Last night we took a taxi from Zürich Airport to our home. The Taximeter device went until exactly 80 CHF, and that made sense with the 7 CHF per ride and 4.2 CHF per Km fares written on the dashboard of the car.
However, when we unloaded, the guy asked for 90 CHF. As it was raining and the baby was crying, I did not challenge the guy. However, I just want to know whether someone has been non-decent enough to rip off a couple with a baby under the rain Also, I do not expect such things from "official" airport taxis, hence why I hesitated in challenging the guy and thought the error may be on my side.
- I thought it may be because I asked to pay with card. However, he asked for the same amount when I offered to pay with cash.
- It may have been because of the car seat, but the guy actually forgot to take the airport's car seat back and I had to remind him. Also, the calculator in https://www.airporttaxi-zuerich.ch/en does not change the fare when I add a car seat.
Do you have the receipt? Did you have any traffic on the way home as it may significantly increase the amount thats shown online. I would call the taxi company and inquire.
I'm not sure rain and a crying baby are reasons to not simply say: "Excuse me, doesn't the meter say 80chf?". It would have taken 2 seconds and then you would have known if he was ripping off or if there was a valid reason for the excess 10%.
Either way, it's only 9chf over an 81chf bill so not a cause for much stress in the grand scheme of things.
Hmm, you can specify a car seat for Uber in the USA but maybe not consistently elsewhere then. Interestingly, they charge a $10 surcharge in the USA for specifying a car seat, so it's very possible that the airport taxi drivers also specify a 10chf surcharge for a car seat. https://www.uber.com/us/en/ride/car-seat/
If the guy as you say "the guy actually forgot to take the airport's car seat back" then this manual step of him anyway having to return the seat would seem like a common-sense justification for charging an extra fee for the inconvenience.
The guy first charged us the extra fee, then just before he left I saw he had unloaded the seat alongside our luggage and had to remind him that the car seat is not ours, but belongs to the airport taxi.
Isn't that a sign that he was not charging us for the seat?
No it wasn't. The guy at the airport (the taxi coordinator?) had one and gave it to him. He probably didn't notice it was his colleagues who gave him the seat and not us.
Let's just all agree that 10 CHFs more on an 80 something CHF bill is not really "rip off" territory. Might have been some extra charge, might have been a mistake - but it's not exactly "rip off" level, is it?