The first taxi
So we arrived at Gare de Nord (Eurostar) fairly late of an evening, around 8pm. Was early July but just got around to writing this. 7 of us including 2 kids. There was a taxi queue. A few people came up to us and offered us a ride. I assume they were unlicensed and dodgy so I said no of course. The guy controlling the queue saw we had kids and let us go to the front. However I explained I wanted a large car. The next about 10 taxis to come were regular size, we are on the point of accepting we would have to split up when finally a large car came.
I went and shook the guys hand and looked him in the eye and asked his name. This is mainly to try and see who I am dealing with. Often do it. Some bad people give off vibes I can spot a mile away. In this case, I got nothing. No instinct. Neutral.
The guy spoke English. All the conversation was in English. We wanted to go to Malakoff and the guy gave me a quote, I forget the exact number, but it was definately €100+. I immediately smelled BS because although I didn't know about Paris prices they have got to be similar to other cities of similar wealth and the distance to the destination I knew was fairly short. The distance is actually 10km now I check, although I didn't know that exactly at the time. He had a card with some fixed prices in the car and the airport price was similar to or less than what he quoted me for a much shorter distance.
I said I'd give him €60 or something like that but he wasn't negotiating much, not below €100, so I told him to put the meter on. He refused and said that the meter is only for inside city limits only (true?), but we were going outside city limits so he couldn't/wouldn't use the meter (legit?). However, our destination was only just outside the city limit. There was a map in the car so I told him I wanted to go to Porte de Vanves (if I remember it right) on the meter and we would get out there, which is just inside the city limits but very near (maybe 1-2km) where we wanted to go.
He then said that he was using an executive van and would not be able to use the meter (now saying he couldn't use it all, not even within city limits). This is the point where I knew almost for sure he was trying to rip me off. This was the point when I had him. Up to this point, you are tired, you don't know the city, you have got your family in your back suggesting you just pay it, and you only have a suspicion that it is a rip off. But now trying to not even use the meter even within city limits in contradiction of his own argument of seconds before. It was obvious BS. So I asked him several times why is there even a meter in the car, if that is the case, and things deteriorated a bit, e.g. I asked him if he thought I was stupid.
At some point (during all this discussion we had not yet gone more than 5 yards from the taxi rank, having just moved out of the way to let the next taxi in) he did suggest I could get out if I wasn't happy with it. Of course, if I had been alone, I would have, but with family including kids to think about - we would have had to go back to the queue and likely split up into two taxis and that wouldn't have been popular. At this point my family were not even on my side in the discussion. So I finally got him to agree we would go to Porte de Vanves on the meter (which he had initially refused) and leave us there a couple of kilometres from the actual destination.
He then headed in the opposite direction to the destination - literally the complete opposite direction. However this may have been OK because he was able to get to the ring road and go all round the city on the ring road, being about 20km or about twice as much in distance but a faster route. I don't agree with that decision at that time of an evening and it definitely wasted our time as it turned as we ended up with some traffic on the ring road motorway. However, it's debatable, not an obvious rip off. Actually he took some wierd turns before reaching the ring road and I suspect he added another k or two on, but it wasn't blatant enough to be clear, and I wasn't sure.
We got into another argument on the ring road when he wanted to turn off the ring road because of traffic and I wanted to stay on. Eventually when we got near to Porte de Vanves I asked him politely if he would take us just outside the city limits on the meter as a favour to our actual destination for the children etc as it was as short distance which he agreed to which of course had been my plan all along. In the end the price was around €80 (which my French Air B and B hosts later commented was "at least twenty euros of pure BS)". However if I hadn't fought I think it would have been well over €100 with extra charges.
I got my camera out to take a photo of his number plate however the number plate was on the door of the boot (trunk) so I had to wait for him to take the luggage out before I could get the photo. However, he then quickly drove off with the boot door up so I couldn't get the photo. When I looked at the receipt I'd requested it was very generic, and there was nothing to identify him. So in the end he did win - at least in part.
The second taxi
On our way back to the Gare de Nord we got our Air B and B hosts to book us the taxi this time, prearranging a large cab, which does cost more, and has extra per person charges, whiich seem to be legit. When we got into the taxi I got into an argument straight away. We had booked the taxi for 7am, and he had arrived at least 5 minutes early. But by the time we got into the taxi it was already showing €13. I think at least €10 of charges before even setting off might be legit (can anyone confirm?) in Paris for when you have called a taxi to your location instead of hailing it as the same thing happened to me on a separate trip a few years ago but what annoyed me was that he started the meter running from when he arrived early, not from the agreed time. It was showing €13 and it had been ticking over for 5 minutes+. My argument was that it he wants to do that he should at least wait until the agreed pick up time of 7am before starting it. He really wouldn't budge on resetting the clock after a short argument I gave up. He said that this is normal in Paris. To which I responded that being normal doesn't make it right.
He took the more direct, shorter, non-motorway route (it was a Sunday). It was much faster and easier than the roundabout route of a few days before taking about 20 minutes in lighter traffic instead of 45-50 in moderate traffic on the other journey. The fare was around €40 which I thought was about right and he gave me back a few euros change. He made a point of slightly firmly giving me this back to show he was honest even when I was sort of half motioning he could keep it. Really, he was a lot better than the other guy. I wouldn't have argued about the first couple of euro rip off if I'd known the total bill was going to be half what we paid for the exact same ride in the other direction.
