Taxis in Galway - bad experiences?

galvianlord

Just had a bad experience there which makes my blood boil.

I use taxis in Galway quite a bit. If I was coming from home I would normally ring Galway Taxis as I have got to know quite a few of them over the years but if I am in town would just head up to the rank in the square and hop in the first cab in line.

This morning however I had to head for a meeting out in Terryland so ran up to the rank from work and hopped in. The driver had his earphones in but heard my destination and off we went. There was no small talk which was fine with me as it was early; got to my destination and the fare came to 7 euro or so with a tip, so I handed over 20, all i had on me. At which point he says dont you have ten on you? I said no ,sorry. And he started shrugging and humming and hawing and kind of making negative grunting sounds. I sat there and said well I can check and see if I could get change off someone in the place I was going to, at which point he snatched the 20 off me and put into his side door compartment.

Then he sat there. I put out my hand to get change and he just looked at me. I looked at him. I said, can I have my change please? He started shrugging and humming and hawing again, then rooted around in his purse a bit and put it back on his dashboard without offering me any change. Getting a bit angry at this point I said it a bit more forcefully, wondering whether I would ever get my change off this guy, and he let a roar out of him grabbed his purse again and threw the change at me - a tenner and three euro coins. I hopped out, livid!!!

Needless to say it wasnt a nice start to the day, sitting there for five minutes waiting for this asshole to give me my money back. Sorry for the long story but i needed to vent! any bad experiences like that to report?

workaccount

Wow. I hope you report him.

SimpleSam06

galvianlord wrote: »

Needless to say it wasnt a nice start to the day, sitting there for five minutes waiting for this asshole to give me my money back. Sorry for the long story but i needed to vent! any bad experiences like that to report?

Not to put the cat among the pigeons, but was it a local driver or a foreign national?

Das Kitty

Fupping hell, that's quite extreme isn't it!?

I've not had many bad experiences with taxis to be honest, there's a lad going around at the moment what gives a good hell and damnation speil to all that dare enter his holy church of taxi, but he gets you where you're going for the appropriate price. :P

I was recently heartened by the honesty of a taxi driver who returned my iPhone after it fell out of my pocket in the taxi. It took him a while to figure out how to answer it but he came back and then wouldn't accept my thanks tip. He wasn't "local" either. I'd say one or two of them might not have been so honest.

Robbo

Generally, I have no trouble at all with taxis (apart from them parking like assclowns at ranks). I had one fella a few years ago who was probably more pissed than I was and a few that have no idea where anything is (setting the GPS for Barna road, unaware what the Corrib Great Southern was a hotel or it's whereabouts).

Drive on (in 5th gear by 26kmph) you drunk ferrying princes of the road!

flymacsky

Was he black or white ??

and how did he give you your change in 3 euros coins last time i checked the biggest coin was 2 euros .:rolleyes:

JohnCleary

Isin't it against boards.ie rules to have more than 1 account? Nice site bannable offence I hope

JohnCleary

flymacsky wrote: »

Was he black or white ??

What does that matter? Who cares if they're purple, it was pure ignorance

and how did he give you your change in 3 euros coins last time i checked the biggest coin was 2 euros .:rolleyes:

Eh, maybe you should go to Specsavers for an oul eye sight test? Read his post again, he clearly stated three euro coins, not 'a 3 euro coin'. You see, the 's' at the end of coins means plural :rolleyes: Stay in school kiddo, you need all the help you can get


Let me guess, you're skymacfly's 15 year old brother who plays CounterStrike and used his account to make posts :pac:

workaccount

JohnCleary wrote: »

Isin't it against boards.ie rules to have more than 1 account? Nice site bannable offence I hope

He must have got banned for that wired thread and re-joined straight away! and the first thing he does is post something smart in the forum where he got banned :rolleyes: and with an almost identical username. This kid is gonna win nobel prizes for his endeavours.

What a timebomb! and adds so much credibility to his persuasive argument against wired.

Das Kitty

I quite enjoyed reading his "see all posts" under his original username. Shows the true nature of the beast.

galvianlord

I didnt really want to mention whether he was a foreign national or Irish, an asshole is an asshole in my book regardless of nationality. But if it matters he would have been from Africa generally but I didnt quite get into his country of origin there. On the other hand last week I would have had another taxi, this time the driver was from Nigeria, he was really nice, chatted away about life and his life over there and how he ended up here etc

As to reporting him I didnt even look at the number I was so irate and went off and had a little hissy fit for myself.

AvrilLavigne

galvianlord wrote: »

three euro coins

flymacsky wrote: »

3 euros coins

:rolleyes: Being a smartass doesn't work for you!

JohnCleary

workaccount wrote: »

He must have got banned for that wired thread and re-joined straight away! and the first thing he does is post something smart in the forum where he got banned :rolleyes:

What a timebomb! and adds so much credibility to his persuasive argument against wired.

And he clearly put so much effort into creating a new username, i'd never have guessed who he was! :pac:

JohnCleary

galvianlord wrote: »

I didnt really want to mention whether he was a foreign national or Irish, an asshole is an asshole in my book regardless of nationality. But if it matters he would have been from Africa generally but I didnt quite get into his country of origin there. On the other hand last week I would have had another taxi, this time the driver was from Nigeria, he was really nice, chatted away about life and his life over there and how he ended up here etc

As to reporting him I didnt even look at the number I was so irate and went off and had a little hissy fit for myself.

You were better off not mentioning his colour skin/nationality, you'd have only been labelled as a racist by the PC crew (Thankfully there's feckall of them that lurk on the Galway forum )

Das Kitty

I would have been scared, which I suppose was the intention. It probably won't be long before he gets stripped of his plate if that's his ploy. Don't let the asshole ruin the rest of your day (easier said than done!).

galvianlord

JohnCleary wrote: »

You were better off not mentioning his colour skin/nationality, you'd have only been labelled as a racist by the PC crew (Thankfully there's feckall of them that lurk on the Galway forum )

Yeah....now I am waiting to get crucified for saying Africa 'generally'....I find I rarely put a foot right here.....

Das Kitty

Is Africa not a country then, and South Africa not just a part of Africa?

Fey!

It's a shame you didn't get his number to report him. Did you notice a company name on the roof, or get a rough make/model/clour of the car? If he was with a company, they may be able to figure out who he was and have a word in his ear.

JohnCleary

Das Kitty wrote: »

Is Africa not a country then, and South Africa not just a part of Africa?

According to my primary school days when they made us learn stupid fcuking songs, Africa is a Continent

"Af - rica, the Continent of Af - rica is sooooooo far awayyy" ... Then the song goes on about tigers n lions n other sh1te

galvianlord

Fey! wrote: »

It's a shame you didn't get his number to report him. Did you notice a company name on the roof, or get a rough make/model/clour of the car? If he was with a company, they may be able to figure out who he was and have a word in his ear.

TBH I dont remember seeing a company sign on the roof. Just plain number. I normally look to see if its Galway Taxis, kind of disappointed when it isnt!

Das Kitty

JohnCleary wrote: »

According to my primary school days when they made us learn stupid fcuking songs, Africa is a Continent

"Af - rica, the Continent of Af - rica is sooooooo far awayyy" ... Then the song goes on about tigers n lions n other sh1te

My world view is shattered!

galvianlord

galvianlord wrote: »

TBH I dont remember seeing a company sign on the roof. Just plain number. I normally look to see if its Galway Taxis, kind of disappointed when it isnt!

I never trust the privately owned taxis. Don't know why. I just rather being in a Big O cab.

Though I find it odd whenever I ring them and they say, "for <my name>, is it?"

JohnCleary

Deleted User wrote: »

I never trust the privately owned taxis. Don't know why. I just rather being in a Big O cab.

Though I find it odd whenever I ring them and they say, "for <my name>, is it?"

Caller ID which they then prob save your number on their DB, hardly rocket science

Zzippy

JohnCleary wrote: »

You were better off not mentioning his colour skin/nationality, you'd have only been labelled as a racist by the PC crew (Thankfully there's feckall of them that lurk on the Galway forum )

RACIST!!!!!!!!!11111111eleventyone!!!!!

galwayguy22

Last time I was in a Taxi I puked all over it.

kayos

JohnCleary wrote: »

Caller ID which they then prob save your number on their DB, hardly rocket science

Also breaking the Data Protection Act as they dont ask can they store the information..... Same for a lot of food delivery places.

JohnCleary

galwayguy22 wrote: »

Last time I was in a Taxi I puked all over it.

Classy guy

hada

i've given up on taxis in galway.

i'm all about rickashaws. nothing like bringing a bird home in a rickashaw - that shows real class!

d-gal

last saturday night i got into a taxi in eyre square, i was with my girlfriend and since i was working the next day I was going back to mine and she was going back 2 hers. So i told the taxi driver both destinations and he turned around and shouted at me 'NO, only one place I drive!' :eek:
So after a bit of yelling and moaning I agreed to go back to the girlfriends house (knocknacarra) and I would get another taxi from there (back to salthill).
So once we stopped at hers the fee was €13 (overcharging of course), I took my wallet out, handed the guy €5 and told him if he didn't kindly f off I would report him to the police for being abusive and threatening. Usual shouting from him, he got out of his car and went for me, I pretended to ring the guards and he legged it
Moral of the story: don't trust the foreign independents, majority try and rob ya and are ignorant pr1cks
Galway Taxis all the way

biko

galwayguy22 wrote: »

Last time I was in a Taxi I puked all over it.

That's 50 euro fine isn't it?

cornbb

d-gal wrote: »

last saturday night i got into a taxi in eyre square, i was with my girlfriend and since i was working the next day I was going back to mine and she was going back 2 hers. So i told the taxi driver both destinations and he turned around and shouted at me 'NO, only one place I drive!' :eek:
So after a bit of yelling and moaning I agreed to go back to the girlfriends house (knocknacarra) and I would get another taxi from there (back to salthill).
So once we stopped at hers the fee was €13 (overcharging of course), I took my wallet out, handed the guy €5 and told him if he didn't kindly f off I would report him to the police for being abusive and threatening. Usual shouting from him, he got out of his car and went for me, I pretended to ring the guards and he legged it
Moral of the story: don't trust the foreign independents, majority try and rob ya and are ignorant pr1cks
Galway Taxis all the way

You gave the guy a fiver to take you from Eyre Square all the way out to Knocknacarra and threatened to ring the guards on him for attempting to collect the fare you owed him? Nice, real nice. There's an "ignorant pr1ck" somewhere in that story alright, I'm not 100% sure it was the taxi driver though.

galwayguy22

I was driving along and some gob****e pulled out right in front of me, drove a few meters, then wanted to turn off to the right so was waiting in the middle of the road. I had such little time to react I basically had to veer to the left to "undertake" him, as you do when someone is waiting to turn off right.

In the process a taxi man decided to preempt me and was trying to undertake both me and the person in front of me, despite the fact that I had no indicator to turn off right.

Anyway long story short we nearly crash into each other and come to a screeching stop. He sits there looking at me so I roll the window down to see what he has to say. He say's in a sarcastic tone, with thick eastern European accent:

Sarcastic Eastern European Taxi man wrote:

I suppose it's not my fault

To this day I'm baffled by it. He's either a genius who has left me scratching my head for days, or he's to lazy to get a grasp of the English language despite the fact he makes a living in an English speaking country and works in a position which involves communication with the general public all the time.

I can understand someone saying "I suppose it's my fault" sarcastically, but what he said just makes no sense. He's basically accepting that he was at fault.

Mr Cork Man

d-gal wrote: »

last saturday night i got into a taxi in eyre square, i was with my girlfriend and since i was working the next day I was going back to mine and she was going back 2 hers. So i told the taxi driver both destinations and he turned around and shouted at me 'NO, only one place I drive!' :eek:
So after a bit of yelling and moaning I agreed to go back to the girlfriends house (knocknacarra) and I would get another taxi from there (back to salthill).
So once we stopped at hers the fee was €13 (overcharging of course), I took my wallet out, handed the guy €5 and told him if he didn't kindly f off I would report him to the police for being abusive and threatening. Usual shouting from him, he got out of his car and went for me, I pretended to ring the guards and he legged it
Moral of the story: don't trust the foreign independents, majority try and rob ya and are ignorant pr1cks
Galway Taxis all the way

Big o for me.

d-gal

cornbb wrote: »

You gave the guy a fiver to take you from Eyre Square all the way out to Knocknacarra and threatened to ring the guards on him for attempting to collect the fare you owed him? Nice, real nice. There's an "ignorant pr1ck" somewhere in that story alright, I'm not 100% sure it was the taxi driver though.

Eh he refused to bring me to salthill so it would cost another 8/9euro to get home. Oh and the ignorant pr1ck comment at me, very mature of u :rolleyes:

cornbb

d-gal wrote: »

Eh he refused to bring me to salthill so it would cost another 8/9euro to get home.

Thats beside the point, by paying him only 5 euro to take you and your gf to Knocknacarra you basically robbed the guy. 5 euro is less than the minimum metered fare for 2 people on a saturday night, not to mind the value of a trip all the way to knocknacarra. And then you have the gall to accuse the majority of foreign taxi drivers of "trying to rob ya!" Are you seeing what I have a problem with here?

AvrilLavigne

cornbb wrote: »

You gave the guy a fiver to take you from Eyre Square all the way out to Knocknacarra and threatened to ring the guards on him for attempting to collect the fare you owed him? Nice, real nice. There's an "ignorant pr1ck" somewhere in that story alright, I'm not 100% sure it was the taxi driver though.

The guy is supposed to bring you where you ask so the taxi driver was an ignorant prick and 5 is all he deserved. It is probably because of sycophantic people like you that they think they can get away with telling the customer where they want to go and charge whatever they want. Fair play to you d-gal, 5 was perfect for the asshole. Recently had a guy from Claddagh cabs attempt to charge 7 x 9 to go knocknacarra form the cab office.

cornbb

AvrilLavigne wrote: »

The guy is supposed to bring you where you ask so the taxi driver was an ignorant prick and 5 is all he deserved. It is probably because of sycophantic people like you that they think they can get away with telling the customer where they want to go and charge whatever they want. Fair play to you d-gal, 5 was perfect for the asshole. Recently had a guy from Claddagh cabs attempt to charge 7 x 9 to go knocknacarra form the cab office.

The driver told him before the trip started where he would take him, if d-gal didn't like that at that point then he should have gotten out and taken another cab. Instead he went til the end and refused to pay a fair price for the trip. Maybe it was ignorant of the cab driver to do that, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't have been paid the price he was owed by law. If it said 13 quid on the meter, then thats what he owed.

AvrilLavigne

cornbb wrote: »

The driver told him before the trip started where he would take him, if d-gal didn't like that at that point then he should have gotten out and taken another cab. Instead he went til the end and refused to pay a fair price for the trip. Maybe it was ignorant of the cab driver to do that, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't have been paid the price he was owed by law. If it said 13 quid on the meter, then thats what he owed.

If any taxi driver in Galway city is not willing to drive from Eyre Square to Knocknacarra and then to Salthill, they are an ignorant prick who should not be working as a taxi driver. Simple as.

for arguing with the guy and for only giving him a fiver.

kraggy

galvianlord wrote: »

I didnt really want to mention whether he was a foreign national or Irish, an asshole is an asshole in my book regardless of nationality. But if it matters he would have been from Africa generally but I didnt quite get into his country of origin there. On the other hand last week I would have had another taxi, this time the driver was from Nigeria, he was really nice, chatted away about life and his life over there and how he ended up here etc

As to reporting him I didnt even look at the number I was so irate and went off and had a little hissy fit for myself.

Well then, at the risk of sounding harsh, you deserve for this to happen you again.

That's the problem with us Irish. And that's why we continue to have bad service in our restaurants, bars, clubs, taxi's etc. WE DON'T COMPLAIN enough.

So off he'll go again tomorrow and try and pull the same stunt with someone else.

Sponge Bob

We cannot complain , 90% of saturday night taxi drivers in Galway have no english...seemingly

biko

JohnCleary wrote: »

According to my primary school days when they made us learn stupid fcuking songs, Africa is a Continent

"Af - rica, the Continent of Af - rica is sooooooo far awayyy" ... Then the song goes on about tigers n lions n other sh1te

Only in Kenya

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en3PZ09fue8

Mrs OBumble

cornbb wrote: »

The driver told him before the trip started where he would take him, if d-gal didn't like that at that point then he should have gotten out and taken another cab. Instead he went til the end and refused to pay a fair price for the trip. Maybe it was ignorant of the cab driver to do that, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't have been paid the price he was owed by law. If it said 13 quid on the meter, then thats what he owed.

+1

5 from Eyre Square to Knocknacarra is pure robbery (taxi-driver = the victim). IMHO he should have called the guards on you, and you wouldn't have had a leg to stand on.

Mrs OBumble

galvianlord wrote: »

J... if I am in town would just head up to the rank in the square and hop in the first cab in line.

Some of the independents or small-company folk have charged fares that I thought were inflated. Not excessive, but still more than they should have been.

So now at a rank I only take a taxi if it has the company name on it, and that name is one of Galway Taxis, Big-O or Pro-cabs.

If it's busy so there's not much choice, I'll sometimes bend this rule, and then I try to pick the "least dodgy looking" driver.

dcukhunter

d-gal wrote: »

last saturday night i got into a taxi in eyre square, i was with my girlfriend and since i was working the next day I was going back to mine and she was going back 2 hers. So i told the taxi driver both destinations and he turned around and shouted at me 'NO, only one place I drive!' :eek:
So after a bit of yelling and moaning I agreed to go back to the girlfriends house (knocknacarra) and I would get another taxi from there (back to salthill).
So once we stopped at hers the fee was €13 (overcharging of course), I took my wallet out, handed the guy €5 and told him if he didn't kindly f off I would report him to the police for being abusive and threatening. Usual shouting from him, he got out of his car and went for me, I pretended to ring the guards and he legged it
Moral of the story: don't trust the foreign independents, majority try and rob ya and are ignorant pr1cks
Galway Taxis all the way

Way to go. I had this happen to me had to make a couple of stops to make all was fine when I got in half way there driver refused to bring me to my house to get something. I told him to stop got out payed for fare up till then. Went in to the office to complain the next day and was told by them that I should have refused to pay him and that was his office telling me that.:eek:

kraggy

biko wrote: »

That's 50 euro fine isn't it?

€140 actually.

Was 120 until the new charges came in 2 weeks ago.

kayos

Eyre Sq to knocknacarra at 13 euro is not over charging ffs. I live out there and that would be normal after 8pm and with an extra person. A taxi from the train station to my house before 8pm on my own is the guts of 12 when I am on my own. But in saying that the driver refusing to do knocknacarra and then onto salthill is bad form and to be honest a loss of earnings. He could have got money for some of his trip back to town to pick up a new fare.

But if there are non suitable taxi drivers (overcharging, aggressive or long detour types etc) then we should complain and complain to the regulator. I've had rip off drivers that are non local and non local. But when it comes to aggressive I've had more aggressive Irish taxi drivers than non irish.

d-gal

JustMary wrote: »

+1

5 from Eyre Square to Knocknacarra is pure robbery (taxi-driver = the victim). IMHO he should have called the guards on you, and you wouldn't have had a leg to stand on.

Lets see...him being threatening and abusive for me asking him to do his job i.e. drop me to salthill and then the gf to knocknacarra...ya not a leg to stand on :rolleyes:
For me going to mine and the gf going home usually costs around €11-12. If I had to get a taxi from hers to mine would be around €8.
If the taxi driver did his bloody job it would cost €12..but he yelled and refused to do 2 stops so i would have to get another taxi home as I did not want to leave the gf with this guy alone for the rest of journey. It would have then of cost me €21 (€13+8).
Oh and when I said Salthill and then on to knocknacarra he started to drive towards that direction and then started his yelling so it would have been hard to just hop out!

d-gal

kayos wrote: »

Eyre Sq to knocknacarra at 13 euro is not over charging ffs. I live out there and that would be normal after 8pm and with an extra person. A taxi from the train station to my house before 8pm on my own is the guts of 12 when I am on my own. But in saying that the driver refusing to do knocknacarra and then onto salthill is bad form and to be honest a loss of earnings. He could have got money for some of his trip back to town to pick up a new fare.

But if there are non suitable taxi drivers (overcharging, aggressive or long detour types etc) then we should complain and complain to the regulator. I've had rip off drivers that are non local and non local. But when it comes to aggressive I've had more aggressive Irish taxi drivers than non irish.

Kncknacarra is a big place so obviously there could be a difference in anybodies prices

JohnCleary

JohnCleary wrote: »

Caller ID which they then prob save your number on their DB, hardly rocket science

I'm not saying it is.

Just the very first time I rang them and they said my name back to me was very funny, think I even said, "wait, how do you know my name?"

Zzippy

JustMary wrote: »

Some of the independents or small-company folk have charged fares that I thought were inflated. Not excessive, but still more than they should have been.

So now at a rank I only take a taxi if it has the company name on it, and that name is one of Galway Taxis, Big-O or Pro-cabs.

If it's busy so there's not much choice, I'll sometimes bend this rule, and then I try to pick the "least dodgy looking" driver.

If its a taxi you pay the price on the meter. Thats fixed, they can't inflate it unless they add on extras at the start - just keep an eye on that. No taxi company is cheaper than another if they all work on the meter.
Only hackney cabs can name their price, but most of them are a good bit cheaper than taxis. I use hackneys all the time instead of taxis, late at night they will often ask you to share a cab which means lower fares again. Win win...

kayos

d-gal wrote: »

Kncknacarra is a big place so obviously there could be a difference in anybodies prices

Oh I know it is but I am kinda stuck in the middle of it around the clybaun hotel. Now if your closer to town fair enough it will be cheaper by a euro or two maybe. If your futher out it will be a bit more expensive by a euro or two.