Seattle's Worst Cabbie

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It wasn't until I started living in Philadelphia until I really started utilizing taxi cab service. Needless to say, we didn't have any cabs tooting around Palmer, MA growing up, and I took the taxi in Syracuse only a couple of times. Once I started living in Philly, I grew to realize that some cabbies were awesome, some said very little, and some could be a bit testy. However, nothing compared to the cab ride I had heading to the airport in Seattle on my return trip from the Pacific Northwest. By a landslide, the worst cab experience I've ever had, and I would hope after reading this, one would be very cautious of taking a cab in the Emerald City.

I had a flight that left Seattle-Tacoma International at about 7:30 in the morning. The night before I left, I had my hotel concierge make sure a cab was there to pick me up @ 6. Before I went to bed that night, I asked the concierge if it was ok to pay the driver with a credit card, as some cabbies are very sensitive to the matter. He assured me that paying with plastic would be no problem. I awoke that morning and headed down to the lobby to wait for my cab, which was right on time. The driver greeted me, put my luggage in the trunk, and we headed off to the airport. As we were leaving downtown Seattle, I asked him "Is it ok that I pay with a credit card". He replied "Oh yea yea ok, no problem". I don't know if it was because it was early in the morning, or he was in a good mood, but this dude seemed like a decent guy. We headed down the freeway and the driver was rather quiet as he concentrated on driving through the start of the morning commute. He asked where I was headed, and I told him back home to Washington, DC. After about 15 minutes, we were at the airport, and that's when things went haywire....

As we stopped @ the U.S. Airways gate, the driver gave me my total. I handed him my credit card and said "Here you go". He looked at me point blank in the eyes and went "WHAT??!!?? You don't have any cash??!!" I told him that he assured me it was ok that I payed with a credit card. He said "I never said that was ok! I have to be somewhere in 5 minutes and now I have to run the card machine and I can't f**king believe this!" I told him "Look, I have no cash on me, and I told you, I was using a card". Still, he made one more plea for cash. I told him I didn't have any, and he took my card out of my hands. The whole time he was processing the card, he was murmuring stuff under his breath. I have no clue what he was saying, but I can only imagine he was reaming me a new one in his native language. I said to myself "There goes your tip a**hole". The paper slip printed, I signed my name, and I got the hell out of that cab. Even more, the driver would not get out of his seat to get my bags out of the trunk. Of course, I had to have the last laugh. After I got my stuff out of the trunk, I walked to the curb, tapped on the cab, and flipped the driver off. Enfuriated, he sped off to who knows where. I headed into the airport and thanked god I had made it there.

I think next time I go to Seattle, I'll rent a car.
-Kacz

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