Missed prepaid taxi due to flight delay

dshart

The question I have for the OP is, when you phoned the taxi and informed them of the delay and they said the taxi was already there, did you let them know when you were expected to arrive? Did they tell you the taxi would only wait for 30 minutes. I think this was the time you should have made sure they would still be there for you and agreed any additional charges for them waiting.

I think the fact that you pre-paid meant the taxi could get away with just waiting 30 minutes, I travel a lot and regularly pre-book taxis but not pre-pay and the taxi always waits if there has been a delay as otherwise they get nothing for the journey. If it is a long delay they will also charge waiting time.

gixer750

i"m a driver and do u expect the poor driver to wait all night for you and then expect u will pay for the waiting time....no, you should have cancelled taxi and re-ordrered wen u knew what was going on and they could send another at your cost, most companies give at least half hour free waiting and you would have argued the toss that u were not going to pay £80 on top of ur £60 fare for waiting time, most companies charge £15 to £25 hour waiting, who would have been out of pocket, the driver as usual, he was there done his job very well, the airline !!!!ed up, not his fault.

Guardsman

Just looked at the terms and conditions of a nationwide airport taxi service.

Copy and paste

Waiting Time
We do not charge for the 1st hour's waiting time after the plane has landed. However if the passenger is stuck in immigration or has lost luggage we would have to charge waiting at £20/hr pro rata.Waiting time for all other journeys will be added at £20/hr pro rata.

Tolls
Any Bridge Tolls are not included in the instant online quotes. The driver will ask you for the money or we can take this from your card if you prefer.

If your flight has any serious delays please inform us or the driver as soon as possible.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

baza52 wrote: »

check your travel insurance.

Don't.

It's not covered.

SirRockyRaccoon

dshart wrote: »

The question I have for the OP is, when you phoned the taxi and informed them of the delay and they said the taxi was already there, did you let them know when you were expected to arrive? Did they tell you the taxi would only wait for 30 minutes. I think this was the time you should have made sure they would still be there for you and agreed any additional charges for them waiting...

That is what I did as soon as the flight landed at Gatwick and we were allowed to use our phone. I tried to cancel it and told them we didn't know what time we would be back or if you'd be back at all.

Unfortunately, the updates from the pilot about time were not very good. He only said "as soon as we can... blah, blah". First we had to wait to fix the problem (time unknown) then we waited for refuelling and also for the "pushback". Therefore I was unable to pass any time related information to the taxi company.

gixer750 wrote: »

i"m a driver and do u expect the poor driver to wait all night for you and then expect u will pay for the waiting time....no, you should have cancelled taxi and re-ordrered wen u knew what was going on and they could send another at your cost...

I didn't expect that at all. I called them as soon as I could to cancel it and told them not to wait because there was the probability of the airline put us in another plane, coach or just drop us there in London. Who knows!

The outcome I was expecting from the taxi company was a partial refund at least. At the end of the day, I did not wish that to happen and I didn't want to be stuck inside an aircraft for almost 3 hours (plus flight time). It was not my fault.

Well, lesson learned from experience!

arcon5

You still have said... where the taxi company are based in comparison to the pickup point and destination...

If their base is at the destination I can't understand why you feel you should have got a partial refund.. the only losers would be a) the driver, where 'time is money' literally. He doesn't get a fixed rate per hour remember, if he takes nothing he gets nothing & b) the vehicle owner whom still has to pay for the diesel used and maintain the car thats just had another 100 miles added to the clock. So which would you rather loose out?

I've been a cab driver, we always took payment for return journeys in advance, whether by cash on the outbound journey or card over the phone before a driver is dispatched - and for this exact reason. This is why, it's not fair for the driver to finish a shift and have earnt pittance because 3-4 hours have been wasted doing a 100 mile round trip and waiting.
Put yourself in his/her shoes for a second....? I'm betting you work in a PAYE job..

gamboller

As an aside. Which is the best taxi service to pre-book for Gatwick to SE6 Catford?

wealdroam

gamboller wrote: »

As an aside. Which is the best taxi service to pre-book for Gatwick to SE6 Catford?

As you seem to imply, this is nothing to do with the subject of this thread.

It is also not a Consumer Rights issue.

Try the Motoring and Public Transport board, or Local Money Saving or Yellow Pages.

CKhalvashi

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Whenever I phone up to book a "taxi", it's actually a private hire cab that I'm calling, and I don't think I'm alone in using the term "taxi" to cover both licenced Hackney carriages and private hire vehicles even though there is a difference.

I doubt very much if what the OP booked was in fact a Hackney carriage taxi as they are required to have meters fitted and these are what are used to calculate fares, and I'm pretty sure that they are not allowed to take fares "off the meter" by accepting pre-payments.

I've got a meter in mine.

Within the district we should (although I do the occasional 'give us a tenner') and outside the district, we don't (£12 to STN, £55 to Luton, £100 to LCY/LHR1-4 and £115 to LHR5/LGW)

There's nothing, in practice stopping us doing it, as we need to have fair competition between companies.

CK

gixer750

SirRockyRaccoon wrote: »

That is what I did as soon as the flight landed at Gatwick and we were allowed to use our phone. I tried to cancel it and told them we didn't know what time we would be back or if you'd be back at all.

Unfortunately, the updates from the pilot about time were not very good. He only said "as soon as we can... blah, blah". First we had to wait to fix the problem (time unknown) then we waited for refuelling and also for the "pushback". Therefore I was unable to pass any time related information to the taxi company.



I didn't expect that at all. I called them as soon as I could to cancel it and told them not to wait because there was the probability of the airline put us in another plane, coach or just drop us there in London. Who knows!

The outcome I was expecting from the taxi company was a partial refund at least. At the end of the day, I did not wish that to happen and I didn't want to be stuck inside an aircraft for almost 3 hours (plus flight time). It was not my fault.

Well, lesson learned from experience!

so if you order something online with a supermarket etc and you tell them a time that suits you and they agree and then they turn up and you"ve been called away on business and no-one can take your order then what u are saying is u would want a refund from them for turning up and u wasnt there, GET REAL!! YOU REALLY NEED TO LOOK AT YOUR LOGICAL THINKING, thank god all customers dont think like u. u got a service u paid for and it wasnt the taxi company fault your plane was diverted, it wasnt yours either but why should the taxi company pay for someone elses fault just cos u cant claim from insurance or the airline.