So, I get into the Madrid airport and head toward the taxis. A guy catches me at the door saying "taxi" and I said "Si" and he starts leading me in another direction. I didn't think too much of it until we are almost to the car garage and I begin to panic. See, right out the door I was passing through is where the taxis are!
I then asked how much this is going to be. He tries to explain in broken English and some in Spanish. He showed me an official looking card that has what looks to be a taxi company. Then tells me it is a holiday weekend and a Sunday and it will be 40 euros. I was aware of no holiday in Spain this particular Sunday!
In my Spanish I tell him "No, I can't do that!" I grab my bag and head back to the taxi area. Then I got out my phone and called Jerry.
We knew from others to only use a certain company. I have no idea if this guy was legit. Maybe so, but then Jerry tells me "Probably not!" He looked nice and even wore a suit! SCARY!
I go down to the taxi area and they have quite a system lined up of getting people to taxis. I felt better. I then am sent to a guy, he puts my bag in the back of the car and in doing so I point out the address that is on my bag.
He isn't sure where it is and begins to punch it into his GPS WHILE driving. In doing so, he missed our exit and we start heading into Madrid. I live north of Madrid! I begin to get FURIOUS and he tells me we will be there in 10 minutes and in the mean time I see the counter ticking higher and higher!
Little did he know I live here and know Madrid enough to know what's going on. He then points out Alcobendas (our little burb) as we get closer.
As we approach our apartment I tell him I live here. I think he begins to get a little panicked because he has taken advantage of me!
In the end, it STILL cost me 40 euros when it should have only been less than 30!! He got my bag out so fast and sped away before I could even get on the sidewalk with my bag!
I would have liked to contact the taxi company with what happened, but well, that takes effort........and Spanish.......and supposedly I should I have gotten a complaint form from the driver.
Of course Jerry tells me I should have refused to pay, but all I had was 40 euros and how am I going to do that when I have little Spanish under my belt! This is when I hate being a foreigner!
I WAS MAD! GRR!!!
I told Jerry that Spain just went down a notch in my book! Ha!
Not too much though, I still love it here!Otherwise I made it home safely!
So there ya have it! My taxi story!
Oh, girl, taxis here are horrible too! We got cheated a few weeks ago coming back from the airport...watched the guy go right past where he should have and come in the back way, 20 minutes and 22 lira (15 dollars) later. And of course our Turkish isn't good enough to say anything. I was mad at Shannon for paying! Then just a few days ago we were going to Cappadocia and were told at the airport that a taxi ride was 150 lira. So our taxi driver (of course) took us the long way and the total was 210 lira ($140). We got out of that by paying in dollars what it should have cost, and since he didn't know the exchange rate, he agreed. =)
ReplyDeleteI agree though, I hate being ripped off because I'm not a local. Especially by taxi drivers!