So this morning I waived down a cab at my usual spot, took the usual route, arrived at my usual destination in front of my office and got charged over 1/3 the usual price. Now, granted, I should have been paying closer attention on my ten minute ride to work. I shouldn't have relaxed and read my book. I should have compulsively checked the meter and told the driver immediately when I noticed the cost was rising at 130% its normal rate. But silly me, I assumed my driver was an honest guy and his meter hadn't been tampered with and didn't notice the cost "adjustment."
I pay 10 pounds on a 7 pound bill every day to and from work because I'm a nice girl and know drivers are poor so I tip well. Still without noticing the meter, I asked if the driver had change for a twenty and he said he didn't. This is absurd because most rides are at least 5 pounds so the idea that he didn't have ten pounds already by ten in the morning just from fares is impossible, not to mention he had to have his own money on him separate from his fares. So, still assuming the meter was the usual price, I gave him the seven pounds I had and walked off. He started honking and screaming at me like crazy and I, still not realizing the meter price was way high, walked back to see what his problem was, after all, I'd paid the cost of the ride, just not the tip I usually give because I was pissed he wouldn't give me change.
So then we got in a big fight out in front of the bank across the street from my office. Two guards came over to help and I said that I wanted to pay ten but he wouldn't give me change and they said I should go into the bank to get change. This is total bullshit, as the custom dictates that the driver is the one who has to get change, since it is his job, but still, I'm flexible, so I agree to go into the bank. In that instant two things happen. A very nice, adorable (he looks like Woddy from Toy Story as a teenager) Egyptian lawyer who works in my firm came over to ask what the problem was, and the driver pointed out that I owed him 10.95 pounds, not 10. I was horrified because not only was this way over what I normally pay, it is also not possible on a working meter since they go up in increments of .25.
Plus it was embarrassing that I was having this argument over about 80 cents in front of the lawyer from my firm but he and the guards didn't believe the meter was rigged. Every foreigner I know has experienced a rigged meter at least once. The white taxis are part of a government initiative to get the ancient and probably dangerous black and white taxis off the streets but the meters give the driver a lower rate than they could probably negotiate with tourists (i.e. white people) in their old black and white cabs. So they get the meter "fixed" so they can hit a button during the ride and increase the rate of the meter. Drivers don't do this to Egyptians so Egyptians don't believe it happens. The lawyer I know translated what I said to the guards at the bank and they all had a good chuckle and said "He'd be very smart if he could do that." Right. Like the same mechanics who keep black and white taxis working day after day for over 30 years with nothing but coathanger wire, tape, and a copy of the Koran holding them together couldn't also rig a white taxi meter.
So the lawyer gave HIS 20 pounds to the driver who went into the bank and gave him 10 in change and I paid him back. But THEN I got a little lecture about how if I think the driver is cheating me, I should tell him right away (again with the whole watch the meter and recalculate the fare every kilometer to make sure you're not being cheated on your whole ride to work scenario). This despite the fact that when you tell a driver his meter isn't working he says "it's fine, if you don't like the fare, talk to the government." The lawyer also told me that if I wanted the price to be negotiable, I could always take a black and white taxi, which I often do, but I pay them the same ten pounds I pay the white taxi. There's no "negotiating" about it because it is a very good price and much more than an Egyptian would pay for the same ride. Finally, despite the fact that the whole fight in the street had been in Arabic, including me telling the guards that the meter was too fast, that I take the same route every day and never have to pay more than ten pounds, etc. he also said "and you should speak a little Arabic." I know he just doesn't want to see me have problems in his country and he is saying these things because he wants the best for me, but right then I wanted to smoosh his adorable, carefully coiffed head!
Karmic justice - the driver, by being dishonest, cheated himself out of the feeling of getting a good tip. Because if he'd charged me the 7.5 pounds he was supposed to, and given my the correct change like he was supposed to, he would have driven off happily with ten pounds, freely and peacefully given. Instead, because he got my tab up to almost 11, he has the bad feeling of having almost got caught cheating, on top of the bad feeling of, in his mind, having been cheated out of that one pound he didn't earn in the first place.
Angry angry angry.
So, how does that work when you "waive down" a cab? Is that like just standing there watching the cabs go by? Or, do you make them stop and then forgo the cab ride? :) Couldn't help myself there...
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I posted that comment after reading the first sentence of this post...
ReplyDeleteNow that I have read the entire post, I feel much less jovial. Ugh. That is a crappy way to start the day.
I can relate a little bit (though no colleague gave me a tongue lashing): In Quito, I went to the Amazonas - the tourist area - every once in a while for something I could get most easily there, and sometimes to go to the bars with friends I made at school or work. After a couple months there, I knew I could get a cab back to the road my house was on for $2. The process was to negotiate before getting in the cab and I was very comfortable letting 5-10 cabs go by until I got a driver to agree to $2. One day, after the driver VERY reluctantly agreed to do the trip for $2, he changed his tune after we had circled the block on the one-way and were starting to head to my neighborhood. We argued for another block and I told him that he could not change the price. He told me that he could and that it was now $3. I told him I wanted to get out of the cab and he said "No." So, at the next stop sign, I jumped out and he took off before I had both feet on the ground. I was so pissed, and a little startled. It seems so silly to argue over $1 price difference, but when you think about it percentage-wise, I felt upset, especially considering how easily I generally was able to find cabs at the $2 price. It is the principle of someone trying to take advantage of what they perceive as my naivete that bothered me the most.
A second Quito incident was when I went to the neighborhood hair salon where my host mom got her hair cut and styled for $3, and they charged me $9 for similar service. I was irate (though I paid the fee with a brief statement indicating I knew that the price was excessive), and the host kids just laughed at me and told me that it was because I was from the U.S. (duh). The more I fumed, the harder those girls laughed at me. I guess that is the market at work (and I should have asked how much before I went under the scissors!).
:)