Scam Artist Cab Drivers

[John.St]

I'm missing the Chuck Norris round kick too.

But he is not as good at throwing mud as some on this forum

 

[fifs2]

The speaking thing also works, I'm here for 2 years and can't recall having any such story. Maybe because my Spanish is passable and I don't live in an expat area.[/quote]


Agreed..Im here nearly 8 years and never had the bill thing happen, maybe for the same reasons you quote..had afew other scams though including 1 scary moment when it seemed the driver was setting me up to be robbed at my destination since he didnt know I spoke Spanish....just part of the interesting tapestry of life here.

 

[Thejohnatvu]

The speaking thing also works, I'm here for 2 years and can't recall having any such story. Maybe because my Spanish is passable and I don't live in an expat area.

Agreed..Im here nearly 8 years and never had the bill thing happen, maybe for the same reasons you quote..had afew other scams though including 1 scary moment when it seemed the driver was setting me up to be robbed at my destination since he didnt know I spoke Spanish....just part of the interesting tapestry of life here.[/quote]

out of curiosity, care to give details?

 

[Reinaldo]

My suggestion would be to mark down the bill's serial # before handing it to the taxi driver.

 

[PhilipDT]

You´re right about this happening anywhere in the world. My Argentine husband took a taxi in NZ in his 1st week there (years ago). He didn´t speak English, the immigrant taxi driver didn´t either and it was only the 2nd time that my husband had taken a taxi to that address. Somehow he realised he was being taken for a ride, and after not being able to communicate with the taxi driver his resourceful Argentine nature kicked in. The taxi driver found that a swiss army knife to the throat suddenly cleared his memory and in 2 minutes flat they were at the address. My husband paid him the fare he had paid the previous night for that journey and went into the house.

What. The. Hell. You actually think this was good thing??? Your husband is a psycho.

 

[fvrconst]

What. The. Hell. You actually think this was good thing??? Your husband is a psycho.

Nah, I think she just made it up. Knowing the tough visa requirements of NZ and AU, I've seen many well-educated, fluent English speaker (even with the ability to talk with Oz and NZ accents), well-experienced foreigner professionals working in shortage sectors to be turned down by the authorities not giving them the work/residency permit.

Knowing this I found it amusingly skeptical to believe that an immigrant taxi driver who doesn't speak the English gets the visa.

And even if the driver had worked illegally I still cannot imagine any employer who would give a job to an immigrant without language - especially in a position where the employee must be able to communicate with the clients.

 

[perry]

Nah, I think she just made it up. Knowing the tough visa requirements of NZ and AU, I've seen many well-educated, fluent English speaker (even with the ability to talk with Oz and NZ accents), well-experienced foreigner professionals working in shortage sectors to be turned down by the authorities not giving them the work/residency permit.

Knowing this I found it amusingly skeptical to believe that an immigrant taxi driver who doesn't speak the English gets the visa.

And even if the driver had worked illegally I still cannot imagine any employer who would give a job to an immigrant without language - especially in a position where the employee must be able to communicate with the clients.

I grew up in Australia and can tell you it is very common to have illegal immigrants and legal immigrants driving taxis with very little knowledge of the roads . There seems to be laxer requirements for asian immigrants than for south american and european immigrants. Sydney and Melbourne have over 7 % population of asian background .

 

[deeve007]

I grew up in Australia and can tell you it is very common to have illegal immigrants and legal immigrants driving taxis with very little knowledge of the road.

And you know this how?

There seems to be laxer requirements for asian immigrants than for south american and european immigrants.

...because this is certainly incorrect. Do you know how many white Europeans are illegally in Australia? Far more than illegal Asians, even the Australian government figures acknowledge that I believe.

 

[perry]

And you know this how?


...because this is certainly incorrect. Do you know how many white Europeans are illegally in Australia? Far more than illegal Asians, even the Australian government figures acknowledge that I believe.

Yes I do know this I am AUSTRALIAN GET IT. I remember very clearly how many pakistani and indian taxi drivers were driving in the 1990s with very little knowledge of the roads of Sydney .I lived in the middle class suburb of Strathfield and I had to direct over 50 % to this suburb from the CBD . They were shockers in the main

Now I have not been back to Australia for a few years and maybe now they have improved their regulations of the taxi industry .

I have a lot knowledge of the Australian immigration practices as my uncle has an important position there and he informs me that asian immigrants have preference to South Americans by a long shot . If you look at the 2006 census over 8.7 % of australians are of asian descent . South americans would be lucky if they were just 1 % of the population

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Australian