I haven't been a Yelp user for that long, but long enough to know that I should have checked the reviews on here before calling this company to arrange for a taxi a week or so ago. I don't normally use any taxi service. I have my own car and prefer to drive myself everywhere I want to go, even with the cost of fuel these days, but unfortunately I managed to break my glasses and can't very well drive without them.
I took the bus to the opticians some fifteen miles from my home to arrange for some new glasses, and was relieved when told me they would be ready by noon the following day. Unfortunately I woke with a splitting headache, probably a side effect of having walked around blind for the better part of twenty four hours, so rather than enduring the bus I decided to call for a taxi.
Alarm bells should have sounded the moment I began speaking to the receptionist. Dear God, what rock did they fish her out from under? Either she wasn't speaking directly into the phone or the line was bad at first because I could barely hear her, and when I asked her to repeat herself she did so in a very sharp tone and followed it up by asking if my hearing aid was switched on!
I put it down to the same dry sense of humour I'm guilty of at times and decided my irritation was more due to my headache than her attitude, but it just went downhill from there. I asked for a taxi, gave my address, gave my destination and the moment I mentioned it was an opticians I was going to she immediately quipped that I "should have gone to..." (you know the name of the company. I don't like to advertise them, but suffice to say I have been to them and once was enough).
Anyway, the taxi was ordered and as I wasn't in a particular hurry I didn't particularly care when they didn't turn within the twenty minutes I'd been promised. I was a little annoyed when forty-five minutes passed without any sign of them, but I kept on waiting. Once it past the hour, however, I called to ask where my taxi was.
The delightful creature on the other end of the phone told me the taxi had waited outside my house for ten minutes before giving up and driving away. When I said that I hadn't seen any taxi, or any other vehicle, in front of my house for over an hour, and I had been sitting in my front room with a clear view of the street, she told me it was hardly surprising I hadn't seen him if I was on the way to see an optician.
Now, my eyesight is bad enough that I'm not allowed to drive without glasses, but it's not so bad that I can't see a vehicle parked on the road ten feet from my front door. I am short sighted, not blind.
Nevertheless, I asked if she could send out another car and after she muttered something inaudible she told me, in an "I can't be bothered" tone, that I would need to wait half an hour for another taxi. Ignoring her attitude, I said that was fine, I was willing to wait, but then she said in a very patronising tone that she would ask the driver to knock on my front door when he arrived and hold my hand all the way to the taxi so I would be sure to find it.
I can't post my response to her, but let's just say I suggested a convenient place for the driver to park his taxi. A charitable reply considering her attitude.
I'm afraid I can't say anything about the state of the vehicles or behaviour of the drivers. I never got that far. I can say that I called another firm and had a taxi arrive within fifteen minutes - the driver didn't honk his horn or come to my door, but I saw him clearly from where I sat in my front room. I can say that the person I spoke to from that firm was polite and helpful, the driver was cheerful and the vehicle was clean. I can also say I would sooner hitch a ride with any of the four horsemen of the apocalypse than call Lenzie taxis again.
And just in case the individual who has apparently threatened other posters on here decides to play the same game with me, be warned - I'm more than happy to call the police. If you don't like the review, get rid of that receptionist and hire someone capable of professional conduct. read more
