# You don't have to be new



## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

to be ripped off

Yesterday I got into a white taxi with two friends, we got on at Mohideen in Mohandiseen and went to the corniche on El Agouza, then he tried to charge me 27 pounds on the meter... I had looked at the meter no less than two minutes previously and it was sitting at 6 pound he was obviously using the clicking device I warned about last summer. I called back one of my friends who is Egyptian and she started arguing with the man, I had already told the man I wasn't paying and that he was a thief and told him I was going to the police... anyway I ended up paying 10 for a 6 pound fare. Now I usually give 10 pounds for this journey so it was not the cost that bothered me it was the fact that he was ripping me off. Another nice day ruined.
Only last week I finally got some work done that I had tried to do last August but my boss had told me it was too expensive, I got the work done for half the quote a friend of 10 years had previously gotten me. Another day/week ruined because I am still fuming that this "friend" tried to rip me off for 5000 pound

Maiden


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## NZCowboy (May 11, 2009)

Hi Maiden
The new meters show km's travelled and how many minutes the journey was, did numbers add up? For a 27le fare you would be need to have traveled almost 20km.


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## Beatle (Aug 14, 2009)

MaidenScotland said:


> to be ripped off
> 
> Yesterday I got into a white taxi with two friends, we got on at Mohideen in Mohandiseen and went to the corniche on El Agouza, then he tried to charge me 27 pounds on the meter... I had looked at the meter no less than two minutes previously and it was sitting at 6 pound he was obviously using the clicking device I warned about last summer. I called back one of my friends who is Egyptian and she started arguing with the man, I had already told the man I wasn't paying and that he was a thief and told him I was going to the police... anyway I ended up paying 10 for a 6 pound fare. Now I usually give 10 pounds for this journey so it was not the cost that bothered me it was the fact that he was ripping me off. Another nice day ruined.
> Only last week I finally got some work done that I had tried to do last August but my boss had told me it was too expensive, I got the work done for half the quote a friend of 10 years had previously gotten me. Another day/week ruined because I am still fuming that this "friend" tried to rip me off for 5000 pound
> ...



I know how you feel MS - I end up getting really irate sometimes when people try to cheat me out of 5 pounds! I usually give a generous tip but of course when they are trying to charge you 50 pounds for a 10 pound journey, they don't really think they are getting a tip!

I had a similar experience with a yellow taxi once when the driver tried to charge me 80 pounds for a journey I would normally pay 30 pounds for.


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

Hi Cowboy

Yes i know how they work, and I know how they fiddle the meter, they have an electronic device that they start clicking and it interferes with the meter, but what can you do if there is no policeman around? I feel Egyptians and I make no apology for saying Egyptians who are ripping us off feel that we will get fed up and just pay before they do and sadly they are right.
It is actually against the law for a white or a yellow taxi not to put the meter on, failure to do so is a three months suspension and the cab taken away, but who would want to deprive someone of their livehood for this amount of time? ME the next time someone rips me off I will take note of their number and report it, I for one will fight back.

Maiden


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## Helen Ellis (Aug 9, 2008)

MaidenScotland said:


> Hi Cowboy
> 
> Yes i know how they work, and I know how they fiddle the meter, they have an electronic device that they start clicking and it interferes with the meter, but what can you do if there is no policeman around? I feel Egyptians and I make no apology for saying Egyptians who are ripping us off feel that we will get fed up and just pay before they do and sadly they are right.
> It is actually against the law for a white or a yellow taxi not to put the meter on, failure to do so is a three months suspension and the cab taken away, but who would want to deprive someone of their livehood for this amount of time? ME the next time someone rips me off I will take note of their number and report it, I for one will fight back.
> ...


SO the advice is take the taxi no when you get in, in preparation. Know roughly how much the fare should be. Get out, with all your belongings BEFORE paying. Carry lots of change. In Hurghada you can phone the tourist police to report them, I understand the threat is usually enough.
You will not be depriving them of their livelihood by reporting them, they're doing to themselves.


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## Sam (Aug 27, 2009)

MaidenScotland said:


> to be ripped off
> 
> Yesterday I got into a white taxi with two friends, we got on at Mohideen in Mohandiseen and went to the corniche on El Agouza, then he tried to charge me 27 pounds on the meter... I had looked at the meter no less than two minutes previously and it was sitting at 6 pound he was obviously using the clicking device I warned about last summer. I called back one of my friends who is Egyptian and she started arguing with the man, I had already told the man I wasn't paying and that he was a thief and told him I was going to the police... anyway I ended up paying 10 for a 6 pound fare. Now I usually give 10 pounds for this journey so it was not the cost that bothered me it was the fact that he was ripping me off. Another nice day ruined.
> Only last week I finally got some work done that I had tried to do last August but my boss had told me it was too expensive, I got the work done for half the quote a friend of 10 years had previously gotten me. Another day/week ruined because I am still fuming that this "friend" tried to rip me off for 5000 pound
> ...


Oh dear.
I had a "rip off" experience just a few weeks ago too. Unsurprisingly also a taxi incident.
I took a taxi from Il Mercato to Nabq Bay - can be a 40-45 EGP journey if you find a good driver and haggle well, I agreed with this particular taxi 50 EGP. I was not in the mood and wanted to just get home. Literally a minute or two after entering the car my friend called me, asked where I was and said he'd meet me at Delta. At that point Delta was a minutes journey away, so I quickly told the Driver the change of plan, meanwhile searched in my bag for a 10 EGP note to save the argument of cost and no change, this amount was perfectly fair. When I looked up having found the note, the driver had missed the u-turn and was heading out to Naama Bay, adding at least 10 mins to the journey with the road layout. So I told him to just stop the car and I would walk - would be much faster. So I gave him the 10 EGP and made to leave, at which point he threw the 10 EGP back at me and demanded 50 EGP!!!!!! He told me we agreed 50 EGP, I said yes, for Nabq Bay, which is still 25 minutes away from where we are now. He continued to hassle me at which point I gave him two choices, the police or my lawyer, and I advised the police would be more forgiving. In any case I phoned my lawyer, who was also in a bit of a mood for other reasons. He gave him another two choices, to either take the 10 EGP or wait 10 minutes and face the consequences. I had already got out the car at that point. When he gave me back my phone, he snatched the 10 LE out of my hand and drove away VERY quickly, lol. 

Just goes to show these idiots will try anything, but when actually faced they are all cowards. Thing is in Sharm (if not all over Egypt) if a taxi driver doesn't use his meter then he can be VERY heavily fined by police, and I'm sure he knew that.

Us expats have to stand our ground sometimes, the newer visitors to our country may not be as strong and let these cheats get away with it.


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

Lol just had a call from a friend and the story is he wantedh to go from Mohandiseen to City Stars that is 27 pounds on a metered taxi. This chap has a taxi driver that has a contract to take him from his house to the embassy each work day, so he asked this driver if he wanted to take him to City Stars and how much.. the driver said 60 pound each way my friend told him he would pay him 70 pound for the return journey and he could either say yes or he could forget it as he knew the correct fare. The driver took him and he waited 35 minutes and when my friend came back with his shopping the driver never moved from the car, normally he would jump out and take the shopping and pack it in the boot.
I can assure you this man will loose his lucrative contract taking my friend and his colleagues to the embassy each day.
And they wonder why they have such a bad reputation!
Maiden


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## Beatle (Aug 14, 2009)

Sam said:


> Oh dear.
> I had a "rip off" experience just a few weeks ago too. Unsurprisingly also a taxi incident.
> I took a taxi from Il Mercato to Nabq Bay - can be a 40-45 EGP journey if you find a good driver and haggle well, I agreed with this particular taxi 50 EGP. I was not in the mood and wanted to just get home. Literally a minute or two after entering the car my friend called me, asked where I was and said he'd meet me at Delta. At that point Delta was a minutes journey away, so I quickly told the Driver the change of plan, meanwhile searched in my bag for a 10 EGP note to save the argument of cost and no change, this amount was perfectly fair. When I looked up having found the note, the driver had missed the u-turn and was heading out to Naama Bay, adding at least 10 mins to the journey with the road layout. So I told him to just stop the car and I would walk - would be much faster. So I gave him the 10 EGP and made to leave, at which point he threw the 10 EGP back at me and demanded 50 EGP!!!!!! He told me we agreed 50 EGP, I said yes, for Nabq Bay, which is still 25 minutes away from where we are now. He continued to hassle me at which point I gave him two choices, the police or my lawyer, and I advised the police would be more forgiving. In any case I phoned my lawyer, who was also in a bit of a mood for other reasons. He gave him another two choices, to either take the 10 EGP or wait 10 minutes and face the consequences. I had already got out the car at that point. When he gave me back my phone, he snatched the 10 LE out of my hand and drove away VERY quickly, lol.
> 
> ...



You are right the guys who try to rip you off are cowards. Unfortunately for the driver who tried to rip me off with an 80 pound fare, I was meeting an Egyptian friend that day who told the taxi driver he was trying to overcharge me. The taxi driver started off quite rudely and in the end said to my friend that they could go to the police station to discuss it as my friend wasn't a taxi driver. My friend responded that he was happy to go to the police station to sort it out and agreed that he wasn't a taxi driver but he was a judge. The driver took one look at his judge's badge and started crying!

Egyptian friends assure me that the taxi drivers also try to rip them off although obviously they don't get as much hassle as Westerners.


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## NZCowboy (May 11, 2009)

So does this happen often Maiden? I use taxis most days and have never struck it. 
One thing I have noticed, as well as other locals I talk to, is since the introduction of the white taxis the prices for the black and white taxi have came back, and there is less haggle.

As for not turning on the meter, ... I was in a taxi owned by my driver and he got stopped and given a 500le fine. He had forgotten to turn the meter on, as we have have a special deal.


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

Does it happen often? It has happened to me 3 times... that is the meters being doctored and it has happened to friends. I would never ride in one of the new cabs without the meter being on.
I personally don't see why I should pay the same price to ride in a black and white as I do in a white cab.
Yes I would say it is very common in fact the norm for a taxi driver to try and rip you off
It is also illegal for a driver to refuse a fare other than he is booked, how many times have you tried to get a taxi and been refused because the driver doesn't want to go there. Yellow cabs that sit on Nadi Cid are the worse at refusing you for a shortish drive.


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## alimas10 (Jan 19, 2010)

how do we stop this malpractice, we need to unite and show to all were not a shove-over. then maybee we won't be frightened to encounter getting into a taxi, especially a woman on her own.this is what puts me off gong to my apartment on my own for a holiday, i feel intimidated and embarassed by this, you wouldn't expect a taxi ride could be a stressful experience.


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

Hi and welcome
If we knew how to stop it we would be working for the government lol

Maiden


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