Saturday Night 25/09/2004

I called mercury taxi's to request a taxi from town to abbeydale road.. being a mercury regular and never having had a problem before with the company as they are usually very good, This evening i was out with friends entertaining, I called to make a booking and was told 15 mins, i said that was ok but would prefer one a bit quicker... I was sober...

I was told by a woman called KAREN that i would get one when it was there and she didnt care if QUOTE '' I HAD ****ING AIDS ''
I WOULD NOT GET A TAXI ANY QUICKER......

Now if you call that Customer Service!!!!!

This woman/girl needs some proper training.. I WILL BE MAKING A FORMAL COMPLAINT TO THE OWNERS OF THE COMPANY..

Anybody else had problems with the company???

i have and the best way is to complain but good thing about mecury is that they respond to your problems, and i have an account with them

Sounds like you got someone who had issues.. Mercury have always been exemplary in my experience.

my friend works there:( but her names not karren..but i'll pass on your comments

EDITD:

ive actually just rang her and she heard the woman in question say it:o

To be fair, how do you expect a cab quicker than 15 minutes ?
I mean, you need a driver that has no passengers in his taxi, then the driver has got to get to your place...
15 minutes is pretty good !
If you don't wanna wait, get a black cab, but I doubt you'd be the only one waiting at the rank.
15 mins for a hire taxi is damn good in my opinion, especially if it's in the middle of the night when they're busy !

Oh have I ! Once booked a taxi with them. Booked it at 2ish in the afternoon to pick us up at 6:30 as we were going out for a meal. I was told that would put me down as a priority as we had a table booked etc... 6:45 phoned - where's taxi? Was told that I hadn't in fact booked one and that if I wanted one it'd be at least 20 mins. Fat lot of good that would do us! Not one word of apology at their mistake. We always used them before.

We'd only booked a cab as it was chucking down with rain + howling a gail. So arrived dishevelled and sodden! Lucky we could nip into Porter Cottage to dry off a little before the meal!

They've arrived late a few times in the past when I've pre-booked them as well.

Originally posted by Captain_Scarlet
To be fair, how do you expect a cab quicker than 15 minutes ?
...especially if it's in the middle of the night when they're busy !

A valid point, but how does that excuse the completely unacceptable attitude of the receptionist.

I've had 2 incidents with this company one being extremely serious, although a few years ago now, when I needed the police and a taxi was parked in the street nearer to me than the 300 yards to the phone box I asked the driver to contact his operator to call police for me, the reply from operator was no...........meanwhile I had to run to call box extremely distressed I dont think I'll ever forget that night.
Anyway all in past now but more recently the operator told us there was no such place as The Bridge Inn at Thurgoland as it wasn't on her system and we must be wrong so we weren't getting a taxi, that coming from the company that have taken over Pegasus which operate at that side of town.
Luckily other taxis actually knew Thurgoland existed.

15mins for a taxi is good, saying that yeah she owes you an apology.

Originally posted by micksheff
15mins for a taxi is good, saying that yeah she owes you an apology.
Originally posted by yorkiepudd
A valid point, but how does that excuse the completely unacceptable attitude of the receptionist.
I was commenting on the taxi time.
Her behaviour is bang out of order.

Back in June ,we went to Paris for a long weekend, and booked a taxi with Mercury for 5:30am to get us to Pond St to meet our coach at 6:00am ( booked the previous day). 5:45am NO TAXI so I rang them, only to be told " We'll have a cab with you shortly as soon as there's one available" I replied " You don't understand, I booked this yesterday, and I need my cab like, NOW" I received an uninterested, couldn't be arsed response from the woman at the end of the phone. In desperation, I got one of my neighbours out of bed and asked him to run us to Pond St, which thankfully he did,and we got there just in time. Never again, EVER, will I trust Mercury to deliver the goods when it matters. They just don't give a s**t about customers needs. A COWBOY outfit in my experience. They don't deserve your custom.

I've stopped using them - they never arrive when they say they will, then you ring up and ask where your taxi is, and they say 'its on its way' so i say 'how long will it be please?' they reply 'not long' - how is that helpful?!

They don't stop for long either - i've watched them drive past my house & beep when they go past! Then i get told...'they waited outside your house for 15mins and you never came out so have taken another passenger' erm thanks, so kind of you, not.

just out of curosity how many complainers are drivers or workers of different taxi companies?

I'm not a driver for any other CAB company or work for any other CAB company or related .....

I've always found the drivers at Mercury to be really good, but also had problems with the people on the phone. They can be really rude and unhelpful.

Personally I've used only Mercury for the last 2yrs or so and have NEVER had a problem. Pre-booked or just calling for one at the time.....in fact I'd have to say they turn up too quickly sometimes! Also their call back system is spot on, meaning you never miss the cab as it sits outside and the fact that they remember your address when you call up for one is a nice touch too.

They're OK for a lift home from the pub etc, but I'm simply saying don't rely on them if you got to meet a train/ plane etc or have to be somewhere for a specific time. They are just not up to that sort of job.

I used Pegasus, since they merged with Mercury, their service has plummeted. We now get drivers that turn up late (30+ minutes), drivers who don't know where they're going and have even had a taxi turn up 1 hour after friends were picked up by another ordered taxi.

There are some good, polite drivers out there, they seem to be very few and faw between though.

in my experience the problems are at the call centre, most of the drivers are good, some are excellent.

I would never trust a booking with them, they look on it as promised trade for them, rather than a committment to the customer.

Keep us posted with how your complaint goes?

a friend complained and all they got was 10% off vouchers, as if they were going to use Mercucy again !
-
Katya

I too used Pegasus, and when they were taken over by Mercury, the standard of service plummeted from over this side of town. I start work at 7pm on a Thursday evening, so have a taxi regularly at 6.30. That was no prob for the year or so that I used Pegasus, but the first week Mercury took over, the cab was an hour late. That repeated the week after. Thankfully, the Pegasus drivers got so peed off that they left and formed Local Taxis, which is great once again.

I do use Mercury to get home, they seem quite good if you're in town going out. just not the other way round.