City Cabs in Leeds

Hello,

There’s a group of 5 of us who have just jumped into a taxi from Leeds Fest wanting to go to the boundary hotel on cardigan road.

Before getting into the car we repeatedly asked how much the taxi would be each time receiving the reply of “don’t worry, don’t worry. I will sort you out”.  We then asked before he started the car “how much is it going to be”. He ignored us and started the car. We asked again and he told us £20 each. And do we need a cash point. We told him we would if it was £20 each.

After googling the journey we noticed it was only about an 11 mile drive. So we checked the price on Uber which turned out to be £29.

We thought he must’ve just said £20 for the whole journey but thought we’d get cash at the cash point anyways.

As soon as we got back into the car at the petrol station, our driver locked the door and asked for the money upfront. We told him we don’t feel comfortable paying until we’d arrived safely, he then kept telling us that “we’re not following the rules. Leeds fest is different”.

We decided after feeling rather uncomfortable and unsafe that we wanted to get out of his vehicle. He refused to unlock the door. He then kept insisting we just pay him half now and half when we arrive but again we told him we’ll pay the amount when we’ve arrived safely. After many comments of “why do you worry darling,” “ I know you’re a good girl who will pay” and “pay me now”. He decided to pull off and threatened us with driving back to the festival if we didn’t pay him now.

I told him that we feel very uncomfortable and that he is technically holding us against our will and that I was getting ready to phone the police. He then told us he’d take us home.

I then decided to ring your company to get a price inquiry which totalled to £36.

When we arrived at the hotel, I asked him how it was £100 and he told us because he waited 4 hours for a customer, has to go on the motorway and has to travel back. After telling him I’d rang the company and was quoted £36 he told us to give him £10 a head. After handing it over he then asked for another £10 which we refused and he finally let us out.

Overall, I’m quite frankly disgusted in how we’ve been treated, when a group of girls are travelling home in the late hours they shouldn’t be scammed and made to feel uncomfortable and unsafe by their taxi driver. If we didn’t feel so unsafe we would’ve waited for him to pull of to get his Registration number however we quickly dashed into our hotel.