a crusty glove box and runs his pen over the card to emboss it onto the card receipt. He then calls it via his cell phone into the dispatch to get an approval code, which he does get.
Not 24 hours after I did this, did I discover that not only was I charged twice for the same amount, but my number was attempted to be used to buy stuff at Gucci! The card people turned them down since the address did not match. Well, at least they had good taste. Gee, I am wondering if the who he called was an approval person or a scammer.
Where’s TaxiPass when you need it!
Karen
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