We love to travel, and for the most part we have had great experiences every where we go. Sadly, we have also encountered a quite a few taxi scams in Vietnam and found it to be very frustrating and disheartening.
While we were in Vietnam, we were scammed on about 50% of our taxi rides. I am going to share a few incidents that happened to us, so that hopefully you will be better equipped to recognize and deal with this type of situation.
Before I do, I want to share that this is not meant to harm any particular company. Therefore, I will not be sharing company names. I do not feel it was the company’s fault that this happened to us. I believe individuals do this on their own. I have no proof otherwise. I choose to believe no company owner would want their clients to be robbed and frustrated by their employees.
Anyway, while in Ho Chi Minh City, Kendra and I went to a lovely water puppet show. After the show, we needed a ride to the hotel. Typically, we would call a Grab, however, there was a taxi already parked out front. We had just had a honest taxi ride and were charged 40,000 dong for the ride to the event so we expected to be charged a similar amount to return. Unfortunately, when we arrived to our hotel, the driver charged us 180,000 dong.
We were so shocked. We tried to argue as we knew we were being ripped off, but there seemed to be nothing we could do. We decided to pay the exorbitant fee anyway. So, Kendra gave the driver 500,000 dong and the driver gave her 20,000 back pretending that Kendra had only gave him 20,000 dong in the first place. This was crazy and I was furious. We had been scammed a second time by the same driver, once by being over charged and a second time by him switching out the bills.
Kendra tried to reason with the guy but he insisted she had not given him enough money. This means the driver over charged for a five minute ride a rate of 180,000 dong, plus stole a 500,000 dong bill on top of that. What a terrible experience! It was a real evening dampener.
After the incident, Kendra insisted I let it go, and I did. I felt burned though. It really sucked to be taken advantage of.
I wish to say that was the only time we experienced this scam, but it was not. After taking a bus from Hoi An to Hue, we had a similar experience. We arrived at the drop out point and there were cabs waiting to take passengers to their hotel.
We agreed to a ride as Grab cars are not available in Hue. The driver loaded our things in the trunk, set off, and never turned on the meter. He said to us that the ride will be no more than 150,000 dong.
When we arrived to our hotel which was about 5 minutes away from where he picked us up he says the cost was 150,000 dong. I was furious at this point. I could not believe that this was happening again, so I turned and went inside the hotel. I asked one of the receptionists to come outside with me. When she came out, I told her in front of the driver that the guy was trying to overcharge us. She began speaking to him in Vietnamese. She asked us where we were picked up? She asked him why he was charging so much for the trip and he reduced the price to 100,000 dong. It was still too much, but we paid it. However, I said to her in front of him, I do not want your hotel to ever use this company.
To my surprise as a result of my actions, two days later Kendra and I got a visit from the cab company owner and the driver. They came to apologize for the incident. The driver apologized and offered us our money back. I did not accept the money because it is my practice to pay what I owe and pay a fair rate. He brought us a cake as a goodwill gesture. The receptionist explained to us it might appear as weird to us but businesses like to apologize sincerely when an incident like this happens.
The third time this happened to us was in Hue again. We were out shopping in an area that did not have many taxis at all. So we agreed to pay whatever to get the cab. We agreed to pay a price that was too much to begin with. When we got close to the hotel the driver wanted to put us out and walk the rest of the way. Kendra by time was not having it. She insisted because she already had agreed to an over priced ride we should at least be dropped off at our hotel door. This time I finally did the right thing. First, I took a picture of the driver’s face. Secondly, I took a picture of the Cab ID number located inside the cab. Then I took a picture of the Cab company name and logo out side the car and the tag itself. I did all of this with my phone while Kendra was paying the driver. The driver said “no picture..no picture.” I shook my finger at him and said “you should not have done that.” Then I waved goodbye politely and walked away. This time I was thinking.
By the time we reached our room we had a phone call from the receptionist downstairs. She said that the driver had come to the hotel and refunded us 50,000 dong for the ride. This was when Kendra and I realized that if this had happened to us it must have happened to others and we would like to prevent this.
Please use these tips and travel safely. If you think you are getting scammed, use your phone to take a photo of the cab driver, the cab ID number, the company logo and name, and the tag of the car. When you get to your hotel, call the taxi company and report the incident explaining how far your journey was, start and end points, and how much you were charged. Send your photos by email to the cab company with a complaint about the service.
Photos and your documentation will make it harder for the driver to deny your story. Most companies will take your complaint seriously and try to rectify the problem for you and hopefully for other tourists in the future. These scams cause taxi companies to lose money in the long term because customers do not use services that they do not trust.
Plus, it is a breach of trust between the company owner and the driver. If a driver scams you, he is also scamming his company because he is not turning on the meter and the company is not getting their fair share either. So report it to the company. They want to know if they have dishonest employees.
