I just took one of the worst taxi rides in my life. It was from the Mission Inn in Riverside to Ontario Airport. It was supposed to take about a half an hour and cost $44.00. Instead, it took over an hour and the meter reading was for over $90.
The cab arrived early. The driver, a woman, did not ask my name but I told her my name, going to Ontario Airport. She did not offer to help me with my luggage so I managed to get it into the cab myself.
It was not a comfortable, ordinary cab, but a van outfitted for wheelchairs. It was an extremely rough ride such that the driver kept grabbing the meter to stop it from rattling violently.
The cab was very hot. I asked for air conditioning, which the driver had some difficulty operating. Finally, it did cool down. However, at intervals, the air conditioning stopped working and she had to try to make it work again, always at my request.
Traffic on the freeway was very heavy, so the driver exited. At that point, she started driving over many streets without getting back on any freeways. I then turned on my Waze app. Every time Waze said to go somewhere she went the opposite direction. Finally I asked her, are you taking me to the Ontario airport? She said no, you told me to take you to the Orange County airport. So, she turned around and started up again towards the Ontario airport.
She drove as slowly as possible. I begged her to speed up so that we could get there on time so that I could make my plane. But she refused to speed up, and cars on all sides passed us.
When we finally reached our destination, she opened the door. I got out, again handling my own suitcases. She said nothing about the large bill on the meter. So I asked her, what are we going to do about this? She said, give me $55. I had three $20 bills, which I gave her. She did not have change for $5, but only had $2, which I took and fled.
This company should be renamed "Unhappy Taxi." read more
