Tuesday, 5 August 2014
Last week we took a short city break in London. My wife's birthday is coming up and she adores Dwight Yoakam who had a date in the o2 Empire.
There has been a lot of fuss about uber the alternative to black cabs hailed via smartphone.
It's a much better system than just paying a meter. The driver has the shortest route. Both parties see the GPS of each other and payment is fuss free and setup via the app. Plus there are discount codes: 87ZIQ will give you (and me) a £10 credit.
I wanted to avoid the fuss of having to take apart our chairs so we were using the hackney carriages. Until one frustrating ride back from the Empire to the hotel... After the cabby pressed some buttons which made the fare jump up my wife asked him why. As he held up a sheet with the charges and pointed to the '2 Passengers with Luggage' he said "I'm not trying to rip you off. I try to help you kind." Wheelchairs and luggage are exactly the same thing, obviously. Then we arrived at the hotel. I'd checked the uber app for an idea of the fair while we waited at the Empire and it was £6-£8. The meter read £18.50! For a journey a little over 1 mile.
He didn't stop the meter and say ok that's £18.50 which was ridiculous anyway. He left it running while he put the wheels on my wifes chair (very slowly) so he checks the meter before I pay and it's on £21.80. Obviously I argue about that. If he's charging us for luggage he can't charge us for the time to put the luggage together. So then he say's ok call it £20. Call it £20! Bleedin' call it bleedin' £20. Ok then. But I'm not giving you a tip.
The next day I thought well I may aswell just try uber to see if they can take wheelchairs. The driver came and we got our chairs and luggage in and off we went. The car was pretty nice, the driver was awesome and it was a good trip. The estimated fare was £16-£18. I had £10 credit so according to my email receipt it cost just £6!!! The cab that we took when we arrived cost £24.
