Wellington: The couple cannot find the Wellington driver who overcharged them. Photo / Ross Setford
Wellington: The couple cannot find the Wellington driver who overcharged them. Photo / Ross Setford
A tourist in New Zealand has been left reeling after he was charged an eye-watering $930 for a five-minute cab ride in Wellington.
And it seems he may have been seriously stiffed by a dodgy operator, as he's unable to track down the driver or company who overcharged him.
Scottish tourist John Barrett and his wife arrived in the capital by bus on January 21 and hopped in the first taxi lined up outside Wellington railway station.
Mr Barrett told Stuff the white cab had "Wellington" on the roof sign and the driver had the usual photo ID, and "there was nothing at the time that made us think anything was wrong".
The Barretts were driven to their accommodation on Johnson St — a mere 500m and five minutes away.
The couple were picked up by the taxi from Wellington Railway Station. Photo / NZPA, Ross Setford
The meter reader said the cost of the trip was less than $10, but Mr Barrett said the driver's hand had obscured the total charge on the eftpos machine. He wasn't given a receipt either.
It was the next day when Mr Barrett's travel MasterCard was declined at a supermarket and he checked his transactions he realised he'd been charged $NZ930 by "Taxi Wellington".
Mr Barrett has been trying to track down company the taxi driver worked for with no luck. Companies he contacted said that cab was not part of their fleet.
His bank's disputes team is handling the matter and Mr Barrett has contacted the local Transport Agency, Wellington City Council and New Zealand's Taxi Federation.
"I honestly don't know what else to do," Mr Barrett said.
"I'm in a complete loop I cannot break out of because I cannot get the contact details for this taxi company."
Wellington: Scottish tourist John Barrett and his wife arrived in wellington and took the first taxi they could. Photo / Getty Images
A taxi driver from Wellington Amalgamated Taxis told Stuff several drivers were operating as independents in the city using old signs by a now-defunct taxi company.
Taxi Federation executive director John Hart said the deregulation of New Zealand's taxi industry in 2017 meant it was hard to track down independent operators.
He said the federation received at least one complaint every week about people being overcharged.
"We've had many other instances of this sort of thing but none at this level," he told Stuff
"These are the ones we're hearing of, but I think there are probably a whole lot more, and the concern would be that visitors from overseas are being ripped off."
He said the new legislation meant the "transport agency doesn't have any responsibility" for overcharged complaints like Mr Barrett's.
The British couple were eventually able to track down their taxi driver via the New Zealand Taxi Federation and were eventually refunded.
"We're receiving complaints every day. Barrett has been very lucky to get his money back in this case," Taxi Federation Executive Director John Hart told Stuff.
The driver in question says he made an innocent mistake, missing out a decimal point on the EFTPOS payment and charging the Barretts $930 instead of $9.30.
The transaction was tracked down with the of help Wellington Taxi's Hassan Mohamed, whose company leases EFTPOS machines to independent taxi operators.
Because there was no name attached to the trip, Mr Mohamed had to go through every transaction registered on his EFTPOS machines that day - though even on the windy roads of Wellington there can't have been many $1000 fares that day.
The fee was eventually recovered along with a $50 credit by way of apology to the Barretts.
The driver in Paris shows the Thai tourists the fee, in euros, on an app on his phone. Photo / YouTube
The incident comes two months after a couple in Paris were allegedly scammed by a rogue taxi operator who tried to charge them almost five times the real cost of a taxi ride — and then got angry when they refused.
The couple, from Thailand, filmed the incident in which a taxi driver tried to charge them €247 ($413) for a 45km ride from Charles de Gaulle Airport to the city centre.
Official Paris cabs charge a flat rate from the airport of €50 ($84) to anywhere on the Right Bank of Paris and €55 ($92) to anywhere on the Left Bank under strict new rules.
But in the video, which was uploaded to YouTube, the driver angrily insists his €247 fee is correct and argues with the couple after they challenge it. The meter appears to be an app on the driver's phone.
The couple eventually agreed to a compromise price of €200 ($335) so they could finally get out of the cab.
They said they wanted their experience to be "a case study for other Thai people or travellers to be conscious (of) while they are travelling".
