New York City taxi driver swipes passenger’s iPod — and gets away with it

Welcome to the jungle, young Ms. Lenhart. I agree that the experience is crummy and the taxi driver is a jerk, but those credit card machines in cabs can simply not be trusted. Keep some emergency cash on hand next time. This is one of those cases where life isn’t fair, but you’ll get more than $140 worth of life lessons out of it. By the way, please don’t let this experience sour you on all New Yorkers, who are generally a very polite and friendly sort. Cab drivers are a different group entirely. In any case, they’re a dying breed, pushed to the brink by the proliferation of limo services and gypsy cabs.

Round trip airport cab fare: $100
Round trip shuttle: $40
While taking the Ipod is completely unacceptable, you should have your daughter do some research on more thrifty ways to navigate the city.

Also, your daughter is 20 years old. She couldn’t write the letter herself?

Sounds like she got rolled over because of youth and inexperience—which just happens. An older traveler would have definitely made the problem the driver’s problem and asked to speak with a supe at Port Authority.

Poor kid. She must have been terrified.

I had a somewhat similar thing happen to me at a hotel in Amsterdam.

The morning we were leaving the hotel, I went down to finalize the bill. According to the clerk, the Visa network was down and I had to pay my balance in cash. I didn’t have that much cash. The clerk told me to go to the ATM a few doors down. I wasn’t willing to pay the ATM fee, on top of their exchange rate, which I had noticed was too low a couple of days before. And anyway, the hotel had previously swiped my card, when I checked in, and they could just wait until the network came back to life. I also told the clerk the ATM daily limit per user was far too low to have enough cash to pay the bill. We had been there 5 days.

I asked to see the manager. I was told the manager wasn’t in, and wouldn’t be for an hour. I asked to see her supervisor, but was told she was alone. This was an absurd situation, since it was 8:00am and there were about 20 of us in line with the same problem.

I was fed up. I asked to see the bill, but the clerk said she couldn’t print one out without a payment. In total frustration I told her in that case, she had my original swipe of my Visa card, which she should use when the manager came in, but that I wouldn’t authorize payment from Visa without a bill. When she refused I said fine, and began to leave for the train station so I wouldn’t miss my train to Paris.

The clerk said she’ll call the police. I told her, great, they can find me in the train station, and I’ll be happen to tell them that you refused to give me a printed bill or accept my credit card, which you advertise you take for payments. I left. Remarkably so did many others telling the clerk, “That goes for me too. Use my swipe when Visa’s running again.”

While in Paris, I saw that they had put through the charge about 20 minutes after I left the hotel, while I was still in the train station, … twice. Yes, they charged me double, and at the wrong rate, and didn’t put in my charges for the two meals eaten in their restaurant. A day later the meals were on, the two charges from the day before were gone, and two new ones, at a different rate were on my charge, and they were wrong too. I immediately disputed the charges with Visa, and told them the problem, including about the hotel’s refusal to give me a printed bill.

By the time I got home, ten days later, there was a print out of the bill, which was correct, from the hotel, waiting for me in the mail. All the charges were corrected and I removed the dispute at Visa.

NYC taxis are required to have their technology package in good working order, and when it’s not, they’re not supposed to be picking up fares.

The NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) states in their rules, “if the taximeter is equipped to accept credit or debit card payments for fares, a driver may not pick up or transport a passenger when the taximeter is incapable of accepting or processing credit or debit card transactions.” The exception to the rule is if the driver informs the passenger he can’t take card payments, prior to the beginning of the ride, and gives the passenger the opportunity to find other transportation.

Moreover, the rules state, “In the event that the wireless payment equipment used to accept payment by credit and debit cards is inoperable at the destination of a trip as a result of a technical problem in the system’s communication network that is not related to the equipment in the taxicab, the customer has the option of either (i) paying cash or (ii) requesting the taxicab driver continue to a location where the wireless payment system may communicate with its network.”

If the driver needs to go to another location to run the credit card, the driver is not permitted to charge the passenger for the extra ride.

1. The driver didn’t follow taxi commission rules by not making an attempt to move to another location where the card would go through.
2. If the driver knew the machine was having problems he violated the rules by not informing the passenger the machine wasn’t working right and giving her the option to not take the ride.
3. The Port Authority Police exceeded their authority by threatening to arrest her for non-payment. The young lady wanted to pay, but the driver’s equipment didn’t permit it. The driver was violating the law, and they should have acknowledged that.
4. The girl’s inexperience showed in that she didn’t get the name of all people concerned, badge numbers, etc. If it would have been me, I would have been on my cell phone to the Taxi Commission immediately to seek their help. Also I suspect she could have been somewhat more assertive with the PA police explaining that she wanted to pay but that his machine wasn’t working, and he never told her that before taking her as a passenger.

I think the Taxi Commission’s staff has not done their duty or best to resolve the problem satisfactorily, especially considering the driver definitely violated their rules by not moving the cab to another location to see if the card would go through. Based on what the young lady was told by the card company, it would seem that moving the cab could very well have immediately resolved the payment problem.

Before going to small claims court, I would write to the Hon. Matthew W. Daus, who is the chairman of the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission. I would also write, or better yet call the office of the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg. The mayor appointed Mr. Daus. These people are concerned about visitors and tourists, a major lifeblood of the City. I’m sure the mayor’s office has some staff people who do nothing but handle complaints. I wouldn’t be at all surprised that contacting these people and/or their offices will get results.

Unfortunately, the girl was young and inexperienced, because this whole mess could have been prevented. Please understand, I don’t think any of this is her fault, but I do think forethought on her part would have been better.

New York City is an expensive place to visit. I’m there several times per month, and know just how expensive it can be. I always keep at least $100, in cash, in reserve while in NYC, just in case of a problem. Any time anyone travels, you have to assume everything isn’t going to work out perfectly. You need to be prepared to deal with problems when they happen. Traveling anywhere, even on a “day trip,” without a reasonable supply of emergency cash is a mistake.

I wish the young lady and her dad the best of luck.

I agree with Sven. Ms. Lenhart is 20 years old. Why is her mother doing all this for her? Chris, why are you enabling a helicopter parent?

Cash is king indeed in the city. Remember, when you come to New York you are dealing with massive corruption and “jungle” like mentalities when it comes to shady businesses such as NYC livery. Others include the deli, the MTA, port authority, street vendors, old school restaurants, and bars. You will need to have cash as a backup if you plan on using credit cards in any of these type of establishments (if they even accept them in the first place). I can’t tell you how many cab drivers have given me the old “It’s not working, not ’til next week” excuse since they started installing CC machines in cabs. If you don’t have cash, always ask before you get in the cab if the CC machine works. Wait for another one if not. Unfortunately this must be your MO in a place like New York. Agreed with Victor above, NYers are generally a polite and decent lot. But just watch out when you engage in any business transaction. Oh the joys….

It was absolutely ridiculous and unethical of the taxi driver to put Ms. Lenhart’s daughter through that “shakedown.” That being said, if this young lady is old enough to be in college, where she is considered an adult, and travel to New York City by herself, she was responsible for educating herself about her travelling options and being prepared (having extra cash) in case of emergency. What country did she think she was in that bartering an iPod should be acceptable for cover a $50 cab fare? I realize it was not her idea, but she should have known better than to accept that outcome.

Once Ms. Lenhart’s daughter had returned home, she should have written any complaint letters instead of letting her mom do it. If she was not capable of writing these letters, then this should have just become an expensive learning lesson for her. If someone is able to state their argument clearly and effectively, they will be taken seriously, regardless of their age (notice that the TLC didn’t take the “right” action just because the letters were written by Jen’s mother – showing that age was not an issue here). Adults (I use that term loosely) like Jen who let their parents pick up their slack are NOT strong individuals, they are just young people who have not progressed fully into adulthood.

New York taxi drivers are a hard-working group of people and, for the most part, honest. They provide a service and expect to be paid for it. Most of them do not own their cabs nor do they own (nor do they have control over) the credit card machines inside. In fact, they protested the installation of these machines but the TLC forced them into the cabs against their will. People rip cab drivers off all the time by saying their credit cards don’t work — which makes drivers reluctant to use them. But also, it is not the cab driver’s responsibility to negotiate with someone’s credit card company.

This driver did exactly the right thing by calling the authorities when there was a problem — which means he wasn’t trying to rip this poor girl off! He was just trying to get paid and went by proper protocol to resolve the situation. In fact, I’ll bet you he could use that $50 waaaay more than he needs a damn iPod. The entire system is faulty, but don’t blame the little guys who work in 40 cent increments to make an honest living. Take it to the mayor and to the commissioner of the TLC. New York’s taxi drivers take enough abuse as it is, thank you very much.

O.K. Ned had some good advice. I’d follow through with all this, including sending a copy of this column (minus comments) to the TLC, NYC board of tourism, the mayor’s office and the New York Times. I suspect they will sit up and take notice.

You know, people do silly things all the time and saying “welcome to the jungle” or “Stop whining” is hardly helpful or constructive. People who do not grow up in large urban areas may not realize exactly how to deal with these kinds of situations, and having to face a PO’ed Port Authority police officer is enough to rattle any visitor, let alone a 20-year-old girl who is in the Big Apple for the first time. Native New Yorkers, or those acclimated to the city would have probably flipped off the cabbie and told the PA officer he could go fly a kite. This is not because New Yorkers are bad, rude people. It’s because they know how to get along in their city. They simply do not tolerate that kind of BS.

Ideally, the PA officer should have helped the girl get to an ATM so she could pay the cabbie in cash. Should she have had cash? Of course, but hindsight is always 20/20. Law enforcement officers have an obligation to serve and protect, and one of the ways to do that is to help people who are visiting and find themselves in a bad situation. If you can’t rely on law enforcement to help, who can you turn to?

The whole situation was mishandled from start to finish, and if NYC cares about anything, they’ll either get her I-Pod back or pay the cabbie and send her a new one. This is utterly ridiculous.

I can unfortunately go one better I was actually robbed by a cab driver in Madrid. It was 3am I was trying to get to the airport and this time the hotel was having trouble processing my card. Before I could stop him the over anxious bell boy ran my luggae and my briefcase out to the cab. I did not notice that all my cash had been stolen until after I’d left the cab at the airport. At least he left the credit cards. I had no cab number, no information – nothing since I didn’t know I’d been robbed until later.

Um, hold up. Everyone started to use the phrase “police officers” and “Port Authority Police.” They were identified as “officers” in the original email. I have a hard time believing that the NYPD would threaten to “book” an obviously confused and upset tourist. The most I see happening would be that one would escort her to an ATM while the other stayed with a cabbie. If it actually was the Port Authority Police Department, I have little idea of what their actual authority is, but I would guess that it would be pretty much the same idea. And well, if you can’t pay, uhhh . . that’s your own fault.

I just think there’s something fishy and/or blatantly incorrect about this girl’s story. She may very well have been confused about the actual job/authority of whoever told her she would be “booked.” They were probably simply a JFK manager or official of some sort. Also, people are quite abrupt – a Port Authority official called in by the cabbie would simply hear, “She’s not paying!” and then retort, “Then we’ll have to book her, she needs to pay!” Who knows, perhaps it was an actual police officer in a uniform, but I think if it was this story would have a lot more to focus on than the cheating cab driver.

Saying someone is 20 and that this is a reasonable excuse for giving up your iPod is, I’m sorry to say, ludicrous. I agree with the comment of the person who said, “In what country did she ever hear of it being acceptable to trade an iPod for a cab fare?” It’s just stupid. I have a lot of sympathy for newcomers to the city, as I was a newcomer myself almost five years ago (And I’m 23, which makes me 19 when I first moved to NYC), but come on. I even grew up in a teeny tiny town with no cabs whatsoever, just cows and farms, so I truly find it hard to be sympathetic. I really haven’t ever heard of anyone not carrying cash when traveling, especially to a place you haven’t been before, and especially considering that even a year or two ago barely any cabs seemed equipped to be paid for with a credit card. Simply picking up a (very slightly) out of date travel guide would have tipped off even the most naive tourists to the notion that having cash, especially in New York, is important.

I also find it strange she never mentioned her daughter offering to GO to an ATM. Wouldn’t that be someone’s first instinct? “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, I thought I could use my card, let me go to an ATM.” I haven’t been to JFK a whole lot, but the handful of times, it seemed like every other airport where the taxi lines are in front of huge glass windows and doors, where a taxi driver could easily watch as she got her fare from an ATM. Perhaps she simply didn’t have a debit card but – traveling with a credit card, but absolutely no way of accessing any cash whatsoever? That’s a great idea in case your card is stolen or lost.

The, “I won’t be going to New York any time soon” just sets me off. This situation could have happened to any person visiting a city with taxi cabs – especially when they are silly enough to travel to a new place with no way of even accessing cash (which I assume was this girl’s situation, as I can’t see any other way for this story to be true otherwise). I have always found the city to be welcoming, to the point where simply pausing on a corner and getting my bearings got me people offering to help me with directions.

And if it IS true that she had no way of accessing cash, guess what? The cab driver WAS forced to accept her iPod as payment! She had no way to pay! Sure, the machine should work. But I don’t care where you’re from – you’ve never gone to pay for something and the credit card machine doesn’t work? Give me a break. But unlike at the Gap, you can’t just say you don’t want the sweater when you realize you can’t pay – you already took the service. Too. Bad. I’m sure the cab driver was thrilled to get an iPod instead of cash. To not have the common sense to carry/have access to cash, to not have the common sense to ask, “Credit card?” when you jump into a cab, and to not have the common sense to actually call a real police officer or something to help you when things get crazy, you made your bed.

dear sir–i am discouraged by the your perception.maybe the passenger being your daughter has something to do with it. first off cab drivers do not drive passengers to jfk airport for ipods.its easy to call the driver a theif. idont think the ipod will be accepted as payment for the cab. I’m not going to go on and on but ill just say this. If i was the the driver your daughter and i would have gone into the terminal to the atm machine and that would be the end of it. Between the driver,pa police and your daughter how come no one thought of this?. something not adding up here.lets not forget the pa could have arrested your daughter,its called theft of services. Stuff happens and it happened.the driver has to get paid just like we all do for services rendered.That ipod is not payment not even close.

What about taking the subway at $7 each way? Doesn’t work if you have a ton of luggage, but for a roll-on plus a backpack, it’s a cheap way to Manhattan.

@Katie

Respectfully, your accusations seem a bit farfetched. We don’t know anything about the girls finances. Perhaps she didn’t have any more money. That’s not a crime, especially since she had adequate credit to pay her bills.

You suggest that she was unable to pay and thus she volunteered her Ipod as payment. However, the facts, according to the story, are that its was the cabbie’s machine that was working. Thus the girl did nothing wrong. She was forced, by some official looking folks, to settle up immediately.

Consider, if I go to a restuarant the proudly displays the MC/Visa logo on its door. After my meal, I go to pay, but the waiter says, I’m sorry, the machine is down. By your logic, its my fault if I don’t have cash to pay for the meal. That would be silly. I have credit cards so I don’t have to carry more than a nominal amount of cash with me.

Once it was determined that it was the cabbie’s fault that the payment was not accepted, it become the cabbie’s problem. Discussions about lack of cash, ATM’s, subways, etc. are all red herrings at best.

to Jennifer: You are right that the cab driver did not HAVE to take the iPod. This is absolutely true, and I don’t think it was very wise for him to do so – both from a financial perspective and the backlash he would have received. My language was strong because I was being a bit too defensive of his point of view. It’s not “right” to take an iPod from someone as payment – it’s also not “right” to assume that if your preferred form of payment doesn’t work or isn’t accepted that you simply get to walk away with a free ride. I understand completely the point of view that the cab driver should have said the credit card would not work from the start. However, I find the circumstance that he may have simply forgotten highly more probable than this absolutely extreme set of circumstances this girl was in, and I’m much more sympathetic to a simple slip of mind. Circumstances that, for reasons I already outlined, I find inexcusable. I’m not sure what other accusations I make are “wild.”

And to Carver, respectfully from my side as well: Here’s the thing: The right thing to do is to tell people they cannot use a certain form of payment, absolutely. However – if they neglect to do that, your obligation to pay does not disappear. What if the strip on my card is messed up and it won’t go through (something that has actually happened to me before, oops)? I understand people seem to not agree with me on this. In an ideal world, say in your restaurant example, a manager would give you a discount for the inconvenience, with his/her apologies. But frankly, they don’t even have to do that. I believe that when you are going to take a service, you have absolute certainty you have the ability to pay. Debit cards, credit cards, even cash are unreliable, such as if the cash had gotten stolen or fallen out of her wallet and she was unaware. To travel and not cover all of your bases is silly. The overall point is that you take a service, and you pay for it. No excuses.

However stupid it was to offer/demand/take an iPod for payment, both parties were completely screwed from the moment the cab pulled up, and the “solution” was not a good one. I just have trouble seeing this story as anything other than, as someone said, a very expensive mistake, and was set off at the comments of the driver being a “thief” and the image of a naive little girl in the big city. I’m rather incredulous that people seem to think this was purely a cab driver being a jerk, when I feel frankly that if you go on a trip with only one form of payment to finance it (as I’m assuming was the case, as no mention was made as to why exactly she didn’t go get cash), it is completely irresponsible. She’s lucky that that this was the only problem she had through the trip, if she simply showed up with a credit card for a week’s stay. God forbid a real emergency had a occurred and she had no way of getting cash, or the card was lost or stolen all together.

What is she doing in NYC without $50 in cash is my first thought?

How can ANYONE spend time in NYC on vacation without a lot of cash?

How did she get around on the subway? She was going to expect that every single place she goes that the credit card machine was going to work perfectly and she would have no need for any back up form of payment?

Hmmm. Did she perhaps lose the iPod and instead created a fanciful story to cover it up? It would not be the first time that a child lost a pricey gadget and made up an interesting story to cover their negligence.

And stop fighting her battles – if she’s pissed off enough about losing the iPod she’ll do something about it herself. And do NOT go buy her another one. Let her figure that one out herself.

It would be interesting to hear what the cabbie told the Taxi & Limo commission. Do an FOIA request for the report if they will not simply give it to you for asking. I’d bet the cabbie told them that she could not pay, and offered the iPod as payment for the ride. . . . it them becomes a he said she said. . .

lessons learned in my book.

You’re going to tell people not to visit the greatest modern city in the world and one of the most historical and interesting cities in the USA because your daughter didn’t think to ask the cabbie to drive her to an ATM??? Seriously, you need to think about discounting an entire city just because of one bad cabbie and one frightened tourist.

*Visit New York, experience the awesome nature of the buildings, parks and people. Don’t buy into this nonsense-just be aware of your surroundings and know your rights and you’ll be just fine!!*

>Taxi Cab and Limousine Commission does, and probably would have helped resolve the issue by fining the cab driver for his non-working credit card machine.

This is a great point. I would ask the Commission if they did this. Next I would try to contact the mayor. The nuclear option is to use the number to find out the driver’s name and publish it.

I agree with the posters who agree this story did not happen the way the daughter said. The entire story is made up, or the girl made up some details to pacify a parent upset that her ipod was gone.

What can be the resolve? Fare needed to be paid, the passenger was not prepared to do so and of course in the Big City Time is Money. The fact the passenger carries Plastic makes that passenger at fault, The Cabbie has to make a certain quota in order call it “wages”, no doubt all cabs are supposed to be equipped to handle Credit card transaction, but the TLC knows it’s faulty and it only works 30% of the time is an issue. All Passengers hailing a cab should have cash in hand it’s been that way since Hack licenses were issued and People started to hail cabs.
An Ipod will be used as collateral for the lack of sensible transaction. Don’t try to explain this matter with hyperbole of modern society, use a service, pay for service rendered. I’m so tired of Precious’s and mothers of Precious’ trying to rationalize the scenario, they can’t, it’s all about “sense and sensibility”

@Katie

I appreciate your position. But its ultimately not the point. The only question is whose fault it is that the payment didn’t go through. Had the strip been worn out, the credit c ard company screwed up, or something that was not the cabbie’s fault, then I would agree. The passenger is responsible for having proper payent.

But the girl did have proper payment. Taxi’s accept credit cards and the credit card company confirmed that the charge was approved and was sent to the cab driver’s terminal. At that point, its the cabbie’s problem and bad luck in having a non-functioning machinery.

I can believe that the cabbie just forgot about the fact that his machine didn’t work. Or maybe it just malfunctioned. I don’t know, but either way, that’s HIS problem, not the passenger’s.

It may be irresponsible in general to only have one form of payment, but again, that’s irrelevant to this situation. She could have had a wallet full of platinum credit cards, A black American Express with 0 balances and a debit card with thousands in the bank. IT wouldn’t have mattered. The point is that it was the cab driver’s mistake the precipated this entire mess. Had HIS machine been working, this would never have been an issue.

The blame lies solely with the cab driver.