Woman Says NY Cabbie Punched Her In The Face Because She Wanted Pay With A Credit Card
Tamara Perez caught a cab to her Manhattan home Tuesday, when she noticed that she didn't have enough cash. The cab had a credit card machine, so she decided to pay with credit.
According to Ms. Perez this decision caused the cabbie to punch her in the face.
"The guy said, 'I don't know how to use [the credit card machine],'" said Perez, who said the dispute began in front of her home near E. Third St. and Avenue C. "I said, 'I'm going to use this credit card machine.'"Ms. Perez wrote down the license plate and called the police. She then filed a complaint with the Taxi & Limousine Commission. The TLC says they're investigating and "If proven true ... the TLC will take the necessary steps to revoke [the driver's] license."Eying the gadget, Perez noticed it appeared operable and "not very difficult at all," she said. "I said, 'This is your responsibility to know how to use this machine. This is your cab. If you don't know how to use it, then I'm not paying you.'"
That's when things got physical, she said. She got out of the car and the driver, whose identity was not known, stepped in front of Perez and pushed her back into the cab. "I give you a punch in the face!" he told her, Perez said. "And he punched me in the face."
Woman says enraged cabbie hit her after credit card fiasco [Daily News]
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Comments:
Good for him. He formulated a plan of attack and then executed it perfectly.
(I am kidding, of course, so don't get all angry at me.)
I'm not defending the cabbie because he was obviously wrong for not accepting a CC payment and forcing a physical conflict but she could have made a better choice than simply say "I'm not paying you" and getting out of the cab. She's totally correct in saying that the cabbie should know how to use the CC device (maybe he tries to strong arm people into giving him cash so he can skim some off the top) but she should have asked him to contact someone who knew how to use the machine rather than assuming that she didn't owe him anything.
@frankadelic:
I am beginning to think that no matter how much a consumer was wronged in a story, there will always be somebody like Frank who always blames the consumer.
FRANKly, I am getting sick of it...
As for Tamara, at least her New York greeting did not come with the usual robbery...
Welcome to New York! Now go home! ;)
That cabbie really shouldn't telegraph his punches like that.
So she is supposed to wait there all day while another guy shows up to accept her payment?
I think this cabbie is onto something.
The Discovery Channel's "Cash Cab" gameshow would be a much better show if host Ben Bailey punched the contestants in the face for answering incorrectly.
@frankadelic: You can't really skim off the top when it's all in the meter, but the credit card fees cut into their tips. I think punching your customer in the face cuts into tips as well, probably more.
New York sounds like such a friendly place! Punched by cabbies, assaults by random gangs of teenage thugs in the subway. People where I live in BFA are rude, inconsiderate and nasty but the seldom resort to violence.
@frankadelic: Why does she have to wait around why he calls someone to figure out how to use the machine? He didn't know how to use the machine when he should have. That's his problem. He forfeits the fare and learns how to use the machine (if he really didn't - smacks of cheap excuse to me) so next time he won't be in the same situation.
@rickspeaks:
Seems you read Frank's comment wrong, he's not defending the cabbie. I think a lot of us, at east I should think, agree that she did not handle the situation in the best way. Yes punching someone is wrong, but simply refusing to pay and leaving the cab isn't right. A customer should consider all available options to pay for a service they receive(like ask the cabbie to call someone or ask him to drive you to an ATM), just like a company should make it's goal to give the best service they can.
@Daryl26: But why should she be driven to an ATM? The cabbies are required by the TLC to accept credit cards.
If he's violent, that cabbie needs to be in jail or deported. The woman has a right to pay for a cab with a credit card without being assaulted.
"I give you a punch in the face!" he told her, Perez said. "And he punched me in the face."
Ok... I cannot help it. That line is making me giggle uncontrollably.
@hypnotik_jello: Damn, beat me to it.
It's the same way in Chicago. If their CC machine "doesn't work" (which is an excuse to get you to pay cash 99% of the time), you are obliged to run around town looking for another way to pay the fare. The cabbie is SOL.
Sounds like a Seinfeld episode...Baboo, you just can't go around hitting people like that!
@rickspeaks: And there will always be people who think that any mention of something the consumer could have done differently equals "blaming" them for all that happened.
@frankadelic: I'd say it's perfectly reasonable for her to say "I'm not paying you". You claim that you will accept X as a form of payment, then you darn well better accept it when I give it to you. Don't look at me after entering into something where you state I can use it to pay and then when I go to use it tell me I can't. You do that, I'd tell you that you aren't getting paid then myself.
Well, it is New York City. Good gods, it's New York City cab-drivers. B*tch is lucky she wasn't shanked. Then eaten. Then taken the loooong way around Central Park. Twice.
Her behavior was completely acceptable for NYC cabbies. They get extremely irate if you want to pay with a credit card because they have to pay a fee to process the card. Too bad she didn't go Bernie Goetz on the driver after the punch.
Clearly assault on the part of the cabbie was wrong, and Perez in no way deserved it (even if she was more of an ass than she described). I agree, though, she probably handled the situation poorly. She admitted she had "not enough" cash. Assuming "not enough" doesn't equal zero, saying something like "all I've got's 5 bucks, sorry buddy. if you want anything more you better figure out your cc machine." would probably have ended the situation peacefully. She probably gave him a smartass, "tough luck" sort of remark and hopped out.
They better get un-irate fast because they are required by law to accept credit cards.
@nealb: They're required by law to accept CCs. If the driver won't accept it, then she (or anyone else) shouldn't have to "appease" the driver with whatever they have on them.
lol what other choice did she have? The cabbie didnt know how to operate the credit card device (or was just lying in order to get her to pay cash). He operates the vehicle.... so he SHOULD know how it works.... its part of his job! Dont want to accept legal payment & she doesnt have any cash.... well then.... you dont get paid.
What is she supposed to do? run around to her neighbors & beg for cash so she can pay a cabbie who doesnt know how to use the credit card device?
Man, they must allow any guy off the boat to operate a cab these days!
Completely the cabbies fault in this situation, for not knowing how to take a credit card payment (or lying about it) & then punching a customer.
"I give you a punch in the face!" .... LOL!
WTF? The cab driver didnt know how to use the CC machine, what a freakin load of crap where he get trained, two assult charges I see here one for pushing her back in the cab and another in the face.
I would say press charges. I hope she had pictures taken, what a dumb ass. Obviously the guy didnt knw how to use the machine because he doesnt have any functioning brain cells judging by his plan of action.
@nealb: they have to take CC payments, and I don't see your reasoning even if they didn't.
If they didn't need to, and she had 5 dollars for a fare of 20, then you suggest she should have paid him 5 dollars to mollify him?
BS.
If I enter into an agreement (getting into a cab) with someone and they decline to accept a form of payment which has been previously agreed upon, that's tough shit. the cabbie isn't a business partner. He isn't a friend. I don't have any reasonable motivation to give him some money to make it better, because presumably I'm still liable for the full fare.
Everyone who is proposing all of these civil ways around the confrontation have obviously never been to new york. From what I've seen, the new york way is to take the path of most resistance and try to push the hardest.
She was obligated to pay him due to services rendered. Nuff said. No one was absolutely right in this case
Well, give that cabbie some credit for his restraint. At least he didn't say: "I grope you."
She probably shouldn't have resorted to "I'm not going to pay you."
Tell me, if you performed a service and someone told you "I'm not going to pay you". WOULD YOU NOT WANT TO PUNCH THEM IN THE FACE?
This is the kind of situation that shouldn't have resorted to physical violence, but this was in New York.
@Kounji:
No, if the credit card machine was inoperable, the cabbie should have told her as soon as she stepped into his cab.
She shouldn't have to placate him by offering the $5 she did have for a $20 fare. She was trying to pay the full amount, through the CC machine. But he chose instead to assault her. That's just plain wrong.
This story reminds me of the Chris Rock Show sketch where a guy roamed around the city, "violently slapping people upside the head."
@Kounji:
Wow, you are an idiot. The cabbie was entirely at fault. If he refuses to accept a mandatory form of payment he is entirely at fault.
Remember the cabbies do not own the medallion, they are hired by the people who do. The only reason cabbies are refusing cards is because it means they get less tip.
@covaro: This isn't either/or. Clearly the cabbie shouldn't have hit this woman, no one is arguing that. And yeah, he probably should have known how to use the machine in his cab. But saying "I'm not paying you" and leaving the cab is not the right thing for a CONSUMER to do either. I mean, what would this woman have done if she had gotten into one of the 95% of cabs that DON'T have a card reader?
It's not that hard:
Check to see that you have enough money to pay.
If you don't, walk or get out of the cab, after paying what you do have of course. (I've had to do that before)
If it's some kind of emergency, work out something with the driver. I have also given a driver my business card (he checked that it matched my ID, clever) and told him I would get him cash or check later.
Seriously, some of you need to spend some time in a service profession dealing with entitled-feeling consumers like yourselves, who cost real dollars from a very small pay check. Yes, bad cab driver, but let's not excuse BAD CONSUMER, too.
I don't care if she owed him $1000 for the fare. A grown man should never hit a Woman. What a freak, I hope he gets fired, looses his license and serve a couple of days in jail next to big Bubba.
@rickspeaks: That's the problem with you people... you refuse to accept any responsibility for your own actions. Maybe if she hadnt refused, she wouldnt have got punched in the face.
She attempted to pay him, and he effectively refused payment. Not much more she can do but walk away.
"If proven true ... the TLC will take the necessary steps to revoke [the driver's] license."
Yes...but are they taking it seriously?!?
@teqsun.com: She offered to pay with a credit card, a method of payment the cabbie is legally required to handle. When the cabbie refused, what other option was there? Be held hostage indefinitely?
If the cabbie refuses to accept payment, then that is his problem, not her's.
Somebody go kick the cabbie in the balls for me.
If cash, then cash.
If no cash, then credit card.
If credit card machine doesn't work, then free fare.
If cabbie is responsible for credit card machine not working, then free fare.
If cabbie is violent, then assault charges.
If assault charges are upheld in court, then jail.
If jail, then cabbie learns what lonely and violent criminals do to people in the bathroom.
---
I also think that one of the reasons for this was because she was a woman by herself. A cabbie wouldn't be stupid enough to do this to a 250lb solidly built male. So... double douchebag points for cabbie dearest in picking on someone smaller than him.
Um, she was dropped off at home? Why couldn't she just grab some money from her apt? Probably a safety issue. (Just wondering.) In general, it's always a good idea to have mugging money on you. Also, outside a boxing ring or self defense, it's not ok to hit people.
I've stolen cabs many times and driven around collecting fares for extra cash. If they pay with credit card, I get nothing.
This guys mistake was not in punching her in the face, it was leaving her purse behind when he sped off.
Rookie. (=
@goodywitch: If I were dealing with an escalating situation I wouldn't say "hold on, I'm going to go to my apartment, right there on the third floor, why don't you memorize the addrress while I go get you money." Also, she might not have had cash at home. I don't leave random dollar bills around.
Frick! *address.
"The TLC announced last week it was cracking down on Passenger's Bill of Rights violations..."
Yeah, I think punching customers in the face falls in that category.