Hey,

Yesterday was the first time I’ve been in a black cab, went from Heathrow Airport to Camberley, about 20mins drive on the motor way and got charged £90!!!!!!!!!

Then got a normal taxi back the same route for £30…..bit of a rip off there?! Cabby guy didn’t even know where he was going and stopped on the hard shoulder to program his GPS! so much for London cabbys then. I would have got a normal taxi at the airport but there’s none except a big queue only for the black cabs.

First and last time I use one of those



[Edited on 18/9/08 by Mr Whippy]

Just be glad it didn't catch fire on you!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7622407.stm




Cheers

Mike

ouch - that seems rather a lot. driver probably realised you wereforeign so set the meter to dollars but charged you in pounds.

only black cabs are allowed to queue at the rank at heathrow - you would have been better off finging a taxi frim in cammberly.

PS I would ring the company up and query that amount.

quote:

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Originally posted by 02GF74
ouch - that seems rather a lot. driver probably realised you wereforeign so set the meter to dollars but charged you in pounds.

only black cabs are allowed to queue at the rank at heathrow - you would have been better off finging a taxi frim in cammberly.

PS I would ring the company up and query that amount.

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Was the driver english?

ha,i can see the planes taking off and landing from my place,i was quoted £40 to take me home from there,took the bus with the peasants .

there's nowt wrong with taking the bus conrod - in fact the more that do the better the roads will be for me

The taxi firm I use to take me to and from the airport charges £25 to get there (pre booked to arrive for the 6.00am flight) and £30 to get back (hailed on arrival outside the airport). It is a 30 minute journey accross the city to Birmingham airport. The same black cabs are used for all journeys. It seems they charge less for pre-booked trips. £90 seems a bit steep though. Glad I don't live near London.

Heathrow/london cabs seem to charge not just for the trip to where you are going to (if out of london) but also for the trip back.

quote:

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Originally posted by Mr Whippy
Cabby guy didn’t even know where he was going and stopped on the hard shoulder to program his GPS! so much for London cabbys then.

---

there's nowt wrong with taking the bus conrod - in fact the more that do the better the roads will be for me

getting on a bus round here is like you see on those round the world on £5 trips,only difference i could see was the lack of goats on board but going by the smell i think they may have just got off

I have been stung on this a feww times, getting home on a late flight. Coming from Heathrow, going west you leave the london Metropolitan area, and they charge a boundary fee to go over it. Going from heathrow to staines ( a couple of miles will cost you in exces of £50 cause Staines is outside the met area) so you are always f**d going west from Heathrow in a black cab. Going into London no probs, going west hah.

You can aslo try a fair share (the cabs do not have to accept it, but some might). Basically you split the cost of the fare with the cabbie, as he gets a ticket to get him back into the waiting que at the front.

To tell a story, I got into heathrow late on night and had to ask a number of cabs if they would take me to Staines - guy says £65, I say wtf it is only a couple of miles. So I say how much to Ascot, and he says £65. Bingo taxi home all the way for the same price as a cab to the train station.

Me, Wife and kids flew from Gatwick last year stopped over night in a hotel near by before and parked the car at the hotel for 2 weeks cost = £120 oh and inc. shuttle bus to and from airport.

What time of day?

TBH that's probably the book rate. London cabbies don't like leaving London, but if they're in the rank at Heathrow they have to take you wherever you say, so the book rate for out of the M25 is astronomical.

I got in a shouting match with a cabby, and then the rank 'controller' once at heathrow. The first cab refused to take me home as 'he didn't want to go that way', so I got out, and the 'controller' starting having a go at the driver. The next driver in the queue wanted £70 for a 7 mile trip, he even showed me the book with all the standard fares. So I got out and went looking for the bus station, at which point the controller had a go for wasting his time...