Letah

We travel often and I consider myself to be a somewhat astute traveler. We were so very careful with our bags and avoiding all the scam taxi drivers. We ignored everyone who appproahed us and waited in a very long line for the metered taxis. There must have been 75 plus people waiting and there was a regular flow of taxis. There was a gypsy child and an older woman begging, which we also ignored. A woman was directing the taxis and waving to people as their turn came up. No one tipped her and I did sense it was unusual. As it was our turn she had a taxi pull about 10 feeet further up and lifted the suitcases in the car.She had not done this for anyone else. I asked the driver to see his meter which he pointed to; however, it was not on yet. As I closed the door the woman points to scratches on her arm,begging for money. My husband had made the mistake of giving her a dollar. I shut the door quickly and the cab started off. We exchanged some words and my insticnct knew we should have had him stop the car. He dropped us off several block before the hotel saying his car could not enter the street. I thought it did not look right. He overcharged us about 5 euros. We had a long walk and he deliberatly dropped us off before our destination at the Spanish Steps. I think he knew there were police there and I would have called them over. We were lucky this was a minor cost and inconvience. Be careful these people move quickly and had I not spoken up in car we would have been taken. I hope this might be helpful to someone else.

kismetchimera

HUmm..normally a legitimate taxi driver doen not act this way..

ira

I think letah is letting us know that there are scammers very close to the legit taxis.

SeaUrchin

You know sometimes the scam taxis do get into the real taxi line when it is not being regulated.

I have seen the same lady or one like her who seems to belong there but it part of the scam to get you into an unmetered taxi.

Be sure and check if it has a legit logo and meter before you get in or load up your luggage. This is not as easy as it seems when you are disoriented in the first place and are not sure what to look for in the second place. And someone like that woman is hurrying you along in the third place.

Maybe someone knows of a web site where you can see the real logo.

radiofanatic

That isn't necessarily going to help you though. I had a "legit" taxi driver who stole us out of extra money. I paid him the price, then he said I shorted him 20 Euros. I knew I hadn't b/c I just took the money out of an ATM and knew exactly what we had. We argued, but he would not give us our luggage. I let it go b/c I wanted our luggage and my husband was getting very stressed as it was his first time out of the USA. Normally, I would have made a huge stink.

socialworker

I cannot definitively comment on this situation but my experience is that every taxi line we have been in always has a very official--usually uniformed--person in charge. I would have been suspicious of the kind of woman described here. Also, I have never seen anyone tip the official dispatchers.

ParadiseLost

SeaUrchin wrote:
"Be sure and check if it has a legit logo..."
They will have one of these type decals on the driver's and the passenger's door.
www.comune.roma.it/mobilita/taxi_ncc/ades_cr.jpg
Also it's a good idea to remember the taxi's number on the logo in case you forget something or have a problem.
Regards, Walter