Miserable Marci’s Friday Rant – Cab Drivers

So last night I’m making my way home and I get to the end of the 6 train and decide I don’t feel much like walking to WTC path and waiting forever for the path in the cold. And a taxi pulls up. So I ask the man behind the wheel, “How much to Jersey City?” He replies, in an accent that would prove to be my nemesis, “Seventeen.” I say “Word, yo. Take me to my abode.”

And off we go. Really all the man had to do was drive one block, drive me through a tunnel, then drop me off at home. Only took 10 minutes, tops. Seems pretty simple, no? It was. Until we arrived at my house and I gave him $20 and open the door to get out of the car. And he says, “No no no no. I said 70.”

WHAAAAAT?

You think I am going to pay you 7-0 dollars to drive me through a tunnel? Not gonna happen. So I told him this. And he’s like “Jersey City is far away… blah blah blah… tolls.”

And I’m all like “I took a cab home from way uptown once and it was only $50 with tax and now you want way more than that to drive me through a tunnel? I’m not paying it and it’s late and we’re right outside my house and I want to climb into my bed and sleep forever until I have to go to work tomorrow but you are impeding me from doing this because you don’t know how to speak properly and then try to rip off your fares. So I’ll give you $35 if you just go away now.”

We settled on $40. So… because this man didn’t know how to properly communicate in my native tongue in my native country I had to pay more money than we originally had agreed on.

I mean okay, I can see how 17 could sound like 70, but that is such an unreasonable amount to charge someone for where he was taking me that it didn’t even register in my head that he could be saying 70.

I can fly Jetblue to Buffalo and back for $70 (when they are having a sale, but still.) COME ON MAN.

Here are some other things you can do with $70:

• Buy a pair of jeans at the Gap
  
• Go out for a nice dinner
  
• Buy a ticket to a Broadway musical
  
• Buy 70 things off the dollar menu at McDonald’s
  

Does this man really think his ten-minute drive was equivalent in value to 70 double cheeseburgers?

Well it wasn’t.

So, to all cab drivers who cannot speak properly and try to rip people off:



end rant.