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Dear travelers who intent to travel to Kuala Lumpur PLEASE do think twice. I have always heard that the taxi service in KL is very much the worst few in the world and true enough I had experienced it myself. Let me share with you this very much unpleasant encounter that I meet. Bad enough to make me take the time to write and hope that every single one who intent to travel to KL, have the awareness of what they are about to encounter.
To begin I shall highlight this very taxi, HWC 9655 is atrociously horrendous to the maximum nothing of the sort that I have ever met ever. On the 17 of December 2009, my family and I were leaving KLCC aquarium heading for mid valley megamall one of the few shopping destinations in Malaysia. We board this very taxi HWC 9655. I was very sure I pointed to the meter and asked him if the taxi charge using meter. He replied with an answer yes. Off we go however the meter was not on but the taxi was already moving and guess what, we were ask to visit another location which was some chocolate factory. By bringing us there whether or not we make purchases he can earn commission, in return he would charge us at a lower rate of 4.50 RM.
However as my family and I weren’t too keen in chocolates, we kindly rejected the offer for we would prefer more shopping time. It was 2.45pm then. Therefore we proceed to ask him why doesn’t he on the meter and the reply was it’s out of the city hence meter cannot be used. At the moment, I FELT SO CHEATED so darn cheated!!!! Before I got on the taxi I am very sure that I made myself very clear by emphasizing that I wanted a charge by meter taxi. Fine I controlled myself as he was the one driving, for the safety of my family members. Next we checked with him how much he wanted and he requested for 40 RM, being unsure of how far the destination is hence we kept quiet. The next thing we know we found ourselves queuing up at a taxi petrol kiosk not too far from where we took our taxi, he said that he had run out of petrol. It is understandable and we can still accept that such occasions do happen once in a while.
During that time I took the chance to press for the meter and it worked. (The reason why I did that because the previous few days we took the taxi for about 1 train stop of about at most 2km we were charged 20 RM hence we asked the hotel personal and they mention we must take taxi who are willing to on the meter. In addition these taxi that we took are the cheapest, we took something more expensive a bigger and more comfortable one was charged the same amount.) After getting the taxi filled thinking that we are about to head to our destination we where again brought to another place, somewhere near the petrol kiosk this time round he want to purchase food as he was hungry. At this point of time I could no longer bear with him any longer. It wasn’t because he wanted to purchase his food but rather he did not let us know. I felt we are his customer and since he decide to pick us up shouldn’t he seek our consent before bring us there, the very basic respect that we as the ones paying ought to have. Thus I suggested to my mum that we could hop on to another taxi, however my mum felt it wasn’t very responsible or rather correct way of doing things. Therefore we ended up waiting for 15 minutes. Finally we are off to our destination, not to mention the circles that we made round and round wasting our time
At 3.30pm, we arrive at mid valley mega mall which wasn’t too far away at the very most 15 minutes for there wasn’t much jam. I felt that 40 RM was too expensive and unreasonable in fact the meter showed only 12.50 RM but in my heart I was prepare to pay up to 25 RM. Therefore I begin reasoning out with him that the meter show 12.50RM I am very sure at the point though I was unhappy but I politely told him that the meter show only 12.50RM. Raising his voice he started shouting at me saying that it was 40RM the meter cannot be counted. Therefore I brought up all the waiting that we had to do.
Believe it or not the next thing was the least that you can ever EXPECT EVER!!!! He showed me a sign and said F*** me in the worst type of attitude, I could no longer bear with him I burst out showing him back the sign and told him that was not the way to treat a customer. The next most unexpected thing came he taunt me to a fight. Security came as we took some time and was blocking the traffic, I recount what had happen to the security and asked him if the fare the taxi quote was fair he kept quiet. With the driver still constantly hurling abusing remarks at me, not wanting to create a scene my mum paid the driver 35 RM asking him to leave. As he left we were told by the security to take down his taxi number and make a complaint. It was the worst shopping that I have ever done it have totally ruin the mood. In the night as we wanted to head back to our hotel (renaissance hotel) which was walking distance from KLCC aquarium. We took another taxi from the megamall. The meter was on, the traffic was very heavy, it was raining. However, guess how much we paid, ONLY 14.40RM!!! WAY WAY WAY below what we paid to get there.
Some awareness to Travelers:
-I was taught by the hotel staff that in the future if such cases were met we should just leave the money that we think is appropriate and leave.
-I am not too sure about this and I hope that I am wrong about it, some of the Malays there seems to think that they are the law. For some same destination that I went to I hope on to different Malay taxi and was quote different prices. Only Indian and Chinese taxi driver uses meter. There was this one occasion where we were in a supermarket there is this young Malay lady cut our queue and make it seems as if she was right, despite her friends apologizing on her behalf. I suddenly felt very VERY fortunate to be living in Singapore for our Malay friends are nothing of the sort that I can ever encounter there NEVER!!! No offence to the Malay but I hope you can understand the frustration that I am feeling on these handful of black sheep. I just cannot understand, I know that there may be priorities given to them there but some of these basic values.
- Lastly take care and stay safe to my fellow travelers.
BTW this is better posted at Cabby forums.
Please note your own/your mother's stupidity:
"however my mum felt it wasn’t very responsible or rather correct way of doing things"
If you want to be good and kind, please quietly suffer the consequences.