Don't know about you guys. But i can't stand Israel taxi drivers (except my cousin and a couple of nice guys, usually new in the business). I have taken hundreds of taxis in the world and the Israelis are the worst. I am talking here about the behavior of the drivers and their method for pricing.
For those who don't know in Israel you can pay a cab according to 2 methods. Either by the counter (like in all countries) or by fixed price for a certain distance. The fixed price can be set according to 2 methods: the official book price they all have on them, and negotiation.
In all cases Israeli taxi drivers will try to screw you.
If you don't ask WHEN you get in the cab, it is very likely they won't put the counter and will give you whatever price on the arrival. It happened to me twice. They will be even more likely to do that if they sense you are a stranger. (what they don't realize is that i am more israeli than an israeli with my french accent...) When they hear you foreign accent they immediately will ask you if you live here or not and since when, so they can screw you even more. If you ask for a fixed price, they will start to argue with you and then it all depends on your capacity of negotiation (we are not talking about elegant negotiation here).
If you ask for the counter, they will take the most complicated and longest way to take the most out of you. It happens to me 10 times out of 10. When i don't know the exact price i always ask counter and this is what i observed. Sometimes, this is even worse, if you ask for the counter, they will argue this is NOT possible and will tell you it only works by fixed price (according to their official book). This happened to me about a week ago. i could not believe it
I called his company to complain. they laughed at me.
So bottom line
- if you don't know ask for the counter
- do not hesitate to indicate the quickest road if you know it since common sense is not part of their brain
- Ask for the method of pricing immediately WHEN you get into the cab. After it might be too late
- spot in the cab the license number in case you wish to complain (very likely)
What i really want know is a third party organization we can really complain to and that will listen and that will punish abusive drivers' behaviours or their companies. I have created a Facebook group if you wish to share your anger. Maybe some legislation/regulation will come out of it with clear pricing policies (for airport for example...). I don't know. What i know is that the next cab driver that will try to play with me, won't regret it.
ps: i hesitated to share this video, but this is too funny not to (beware this is very tough), but sometimes i really want to speak to israeli cab drivers that way
ps 2: pray also that he does not put something like that on the radio
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