qaswedfrt

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

the taxi trip back home from melbourne airport

it should be easier for me to just copy and paste the complaint i've just lodged. so here it is:

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I was returning from a Sydney trip with two other friends and at the above stated time and location, I took a cab from Tullamarine airport T3, stating that we have two destinations, one around the corner of Swanston/Grattan streets, and the second one around the corner of La Trobe/Spring street.

I've been driving in Melbourne for almost 3 years now and I've learnt that the shortest/fastest/cheapest route from the airport to where I live (640 Swanston Street. the first destination mentioned) is to exit at Flemington Road and turn left at Grattan. Even before I started driving, this is always the route all other taxi drivers took when I come home from the airport.

However, in this incident, I fell asleep on the trip and when I woke up, the next exit on the City Link was already around Docklands. I asked the driver which road he was taking and gave me a 'huh'. I did asked him again, but I forgot what answer he gave me. No matter what answers he gave me, it was not a specific answer. When I told him to take the next exit, he told me that was the exit he was going to take. I also asked him if we have passed Flemington and he told me it is hard to access Swanston Street via Elizabeth Street from the Flemington Road exit.

Now, firstly, I've never told him to go to Elizabeth Street. Secondly, it is easy to access Elizabeth Street at the roundabout at the end of Flemington Road. Thirdly, by mentioning 'Elizabeth Street', it shows that the driver knows the roads around Flemington Road.

At the end of my trip, the driver, as usual, told me that the fare was (the amount shown on the meter, $55.80) and the airport parking was $2 and the City Link charges was $4. I asked him if he was going to charge me the full price and he repeated the calculations to me again, this time, fast to produce the airport parking reciept as if that was not the first time he had a customer who was not willing to pay the full amount.

That was my main complaint but I thought I will make two other complaints anyway. The driver, upon recieveing a call from his mobile, picked up the phone while driving but rejected the call. And at the next junction when we stopped at the traffic lights, he picked it up and pressed a few more buttons. As far as I know, we shouldn't handle a mobile phone while driving, but maybe what he did was still legal. The driver also drove on a road shoulder on Tullamarine Freeway, at the big left bend around the exit of Bulla Road (he was driving on the right shoulder).

At the end of my trip, my total fare was $61.80. In all my previous trips in a taxi, my fare had never exceeded $58. This included the trip three days before this incident, in which my friends boarded a taxi from their house at Spring Street and came to pick me from my house before proceeding to the Tullamarine Airport.

I wish to get a follow up asap. Thank you.

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i'm just going to paste my reference number for my complaint here too.

Your reference number is : VTD2406/09

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