WHEN Natalie Lenhart was forced by cops last week to hand over her iPod to a cabby because her credit card was declined, the 20-year-old tourist faced a dilemma familiar to all plastic-wielding taxi passengers – what to do when the swipe is spurned.
Giving up your iPod is not the answer, and yesterday morning Mohammed Islam sent it back to Natalie in the presence of the Taxi and Limousine Commission chairman. The girl’s mother had mailed Islam $100 to cover her daughter’s $49 fare. Since musician James Taylor also said he is sending Natalie a new iPod, preloaded with his greatest hits, she seems to have come out one iPod ahead.
For most of us, though, credit card troubles in taxis are not likely to land us a free iPod. Here are some solutions to getting home without giving up your James Taylor playlist.
The problem: Your credit card is declined.
The solution: Start paying your bill on time! But since it’s too late for that, you’re going to have to cough up the fare in cash. What, no cash either? In that case it’s up to the driver. He can drive you to an ATM to pull out the moola or take you home to grab the cash there. He can also drive you to the nearest police precinct, where cops will take over the situation.
To avoid the hassle, the cabby may just let you go and forget about getting paid. “It happens very rarely that someone’s card is declined and they have no cash,” says James Collurah, who has been driving a yellow cab for 35 years. “When it does, I have to eat it. What am I going to do? Press charges for theft of service? I’ve been doing this too long to worry about $10, and tomorrow is another day.”
The problem: The driver says his credit card reader is broken.
Designer Doug Jaeger, 33, says that at least six cabdrivers in recent months have hit pause on the meter when he went to pay with a credit card and then claimed the machine was broken. “The system looks fine, and the TV screen is playing. But the driver forces you to pay in cash.”
The issue, as many drivers will tell you, is the 5 percent fee they have to pay on every credit card transaction. That’s $1 taken out of their pockets out of every $20 they make on credit card fares. While many New Yorkers know about the fee and try to make up for it with a larger tip (hence the 20, 25, even 30 percent suggested tips on the credit card payment screen), tourists may not and give the usual $1 tip. This inspires some cabbies to claim a broken credit card reader.
The TLC suggests writing down the driver’s name and medallion number (displayed on an ID card pasted behind the driver’s seat). The passenger can then call 311 with the information and file a complaint. The TLC will investigate, and the driver could face stiff fines since the rules require him to accept credit cards. No cash? See scenario No. 1.
The problem: The credit card reader really is broken.
Drivers are allowed to work for up to 48 hours with a broken credit card system, so sometimes it really isn’t working. In this case, TLC rules say the driver is supposed to inform the passenger that the ride is cash-only before the meter starts running. If they wait to tell you at your destination, back to scenario No. 1.
Most likely you will have to pony up the cash. Or else, as this reporter once witnessed, give the driver your cellphone number and arrange to meet the next day so you can pay him. This last method requires a trusting driver and a trustworthy passenger.
Since 100,000 taxi rides a day (a fifth of all fares) are paid by credit card now, and drivers like Collurah report earning about $30 more a night in tips since the machines went in, most drivers don’t let machines stay broken for long. The TLC reports that 90 percent of them are fixed within six hours.
The problem: The driver makes you feel bad for using a credit card.
“They make it seem like you are hurting them if you pay with a credit card,” says Bevy Reyes, a 28-year-old in the fashion industry. “It’s like you are asking them to drop you off in Jersey or something. You get the sense they wish they had never picked you up.”
For that reason, Reyes says she will sometimes walk rather than take a cab when she is short on cash. When she does use the credit card, she skips the 20, 25, 30 percent dilemma altogether and simply enters her own tip, sometimes almost equal to the fare itself.
Since it’s hard to call 311 about a driver making you feel bad, the only solution here seems to grow a thick skin. If you really want to make the driver feel better, tell him you think the TLC should allow them to charge an extra 5 percent fee on all credit card transactions. That should get you a smile, even if in reality TLC Chairman Matthew Daus says it won’t ever happen, and that 5 percent is less than many merchants pay for credit card transactions.
The problem: Parents complaining that kids are taking more cab rides and charging them.
Daus says that’s not a problem at all! That’s good for business.
