It's very rare I ever give a negative review about a local business because I believe in this town and its people in it. Let me say first and foremost that I did NOT want to write a negative review on yelp, I gave the owner of Yellow Cab the opportunity to speak with me on the phone for over a week and I still have not received a phone call back. I think this is atrocious to not return a disgruntled customers phones calls. My experience is explained below, in the hope that Yellow Cab change their policies immediately.
One of the taxi cab drivers of the Yellow Cab Company did an unlawful act against my friend's personal property. To make a long story short, here are the details. First, a friend of mine forgot her phone in the taxi two Saturday's ago. They spoke to the Yellow Cab dispatcher and communicated "the driver will drop off the phone at the location you were dropped off at, she will charge a fee for delivery. She lives close to the location." There was no option discussed to pick up the phone at the Yellow Cab location. Next, the cab driver pulled up to my house and proceeded to demand 20 dollars out of me for my friend's phone. I told her that it was absolutely ridiculous to demand 20 dollars from me to return personal property that does not belong to her. I told her I would gladly give her 5 dollars but not 20, especially since the night before, we took a 7 dollar cab ride from the bar to my home in south Salinas. After she rudely demanded the money, she got on the phone with the Yellow Cab dispatcher and spoke in Spanish, not realizing my husband speaks Spanish and threatened to "get rid of the phone if I do not get 20 bucks." Multiple times, she communicated in Spanish she was going to get rid of the phone if she did not get her 20 dollars. Because I was in a rush, I gave her the money, she rudely counted the cash and threw me the phone.
When I called the dispatch to complain when she left, Yellow Cab never took responsibility for her actions and said "they are independent contractors and can charge whatever they want." If this is Yellow Cabs policy, then it needs to be made clear to the customer and regulated by the distance it took to return the phone with some type of verification. Think of the worst situation and what power the driver has..... What if the customer lost their wallet too and needed the phone to make some phone calls? What if the cab driver asked for $100? What if the customer was in a dangerous situation he/she needed the phone to get out of?? And, what if I didn't have the cash to pay her??? If this is their policy, it needs to be further evaluated to protect the customer from their drivers abusing the system and taking advantage of their customers.
Because I did not hear back from the owner by Tuesday, I called the Chief of Police and he advised me that it is completely unlawful to threaten to damage personal property in return for a fee. I am notifying the BBB. I am going to file a complaint on Yellow Cab and the driver with the City of Salinas. No customer should be treated this way.
"Misappropriation of found property" defines the law as "One who finds lost property under circumstances which give him knowledge of or means of inquiry as to the true owner, and who appropriates such property to his own use, or to the use of another person not entitled thereto, without first making reasonable and just efforts to find the owner and to restore the property to him, is guilty of theft." Basically, if the driver had thrown out the phone or got "rid of the phone, (as she said in Spanish multiple times to the dispatcher), because of lack of payment, we could have had a case.
I don't care if Yellow Cab drivers are finger printed and background checked for safety. Once they are hired, Yellow Cab takes no responsibility in making their customers happy. I have called three times to speak with the owner to talk about the situation. I was not looking for reimbursement, I was not looking for the driver to pay me back, I just wanted to air my grievance with the owner so they could prevent this from happening again. Yellow Cab needs to reevaluate their policies on the returning of personal property to their customers before the wrong person forgets their phone in a cab.
I will state again, if the owner had called me back during the last 10 days, I would have not written this review. I write it now as a last resort to communicate the issue to the owner. I assume he/she does not care enough to return my call, so hopefully they can read this review and take it seriously.
Here is the best part, when she drove away her registration tags were expired since September of 2014. read more
