Sunday, October 30, 2005
OT: Thumbs Down to Black Top Cabs
My buddy and I waited for AN HOUR AND A HALF for a cab last night. Here's why:
(after being on hold with Black Top Cabs for 20 minutes)
An hour and a half and no cab later, my buddy and I decided to walk to the Fairmont Waterfront hotel, hoping that we'd have better luck if we waited at a hotel taxi stand. No luck. We left the hotel, hoping that we'd have better luck flagging a cab somewhere else. We did. We managed to flag a cab on Georgia and Howe. Lo and behold, it happened to be a Black Top cab.
(after being on hold with Black Top Cabs for 20 minutes)
Me: Hi, can I get a cab? I'm at Shine Nightclub on the Cordova side.Nice.
Black Top Cab (BTC) operator: Sure, no problem. Just wait there.
Me: My name's J.J.
BTC operator: I don't need your name. I'm gonna send a cab over, just flag it down.
Me: There's a few other people waiting here. Can you send the cab for me?
BTC operator: Just flag him down when he gets there.
Me: There's a few other people waiting here. Can you send the cab for ME?
BTC operator: I'm gonna send one over. Just make sure you get in front of everyone else.
An hour and a half and no cab later, my buddy and I decided to walk to the Fairmont Waterfront hotel, hoping that we'd have better luck if we waited at a hotel taxi stand. No luck. We left the hotel, hoping that we'd have better luck flagging a cab somewhere else. We did. We managed to flag a cab on Georgia and Howe. Lo and behold, it happened to be a Black Top cab.
Me: We were waiting for an hour and a half for a cab. What's the deal?Actually, what's quicker is deleting Black Top Cabs from my cell phone speed dial.
BTC driver: We were busy tonight.
My buddy: Ummm... I was just wondering... we flagged you down on the street. Were you on your way to pick up a fare? Were we better off waiting on the street than calling?
BTC driver: We get the call to go somewhere, but if someone flags us down within 3 minutes, then we can pick him up.
My buddy: What about the people that call to be picked up from an address, like a house or a hotel?
BTC driver: Well, someone else should pick them up.
My buddy: Do you call it in? Does your company send another car over?
BTC driver: I don't know. On a busy night, you should just wait on a busy street.
My buddy: So there's no point in calling?
BTC driver: At this time (approx. 3:30 am now) we don't care about the hotels. They're not a preference. We all go to Granville.
My buddy: What about the people who aren't on Granville?
BTC driver: They should just walk there. It's quicker.
3 Comments:
Black Top IS brutal, but I snagged one in two minutes on Friday night at the Four Seasons, as compared to an hour on Denman the previous week.
I normally use Yellow Cabs, but they too were busy and couldn't get through. We got through to Black Top first, but in hindsight probably should have kept trying Yellow Cabs anyway.
*sigh*
I agree Black Top is shit. I called three times, waited for an hour and a half, and when it finally came it wouldn't take me where I wanted to go. When I asked them to try and make it happen because I'd been waiting for so long they kicked me out of the cab even though I didn't even know where I was and it was dark. Some service. They're total shit. Delete them from your phones and boycott the assholes.
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