Well travelled
By Loserville - 05/10/2023 15:30 - Australia
By Loserville - 05/10/2023 15:30 - Australia
By Anonymous - 19/08/2011 04:11 - United States
By uthinkucandraw - 27/02/2009 21:19 - United States
By Anonymous - 17/07/2009 20:23 - Russian Federation
By melyeah - 02/03/2013 14:14 - Australia - Sydney
By Noname - 16/03/2009 00:49 - United States
By Non traveller - 10/03/2023 16:00 - South Africa - Cape Town
By Anonymous - 25/10/2024 22:00 - United States
By Alexis - 16/01/2017 15:14
By Baby Bethy - 25/12/2016 04:00 - United States
By Lawrie - 12/07/2022 10:00
Never heard of Google Maps?
That sucks, but it is what taxi drivers do when the customer fails like that. FYL. I guess you learned a $50 valuable lesson.
The man is a thief and a fraudster. He didn't take them closer to where they wanted to go. They did learn a valuable lesson. They learned that people will try to scam them. The problem is you can never stop all the scams. If he hadn't been a criminal he would have just pointed to across the street. According to OP he didn't even do his job. Essentially he just kidnapped these people lied to them and then stole their money. If they refuse to pay he probably would have threatened them with physical violence by getting the police involved. Yes they willingly got in the vehicle based on his deception. There's no valuable lesson here. Yeah it would have been good if they had known where the hotel is but that doesn't justify sleazy behavior and the driver doesn't deserve $50. He would have deserved a small tip if he had just pointed across the street.
I had a similar scam pulled on me once in Spokane, Washington. I was from the other side of the country. It was 2002, Google Maps was three years from being invented, and it was a year before I had even a cellphone let alone a smart phone. That's why I forgive myself for it. These days, even if your phone isn't compatible with the network where you're traveling, there's not much excuse for not looking up your hotels online before you start your trip and checking how far they are from your airports or other travel stations.
Keywords
The one in New Zealand or Australia? Both are dodgy but New Zealand is known more for it. Always Uber, or look up where the hotel is
Never heard of Google Maps?