Problem customers or customers that become a problem

A problem customer that comes to mind I picked up at Samaritan on north Florida Ave around MLK.

When I got there he asked me to pull around the back, in the back I found a large pile of plastic trash bags, and it was growing, just over half way through loading and with stuff still coming down I started the meter.

When the guy and his Son got in the cab, the meter was just over 4 bucks he asked about it and I told him you can't expect me to load all this stuff for free, he agreed.

I asked him where are you going, he tells me he wants to go to a trailer park in the 400 or 4000 of Hillsborough Ave, I ask east or west, and he says your a cab driver don't you know.

No I don't know and how would I know if you don't know or have an address, how do people expect us to save them from themselves, I don't know.

We go around and around for about a minute I then ask do you know the way, can you direct me and he says yes.

When we get to Hillsborough Ave I ask right or left he says left, as we turn I can see we are in the 400 block and there is no trailer park here. When we get to the 4000 block, there is no trailer park there too.

Now what, he says lets go back to the 400 block when we get there he says keep going. The trailer park was in the 4600 block of east Hillsborough Ave and when we get there the meter is just over 37.00.

It is at this point he tells me he only has 20 bucks and its my fault its so high. He offers me the 20 and I won't take it, and I tell him to come up with it or Ill call the cops.

He says that's all he has and I call the cops, and of course I don't stop the meter. The cop shows up after half an hour and we both tell him our side. The cop asks him if he had an address for the place, he says no and the cop tells him to pay up.

He does not have it and the cop tells me what do I want to do, now I am not going to have him arrested in front of his son but I want to get paid.

He tells the cop his wife has the money and she will be home tonight and can I come back then? I tell the cop I will do it, but want something to hold, he gives me a 3 foot duffel bag full of CD's, DVD's CD rom's, everything I have ever seen on a disk.

On my way home I stop by there and collect my cash.

Could I or should I have handled this better yeah for sure, to start with a real address and cash up front would have been a good idea.

Tim has a link on his blog for a blog called "Blank top confessions" and while I take everything he writes with a grain of salt much of what he talks about I can see happening.

In 20+ years of cab driving I have found people don't know where they live, where they are going and don't give a shit about it, but they expect us to know and to get them there by the shortest route possible.