I have used this service five or six times over the last year. Each time, there has been a problem…read moreof some sort, certainly with punctuality, and sometimes with whether they showed up at all. This morning was the last straw.
The service is run by a mixed-culture couple who have several children. As such, they have family obligations, and are juggling their work with their family's needs. This is fully understandable. The husband has limited English ability, and his behaviors are not always comfortable according to Western etiquette, which is also understandable.
I understand that they are struggling to meet the needs of their family and of their taxi jobs. They are a one-couple taxi service, filling a gap in taxi service in the Southbridge area, and as such, are needed. I have always showed them appreciation.
But these people lie constantly, and it is that that I can no longer tolerate. This morning, they didn't answer their two phone lines. Then the wife called, and said that she was at an appointment, and would be at my home in forty-five minutes. When she was over fifteen minutes late, I called her, and she told me, "Oh, you see, I'm at the hospital with my husband. Do you still need a ride?"
I signed off. Then, fifteen minutes later, her husband called with an apology, and said something partially unintelligible that involved giving blood at the hospital and a problem with insurance. While I am willing to believe this, why didn't his wife tell me that her errand involved a hospital visit? Hospital visits are notorious for long waits. I would have understood, and would have called another taxi service.
They were 100% insensitive to the gross inconvenience and distress that their irresponsible behavior had caused to me.
This was on top of the constant excuses that both husband and wife gave me whenever the service was late or absent, which was every time I used it. It calls into very serious question their credibility, to say the least.
I have tried my best with them, even giving them expensive home-sewn gifts with every fully paid ride, and I can do no more.
We badly need another taxi company in this region. We are desperate for one, and that is why we tolerate this extreme incompetence and inconsideration on their part.
But despite that, I will never, ever use this taxi service again.