 but seeing that there was no queue for Taxis, we decided to just take a taxi back home.){kind=link}
This happened on 23rd April 2018, my brother and I arrived in Changi Airport, Singapore in the morning at about 7.20am and intend to use GRAB to go home ($16 according to app) but seeing that there was no queue for Taxis, we decided to just take a taxi back home.
The taxi that we took was a Silver Cab (Premier Taxi). When we boarded his taxi, it was strange that he only set the meter after he drove off for a while. Once he had set the taxi meter, I saw the amount of $40.00 reflected on his meter which seemed weird to me because usually it is the normal meter running and a surcharge of either $3 or $5 from Changi Airport.
We thought that there was an error on his meter, therefore, we did not question him yet.
As we reached our destination, he told us that we need to pay him $40.00. I asked him if he was sure of the price as what I know the charge is based on normal meter plus the airport surcharge and not more than that.
He insisted that he got the price from the system and it is $40.00. As we did not want to debate with him further, we decided to pay him first and bring the matter to Premier Taxi and hoping that we will get a refund since he cheated on the fare. We wanted to pay him by credit card, he said that his machine wasn’t working therefore we paid him in cash and asked him for the receipt. The receipt given by him was not electronically print, it was a hand-written official receipt with Premier Taxi logo.
When we got home, I called Premier Taxi immediately hoping that they will take action against the taxi driver who cheated us on the fare and refund the excess money.
They mentioned that they need to investigate the matter and have an interview with the taxi driver. They called me back after 2 weeks and said that they were not able to locate the taxi driver and that he was already being terminated from the company.
They asked for more time to locate the driver as he did not answer his mobile phone and even his family did not know his whereabout. One month after the incident, Premier Taxi called me again and this time they said that they no longer able to help me on this and decided to close the case.
I just want to highlight to the public to not be deceived by such taxi drivers. I will not include the name of the driver as I do not want to prolong the matter but just be careful.
Taxi Number: SHC6996B (given by Premier Taxi)