To the editor:
Here are some personal experiences with taxis here in Kelowna over the past 12 months.
Arrived at YLW just before midnight on a regularly scheduled Air Canada flight from Vancouver. There are no cabs and a queue of eight people. After a 30 minute wait in the cold, we all end up having to share three cabs. From the time the wheels hit the runway until my head hits the pillow - two hours (with no checked luggage).
In spite of warning the dispatcher well in advance of the road construction in our area, driver can’t find our house even with GPS and Google Maps: 30 minutes late.
At 10 p.m. on a Thursday night in the summer, we wait 45 minutes at the Cactus Club. At 11 PM on a Friday night in the spring, we wait 30 minutes at the Delta Grand. Driver gives me grief because my tip isn’t big enough.
I pre-book a cab online for 4:30 p.m., it shows up instead at 4:30 a.m. Not his fault. Driver phones and rings doorbell, wakes everybody up in the house.
I call the dispatcher to complain, she says it’s not her problem, talk to management. I leave voice mails and email - it’s now three weeks later, no response.
It is on the fertile ground of appalling service and outrageous prices across the world (not just in Kelowna) that companies like Uber grow and prosper. Yet governments and taxi companies would rather protest the presence of Uber than compete with them on service and price.
Please withhold my name in case I need to call a cab again in this town. Thank you.