Taxi Mafia

[mikeycanuk]

and on and on she goes.............

 

[dmoore19]

[video=youtube;qdFLPn30dvQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdFLPn30dvQ[/video]

 

[cvchief]

Chief, I swear you are now just making **** up. If you are going to disagree with me, at least do me the courtesy of disagreeing with what I actually said, rather than ascribing to me a position which I have never, ever taken.

as to 1. above, I NEVER said that "you can't do anything about it." The official taxi rate sheet may be hard to find, but it's not impossible. Everyone can find it if they make the effort. And if a taxi driver tries to charge me 100 Pesos for a ride which should be 60 Pesos, shame on him for being dishonest, but I'm only going to pay him 60 Pesos and tell him to shove it. I encourage others to do likewise.

as to 2. above, I agree that it is legal, it's rational behavior on the part of the taxi driver, and it is NOT "dishonest" or "unfair" or in any way blameworthy. But again, I NEVER said "you can't do anything about it." Indeed, if you even bothered to READ my post, you would know that I recommended exchanging one's Dollars for Pesos at a more favorable rate at another location - a bank, a cambio, or a hotel - or changing cabs.

And I never disagreed with your position that we shouldn't get overcharged on either the fare or the exchange rate - I specifically supported taking the actions necessary to get the right fare (in Pesos) from the cab driver, and getting the best deal possible on exchange rates. Further, your assertion that I am in favor of "hiding" ANY fact is pure canard. I NEVER advocated hiding anything from anybody. Indeed, I specifically advocated the position that Americans ought to make the effort to learn all relevant facts.

The only point on which I disagreed with you was your assertion that the use of a 10-1 exchange rate by taxi drivers was somehow unfair or morally blameworthy. I contended, and still maintain, that currency exchange rates are and should be a matter of free-market exchanges, with prices set by the market in a series of voluntary exchanges. No cab driver on Cozumel has ever, to my knowledge, put a gun to anyone's head and forced a rider into an exchange of Pesos for Dollars at a 10-1 exchange rate. Every rider has a choice, and every rider has the capacity to obtain sufficient information to know whether or not 10-1 is a good rate or a bad one, and every rider can, if he or she is so inclined, identify and use alternate means of obtaining Pesos at a much better exchange rate. Don't blame the taxi drivers for setting an exchange rate which is in their own best interests when the only "victims" of those exchange rates are people to stupid or lazy to take steps to avoid being taken.

The other point on which we apparently disagree (and on which I most certainly disagree with Mike) is how we ought to treat American tourists - should we assume that American tourists are adults, with the brains and capacity to watch out for themselves, with the ability to locate and use the information which is freely available out there so that they don't get taken on EITHER the cab rates OR the exchange rates? Or should we assume that American tourists are helpless children, incapable of finding or using information, unable to protect themselves from the predations of cab drivers acting as currency exchanges, and needing the protection of government intervention. I prefer to think that we are adults who are capable of protecting ourselves, and that any tourist who gets "taken" by a bad exchange rate offered by a cab driver through ignorance or sloth is simply not a person that I ought to be concerned about. If we really want to protect those folks by government action, then my own preference is that we pull their passports or require, as a condition of any foreign travel, that they be accompanied by a competent adult.

Great. You agree with me.

1. Don't pay more than the established rate. If you can't get it, try another cab.

2. If you are paying in dollars, you don't have to accept 10 to 1. If you can't get a better rate, try another cab.

Thank goodness we have finally agreed it isn't, by divine providence, the right of a taxi cab to get 10 to 1 on dollars. Some may demand it just like they demand more than the 'establish' fare. In BOTH cases, you can use the market to your advantage and refuse both. You can hold your head high and not be embarrassed to be an American using the dollar that built the Rivera Maya and developed Cozumel.

Perhaps we still disagree on educating each other on things. People make stupid mistakes. I direct your attention to timeshares and Chernobyl. How many time has it been repeated on here to not stop and talk to the timeshare people. Yet, we continue to repeat to help our ScubaBoard brethren who didn't yet get the memo. No stupid questions and all that. I have made many the jack#$% move over the years but I have learned a lot to minimize that in Cozumel from ScubaBoard. I even learned in this thread that you can bargain on the exchange rate with taxis and successfully. That was new info for me, I am happy to say. I always have pesos, but I was happy to learn that.

So I must disagree with you on education. I must say however, I haven't seen you jumping in to hammer other repetitive basic Cozumel education threads, like buy the full car insurance, don't rent a scooter, use mossie spray, etc etc.

---------- Post added July 16th, 2013 at 04:06 PM ----------

and on and on she goes.............

What I miss on brains, I make up for in persistence and beauty.....

Good looking and immovable.... The mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the mountain!

 

[Mossman]

In such cases, the conversion rate is already built in and hidden. Happy with that?

It still does not make the USD the coin of the realm.

Definitely not coins, but when it comes to paper currency I differ.

And not just taxis and Margaritaville-like establishments. My hotel charged me in U.S. dollars and their dollar rate doesn't exactly fluctuate with the bank conversion rates. My dive shop charged me in U.S. dollars, then converted to pesos at the bank rate for the purpose of charging my credit card. Had I paid U.S. dollars cash, there would have been no conversion as far as I was concerned. And his rates don't fluctuate either.

 

[cvchief]

Definitely not coins, but when it comes to paper currency I differ.

And not just taxis and Margaritaville-like establishments. My hotel charged me in U.S. dollars and their dollar rate doesn't exactly fluctuate with the bank conversion rates. My dive shop charged me in U.S. dollars, then converted to pesos at the bank rate for the purpose of charging my credit card. Had I paid U.S. dollars cash, there would have been no conversion as far as I was concerned. And his rates don't fluctuate either.

About darn time you jumped in Moss. Even DD is drinkin' the Koolaid. I didnt think you could buffalo a Texas boy....

 

[Skittl1321]

So not at all related to taxis, but on the pesos to dollars thing.

I know my hotel has a $3 pier fee. Does anyone know if that is set in stone dollars, or if there is a fee in pesos that I might get a better conversion by paying in pesos? I mean, is it actually a 300 peso fee?

 

[chillyinCanada]

Too painful . . . must drag myself away . . . arrrrrggghhh . . .

 

[Mike]

Anybody ever watched the TV show Scam City? The host Conor Woodman goes to major tourist cities around the planet and exposes the rip-offs used on tourists, that show is very interesting to watch. And I'll admit, some of the stuff he exposes makes Cozumel taxi drivers look like saints. The host loses more money in one episode to rip-offs than Dandy Dan has paid out in travel insurance in his lifetime.

this short clip that shows some taxi drivers that make Mexican taxi drivers look like amateurs


another taxi cab scam caught on video


Here is a full episode. Warning though if you watch any episodes you may seriously never want to travel again, the stuff that he exposes is absolutely mind blowing.

 

[DandyDon]

Yeah yeah yeah...

 

[cvchief]

So not at all related to taxis, but on the pesos to dollars thing.

I know my hotel has a $3 pier fee. Does anyone know if that is set in stone dollars, or if there is a fee in pesos that I might get a better conversion by paying in pesos? I mean, is it actually a 300 peso fee?

Probably dollars. Many prices are set in dollars because it is popular and common. (Go Mike...) Hey, Moss are they still jacking people to use the wooden pier at Sabor, Secrets, Wyndam, what ever they are now? Did you or someone say they stopped collecting it?