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That's the best scam. Just say "Oh, ok. Thanks for the ride then!" and get out. It's either a free ride, or the reader magically starts working. They legally have to tell you the reader is broken before the ride. Once I did have a driver try to run my card and it failed multiple times, so I called dispatch and gave them my payment info.

Same thing goes if they don't turn the meter on. Also a free ride. If they don't turn the meter on, ask them to right away. Or, wait until the destination and agree on a reasonable price or simply walk away.

If any cab driver tries to negotiate a flat rate ahead of time, it's usually a rip off. Though, I will do this after a busy event if we can agree on a price that's cheaper than ride share surge pricing and not outrageous. It's gotten so bad that if one does just turn the meter on at a busy event I give them a huge tip and say thank you for not pulling that crap.

> If any cab driver tries to negotiate a flat rate ahead of time, it's usually a rip off.

The only time I'd do that was if it was the difference between a round-trip and just dropping them off, usually I'd just shut off the time part of the meter and wait for free. Or if something went wrong I'd give them the benefit of the mistake like if I forget to change the meter off airport rate or something. Other times I'd just give someone a deal because they obviously could use the money more than me and I felt bad for them.

Though...flat rates did make for some better rides since you can take whatever route you want and not worry about people complaining you're taking the long way to run up the meter. A couple times I had people "hardball" me over a flat rate (like "I won't pay a penny over $80 you dirty peasant") and I'd always make sure the meter was well over whatever high price they randomly decided on to make them feel better about their negotiation skills.

Usually whenever someone would ask for "the best price" I'd just say "whatever the meter says when we get there" and leave it at that unless they were doing something unusual like multiple stops over a long time period or if they were super determined and I was in a good mood.

Amazing that cab riders still try this old trick, because sorry but I'm pretty sure most people nowadays just don't even carry cash anymore. I'm not playing that game. You picked me up without a functioning payment method used by 99% of the population with it advertised on your door. Not my problem. Either I pay with my card or I'm leaving.

I had him drop me off at the mall so that I could grab a belt for a wedding that was happening an hour or two later. He told me his reader wasn't working and I didn't have cash. I was literally wearing swimming trunks and looked like I'd just come out of a pool, because I had.

I said sorry mate you need to warn someone when they get in and not after the ride. I hopped out to go in the mall and grab a belt and he followed me screaming at me the entire time. This probably wasn't even a 2 mile ride. Hotel to Miami mall.

For some reason I can't remember the outcome. Maybe I got so sick of him I went to an atm. I hope I didn't.

Yeah, Taxis try the "card reader broken" scam more than 50% of the time IME. Fortunately, it always manages to magically fix itself when I make a show of pretending to not have cash.

aha when I was younger and they tried that shit I would just shrug and say I guess they were not getting paid then which as you say seems to be the magic incantation to fix these readers.

Many apps already do this, including google maps.

...until Uber pulled out of Google Maps.

Not a lot of experience with taxis, but what's the scam here? Are they just trying to dodge taxes? Do they count on you to not have change and round up your fare to nearest $1/$5?

The Transit app will include Uber and maybe other rideshare apps alongside public transit when looking at a trip