With the development of aggregators, taxi prices in Russia are falling, and the popularity of this type of transport is increasing. At the same time, the number of fraudulent schemes used by taxi drivers to deceive passengers is also increasing. Let's talk about them.
Elementary theft
News reports regularly appear with the following headlines: "A southerner taxi driver with bristles stole 28 thousand from a drunk passenger in Murin", "A taxi driver robbed and tried to rape a resident of the Leningrad region" or even "A taxi driver bombs robbed and threw a passenger out of the car in Murmansk ".
On the one hand, a taxi is very convenient for transporting money. On the other hand, the enclosed space of the car becomes an almost ideal place for theft.
If you plan to use a taxi to transport money from the bank home, in no case call the car to the doors of the branch of the financial institution: for the driver, this is a signal that you have a lot of money in your wallet. Book a taxi to a nearby apartment building or store. In addition, it is recommended to choose the "comfort" tariff, as there are more chances that a decent driver will come.
Taxi driver-waiting
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However, most of the scam drivers prefer to profit from passengers in more legal ways. For example, like this: the taxi driver accepted the order, drove up to the destination, stood for 10-15 minutes at the entrance or the entrance to the club / train station / store, but did not inform the client about it. But it reports this to the aggregator, which turns on the counter after the free waiting time expires. An unsuspecting passenger gets into the car, and when he arrives home / to work / to a restaurant, he finds out that the cost of the trip is higher than he expected.
How do taxi drivers manage to deceive aggregators and customers? Very simple. They use special programs to spoof location.
It is not difficult to prove that you paid for the supposedly long wait: you need to contact the aggregator and offer to compare the time of the message about the driver's arrival at the destination with the time of the driver's mark in the application.
Pay for a child seat and a cat
It happens that the taxi driver fails to guide the passenger with a long wait (for example, the client stands at the entrance or the bar and can control the time of arrival of the car). Then, at the end of the trip, the drivers include additional services that were not provided on the bill. For example, a child seat, baggage, animals, etc.
If a larger amount was debited from your account, you should contact the support service of the aggregator and clarify that you were driving from the bar at five in the morning and that there were no children and even more so cats with you.
Double tariff for drunk passengers
Our reader Alexey L. paid twice for one trip, as he was drunk. He called a taxi to the bar where he celebrated his friend's birthday. In the car, the driver told Alexey that his bank card attached to the application did not work, and offered to immediately decide how the passenger would pay for the trip: in cash or by transfer to the taxi driver's personal account. The young man transferred 900 rubles to the driver. And in the morning, having sober up, I found an SMS message from the bank writing off another 900 rubles for the trip.
It turned out that the driver had deceived the man, saying that his card did not work, and received a double payment for his service: a transfer from Alexey and from the aggregator through which the order was placed.
"Economy" at the price of "comfort"
The cost of a taxi ride depends on a number of factors: the situation on the roads (the more traffic jams, the more expensive), the time of day (at night, after the metro closes, prices increase) and the class of the car. The most popular fare - "economy" - just involves a trip on inexpensive cars.
At popular times (again at night), an economy car may not be nearby, and the aggregator will offer the passenger a comfort or even business car. At the appropriate price, of course. Otherwise, a cheap taxi will have to wait indecently for a long time: at least 20 minutes, or even 30 minutes. Most often, passengers agree. But instead of the promised German car with leather interior, a Korean budget car arrives. But her state number is the same as that of the "German". The passenger, of course, can refuse the trip, but then he will have to wait for a taxi again. And if he agrees, then he pays for the trip in a Korean budget car at the "comfort" or "business" tariff.
How is this possible? The fact is that some aggregators do not inspect the car before allowing the driver to work, but request documents for the car in electronic form. And cunning taxi drivers send documents to aggregators for one car (premium), and work on another (budget).
Nadezhda Vredina
