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For the love of $19
Nov. 13th, 2011 12:52 amSo tonight, I had a great time hanging out with an old friend Kim who I worked with at IKON and hadn't seen in person in almost 2 years. We had a great dinner and went to see Kathy Griffin at Carnegie Hall. Still as funny as ever.
Coming home turned out to be a nightmare.
We walked from Carnegie Hall (57th Street) to Penn Station (34th Street). No big deal, it was a nice night we had an hour before Kim's train and we could both use the extra exercise.
I left her at Penn Station and walked over to the PATH station at 33rd Street. Lots of people milling about but I didn't think anything of it. I get downstairs, and all of the sliding doors are closed, completely blocking access to the station. Note: I didn't even know those sliding doors existed, in the 5+ years I've been taking the PATH I've never seen them closed.
Hunky man in uniform tells me the entire system is down and is likely to be for awhile. He said my best bet was to go to the Bus Terminal and figure out a bus.
I walked up the stairs and figured I would try my hand at finding two or three others heading to Jersey City to split a cab with. I find two people and the first cab we find (at this point, the cabs were lined up with dollar signs in the cabbie's eyes) explains rather abruptly he can't split fares. The other people reluctantly get out to look for another cab.
Instead of departing the cabbie says "Are you paying with a credit card or cash?" I explained it would be via credit card."
He responds with "You'll have to pay now then, because our satellite system doesn't work in NJ." Yeah I know, don't get me started.
I told him I had no problem doing that but how could he know the fare? He said it would be $45 plus tolls which are $7.
He pulls it up on the screen, the amount is $62.
I kindly pointed out that $45 plus $7 was $52 not $62. He explains that I also had to pay a minimum of 20% tip, hence $62. I stupidly agreed and off we go.
Halfway through the Holland Tunnel, we come across two drunk guys walking through the tunnel. The cabbie asks me if I want him to get them, explaining they can help pay my fare and at least get them out of the tunnel, which is illegal. I didn't have an issue with it.
They were very thankful, explaining that they would each give me $20 and we would drop them off at the first gas station out of the tunnel since they actually were headed to Hoboken.
We get to the gas station and they throw open the doors and take off running. Well, whatever, at this point I just wanted to get home. However, one of the guys dropped a bunch of bills as he was running away, and though the cabbie and I both called out to them they didn't come back for it.
I jumped out of the cab (leaving the door open, knowing if I didn't the cabbie would leave me there in a heartbeat) and picked up the money. I got back in the cab and was counting it to which the cabbie yelled for me to hold it up so he could see if it was $20s. I said no twenties, all singles.
So off we go. I explain to the cab driver how to get to my area of Jersey City.
Finally about 3 blocks from my place he stops and says "I can't go any farther, it's not allowed. And give me my money that was dropped." Oh, and my apartment is less than 2 miles from the gas station where the losers ran off.
I said, "Your money? If you'll credit it off the $62 fare you charged me you can have it."
Then he proceeded to start screaming at how I was a thief, etc. I should have been smart enough to snap a picture of the cab number.
I'm hoping that the cab number will be on the credit card pending charge. Even if it's not, I'm still going to file a complaint I think.
And for the record, the drunk guys dropped $19.
Was I wrong to refuse to give him the money?
Also, I love the fact that even though I subscribe to the PATH alert messaging system, which loves to send me text messages every time there's a 5 or 10 minute train service delay, there's still nothing been sent out about the whole system being down for the past 4 hours or so.
Coming home turned out to be a nightmare.
We walked from Carnegie Hall (57th Street) to Penn Station (34th Street). No big deal, it was a nice night we had an hour before Kim's train and we could both use the extra exercise.
I left her at Penn Station and walked over to the PATH station at 33rd Street. Lots of people milling about but I didn't think anything of it. I get downstairs, and all of the sliding doors are closed, completely blocking access to the station. Note: I didn't even know those sliding doors existed, in the 5+ years I've been taking the PATH I've never seen them closed.
Hunky man in uniform tells me the entire system is down and is likely to be for awhile. He said my best bet was to go to the Bus Terminal and figure out a bus.
I walked up the stairs and figured I would try my hand at finding two or three others heading to Jersey City to split a cab with. I find two people and the first cab we find (at this point, the cabs were lined up with dollar signs in the cabbie's eyes) explains rather abruptly he can't split fares. The other people reluctantly get out to look for another cab.
Instead of departing the cabbie says "Are you paying with a credit card or cash?" I explained it would be via credit card."
He responds with "You'll have to pay now then, because our satellite system doesn't work in NJ." Yeah I know, don't get me started.
I told him I had no problem doing that but how could he know the fare? He said it would be $45 plus tolls which are $7.
He pulls it up on the screen, the amount is $62.
I kindly pointed out that $45 plus $7 was $52 not $62. He explains that I also had to pay a minimum of 20% tip, hence $62. I stupidly agreed and off we go.
Halfway through the Holland Tunnel, we come across two drunk guys walking through the tunnel. The cabbie asks me if I want him to get them, explaining they can help pay my fare and at least get them out of the tunnel, which is illegal. I didn't have an issue with it.
They were very thankful, explaining that they would each give me $20 and we would drop them off at the first gas station out of the tunnel since they actually were headed to Hoboken.
We get to the gas station and they throw open the doors and take off running. Well, whatever, at this point I just wanted to get home. However, one of the guys dropped a bunch of bills as he was running away, and though the cabbie and I both called out to them they didn't come back for it.
I jumped out of the cab (leaving the door open, knowing if I didn't the cabbie would leave me there in a heartbeat) and picked up the money. I got back in the cab and was counting it to which the cabbie yelled for me to hold it up so he could see if it was $20s. I said no twenties, all singles.
So off we go. I explain to the cab driver how to get to my area of Jersey City.
Finally about 3 blocks from my place he stops and says "I can't go any farther, it's not allowed. And give me my money that was dropped." Oh, and my apartment is less than 2 miles from the gas station where the losers ran off.
I said, "Your money? If you'll credit it off the $62 fare you charged me you can have it."
Then he proceeded to start screaming at how I was a thief, etc. I should have been smart enough to snap a picture of the cab number.
I'm hoping that the cab number will be on the credit card pending charge. Even if it's not, I'm still going to file a complaint I think.
And for the record, the drunk guys dropped $19.
Was I wrong to refuse to give him the money?
Also, I love the fact that even though I subscribe to the PATH alert messaging system, which loves to send me text messages every time there's a 5 or 10 minute train service delay, there's still nothing been sent out about the whole system being down for the past 4 hours or so.
