The other night around a quarter past midnight, a friend and I were in need of a knight in shining…read moresteel. We were at Heaton Park Metrolink Station and we had two bad situations: 1. The ticket machine that accepts notes wasn't working and I only had two crisp ten pound notes. Plus my friend had already bought a ticket - bummer. Also, we weren't sure which was the last tram going in to Manchester. 2. A boy (he shall remain nameless) was relieving himself in the station and shouting out my friend's name. Acquaintances from a long gone era, you see. He had had way too much to drink and demonstrated this by practically concussing himself on the broken ticket machine and dropping all his belongings. So, we literally ran round the corner to Prestwich Cars to order a cab. To get out of there. It was only around £8 anyway so if my friend hadn't bought her tram ticket first it would have been much more cost efficient. Plus the driver turned a blind eye as we drank our 'blackcurrant' from an Evian bottle.

These are a great taxi firm. I have them in speed dial on my phone. they are always ontyime and the…read moredrivers are always polite and nice.

Wonderful service! Always on time, polite, and a great ride :-)read more

Cheap, but make sure you know where your going and the driver turns the meter on as you get in,…read morelike most taxi drivers they try to maximise the fare, ring the base of they do as they will sort it.

One of their drivers, in a white Vauxhall Astra, MX09HYV just purposely drove into me on my bike to…read moreprevent me getting in front of him as the lights where changing over an advanced stop line. The action was clearly intentional, the driver beeped his horn and drove off. I rang Alpha Cars to tell them, the guy said, I quote, " Not our problem, we use self employed drivers". I'll leave this one in the hands of the police and I be sure to let them know of the companies attitude to the safety of the public also.

Always turn up and excellent value for money as the metre starts at £1.40. I used to use the big…read morelocal company CC but after being overcharged 3 times by drivers going the wrong way purposely, their office having no interest in dealing with my complaint, I changed to Alpha and wish I had done so a long time ago.

So I've ventured onto new taxi horizons and first impressions are mixed. When I rang for the taxi…read moreto take us out into the heart of Manc town they were spot on. They knew where we were, the often over-quizzed location, (there is no "flat name") was noted down with no problem, five minutes. Great one. However his route of choice was questionable. Is a shortcut a longer route around because of an inability to stop in traffic lights? It's not a shortcut, it's impatience. Traffic and traffic lights go hand in hand with town. Don't hit the empty back streets and open ring roads and give the impression that it's a shortcut. hmm. Forgiven for now. What I don't understand about many of Manchester's taxis is that they don't know where a lot of my destinations are. When I'm a little sketchy I expect the taxi driver, the authority behind the wheel to fill in the gaps. Often it's a case of guessing games, more so this time than ever. I don't know, is it to too much to expect? We paid £9 driving around Manchester city centre which was a usual £5 fare. And we never made it to the Star and Garter. Was it that difficult? So change of night and venue due to this taxi driver, hardly impressive. Northern Quarter again we find ourselves, not really questioning the failure of the taxi driver or the fare. On the way back there was less hassle thank god. Considering other reviewers have given a five star service, Manchester Cars remains in the phone device for now..

Slightly over-caffeinated but efficient. We had a minivan-worthy group with 3 adults and a baby in…read morea car seat; once we'd successfully piled into the van double-parked outside our restaurant, the driver relaxed a little and things got simpler. Our driver gave a fairly smooth ride, impressive given the traffic, and talked rapidly but personably. Phone dispatch went pretty smoothly and the rates were reasonable; overall, a pretty good experience.

I used to use this company daily. However, I noticed they fudged a bit on the time. They'd say a…read morecab was on its way but it would take 20 minutes to get here. One time they told me 10 minutes and it took a half an hour and I was late for a doctor's appointment. My last straw was when I asked to be picked up at Costa at the Fort and the driver went to ASDA. He called me and I told him I was at Costa and he told me to hurry up and hung up on me. I thought he said he was hurrying up to find me and 10 minutes later he called me back and yelled at me for not being at ASDA. He then told me I had to pay for his waiting time. I had a 10 month old baby at the time and had waited outside Costa for him for half an hour. Then he drove off and left me there and I had to call another cab!

Swann used to be my first call, but lately they aren't fit for purrpose. Have regularly epirienced…read moretaxis being late by 30 to 40 min past the booked arrival time, even when booked well in advance. There is absolutely no relying on them to get you where you want to go on time.

I'm still giving Swan an A-OK grade, because unlike Blackline, they didn't put me off over the…read morephone. They did, however, send me a driver who liked to chat. And tended to focus on the less pleasant things in life. Case in point: driver asks me where I'm going. Me: Pets At Home. Driver: Pets... At... Home. Me: I have a kitten arriving at the weekend, see. Driver: Oh. Right. I don't think I'd want a cat. Me: ...Okay. Driver: My friend's got two cats. She said she walked into the kitchen and saw an absolutely huge giant rat, eating the cat's food out of the bowl. And apparently, the two cats were just sat there looking at it. Didn't do a thing. I tried to steer the conversation over to how domesticated cats perhaps sometimes lack the hunting instinct. He kept going back to the rat, so I responded by saying I'd be freaked out if I saw a rat in my apartment. He told me I probably have rats in my apartment. I said no, I'm on the top floor. He said it doesn't matter, they'll be living in my wall cavity. And that you're only ever a couple of metres away from a rat. I again tried to steer the conversation towards smaller talk. I mentioned that rats are as much a nuisance to the streets of India as pigeons are here. He said they eat rats in India. He got me to Pets At Home, and it didn't cost as much as the different firm did on the way back. But I owe my other half a few million giant hugs for phoning me halfway through the journey and ensuring I didn't have to deal with such conversations for any longer. Dearie me...

I always enjoy travelling with Uber and find Uber in Manchester to be managed very well, much…read morebetter than other cities across Europe, North America and even London, where I have accounted many more issues. Fares are incredibly reasonable, even on holidays where many local providers would charge time and half, to double, Uber seem to always charge a fair that is still good value. Of course, surges can still happen at peak times, but they never seem to go as crazy as they once did, back when Uber first launch they often reached between 2 and 4 times the original fare, but it is very rare it comes close to that now. Most drivers are friendly with high-quality and new cars, delivering a good service. They have a great selection of cars including the standard flagship Uber X, including fancier executive cars, and even a small selection of WAV's for those with disabilities. I also like how Uber gives back a lot to the community here in Manchester, so it doesn't feel like a big company taking over the taxi scene and giving nothing back, they have run promotions in the past in order to help fund free rides to get people to polling stations and vaccination centres, both of which I managed to take advantage of. The Uber app is convenient, easy to use and what of course made Uber well-known in the first place, I love the safety features of being able to send your journey link to a friend, contact emergency services on board and even be able to see the name and photo of your driver, with his license plate before boarding, making sure you get in the right car and avoiding the awkwardness of asking a private hire driver if he was your car, as it's right in front of you. Of course, mistakes go wrong, I have had some particularly terrible experiences with specific drivers that have gone terribly wrong, from minor mistakes to major ones that almost made me want to ditch the platform for good, but whenever I notify Uber about these experiences, they often take complaints very seriously, one of them was a safety issue which I had to report to Manchester City Council, but they treated everything with the gravitas the situation deserved. Uber generally offers a much greater service that the local taxi firms can't match, from friendlier drivers to nicer cars, this is a huge plus point on its' own before you even consider how great the app is. Having had so many issues with local firms and black cabs over the years, Uber is a fresh of fresh air, and I'd be lost without them in Manchester. 5*

Thanks to Toby S, Uber has entered my life. It is uber good. It's like hailing a cab, except you…read morehail it with your phone from inside instead of with your rain drenched arm on the street. This combines the convenience of hailing a cab instead of having to figure out a time to pre order with the convenience of knowing a car is coming (you get told the exact time and can track a little black car bobbing along the map on the app), with none of the inconvenience of either. Even more conveniently, payment is taken automatically from your credit card so you don't need cash. AND it's cheaper. I think what speaks loudest for Uber is how happy the drivers are with it, every single driver I've met so far (about five, I'm getting a bit addicted) has been so excited about how great a system it is and how much better it is making their lives.

I phoned Cresta Cars to take me home from the Harpurhey ASDA Store, I had previousy received a free…read morepen from an emploee on a previous visit, which was quite nice and today I received a token to get 75p off my journey due to using the freephone in the ASDA Store. By the time I got to the road where the taxis where, the taxi was there in under a minute, even though they were probably waiting nearby due to having a very busy base at the store it was very nice to see it come so quick. The driver was very nice and he helped me get all my bags in and out of the car, he did not understand how to get to where I was going so I had to explain to him as I got nearer. Overall, Cresta is a great, quick taxi firm especially if you are near one of their freephones as they most likely will have taxis nearby that will come in 1-3 minutes (This was how long it took for me when it was very busy). It is just a shame I couldn't relax on my journey, as I had to direct my driver, Taxi Drivers should have the equipment such as a satnav so they dont have to bother passengers to direct them. I have to make an update on this review based on my experience today, I tried to phone Cresta Cars to pick me up from The Etihad Stadium after our game versus Stoke however they told me that they could not take bookings due to the traffic however it did not seem terrible and another company came to the stadium without hesitation, very quickly infact. It a shame as they would of give me a good price as they quoted 10-11 pounds, the staff on the phone did seem nice but because of this I have to lower my rating for Cresta to 3.

Found Cresta Taxis to be timely, polite and have great fares…read more I would say that the drivers are probably the driving force (chi-ching) behind the success of this taxi firm. They are gentlemen and the conversations I have had with them have not just been the standard garble you normally get. I must also comment that both the drivers I have had have helped with my shopping which is something most taxis just don't do anymore. If only all taxi firms were as good as Cresta. Its a big thumbs up from me!