8,700 euros for a taxi ride of almost two kilometers: woman gets a hammer bill

Created: 01/20/2022, 08:02

By: Sebastian Oppenheimer

The journey was short, but the bill was all the more gigantic: a woman had to pay around 8,700 euros for a taxi ride of less than two kilometers.

San Francisco (USA) – Taxis usually cost significantly more than buses and trains – but that it gets so expensive right away?

A woman in San Francisco received a hefty bill after a short drive: she was supposed to pay 9,875 US dollars – the equivalent of around 8,700 euros.

The cause was a small mistake - but the after-effects were huge, as reported by 24auto.de.

8,700 euros for a taxi ride of almost two kilometers: woman gets a hammer bill

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Margarita B. and her husband Chris S. took a cab to a birthday dinner exactly 11 minutes.

The route: Just 1.1 miles (almost 1.8 kilometers).

The price: $7.90 metered plus a 25% tip came to $9.87.

Margarita B. paid by credit card through the driver's PayPal terminal because the taxi's built-in device could not read her card.

According to her own statements, she never received the promised receipt by e-mail.

(Traffic sign fail: Netz laughs itself limp - authority reacts coolly)

A woman in San Francisco was billed $10,000 for a short cab ride.

(Iconic image) © Westend61/Imago

8,700 euros for a taxi ride of almost two kilometers: error found, problem remains

A few days later, a large credit card bill fluttered into the house: Instead of US$ 9.87, she was billed 1,000 times that for the short trip: US$ 9,875.

So the error seemed pretty clear: the driver had apparently made a mistake with the decimal places - whether unintentionally or not is unclear.

So case solved.

Not at all: Because after Margarita B. reported the problem to her bank, they dismissed it: She offered her credit card herself – so it wasn’t fraud (twelve-year-old chauffeured drunk father home in the car – passers-by intervene)

8,700 euros for a taxi ride of almost two kilometers: "I now ask for paper receipts everywhere"

Now an odyssey began: Because the taxi driver stopped driving for the taxi company in question just a week after the expensive trip.

And he apparently didn't want to reimburse the money to the report of the "San Francisco Chronicle" at first.

(Leipzig focuses on environmental protection: Tough specifications for taxis and the like.)

In the end, however, the story had a happy ending for Margarita B. and her husband – after the newspaper got involved, the bank decided not to bill her for the money after all.

In the future, the woman now wants to be more careful.

"Now I'm asking for paper receipts everywhere."