Stupid taxi driver + Stupid foreigner = Almost ripped off!
tldr below
Last night took the last train to Nagatsuta, but needed a taxi home. Taxi line was 50 -60 ppl and no taxis in the roundabout.
Decided to use GoTaxi (not 1st timer).
Stepped away from the station @100m and used the app to call the taxi.
Taxi stopped in front of the station – not where I was geolocated. I could see and started walking towards it. Halfway to the taxi he moves into the roundabout and stopped.
That’s odd! So I walk over to the taxi in the roundabout.
I could see a woman fumbling with her smartphone in the back. I figure it’s the previous fare, so I waited for her to get out.
After a minute or so, she’s not getting out, so I tap on the front passenger window show him my reservation and tell him if he’s gonna keep screwing around with his previous rider I need a new taxi.
His face had the perfect “OH SH*T” expression. He opened the door to kick the woman out. She refused to get out and just kept saying “Shibuya, Shibuya”. Finally she got out pretty pissed and kept saying “おかし”い!” and “ヘン！” .
Turned out to be a drunk American girl who jumped my taxi and was trying to get him to take her to Shibuya. Didn’t know her own address and tried to show him where to take her.
I pointed her to the taxi stand with its 50 or so lineup. She walked away cursing me.
I asked the driver why he let her into the taxi and he said “I asked her if she was (my Surname), and she said yes and got in”.
I asked him why he didn’t check her GoTaxi reservation – he just said “I don’t know foreigner names”. I asked him specifically if GoTaxi requires they confirm the reservation and he said “yes” – and left it at that.
If she had known her address, I’m sure he would have just driven away and I would be fighting with Go Taxi over a 16000¥ charge when my cc statement comes!
tldr:
Stupid driver didn’t check GoTaxi reservation and let someone else (Miss X) into my taxi before I could reach the car.
Miss X was a drunk/stupid foreigner that either purposely tried to hijack my ride or simply didn’t know better.
I got lucky because Miss X didn’t know her own address and they stopped long enough for me to catch up before getting an auto charge for 16000¥ for a trip I didn’t take.
3 comments
Mistakes happen. In early days many drivers didn’t even know how the system work.
They never check the booking for me, I think it’s pretty common that they don’t.
I usually write some identifying information in the chat to avoid confusion. Like the colour of my jacket/shirt or more exact pickup location (GPS can jump around sometimes).
Be mad at the drunk girl, not the taxi driver – they’re mainly older and new systems can be difficult to get used to. Nothing actually happened.
Also how do you know she’s American? “Foreigner” would have sufficed.