Everyone’s had their fair share of horrible taxi or PHV drivers, but this has to take the cake.
A ComfortDelGro taxi driver dropped a heavily pregnant woman and her two toddlers at Toa Payoh instead of Yishun, simply because he wants to go home.
The taxi driver has since been fired.
Told Passengers to Wait In Car While Smoking Outside
A Facebook user, Zdhnray Mohammad, posted about his wife and children’s experience with a ComfortDelGro driver, Lim Chye Beng, on the night of 21 August.
According to Zdhnray, he booked a taxi via the ComfortDelGro app, Zig, for his wife and two children to travel home from Marsiling to Yishun.
When Lim arrived at the destination, he told the mother and children to sit in the car and wait for him while he smoked outside. He made his passengers wait for over five minutes before returning to the car.
Sounds ridiculous? It gets worse.
Ignored Preferred Route, Drove Toward Toa Payoh Instead
Since the ride was a metered-fare one, Zdhnray’s wife asked the driver to travel via the Bukit Timah Expressway, to Seletar Expressway then Mandai.
However, Lim disagreed, and suggested driving via Central Expressway. She said no, since it was clearly out of the way.
Afterwards, Zdhnray’s wife was busy handling her two sleepy toddlers, and didn’t notice that the driver was going the wrong way till he passed SLE and went toward PIE instead.
Checking the map, she asked the driver why he was going towards Toa Payoh when he was supposed to drive them to Yishun. Lim then became defensive, and lied saying that “in front there is Mandai”.
Spoiler alert: it was not Mandai.
Angry After Hearing That Marsiling to Yishun Is Usually $20
After lying that they’re going to Mandai, Lim asked Zdhnray’s wife how much she usually spends when travelling from Marsiling to Yishun. After hearing that it is usually less than $20, the driver said, “Like that I drop you off at Toa Payoh. You go take another cab, I don’t want to drive you! I wanna go back home I stay at Toa Payoh. You are wasting my time and petrol.”
Zdhnray’s wife started to panic after hearing Lim’s words, and called him for help. Zdhnray then spoke to Lim via speakerphone and asked him to drive his wife and children to Yishun, but Lim refused.
Lim then dropped the family off at Toa Payoh at around 10:30pm, and presumably went home. The fare ended up being $27.15.
Poor Customer Service
Zdhnray then claimed that his wife called the customer service line to lodge a complaint, but before his wife managed to finish explaining the situation, the officer said, “Since the driver offered you $20, why are you still crying?”
That’s really insensitive, isn’t it?
It wasn’t until his wife explained the whole situation that the officer “started to acknowledge [her] traumatic experience”.
Fired Lim Immediately
According to Mothership, ComfortDelGro’s chief branding and communications officer Tammy Tan said that Lim was fired “with immediate effect”.
Sharing that the company had reached out to the family to offer them support, Tan added, “Our cabbies are expected to be professional by taking the right or preferred routes and completing every trip that they take. In this instance, the behaviour of the cabby was completely unacceptable.”
Featured Image: Facebook (ComfortDelGro)