200+ complaints over taxi refusal to take card payments

[watty]

Hundreds of complaints over taxis refusing card payments

The transport watchdog has received over 200 complaints about taxis not accepting card payments, or not having a card payment machine.  The complaints, released under the Freedom of Information Act, were made in the space of five months.

Since last September, every taxi in Ireland must accept credit and debit card payments, as well as cash.  By the end of last month, the National Transport Authority had received 229 complaints relating to this new law.

Jim Waldron, from the National Private Hire and Taxi Association, said drivers are adapting to the new regulations.  "I think there are bound to be some problems in the transition period," he told Newstalk radio. "I don't think 229 complaints ... is that much to be honest".

<snip>

Despite what Mr Waldron says, I think 200+ complaints is a lot in just ~5 months.  Over 200 people felt strongly enough about it to contact the NTA and make a complaint.  I'd say Revenue will be contacting the NTA to find out who's been naughty and insisting on cash 




By coincidence, my sumup reader has been getting a bit erratic in the past few weeks so I went to order a Square reader today.   About €23 with VAT.  Talk about complicated - had to take a scan of my private driving licence and a selfie - and then their computer had to decide if I was legit or not!  Apparently I am who I say I am so they're gonna send me out a card reader in a few days.  Should be good to have 2 card readers just in case.

[mercenary for hire]

I'm noticing a lot of lads happy to sit on the shit ranks even when they're not moving.I'm guessing there were a lot of big tax bills last year.

[Dr. Martin Gooter Bling]

i hadda yuppy get cunty with me a few weeks ago. my 3g sumup goes bandy sometimes.
1 outta every 8 times i'd say it struggles for a signal and ye havta restart it. you try and restart it sometimes and it jams.
i apologised and told her the machine just won't get a signal.
"downt gov me all thash shish protondin the masheen wownt wok for fock sake" the yoke said to me.
i realised just last sunday that if you keep it plugged in and on constantly charging it never loses signal.

[watty]

I didn't know there was a 3G sumup but my bluetooth sumup is similar - you don't know if it's gonna work or not.  Resetting bluetooth on the gadget worked for awhile but nowadays       Now I have to try and process a fake payment & cancel it to make sure it's working before I get to the end of the journey and then process the real fare.

Problem is I'm not sure who's to blame.  I've had the sumup gadget for 3 or 4 years now so maybe it's on it's last legs?  But my phonemaker Xiaomi has a reputation for aggressively managing apps to increase battery life.  And Google are getting it on the act now by removing app permissions if the app hasn't been used in awhile.  So maybe it's Xiaomi or Google that's turning Sump off on my phone?

[vandriver]

The sum up is the worst crock of shite I've used.
I use the square machine which works off your hotspot .
Flawless for the last 2 years.

[silverbullet]

The sum up is the worst crock of shite I've used.
I use the square machine which works off your hotspot .
Flawless for the last 2 years.

I have the Sumup but prefer Revolut where possible.

[Dr. Martin Gooter Bling]

how do people revolute you dosh.

[Bob Shillin]

how do people revolute you dosh.

You phone barcode to their phone scanner.

[Belker]

..... By coincidence, my sumup reader has been getting a bit erratic in the past few weeks so I went to order a Square reader today.   About €23 with VAT.  Talk about complicated - had to take a scan of my private driving licence and a selfie - and then their computer had to decide if I was legit or not!  Apparently I am who I say I am so they're gonna send me out a card reader in a few days.  Should be good to have 2 card readers just in case.

I had a similar issue with my sumup machine last year where it would not allow the card to be inserted, as in Tap only.
I went online to my sumup account and bought a new reader fer about Thirty quid with no need fer any documentation.

On the First use some nights it can be slow and need to be restarted (on about 1 in 3 nights) apart from that it works fine, never had a problem even out in the Boonies. The every 3 month charging is brilliant.

[Belker]

.....Despite what Mr Waldron says, I think 200+ complaints is a lot in just ~5 months.  Over 200 people felt strongly enough about it to contact the NTA and make a complaint. ....

229 complaints is the tip of the iceberg, I dunno about Dooblin but drivers down here acting the maggot big time on refusing cards. I hear it all the time from customers and often see it myself on the street.

[Cool Boola]

Know a taxi group who have lads who constantly say that the card machine is not working and will take you to the hole in the wall.They pick,who they will say it to. I gave him a IOU that I snapped and payed by card the next day to the Cab Co, Your man was lookin to give me a dig,so I got snotty!

[Jack Meoff]

They should be complaining about getting charged more than on the meter with all the FreeNow bollix

[Mytaxi007]

I use square also
Top machine
Never fails

[mercenary for hire]

My sumup is reliable.

Power on device.

Turn on Bluetooth from the top pull down bar on the phone.

Enter payment ammount then it connects straight away every time.

Took me a while to perfect it.I don't use th Bluetooth on my phone for anything else as the heap of shite I'm driving doesn't have Bluetooth.

[Rat Catcher]

Funny enough when I went to Barcelona with the older not so young lad last month I was somewhat surprised to see him tender a banknote for the breakfast pints at DAP so on enquiring why he was carrying cash he said he got it from a colleague as he had to take cash out of a machine to loan to said colleague so he could discharge a taxi fare as the white (Irish by accident of birth) taximan didn't accept cards and the colleague's card didn't facilitate cash withdrawals.

Then I met Mrs. Catcher up above in Dublin that weekend and she took a taxi from Dublin 4 to St Patrick's Cathederal. Again the white (Irish by accident of birth) taximan didn't take cards... and didn't know where St. Patricks Cathederal is either, opting to leave her at Christchurch pointing to a laneway that he claimed led to the pedestrian entrance i.e. the pedestrian entrance to a completely different building!

Neither of those reported the drivers but might have had they been immigrants.