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eventually
Joined: 30 Nov 2011
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 Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 8:20 am Post subject: |
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every time i've gone to seoul getting a taxi has been a nightmare. i now avoid it if i can.
1. one time a friend and i were having a very difficult time hailing a taxi in itaewon. finally, we got into a taxi and managed to drive for a bit... until the driver saw some other people needing cabs and pulled over to let koreans in instead! we were bumped out. talk about taxi stealing.
2. i was trying to take a taxi somewhere from hongdae...and i knew it wouldn't be more than a 10,000 won drive, but the driver told me 20,000. i asked to use the meter and he said no. i said okay and walked across the street to the next taxi. as i was about ask him, the first driver yelled something in korean which made the other driver refuse to take me. luckily a korean knight in shining armor overheard all of this, rushed to my aide, and told me he'd find me a taxi. we had to walk a few blocks despite the area being full of cabs. i wonder what he yelled... |
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eventually
Joined: 30 Nov 2011
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| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 8:42 am Post subject: |
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| eventually wrote: |
2. i was trying to take a taxi somewhere from hongdae...and i knew it wouldn't be more than a 10,000 won drive, but the driver told me 20,000. i asked to use the meter and he said no. i said okay and walked across the street to the next taxi. as i was about ask him, the first driver yelled something in korean which made the other driver refuse to take me. luckily a korean knight in shining armor overheard all of this, rushed to my aide, and told me he'd find me a taxi. we had to walk a few blocks despite the area being full of cabs. i wonder what he yelled... |
i would also like to note it was pouring outside and i had no umbrella. he lent me his. it's small acts like this that i hope to let outshine the negativity of asshole taxi drivers etc etc... |
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NQ
Joined: 16 Feb 2012
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| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 10:05 am Post subject: |
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Okay, so if they refuse service it's illegal and you can report the cabbie. Great. What if they ask you if they could stack on an extra charge on top of the meter before getting you where you want to go? Is that illegal?
Taxis in Itaewon are ModEdit. Some would just say 'no' to me while others wanted a 3000 won surcharge to where I was going. I just said yes to it cuz i needed to get back home. After 5-6 AM though, it's fine and no one rips me off. But it's when the subway is closed it's like the wild west there. Some guys even magically round up the fare to something really high and make some excuse about it. arrrgh
If I catch the cabbie from my place to Itaewon, it's usually alrright, but one cabbie was driving slow on purpose, I suspected, to make more cash. I thought it was suspect since taxis go so fast. When I'm with my Korean friend they go so insanely fast that I think I'm gonna be transported back to 1955. |
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rollo
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: China
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| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 3:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Is there a place in the world where the taxi experience is good??? i mean really!!!! What do you expect?? |
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rainman3277
Joined: 13 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Trip wrote: |
Protip: Get in. If the door is locked, lean in the front window. Have your camera ready. If refused service, snap a pic of the guy's license on his dashboard. If that won't work, get a pic of his plates. (I've had a guy try to roll up the window with my arm in it.)
Email the photo and a description of what happened to the Hi Seoul website or official tourism website. They will respond to clarify what happened (times, dates, location) and they will punish the driver. It's illegal to refuse service. The first 2 times it's a fine (100,000 or 200,000 or something) and the third time reported can mean losing the license for a month. There have been news articles about this in the past. |
There must be ways around this cause I've gotten into taxis that refused to drive me. I point at their ID and threaten to call if they don't drive me. They basically say 'go ahead'. It was an effective tactic in the beginning but nowadays it has little effect. |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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I never get refused service by taxis.
I don't understand what you guys are doing wrong.
I dress smart and am never drunk. That might have something to do with it. |
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ewlandon
Joined: 30 Jan 2011
Location: teacher
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| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 7:38 pm Post subject: |
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| nautilus wrote: |
I never get refused service by taxis.
I don't understand what you guys are doing wrong.
I dress smart and am never drunk. That might have something to do with it. |
it only happens around 12-3 AM in nightlife areas. |
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NQ
Joined: 16 Feb 2012
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| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 7:39 pm Post subject: |
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| nautilus wrote: |
I never get refused service by taxis.
I don't understand what you guys are doing wrong.
I dress smart and am never drunk. That might have something to do with it. |
Get the hell outta here ahahaha. Being drunk especially has nothing to do with it, since drinking is part of their lifestyle. These cabbies should be used to it by now. This isn't a conservative place where drinking is looking down upon. Get off your high horse.
I've been refused service in also Gangnam from a few taxis. I was going from Gangnam subway station to Cheoungdam. But every taxi would say no, probably because it's too close for them and they can't make bucks. Only the black taxi said yes. |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 7:49 pm Post subject: |
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| eventually wrote: |
| 2. i was trying to take a taxi somewhere from hongdae...and i knew it wouldn't be more than a 10,000 won drive, but the driver told me 20,000. i asked to use the meter and he said no. i said okay and walked across the street to the next taxi. as i was about ask him, the first driver yelled something in korean which made the other driver refuse to take me. luckily a korean knight in shining armor overheard all of this, rushed to my aide, and told me he'd find me a taxi. we had to walk a few blocks despite the area being full of cabs. i wonder what he yelled... |
This is kind of just how it works late at night. You can usually work them down from their initially stated price, but good luck getting a metered cab from the heart of Hongdae. Those guys stake that place out for a reason, and they work as a team to keep their mafia in place. |
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darkjedidave
Joined: 19 Aug 2009
Location: Shanghai/Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 11:03 pm Post subject: |
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| I live close enough to Sinchon/Hongdae that I can walk home after a late night, so I rarely have a need for a cab after 11pm. But one pub crawl we didn't want to walk home, and ran into cabbies wanting to charge 40-50K for a normal 3500W trip. Is that legal to do that after a certain hour, not using the fare meter? |
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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 11:34 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/TR/TR_EN_5_2.jsp
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From May 1, 2009, Korea launched a special “international taxi” service, where the taxi drivers are able to speak English or Japanese. These taxis operate on a 100% reservations basis, and taxi fees can be calculated by meter, by destination, or by time. For example, if you chose to hire a regular taxi for three hours it will cost 50,000 won, and you can even hire it for a day for 120,000won. The fees for these new international taxis can be paid in cash or with international credit cards (VISA, MASTER, AMEX, JCB).
Furthermore, Incheon and Gimpo airports are providing international taxi information desks where foreigners are able to make taxi reservations, check the status of existing reservations, and also receive a range of other helpful information. There is also a special waiting area for the international taxis.
Non-Korean speakers can make enquiries and reservations for the international taxis by calling an exclusive call center (1644-2255). The service is available in English and Japanese, and lines are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Reservations may also be made online at www.intltaxi.co.kr.
☞ Location of the international taxi information desks :
Incheon International Airport: Between Gate 8 and Gate 9 on the arrival floor (Tel: 070-7508-2255)
Gimpo Airport: Between Gate 2 and Gate 3 on the arrival floor
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International Taxi homepage
http://www.intltaxi.co.kr:8099/intltaxi/html/en/reservation/airport_seoul.jsp
Rates
http://www.intltaxi.co.kr:8099/intltaxi/html/en/service/price.jsp |
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Zyzyfer
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: who, what, where, when, why, how?
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| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 11:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Steelrails wrote: |
The idea that taxi cabs and drivers exist to provide a service to you, rather than to maximize profit to themselves is a naive idea and the sooner one recognizes the true nature of things is the sooner one can deal with things- If you are desperate for a "non-profitable" ride from a cab driver, make it worth his while, pay an excess rate.
<cut for relevance>
I wish there was a better system in place so it didn't have to be so cutthroat. You should be able to walk out of Hongdae at 2AM and get a ride down the block to Shinchon without spending 45 out in the rain. |
The problem is what they consider profitable rides. I get the Hongdae to Shinchon thing (that's actually a really stupid ride to take anyway for other reasons) or reluctance to swing up to HBC or Gyeongnidan from Itaewon. So if the cabbie even stops for me to begin with if I'm waiting to take the short ride home from Itaewon, I toss a few thousand won extra in there since it really is a convenience.
But Hongdae to Itaewon, or Gagnam to either of the two or vice versa, isn't profitable for them? Hongdae/Itaewon and Gagnam/Itaewon is like 8,000 won or so and going between two busy nightlife districts.
Nah, the only thing these drivers want to bother with is cross-town and out-of-town fares, and even then they pull scams, overcharge, try to take long routes, act like they're lost, etc. Hell one of the biggest scams I've realized drivers pull that no one probably even notices is hopping on Gangbyeon Expressway to go between Hongdae and Itaewon, yeah it's fast and simple and jacks up the fare a few thousand in the process.
I remember a while back you and others mentioning operating abbreviated subway runs at night. While it doesn't perfectly resolve the problem (imagine having to make two transfers with trains running every 30 minutes!) people could at least make the slow trek home if that hassle is preferred over playing wave down the driver for three hours. Then I could at least wander to a nearby station instead of walking to some obscure part of town in an effort to get someone to stop.
Then taxis can feel free to operate as items of convenience and toss on surcharges that customers will accept.
| Quote: |
| But play the game the other way too- Get their ID. Take that picture. Do what Trip said and get in and pic their ID. They aren't there to please you and you aren't there to please them. Play the game and make them serve you. |
I might very well try doing this but the anecdotes I've heard have mixed results.
| CentralCali wrote: |
| One point to consider: There are some taxis who can't pick you up off post, though, unless you're connected with the military and have called them to come get you. Those are the ones contracted by the military base. Their contract with the base limits them to picking people up on base and picking up just those connected with the military off-base. So, it's pretty common for an on-base cabbie to get a fare on the base whose destination is Itaeweon. That cabbie has to high-tail it back to base for his next fare unless he's very lucky and somene in the area he dropped the military person off has called for a cab from the base. |
Would explain the situation in Itaewon and I'd be totally sympathetic so long as the taxis had some defining characteristic other than zipping by without picking anyone up while the "for hire" light is on.
Speaking of that light...
| ewlandon wrote: |
| the last couple times I have gone out have been realllly bad. I think the cold weather makes them worse. ONce was in Jogno. I walked for about an hour till we got to the tunnel that goes to iteawon. We just wanted to go through the tunnel and no cab would stop for us, one cab offered to take us for 20,000 won (its a 3,000 trip) then drove off. We were unable to get a cab at all till 4 AM. |
Jongno, especially around Jongno 2-ga, is a pain in the ass as well. I used to work there and had so many problems. Same thing, I needed to go through the tunnel and the 143 stops going that direction really early.
But it's a bit of a combo there. You have the usual fare hunters cruising around and all, and you also have a lot of people reserving taxis. Since the sign is so tiny it can be hard to tell if the cab is available or not. I'm cool with reserved cabs but I've already done the little wave like an idiot thing by the time I realize.
There are taxi stands scattered about that give you a somewhat higher success rate, but I often ended up just walking over Namsan to get home.
| furtakk wrote: |
| It's a huge pain in the ass, but if you walk a bit a ways from the main 'cab' area of wherever you are, you should have much less of a headache. |
Yup. Good to already know where to walk and just not even bother, too. Save yourself the grief.
Hongdae - used to be walk to Sangsu, but Koreans figured this one out a few years back, so walk to Sangsu and then walk to the next line 6 station in either direction; the area along the main road between Hongdae and Shinchon also isn't too awful, and even Hongdae Station isn't completely unreasonable if you're assertive about catching one
Itaewon - you can get something eventually by walking toward Crown Hotel and I'm sure Hangangjin or Bogwang probably work as well, but drivers are a bit wise to it here so it still takes some patience
Jongno - maybe walk towards Anguk, I never tried this but Myeongdong and Gwanghwamun do not work
I have no idea about Gagnam because I've only caught a cab late at night a few times there and generally had Korean assistance.
| eventually wrote: |
| luckily a korean knight in shining armor overheard all of this, rushed to my aide, and told me he'd find me a taxi. |
Kind of related, in a few extreme situations where I was lucky or thinking clearly, I have gone back into the bar (obviously it should still be open to do this), grabbed a pint, and told my travesty-filled taxi tale of tragedy to the Korean bartender or owner. At the very least you can arrange for a call taxi by doing this. Works out far better than my usual rage-fueled responses.
No need to regale everyone with stories, Died by Bear. Trying to put them behind me. |
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hiamnotcool
Joined: 06 Feb 2012
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| Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 1:06 am Post subject: |
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Should Koreans be offended that their is a foreigner only taxi or should foreigners be offended that we are being herded into designated taxis? I know that isn't the intent, it just made me laugh.
The taxis in Gangnam are alright, the streets are just really wide in some areas. There are plenty of taxi stations, just find one and if they refuse you politely ask them why. I have done this before, sometimes you just need to walk across the street. They also have some kind of tag system in Gangnam. Certain taxis have some kind of tag on their rear bumper to show what areas they go to. Sorry but I forgot the specifications. Itaewon taxis are an art in and of themselves. Sorry but I won't share my secrets here.
| nautilus wrote: |
I dress smart and am never drunk. That might have something to do with it. |
I dress smart and I'm always drunk. I've never had a problem either. Drink on folks. |
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Dodge7
Joined: 21 Oct 2011
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| Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 1:12 am Post subject: |
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| hiamnotcool wrote: |
Should Koreans be offended that their is a foreigner only taxi or should foreigners be offended that we are being herded into designated taxis? I know that isn't the intent, it just made me laugh.
The taxis in Gangnam are alright, the streets are just really wide in some areas. There are plenty of taxi stations, just find one and if they refuse you politely ask them why. I have done this before, sometimes you just need to walk across the street. They also have some kind of tag system in Gangnam. Certain taxis have some kind of tag on their rear bumper to show what areas they go to. Sorry but I forgot the specifications. Itaewon taxis are an art in and of themselves. Sorry but I won't share my secrets here.
| nautilus wrote: |
I dress smart and am never drunk. That might have something to do with it. |
I dress smart and I'm always drunk. I've never had a problem either. Drink on folks. |
whutta douche thing to say. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 1:19 am Post subject: |
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| Zyzyfer wrote: |
| CentralCali wrote: |
| One point to consider: There are some taxis who can't pick you up off post, though, unless you're connected with the military and have called them to come get you. Those are the ones contracted by the military base. Their contract with the base limits them to picking people up on base and picking up just those connected with the military off-base. So, it's pretty common for an on-base cabbie to get a fare on the base whose destination is Itaeweon. That cabbie has to high-tail it back to base for his next fare unless he's very lucky and somene in the area he dropped the military person off has called for a cab from the base. |
Would explain the situation in Itaewon and I'd be totally sympathetic so long as the taxis had some defining characteristic other than zipping by without picking anyone up while the "for hire" light is on. |
They do have a distinguishing item: a placard placed above the front dash on the passenger side, visibile from outside the taxi. It's a big white placard with black letters, stating, "On-base Taxi". They're also supposed to turn the dome light off so they don't look like they're available if they're in an area (off-base) where they can't pick someone up. It should also be noted that on-base, they can't pick up fares flagging them down; they can only respond to a call or to a designated taxi stand.
| Quote: |
| Speaking of that light... |
The cabbie's supposed to switch his light to the "not in service" position when he can't pick someone up. That has two effects: 1-it turns the dome light off so a prospective customer will know that cab's not available, and 2-it idles the fare meter.
When a cabbie picks up someone, he's supposed to switch his light to the "in service" position, which has two effects: 1-turns the dome light off, and 2-starts the fare meter.
If the cabbie's available for service and has no customer, then he's supposed to put his light in the "for hire" position.
About the meter: If you're traveling outside of the city or province (or whatever the local jurisdiction considers a regular fare zone), the cabbie is supposed to hit the little button on the meter indicating out of area once you leave the regular fare zone, not before. That has the effect of increasing the fare. If you've called a taxi to pick you up and you're not ready when he arrives or if you have multiple destinations on the same trip, the cabbie's supposed to hit the "waiting" button. Honestly, I don't think that many cabbies are all that up on how to operate the meter other than "flag up"/"flag down". |
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