Pre-booked Taxi to Airport -> more than 1 hour late = 340£ lost for my little family...

[Jeromeago]

Hi All,

 

We had booked with my wife on Wednesday night a taxi to drive us from Putney to Southend airport on Thursday morning. My wife said on the phone that we had a plane to catch at 11:15 and that we wanted to have plenty of time (because we are travelling with a little 8 months old baby) so we asked to be there at 10am for safety. The taxi company told us to be ready at 8am, the fare would be 75£

 

The driver picked us on time and got stuck in a lot of traffic in london area

At some point we asked him if his GPS was right, stating that we would approximatively be at the airport around 11am

He said in an unclear manner that it was impossible to do this drive in 2hours time in the morning, that the taxi company must have got it wrong,that usually it costs more than 75£ for such a drive so we get what we are paying for ???? And finally that he is not the one to schedule pickup times

 

After discovering that we would miss our flight and there was no other flights that day in Southend we had to tell him to stop and told him to stop us by Liverpool street instead to take a train to Standsted airport to catch another plane

 

He did the change, charged us 20£ for the drive (cancelling the 75£ for the initial drive which never happened) and we booked new plane tickets for the family

 

Result: one holliday lost + 340£ for the new tickets

 

I have tried to call the taxi company many times these last days, they always say that the manager will call me back but he never does...I guess they just think I will firget about it but we feel we have lost a lot of money unfairly. We don't drive in London and have no idea of the time it takes to go to Southend airport,why did the company which makes a business out of these airport drives didn't tell us to leave earlier ??

 

Another strange thing: when I first called the company to say there was a problem , they said that the pickup time on their system was 7:10 am which would have been fine !

 

Do you think I can claim for a compensation or bring the case to court?

 

Thanks for the help! ; )

Jerome

[firstclassx]

 

Do you think I can claim for a compensation or bring the case to court?

 

Thanks for the help! ; )

Jerome

 

Doubt it.

 

Send them a letter before action detailing the problem in a clear and informative manner, be very formal and matter of fact. No opinions etc. Make sure you have clear EVIDENCE of any statements they may have made or provided you. If you have no evidence, then it would never make it in court anyway, (your word against an experienced taxi company etc). If you actually have real evidence, then tell them the amount you wish to claim, provide your evidence of loss, and tell them you will proceed to court if they fail to reply within say 28 days.

 

You also have a duty to mitigate your (potential) losses. What does your travel insurance policy say about "missed departures"?

 

No travel insurance again = no real prospect of success in court.

 

Bottom line is, if it is a case of your word against theirs, you are better of just chalking this one up.

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

I've moved your thread to the general consumer issues forum, as you posted in the one for public transport. Hopefully people will be along later to add to the good advice firstclass has given you. I've left a link for you to follow from the previous forum.

 

My best, HB

[andydd]

Southend Airport can easily be reached from Liverpool St station in about 50 mins, worth noting for the future. Bear in mind that morning rush hour traffic can be a nightmare.

 

I doubt very much whether you would have a claim here, its upto you to dictate what time you want to leave, personably I would of added another hour or so to be on the safe side, its not really upto a taxi company to work out how long it takes.

[Ethel Street]

 

I doubt very much whether you would have a claim here, its upto you to dictate what time you want to leave, personably I would of added another hour or so to be on the safe side, its not really upto a taxi company to work out how long it takes.

 

The way I read it though the OP told taxi company what time he wanted to arrive at the airport and the taxi company told him what time they would pick him up. If that's the case OP might have a claim against taxi company but there will be issues of evidence and proving who said what. An LBA might prompt taxi company to offer something. My local cab company suggests the pick up time if you tell them what time you want to get to the airport, I don't think that's unusual.

 

OP should check travel insurance but probably not covered. Missed departures doesn't normally cover you if you didn't leave home with enough time to do the journey.

[andydd]

Worth pointing out that LBA's should only be used if the party is genuinely intending to start legal action, where the LBA in effect acts as an attempt at mediation, using it a vague threat is something many companies which pop up on here do and isn't IMO appropriate.