Ethics question

[tahnan]

Suppose you took a cab somewhere and the total was $10.50. You decide that $1.50 tip should be about right--pretty close to 15%, and a good round number. Unfortunately, all you have is a $20, so you give that to the driver and ask for $8 back.

Now, suppose that the driver only has a ten and six ones. Do you:

(a) Shrug and take the six ones. Overtipping is a risk of taking a cab.
(b) Take the six ones, quietly note the cab number, and call in a complaint. Cabbies should have the right change.
(c) Insist on taking the ten. It's the cab driver's problem if he doesn't have change for you.

(I hate cabs.)

Comments

[ztbb.livejournal.com]

How are you going to pull off (c)? You won't get the ten out of their hands. (I suppose you can threaten not to pay at all, but....) If I've got 2 tens instead of a twenty, then definitely (c).

Don't overgeneralize, though, in my experience nowhere else in the US are cabs as awful as in Boston.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

As it happened, I pulled off (c) by taking a fourth route: I took the $6 and said, "What's your cab number? No, never mind, I'll just read it from the outside of your cab," and after I got out, he rolled down the window and offered me the ten, presumably since being shortchanged was better than my calling and complaining about him. I do feel bad about, as egowumpus says below, ducking my responsibility to pay the agreed rate. But not so bad that I was willing to lose money over it. (Suppose I'd had a $20, and he had no change at all?)

[egowumpus.livejournal.com]

(a) You can't not pay him his base fare: while it should be his responsibility to have change, it doesn't really alleviate your responsibility to pay the agreed rate. So that puts (c) out. Of course, no one likes a complainy-head, either, and the extra effort involved isn't going to net you $2 worth of justice. So that sort of discards (b). Which really only leaves (a), and a sense that sometimes the world can be wicked annoying. :P

[Ego]out

[touchstone.livejournal.com]

While in this particular case, I probably wouldn't have bothered to make the phone call to complain (unless my powers of Righteous Indignation were particularly strong that day...), I think it's a perfectly reasonable response.

On the one hand, yes, you need to pay him. On the other hand, if I went to a restaurant and ordered food, and then was told afterwards that they couldn't give me change...I'd pay the bill, but I'd also never return to the restaurant. In the case of a cab, calling in a complaint is pretty much the only way of making THEIR poor service affect them noticably, while still meeting your own obligations.

If the charge had been $10 even, then leave without the tip with no qualms whatsoever...tips are for good service, and part of good service as a cabbie is being able to provide change.

It seems like there's probably some sort of continuum here. It's clearly unreasonable to expect a random merchant to be able to make change for, say, the $1000 bill you've got in the back of your wallet. The smaller the amount involved, the stronger the expectation that they should be able to make change...and yet, simultaneously, the less we care :)

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there is indeed a continuum, in both directions. If I had a $50, and he couldn't make change, should I fault him? (Probably not; see Zanthrin's post as well.)

But suppose all I had was a $20, the fare was $10.50, and he had no change at all? Do I pay him the extra $9.50? Suppose the fare was $5? $3? Should I pay him the extra $15? $17? Stiff him for $10.50? $$5? $3?

In the end, I stiffed him 50 cents of his fare rather than overpaying by two dollars. Given the circumstances--i.e. I threatened to call in a complaint, he chose to take back the $6 and give me the $10--I suppose I can't feel at fault.

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

Yeah, people have ruled out C pretty well, you can't pay him less than the fare.

So, you've just overtipped. I see your options as:

A) Shrug, it's just two dollars, things happen.
B) Shrug, you should have better change when taking a cab. You should've thought about that going in.
C) Call and complain. I want my Two Dollars!

I can see the urge to call - it's quite possible that the cabbie knows fully well that the trip will cost what it will, and intentionally has inconvenient change set aside. There's a lot of incentive to do this for him, and the non-repeat-business nature of the cab industry reduces the downside.

But you only have one data point, and that's not enough for a trend, so it comes down to someone bitching over $2. Nobody is going to be very sympathetic to that. (Unless you're _really_ suspicious that it's a scam, and then a large number of complaints would get someone's attention.)

So, I think the solution is really to shrug, but make sure you stop and get change before the next time you get in a cab if possible.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

You know, I might have acted differently if I hadn't had a cab driver do the same thing to me once in Atlanta--in fact, I was, for no clear reason, thinking of that very incident while in the cab. In that case, I think the fare was less than $10, I had only $20s, and the driver had no change at all.

I don't think this was a scam. (The one in Atlanta may have been.) So I wasn't going to call and complain to report a scam. On the other hand, I'm the sort of person who likes to call and complain, so.

[renniekins.livejournal.com]

Very annoying! hm, I wonder what would have happened if you'd told him to wait while you ducked into the nearest store to get change...or if you'd told him to drive you somewhere to get change ?

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I was taking the cab because I was late for an appointment, so I had no real desire to spend any more time getting him change.

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

I'd go with C. It's the cabbie's responsibility to be able to make change, just as it is with any other business. Perhaps I'm just more of a cold-hearted bitch than the rest of your readers. :-)

I might have tried to scrounge around for the $.50 in my pockets, and ultimately, it's only $2.00, but still. Not really your problem.

[alaria-lyon.livejournal.com]

I agree completely. I would totally go with C. Having correct change is part of his job and if he can't do it, it's not my fault. If someone can't bother to have decent change, exactly what are you tipping him for? A tip is to reward good service. Not having change is not good service.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

I guess I'd go on my feeling as to whether he was deliberately doing it to wangle bigger tips, or if he really had just been caught short; yeah they should have change, but if they've had a lot of people breaking big bills on them today it's possible to be caught short without malice. Generally I try to err on the side of mercy in service jobs; they are usually pretty sucky and hard.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

"Caught short" is a little hard to believe, though, since I picked up this cab at the front of the line at the taxi stand in Harvard; he'd had plenty of time, and there were plenty of places (including at least one bank), to get change.

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

Generally I try to err on the side of mercy in service jobs; they are usually pretty sucky and hard.

That tends to be my take on it. And I hate calling to complain, so it's worth the $2 to me not to have to worry about it any more and to feel like I'm doing a good thing by giving somebody a little extra money - random acts of kindness and all that shit, even if in this case it's kind of accidental. Unless I got the impression that the guy was deliberately trying to rip me off, in which case I'd probably do what you did - ask for the number of the cab. And then I'd prompty forget to call, but oh well.

[toonhead-npl.livejournal.com]

D. Pay the extra dough but make him run around the block a few times to get your money's worth. Bwahahaha.

Actually I would try to feel out whether he's the kind to pull this kinda thing on purpose or not and play it by ear. And I always make sure I have change before I step into a cab because I don't expect them to always make change. And if you overtip, so? It's still a helluva lot cheaper than owning a car.

[aspartaimee.livejournal.com]

my daddy is a cabbie. seriously. when i get into a cab anywhere, i usually try to work the daughter-of-a-cabbie thing into conversation. cabbies don't like thinking anyone else is ripping off their kid, so i like to believe they won't rip me off. i haven't had any problems, actually.

in my experience, there are legitimate times when they do not have correct change. usually at the beginning of a shift, since they haven't picked up enough fares or whatever. occasionally, someone may wipe out all their change in the middle, though. in your case, it sounds to me like he was ripping you off, however, because i don't believe he had six ones and no fives at all.

a) is out of the question; cabbies are shady enough without you enabling their antics and overtipping is not a risk for anything. the tip is the part of the transaction that totally up to you.

b) works for leverage. he may offer you the $10 instead because he doesn't want the hassle of a complaint, and all he is eating is 50 cents.

c) you can do this, but i would only do it if you had some change to make up the lost 50 cents. you can't legally not pay the posted fare. nothing illegal about not tipping an asshole who is trying to rip you off, though.

[jadelennox]

Do you tell them your daddy is a crazy stalker who harasses strange women?

[aspartaimee.livejournal.com]

since that only happens when you are in town, i decided it must be you.

[zanthrin.livejournal.com]

From the "way back in high school a friend of a friend told me that he had heard something from his grandmother..." style of knowledge...

I recall hearing that for an amount $20.00 or lower, any company is required to accept and provide change for the bill; apparently larger bills (say, $50.00) can be rejected "just because," but the smaller ones can't.

If that were true, then I'd think it would be the cab driver's responsibility to be able to provide you with the $9.50 change. Of course, as noted above, I don't really know what I'm talking about :)

[thedan.livejournal.com]

c. While it's your responsibility to pay the fare, you entered into the "paying the fare" contract without being informed up front that due to the cabbie's inability to make change, you might be overcharged. Contract void due to lack of information.

[flynngrrl.livejournal.com]

You act like you're going to take the ten so you can find you if they have more change and were just trying to scam you. And then you get correct change. <-- actually happened to me

Or, you punch them and steal the cab, running down pedestrians and performing missions, most of which revolve around pornography. Then you go berzerk every once in a while and start running down cops. <-- Grand Theft Auto Three

[leighjen.livejournal.com]

ah-yeah!