With 82 taxi's being the recommended taxi company advertised around the university, one would believe this company would offer the best service possible. However, my experience with this company this academic year has been far from brilliant.
The first time we had problems using was back in October 2011. We thought we had ordered a taxi to accommodate nine people (as we have a 10 bedroom student house). When the minibus had arrived, it had one less seat than we had expected. So we told the driver that we thought the company had made a mistake and he told us no they had not and we had asked for an eight-seater. We were adamant we booked for nine (although I had not made the call, we could have quite possibly been in the wrong) we were told quite frankly to get out and we had to sort ourselves out another taxi in busy freshers week.
After not using 82 taxi's again for a while, I was nominated by my housemates to book a taxi to go out last Saturday. Thinking maybe service from 82 taxis might have been better and maybe the last incident being our fault, I picked up the phone and ordered a taxi to Asylum for six people. They told me that was OK and said they would send me text messages to let us know when the driver was there. We got the text messages (saying our driver was called 'Ron'), great service so far, and then the taxi came. It was a five seater despite explicitly asking for a six seater (I knew I had not made a mistake). Although I had not approached the driver at that point, my friends had told me 82 had made a mistake and the driver would reorder the taxi for us because of the mistake. My other friend who had not approached the car proceeded to ring the company to ask if another car was going to be sent. The woman on the phone told us that our housemate had been rude to the driver (which two witnesses said he had not) and that we had booked a car for five people (which I had not, and again, had two people witness my phone call to the company). My friend then asked if we could have some discount on our travel because now we were late and they had made the mistake. The woman flatly said no they could not because the drivers were on commission. My friend preceded to ask whether they now were saying they did not want our custom, and she agreed and said no they did not.
I really am appalled by the treatment they have given to us as customers. Considering they had made the mistake (at least one time), being rude to us and flat out lying accusing us as being rude I will refuse to use this company again. read more
