Hello all. I wanted to hear about any experiences you may have had with scamming taxi drivers. I was 16 when I was on my way to meet up with my buddy at a restaurant in Kaohsiung. I had the restaurant input into apple maps and the taxi driver drove right past the restaurant twice. He looped around to return to it and intentionally drove past. I was still kind of naive so I wasn’t expecting to get finessed like that. At that point point I just told the driver to stop and I hopped out and walked back to the restaurant.
Another time, my buddies and I were at a mall in Kaohsiung to get clothes to go clubbing. On our way back from the mall the taxi driver swerved across two lanes in order to end up in the turn lane opposite the side of the road our hotel was on. At that point we knew the dude was finessing us so we told the driver to stop and hopped out.
Curious to hear of any experiences you may have had. Anyone had any physical altercations?
I don’t think I’ve been scammed in years. I always realize later that I was wrong and that the taxi was avoiding something like a one way road, traffic, construction, etc. or just wanted to get me directly in front of the door.
I have a car and drive frequently and very familiar with correct directions. Taxi never goes wrong way unless a better way. But there are stupid taxi drivers out there who don’t know where they are going and it shows.
I’ve yelled at taxi before only to realize it was illegal to turn left somewhere so he went past the spot or went a different route.
I have never been scammed in Taipei but some of my foreign friends have. Cabbie making circles or taking a long route on purpose, stuff like that. But if you speak the language and seem to know where you’re going they don’t really dare.
One thing I did before I really got to know Taipei was I’d look up where I was going on google maps and peep the street names before flagging a cab down, so if they ask me which road they should take I can namedrop a road/have a half-assed answer. “Oh, you could take XX road, or whatever’s smoothest” etc. It’s probably enough to deter most cabbies who would otherwise assume I have no idea what’s going on.
I had quite the opposite happen to me. Rarely take a taxi but several years ago I got into a taxi with a lady driver in Taipei City. Turns out she was from China then married a local guy. Near my destination she made a wrong turn. Not only did she apologize but reduced my fare as well. Super nice lady. Wish all taxi drivers were like that.
Yeah happened to me only twice in the last couple of years. Driving in circles around the destination. You have to call them out immediately in Chinese and suddenly they remember the way. One guy gave me a discount.
I seem to frequently have taxi drivers tell me they don’t need the extra NT$5 if the fare is like NT$105 or NT$155 when I only have an NT$10 coin. I give him the NT$10 anyway and let them keep the NT$5 because I am so generous.
Oh I just remembered. I probably have been scammed but not in Taiwan. I’ve taken cabs in NL and the same route was like 20 euros once and like 9 the other.
Either the former didn’t know the way or I was scammed.
To be fair, I doubt they would try to scam a local, or somebody who at least looks local.
Early days here I was warned about it, but don’t think I’ve ever really been scammed. Though, the black taxis coming out of the airport tried to scam me when he offered to take me for 800 NT, which is normally a 350 NT trip. Luckily I knew going rate of that trip having taken it before. Told him to piss off and took the regular yellow cab.
They try to intercept you before getting out the door to the authorized airport cabs.
I’ve used cabs a lot here. I can complain of their cleanness and bad smell, but I can’t remember of any scam. Mistakes can happen, but they usually reduce the fare at the end of the trip, as means of correcting it.
I don’t think I’ve ever been scammed in Taiwan. And as others have said, I’ve occasionally experienced the driver dropping the final 5NT off the price.
Now in Vietnam, that’s a different story. Do your research first and you’ll be fine there. The one time I didn’t follow my gut was the time I got scammed.
I’m not sure if it’s a scam, it depends on the cost of a car wash.
This was a while ago, but I did exchange in NCCU for like a week when I was in China studying. So naturally now back to where I know, I invited a bunch of girls from the international programs in NCCU out to the club with a few of my friends that came with me from the US. I got us a table, I was chatting with a few people that I haven’t seen in a while so I told them to order a bottle of Bacardi rum with coke…I came back and the retards ordered Bacardi 151 because they don’t know the difference and even started to drink it straight they already opened it and didn’t seem to care when I explained to them it’s fucking combustible so I didn’t bother ordering more for them.
Anyways, girl i was interested in. I don’t know, maybe trying to impress me was knocking down shots of 151. After a while she was like take me home and I obliged. On the way back to my place in the cab she was like I’m going to be sick and opened the window to throw up with her head hanging out driving through Taipei. Taxi driver wasn’t impressed.
Now at home, taxi driver made me pay the cab fare and 2000 for a car wash. I don’t know how much a car wash is but I doubt it was 2000. But I wasn’t really going to argue. And took the girl up and put her in the guest room because she was obviously too drunk.
In Indonesia there’s one main Taxi company (Blue Bird) that works very well and all drivers start the fare machine thingy at the beginning of ride. All the “”“independent”"" drivers are absolute trash tier . Many of them will tell you mid ride “sorry, broken” pointing at the fare machine, then once arrived at destination will ask you for 2 or 3 times the amount you’d have to pay with Blue Bird. The most “”“honest”""ones tell you the absurd fare in advance.
I usually make a point to flag down cleaner and newer looking cabs and avoid the obviously beat up ones. Still get stuck with cigarette smoke smell sometimes, though.
I feel like Taiwan’s taxi drivers are some of the most honest in the world. Every country I’ve been to, I’ve encountered ones that will do something like take the longer route or charge extra…also no tipping needed in Taiwan.
The other day, my data ran out at the mall. I wanted to go to another place which was about 10RM with their version of Uber. But with no data I walked outside to the taxi waiting area and the guy was like 50rm.
they already opened it and didn’t seem to care when I explained to them it’s fucking combustible so I didn’t bother ordering more for them.