Maybe someone from the Morgantown Chamber of Commerce is a follower of this blog. I can only hope. I believe this person would be outraged by the taxi service in their town. It’s simply beyond belief.
Remember, this is my one and only experience with them. But it’s a whopper.
For several reasons, I didn’t want to drive the Jeep to Kari’s friends house on Saturday night. Mostly, there is a parking scarcity and the streets are tight to fit through. beyond this, no sense putting it in the middle of partying college students. Hey, $5.00 of slight inconvenience is worth not risking damage to my car. Right? Right? Right?
Wrong.
Well, the trip there was uneventful. I suspect it’s because we called from the hotel. I’m wondering, why is everyone so angry at this taxi service? I mean, aside from the driver smoking in a non-smoking cab, what’s the problem? Light em’ if you got em’.
So, I spend about two hours at Kari’s friends. I wanted to leave after an hour… but more on that later. I amazed them with my new found ability to play a game called “Flip Cup”. I think being sober as a judge might have given me a distinct advantage. Just so everyone at WVU knows, I’m the man at Flip Cup. If you doubt me, I have about 20 people as eye witnesses. I want a trophy or something…
Anyhow, after about 45 minutes schooling college kids on social gaming, Kari calls a cab for me. They’ll be there “in a few”. After “a few”, and a few more, no taxi. Kari calls again. They’ll be right there. Great!
Nope.
I ask Kari to text me the Taxi companies phone number. Surely, they’ll be a bit more trustworthy with a parent. I dial it up.
“This is the third time we’ve called a cab to 700 _____ Street”, I say.
Dispatcher: “The driver was there earlier.”
Me: “No. He was not. We were actively watching”.
Dispatcher: “He was beeping his horn”.
Me: “That’s not true”.
Dispatcher: “We’ll get one to you whenever we can”, with a belittling tone.
Me: “No need to get indignant. I hope this is not the way you treat the college students who rely on your service”.
Dispatcher: “NOW YOU LISTEN TO ME”, he yells, “I’LL CANCEL YOUR TAXI IF YOU WANT TO PUSH IT”.
Yes, I wanted to push him. I did! I wanted to push him very much. After quickly prioritizing my plan of action, I back off. For a bit…
The taxi comes, picks me up, and delivers me safely to the hotel. I stiff the driver on the tip. Once in my room, I dial up the taxi service.
Dispatcher: “intelligible taxi intelligible“.
Me: “Hi. I was just picked up from 700 _______ Street and…” He cuts me off.
Dispatcher: “What’s your problem”?
Me: “Thanks for asking. It’s you. But here’s the difference from when we spoke earlier, you are not in control. You cannot cancel my ride. You’re tone and treatment was…”.
Click
Really, did he just hang up on me? I call back.
Me: “Sorry, we must have been disconnected”.
Dispatcher: “Expletive stop calling”
Click
Redial.
Me: “You seem to be having problems with your phone system, but if it’s you hanging up on me just hold off for a minute.”
The dispatcher starts yelling a time about how busy he is and how he’ll call the police if I don’t knock it off.
Me: “Now, we wouldn’t want that. Tell you what, I’ll check in with your company next week. Mind if I get your name?”
Click
Seems he minded.
My goodness. I am a student who works retail part-time, and from time to time I get disgruntled customers, either as a result of an error on our part, or just because their grumpy. Regardless, I would never, ever, ever even THINK to treat a customer that way (and not just because he’s a customer, because I would never treat ANYONE that way). If it was a failure on our part to deliver the best service, I apologize and do my best to resolve the situation so that the customer leaves happy. If they are just disgruntled on their own, I still do my best to make sure the situation is resolved. I would be fired on the spot if I ever hung up on a customer, cursed at a customer, threatened a customer, or screamed at a customer. It’s sad when I realize that my company is one of the few left that truly values customer service and hires people that also hold this value.
At the end of January a friend of mine took a taxi from a house party downtown to towers. The driver of the taxi she took, instead of taking her directly to towers first took her to another house where he tried to get her inside telling her he could hook her up and they could smoke before he took her home. Only after she told him repeatedly that she was on the phone with her mother and that her mother was mad she was in the taxi did he take her back to towers. Not only was this extremely upsetting, but because she did not get picked up on WVU property the university police said there was nothing they could do about it, even worse, Morgantown police said that because she had been drinking underage before she got in the cab if they were to come out to file a report she would have to take an underage citation. They also said if she didn’t want something like that to happen she shouldn’t be drinking. We also called the taxi company to file a report with them but we were told without a drivers name, taxi number, or time and location of pick up there was nothing they could do. I don’t know who disappointed us more that night, the taxi service, or the police officer.
I know this is over a year after the fact, but I still had to comment. Maybe I watch too much Law & Order SVU, but I’m pretty sure the police can’t discourage anyone from reporting a crime like that. The driver took advantage of a drunk young woman, and it’s scary to think what could have happened if she hadn’t gotten her mother on the phone. Not that other infractions are ignored, but to threaten a young woman from reporting a crime is a form of harassment on its own. Plus blaming her for that happening because she had been drinking is no different from blaming rape victims. The taxi driver could have pulled that same stunt even if she had been sober. There is no excuse for violating another person’s rights in any way, no matter what they ingested, drank or wore. That’s disgusting. If I had seen this when it was posted, I probably would have made a very angry phone call to the police department.
Even though it’s a year later, I know this continues to be a problem. It’s a huge black mark on an otherwise wonderful city.
Mr> Diviney:
what was the date and time of this incident? thanks Bill
Mr. Diviney
This was just forwarded to me. We are following up with the company and will get you a reply as soon as we can. I am sorry you had this experience. Cab services are totally regulated through the Public Service Commission in Charleston, which grants monopoly status to cab companies. We think this needs to change and have been trying to get legislation passed to deal with this. Bill Byrne Mayor
I’m catching up on your blog posts, so I’m a bit late with this one, but both experiences I had with taxis in Morgantown were horrible. My car broke down in the parking lot of Panera Bread and I called my parents to figure out what to do since my dad used to be a mechanic and only lets certain people work on our cars if it is something he can’t fix. After some tears because I couldn’t reach any friends who could pick me up, my mom found the number for a taxi service and I called. I waited and waited and waited. I called, my mom called, I called again, my dad called and yelled… and I was told the taxi had came and I wasn’t there. Lie. I was getting worried by that point because it was dark and the last bus going to The District apartments was about 6 minutes from arriving at the hospital (old pick up site). So I freak out more, call some friends while rushing from Panera to the Ruby bus stop… and watch the bus leave while I’m waiting to cross the street. Damn Morgantown traffic! I call my parents again, get yelled at for even thinking about attempting to walk up the big hill with no real shoulder to The District and end up calling for a taxi again from the Applebee’s parking lot this time. About 20 mins. later a sketchy looking “taxi” pulls up with 2 guys in the front seat and 1 in the back (he moved to the front when I got in). I’m not even joking when I say that I honestly thought, ‘Well, this is how I die’ as I got in the taxi. It reeked of pot and smoke and I started texting my mom, roommates, friends the type of car and what the dudes looked like. My mom called the taxi company back and told them about him picking me up with friends in the car he was going to drop off later and they basically called us liars. I feel sorry for the people there who only have the taxi service to rely upon.
Make that their (not there) :)!
I will make sure i will never take yellow cab! That was very rude out of them im glad you kept calling them back! Serves them right. Who wants a place that they cant depend on. Hats off To Ken!!!!!!!!!!!!
I take cabs often (several different companies) and I thought the cab drivers were only rude in VIRGINIA BEACH! Don’t waste your precious time calling them back because they don’t give a you know what! They are bored and get a kick out of ticking off there clients! They thrive on it!
As always, love reading the blog and Ryan and your family will always be in my prayers!
Michele
Virginia Beach, VA
I just noticed the Blog Stats have hit 132,626! If everyone mailed a dollar bill… …I’, just sayin.’ The address is at the top of this page. I would like for you to suggest this at the top of your next post, Ken. Yes! We are not beyond begging for Ryan new treatment, and that’s a fact, Folks!
I’m with Elizabeth on this one. I was only forced to use the cab service once and that was years ago. My my memory of the ordeal was much like yours. You might like this though. We went to see Bryan Adams in concert, here in town at the CAC. He also complained about the taxi service in Morgantown while he was on stage. Still here, still praying.
Ken
That is how they treat EVERYONE, not just the college students but EVERYONE. I am so glad I no longer need to depend on a cab in this town.
((hugs))
This taxi dispatchers behavior is a sad commentary on teen behavior that some parents/employers accept. He did not just start behaving this way Saturday night. Like Ryans attackers, he grew up in or is in now an environment where he saw this aggressive/abusive behavior as standard. That is too bad for him, because there are many good employers and parents for him to emulate. I would be horrified if my son worked for that taxi service and thought for one minute he talked to a customer like that. He should be ashamed of himself and so should his employers.
My economics professor told our class that there is either a law or clause that prevents anyone from starting up another cab service. So its basically a monopoly and they don’t have to worry about any other competition.
Ohhhhhh geezzzzzzz what?? They are this rude? They need a competitor for sure — but — who owns this cab company? Have they ever been reported to the Better Business Bureau: http://canton.bbb.org/consumers/ Start reporting them, folks, if they’re not called out, they’ll never change — and who knows, they may never feel the need to change if they have no competition — but — at least warn other folks about them. Ken, good thing we know what a great community Morgantown is — otherwise, one could be left with a terrible impression due to businesses like this. Yuk. Sorry you had to deal with such ugly and unprofessional behavior — you don’t need it, and neither does anyone else. Glad you are home safe and sound!!
if it was yellow cab…. you aren’t the only one not a fan:
http://local.yahoo.com/info-12989676-yellow-cab-morgantown
I sent your blog link to Morgantown Chamber… 🙂
This is very unfortunate. I went to school at UGA (many years ago) and I do remember similar scenes of aggressive and rude taxi services. They typically are servicing college students so I suppose they don’t feel that common human respect is among their mission statement………I would be tempted to follow up on this and get his name but I know that you don’t have time for it. Sorry that happened. Wish there was more respect in the world for fellow humans……..we’re all just trying to make it somewhere………..