This Taxi Entitlement Condition Is Terminal
(It’s the last day of a college class trip to France. Some in our group have pooled money for a van to take us to the airport. As we’re all putting our luggage into the back, an American couple and their older son suddenly dash out of their hotel and yell about their cab going missing. We shrug it off and get in the van. The woman of the couple gets in with us.)
Woman: *in English* “I need you to take us to the airport!”
Driver: “Madame, they paid for me to drive them. You need to call for another cab.”
Woman: “No! Someone took our taxi. You need to drive us! We are late!“
(This goes back and forth for a while. The woman refuses to listen to anyone in the van, her own family included. We tell the driver to just take them along, because we know this woman won’t get out. She proceeds to backseat drive the entire way to the airport, though I’m almost certain she has never been to Paris before.)
Driver: *stops somewhere far away from the terminal* “Here you go!”
Woman: “But this isn’tâ”
Woman’s Husband: “This is fine. Thank you.” *pays the driver and ushers the family out*
(They have to walk over a concrete divider to get into the nearest building.)
Driver: *to us, in French* “That woman was driving me crazy!”
(He drove us to our terminal, and we gave him as good a tip as we could with the Euros we had left. Be nice to your cabbies, and don’t backseat drive.)
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Question of the Week
Have you ever served a bad customer who got what they deserved?
