I am very embarrassed to write this, because this is the twentieth year I have come to Lisbon to teach a two-week course, but I was scammed today. Hopefully, my embarrassment will save someone else some cash!
I got to the Lisbon airport and hopped into a cab. Very nice young man, very proper. I always try to speak Portuguese when I can, because almost everyone speaks English, and my Portuguese is shamefully inadequate after having spent so much time here. So we were having a jolly time conversing. When we got to my hotel, the bill was 38.50!! WHAT???? Well, as I now realize in retrospect, he had been building the case for this since I got into the cab. He told me he was a driver who was specially licensed by the city, one of a group of taxistas who only do airport runs. They pay more in taxes, but get priority in the long lines at the airport. It all seemed reasonable till I saw the charge. When I expressed my incredulity, he pulled out a very official looking laminated poster, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and maybe one or two more languages, which detailed the charges from the airport to the city, to Cascais, etc. It even had the seal of the city of Lisbon on it! I thought that it must be an initiative to raise salaries, so I gave him my euros.
When I was checking into the hotel, I commented to the receptionist about how much taxi prices had gone up in Lisbon. Another woman heard me and told me it was a scam. She had been a victim of the same thing. She paid the price, but asked for a receipt (I didn’t) and wrote down the taxi number, and then called some central taxi office in Lisbon. She was promptly refunded the difference. The receptionist at the hotel felt really bad, but he told me that I should be comforted by the fact that he wouldn’t have scammed me if I hadn’t seemed like such a kind person. Small consolation, but I think the operative word is gullible.
ANYWAY … the taxi prices have not gone way up in Lisbon. Taxi fares from the airport to the central city should not be more than 10-15. If this happens to you, get a receipt and get the taxi number. Or avoid the whole issue and take an UBER!!!!
(P.S. I am writing a find penguins but I am not going to admit to this stupidity to my family and non-camino friends!).
I got to the Lisbon airport and hopped into a cab. Very nice young man, very proper. I always try to speak Portuguese when I can, because almost everyone speaks English, and my Portuguese is shamefully inadequate after having spent so much time here. So we were having a jolly time conversing. When we got to my hotel, the bill was 38.50!! WHAT???? Well, as I now realize in retrospect, he had been building the case for this since I got into the cab. He told me he was a driver who was specially licensed by the city, one of a group of taxistas who only do airport runs. They pay more in taxes, but get priority in the long lines at the airport. It all seemed reasonable till I saw the charge. When I expressed my incredulity, he pulled out a very official looking laminated poster, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and maybe one or two more languages, which detailed the charges from the airport to the city, to Cascais, etc. It even had the seal of the city of Lisbon on it! I thought that it must be an initiative to raise salaries, so I gave him my euros.
When I was checking into the hotel, I commented to the receptionist about how much taxi prices had gone up in Lisbon. Another woman heard me and told me it was a scam. She had been a victim of the same thing. She paid the price, but asked for a receipt (I didn’t) and wrote down the taxi number, and then called some central taxi office in Lisbon. She was promptly refunded the difference. The receptionist at the hotel felt really bad, but he told me that I should be comforted by the fact that he wouldn’t have scammed me if I hadn’t seemed like such a kind person. Small consolation, but I think the operative word is gullible.
ANYWAY … the taxi prices have not gone way up in Lisbon. Taxi fares from the airport to the central city should not be more than 10-15. If this happens to you, get a receipt and get the taxi number. Or avoid the whole issue and take an UBER!!!!
(P.S. I am writing a find penguins but I am not going to admit to this stupidity to my family and non-camino friends!).