Taxi Driver Scams, Kuala Lumpur

best way to travel

Unique Suggestions: Recently been to KL. Nice city friendly people. Taxi's are unique as they do not run on meters.
best way out is to fix the fare before you travel.If require bargain with them, within city limits do not pay more than 10 ringets if you are travelling slightly farther e.g the national zoo then 20 ringets should be o.k. No point in skipping taxis till you find someone who would agree to ride by meter. Best bargain with them as they are not too unresonable.

To anyone visiting KL I would advise to get a local taxi driver and make friends and use him at all times. He will appreciate the rgular fares and be of assisstance to you. I adopted a lovely man called Vincent and not only did he take us whever we wanted at a reasonable fare but on our departure from KL he gave us a little gift as a memento of our visit. I wish I could remember his tel No. to let people see that not all taxi drivers are crooks.

Be careful when catching taxis that they don't rip you off. We found that every time we negotiated a price with taxis before taking our trip that we paid twice as much. Sure, it may only be an extra $3 or $4, but it adds up when you're catching taxis everywhere!

Just like any other city, Jakarta , Bangkok etc. Taxi driver some are helpful and some are not.
In Kuala Lumpur, I usually take the Innovasi Orange Cab. In Jakarta, I will take the Blue Bird. And Bangkok ... it is a bit different I was force to take the Pink Taxi .. b'cos my kids love pink taxi.

We were told that if we put luggage in the trunk it cost 3RM and the driver pointed at the the luggages we placed in the trunk. When we got to the hotel and asked "is this it?" the taxi driver said "get out" and started taking out the luggages, then extended his hand for the extra money.

I gave him 10RM since i did not have change. He went inside the taxi and drove off... I later found out that 1 luggage= 1 RM so i was not supposed to pay 3RM = 1 luggage.... It was a rip off!

sigh*** what a way to be welcomed to Malaysia!

Unique Suggestions: KNOWLEDGE IS THE KEY!

Do not ask the taxi driver how much! EVER! always asked other people (even those on the streets) how much it will take to ride a taxi from one point to another.

OR

at least know that 1RM for each luggage in the trunk is the proper pricing
IF you did not put luggage in the trunk and placed it beside you in the cab
you DO NOT HAVE TO PAY the trunk fee.

Fun Alternatives: Always asked for meter to be on
Always negotiate before taxi leaves
Always ask other people how much it should cost
DO NOT let the security guard of the hotel get the cab... usually they take a 5 to 10RM cut
from the taxi cab (sigh)

If you think the taxi coupon stands inside KL Snetral is Safe from scams, think again.

I bought 2 taxi coupon tickets from KL Sentral to Tune hotel. I gave 50MYR and was given only 14MYR. I checked the tickets and it said 13MYR each. This means I am short changed by 10MYR.

10MYR may not be much but imagine if there are more people like me who do not go back and demand for the exact change. Then he can actually rack up lots of dough for the whole day.

The guy at the counter insisted he gave me 2 pcs of 10MYR but i showed him the bills he gave me which I have not yet placed inside my wallet. I only managed to step aside and count but did not leave the window.... that was why i was confident that even if they check the cctv camera, it will show that I have been short changed.

The guy unwillingly handed me another 10MYR and shook his head and a smirk.
I do not care as long as i get my right change.

Unique Suggestions: always check your ticket for how much it is. Sometimes they charge extra when you are not looking.

*I realize when you smile a lot and act nice, you attract more scammers. So I suggest you keep a straight face when paying. I guess this is a case to case basis but I observed when I am more serious... they always give me exact change.

Fun Alternatives: ALWAYS CHECK YOUR CHANGE...

it is my first time to go abroad, so we arrived at the KL Sentral station at 2am. before we go here, my friend told us that from KL to Cheras will only costs around 10MYR. when we're going to ride a 'teksi', the taxi driver did not want to use the taxi meter and instead, will lend him 45MYR for the trip. we we're surprised that the trip will costs about that big, so we ask him to use his meter, or give us a discount. Because of the time and we really want to sleep, we did not argue no more to the driver and gave him what he want. But we asked to discount it for 30MYR. the driver did not want it and he said he will discount us for 40MYR. ok. fine.

Unique Suggestions: for the next 2 days of stay here in KL, i talked to some of the drivers i had rode in, and told them what happened. they we're surprised and they gave me few tips:
1. ask to open his taxi meter. if he doesn't want, report him or look for another taxi.
2. if you found a trusted taxi driver, ask for his number. so that you can call him incase you needed his service.

Fun Alternatives: There are also alternative ways not to spend a lot on riding taxis all the time: LEARN how to ride a Train and Bus. :P call a taxi and ask him to take you to the nearest bus/train station, and learn how to ride it. it's simple, it's fun, and it's a great adventure. Have a safe trip explorers! :)

The black taxi in KL, KUALA LUMPUR MALAYSIA,

travel with taxi meter can still cheated....
Taxi plate number; MPV blue color, HWC 9240, Taxi yellow color; HBA 3226, 2nd taxi not clear...

We travelled in a group of 12 people at KL Malaysia on 5th Nov, we checked in to Sunway Putra Hotel around 7pm, since the time is still early, and the hotel staff told us Pavillion is just only ten minutes distance from hotel to Pavillion Shopping Mall, hence we took taxi from the Sunway Putral hotel to Pavillion, it only costed us each taxi at only RM10.

Around 10pm, after shopping from Pavilion shopping mall and ready to go back to our hotel, when we walked out from the mall we saw some taxi was waiting in front of Pavillion, we told them we needed 3 taxi and asked them whether they are charging by meter, did they know the way to our destination, & was the blue taxi charging the same rate as the rest of the normal taxi, the driver of the blue taxi told us he knew of the hotel, all the taxi is charging at the same rate. He looked sincere & polite, we have no doubt in him, so we agreed to board the taxi.

However, once we were sitting inside the blue taxi, we saw the meter start at RM6, but we thought it is just a short distance journey, we did not intend to confront him, we assumed the rate would be just at least just double the most for this taxi.

However after a short while that we had get out of the shopping area, he drove us all the way from small road to highway for more than 10 minutes, we felt something is not right, we re-confirmed with him of our destination, by showing him our hotel address & read to him the address is 100 Jalan Putra, and mentioned to him it is just around PWTC, he just answered us he knew of the way. He even called up his 2 taxi friend, that they just have to follow his taxi meter for charging.

In the way, he sent us to Sunway hotel, we told him this is not the right hotel, he told us this is the correct hotel, he did not know of any other hotel named Sunway hotel at Putra, he insisted us to pay for the same price as the meter charged of RM555.20 for each taxi, we knew we are being cheated, since we travelled with kids & elderly parent, we had no choice but to pay as what he requested. We had no confident by insisting him to sent us to the right destination, he may just played another trick again.

this time we ask few taxi to get the right fare, but i got better advice is ask the people around you not the taxi driver, i think this is a good advice.

Just wanted to give a credit to a guy (I guess) Mohammed (moh.hampden1@yahoo.com.au), who also posted on this topic earlier, being at that time a cab driver too... Although he isn't in the business any longer, he was willing to advise when I called his mobile (suggested "how to" deal with cab's drivers at the KL intl airport and provided a contact to his friend for me to get back to the airport the day after) and even offered further assistance, if that's what I need once in KL... All free of charge. Wonderful! Thanks, mate! :-)

Unique Suggestions: well, hopefully he isn't going to be overloaded by requests of newcomer's to Kuala Lumpur... :-), but e-mail (moh.hampden1@yahoo.com.au), or call Mohammed at +60146277046.

Fun Alternatives: n/a

Be careful in KL with Taxis. They will rip you off at the drop of a hat with trick devices that increase the fare. NEVER take a Hotel cab unless you have money to burn. They put us in a cab that charged us 2x the price that it should have been and the hotel did not want to know about it. Then if not stung once, we took the hotel cab to the airport with a fixed fee but the cab driver put the meter in for some reason and the fare was 25% more than the meter + tolls.
Don't bargain for a fixed price or they will charge you up to 100% more because you have no idea of what the cab cost should be.
I needed to take cabs on a long trip so I took the monorail to KL Sentral and went to the Taxi desk and paid for a fixed price cab there which was always an honest price.

Fun Alternatives: Plan travel by train and monorail.