fwcking taxi cabs made me late for court. did I play this right?

[sageproduct]

Sitting in the cab right now, steaming a bit

Have a 1 o clock court date today out in the suburbs for a minor traffic violation (15mph over..yah). At 11 I realize oh ****, I looked up the wrong public transit routes, I won't make it in time

Sift through bunch of different cab companies, they're mostly giving me estimates of $90 to go where I need to go..I'm like holy ****

Eventually I find one that gives me a $49 flat rate if I meet them at 12:15 at a certain spot. Its like a 40 min drive. Great.

12:15 I get there, there are like 4 cabs already there, I step into one, thinking its my reservation. I ask the driver if he was my reservation. He says "yes". After a second I realize he's lying so I get back out and look at the cab, well damn its from a different company.

So I'm waiting. The driver and another guy from the same company start trying to get me to go w/them instead, tellin me like "oh your reservation isn't gonna be here for 45 min, they have to come from x blah blah," I know its all bullsh1t but whatever. They're pretty persistent, say they'll "get me there faster" and offer me $55, say usually they'd charge $75. I tell them I'm going to wait for my reservation because its a fwckin reservation and it's $6 cheaper.

I'm not mean to them at all, they're really persistent but hey I can appreciate that I try to pick up girls who are uninterested all the time.

Eventually I walk like 20 ft away from them, they leave me alone.

12:25 my cab doesn't show up. I call them, they say he's comin in 3 min.

12:35 its still not here. I'm gonna be late now, I call the court to try to tell them that. It takes me like 10 min just to get on the line with them and they tell me they can't take a message for the court.

12:45 I'm trying to get on the phone w/the cab company and figure out wtf is going on.

At this point I'm literally thinking about trying to grab myself a huge discount since they're so late. Like I have my credit card, a $20 bill and a $5, I'm seein myself telling the driver at the end of the ride "you were late half an hour so this is all I'm paying", handing him $20 and bailing.

At the same time the original guys who were trying to sell me earlier now tell me they'll drive me for $49. I hesitate, make them confirm like 3 times that its for $49, tell them the address to make sure, then I say fwckit and get in.

2 min later my reservation calls me, asks if I'm still there. I tell them "you are 35 minutes late, so I left." HE gets angry and is like "well thanks you could have called to cancel". Then the lady at their office calls me, I tell her the same thing and for some reason they think I'm wrong to bail after them being 35 min late?! I mean I'm pretty damn sure 12:15 reservation meant you are there at 12:15 not you leave at 12:15.

Did I play this right? I'm still thinkin I could have went w/my reservation and got away w/like a $20 ride. Or when they guys I'm with now are like "we'll give you $49" maybe I could have said "$40 and its a deal"

 

[The Bat]

I think your first mistake was in trusting a cab company that would charge you half the price ($45 instead of $90).

There is a fine line between haggle and hustle. I think you got hustled, my friend.

Oh, and don't ever hand a $20 to the driver when the charge is $49 and expect to bail out. Trust me, that dude will chase you down, kick your a$$, and take his money even in front of a court house if need be. You don't fvck with the people in the service industry.

 

[backseatjuan]

I'll just tell you about my experience with traffic tickets and such. I lived in Miami for 15 years then I moved to Russia. So here is my experience with traffic tickets in Russia.

First of all let's say you get stopped by a cop for 15 mph over. He tells you the fine and the fine for it, you can tell him let's solve it right here, in which case you just give him money in the amount of fine or if you can talk well even less. Once my buddy got stopped for a DUI and it's like 15 days in jail and license suspension. He talked them into letting him go and just paid less than $2 symbolic vzatka, because that's all he had, and they gave it back to him when they were leaving. Myself I once crossed solid line, that's license suspension, I did call my FSO (presidential security, or secret service) roof, but they guy was in the shower, so I had to pay the cops. Just gave them $60, said that all I had. Usually for this kind of offense it costs close to $1000.

Now, if they are not taking money you just go to police office and pay the fine. Also if a camera caught you, you go to office and pay the fine.

If you decide to take it to court, you are free to do so, but just like in United States cops usually win. But let's say you decided to take it to court, if you don't show up, court does not rule against you, they are automatically assign a new date. They can't here convict you without you being present.

Thus in Russia, if you couldn't make it to court because of traffic it is a valid excuse. One time they will forgive you. Second time they will fine you with court none compliance. Third time you might get jail time.

You see now how we live here?


Also, there are two different types of police, traffic cops and none traffic cops. Traffic cops just deal with traffic. You know how you see on TV show COPS how they pull you over in United States with guns drawn, get out of car, get out of car, then taze your ass, and make you sit handcuffed on the pavement? Here, traffic cops can not do that. They stop you, come up to you, or you come to them, and everything is fine.

But they can stop a criminal with guns drawn if they have a navodka - instructions from the office. Though even then there is no drama and trauma like in United States. They'll just put an AKM on you and tell you to get out. You don't have to keep your hands up and spread your butt chicks or anything, just act normal, and give them your documents.


Last year we were drinking and driving and I made a mistake of giving a wheel to a dude I didn't know well. Basically I was a passenger and he driver, and he ran from cops. There was a 10 minute chase and they boxed us in, and pulled us out of the car hard. $500 solved the problem.