If Yelp would allow a Negative 5 star rating, that's what this miserably run company would get from me, and then only if I was being nice.
I don't have time to go into the dozen plus times these yahoos have either not shown up or gone to the wrong house. I won't bore you with the number of times I've had to call back a 2nd time, then wait to finally speak to a human, to ask them where on earth my damn taxi is or with how many times the dispatcher has been thoroughly unhelpful. Instead, I'll give you my two MOST RECENT experiences:
Two days ago I was going to me 2nd day at a new job, so since I've had trouble with this company so many times I made sure to call them nice and early. (I use them only when Orange Cab is too busy.) The "automated system" asked me to punch in just the street address of where I wanted to get picked up. I hit my street number per usual and the automated system asks me to confirm my street address. Then it says "your order for immediate taxi service has been booked. Your taxi will arrive shortly. Goodbye." Now, it doesn't say how long it's going to take but 95% of the time that I actually speak to someone they ALWAYS quote 5 - 15 minutes. After 20 minutes I called back, had to follow a bunch of prompts and then hold 5 minutes to speak to a person. She told me that the cab was 5 minutes away. After waiting 10 minutes and still no cab, I call back again. Now I'm angry. I demand to know where the cab is and the woman I spoke to has the audacity to tell me that "We're actually on a 45 minute wait now, so technically our driver is not late." She didn't apologize for the inconvenience or try to even *listen* to my concerns as a customer - this moron defended her company's inefficiency and incompetence. If I could have jumped through the phone, I would have. When I told her that the "automated system" does not quote you a wait time, she sounded irritated and said, "Yeah, we's trying to work on fixin' dat." When I asked her how I could avoid this happening AGAIN she recommended that I use their website and order several hours ahead of time to guarantee a cab arriving at the correct time.
Cut to today. I thought I'd give it a try. Because I'm a idiot and a masochist. I go online and order a cab for 2 hours and 15 minutes from the present time. It confirms my order for a cab to arrive at 4:10 and I've given them nearly 2 and a half hours notice. At 4:20, I call them back, follow the prompts, wait several minutes to talk to someone. I ask where the cab is and this man tells me the location of the cab in Tucson, which translates to about 10 minutes away from me. When I asked to speak to a manager, or file a complaint, he asked me why and what did I want to speak to a manager for? I told him of my many complaints and that I had ordered a cab for a specific time. He told me that "Ordering a cab for a specific time does not guarantee that it will arrive there at that time." SO THEN WHAT IS THE POINT OF ORDERING THE DAMN THING AHEAD OF TIME!? I said, "The website doesn't say that. It doesn't say, oh by the way, psych! We're just kidding. See you when we get there, sucker!" It just says, "Here is your confirmation number!" You know who doesn't give a rat's ass about my confirmation number? My boss when I'm late twice in the first week of work, that's who.
When I finally asked the guy I was speaking to, "Is there not a manager or someone that I can talk to?" he got very defensive and told me "This entire time we've been talking I've been working to pass you through to our escalation department." Okay, escalation department? Really? He was just as much of an uninformed douchebag as the woman I spoke to the day before. These people are trained to avoid your questions and say whatever it is they need to say in order to shut you up. They don't care about your problems, your complaints, your life, your schedule, your needs - nothing. They're the biggest cab company in Phoenix and Tucson and not only would losing just one customer's business NOT affect them (and they know it) they KNOW that there are not any other options legitimately out there. They've got such a monopoly they can treat you however they want to treat you and feel no consequences.
I've never in my life experienced a company run as poorly as Discount Cab. No matter how many times I've asked to speak to a manager, I've never been given an opportunity. They will make excuses and talk to you like you're a nuisance to them. Half of the drivers don't seem to know their way around and often take you out of the way and you get to sit in the back and watch your meter go up. You basically need to scream at them to get them to follow your suggestions or directions.
Screw these guys. I don't care if I have to pay more for Uber or Lyft, I will NEVER use these jack-offs again. read more