In the morning, I had to go to the area for training. The taxi I got drove me around a longer rout than necessary. Never mind, he's not familiar with the route And anyway I approved the route. My fault.
Then when we reached the area, I asked him to go into the carpark to let me down. Now this was the part that started to try my patience.
He told me that because he went through the carpark gantry, he have to charge me extra. Fine, how much, I asked
I don't know, he answered, but the carpark charge is 30cent a minute.
Er, so whats your point? So how much extra you want? How much do I have to pay you?
Somewhat after this, he thought I was trying to make a fuss over 30 cents ( which I felt like because for god's sake, you just earned $24 of cab fare from me and you still want 30 cents more for the few seconds you spent in a carpark?? ) and I was getting frustrated because I was late and he wasn't answering my question directly. Finally with bad grace, I slammed the fare down.
Ok, maybe both a bit at fault.
2nd driver was the one I took on the way back. He took the wrong turn on the flyover and instead of going to Thomson road then Marymount, ended up going almost to Toa Payoh and took one big round before reaching my place.
I asked him how much, and he pointed to the meter!
I make some remark about going one big round and he gets all indignant, saying how the distance wasn't much difference, ( yes, it was ) and if I was going to be particular ( yes, I am ) just pay whatever price I like bah. I did, and I shaved $2 off the meter fare.
Well, this I wasn't so irritated because I think he knew it was his fault for missing the turn, and he did offer me to quote my price, if in bad grace, and I discounted myself.
So many times I have taken a taxi home, this is the first time I've been unlucky enough to tio 2 irritating experiences in one day.
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