He was the compère at an event I was at in Glasgow last week, thought he was very good.
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The decline in quality of (some) black cabs in recent years.
I get it must be difficult with the competition from Uber and other private hires but it seems some guys just don't want to even try and adapt and think we owe them a living.
Came out of Waverley last night and went to the rank just down the road from the Market Street exit. First guy 'do you take card mate?' 'Cash only'. 2nd guy went to get in, he rolled the window down 'where do you want to go'. I told him and it's a fair distance from the city centre not a 2 minute job. 'Not doing that mate'. 3rd guy said he took card but then clearly didn't have a scooby where I wanted to go. Asked me my address twice then for my postcode before insisting said post code didn't exist. He was clearly trying to use maps on his phone which was clearly visible on the passenger seat and in the end I had to direct him most of the way.
I was always loyal to black cabs but I've started to use Uber more and more. Sometimes it is crap, sometimes it's decent but at least the payment option is consistent and if a guy wants to refuse a job you know in advance.
Hearing this stuff really makes my blood boil and you're right Stu there's an element of the trade who are quite frankly dinosaurs. Cash only in this day and age? Does my head in.
Next point - if the cab is in the rank then he/she has no reason to refuse the fare unless there is genuine concern of violence or drunkenness. Honestly can't stress it enough for everyone take the plate number of the car (take a quick pic) and tell the driver you'll report them even if you don't intend to.(might make him think twice next time)
Its frustrating as hell if you've sat on a rank for ages to get a short job or a job in the wrong direction when you're trying to finish but thats the game. Can't tell you how many times thats happened to me and yet later on in the night I would get a great fare after. Good with the bad is a common catchphrase cabbies use.
And the driver not knowing where he's going? I remember when I was new to the game and even the most obvious addresses would catch me out and I laugh when I think about it :greengrin but there's no excuse for not finding an address on his sat nav. With all the house building going on a lot of the new addresses can still catch me out but usually people will say an obvious road near it if I'm struggling to pick it which helps. If I ever struggle with a job I'll usually own up and apologise and offer a discount which usually gets me out of jail :wink:
Having left my job nearly ten years ago where customer service was the be all and end all I was completely shocked at the attitude of a lot of the people in this game. I still think they honestly have no idea where to start with it.
I still have no regrets making the change but you can probably sense my level of frustration :greengrin:greengrin:greengrin
Great reply and I agree with PB, I was also very loyal to Black Cabs but the last few years it's just got worse and worse.
I never thought I would say this but Uber most of the time for me now in case on the off chance a black cab is cruising past in my time of need. Long gone are the days of walking half the way home on a Saturday night as there are no cabs, Uber will be there generally in minutes.
I find it incredible that a whole (in the main) phoney world of “friends” and “likes” and “influencers” has been built out of nothingness.
Some of us know what it’s like to live outside of this bubble.
That will recede over time until no one recalls any different.
hard to see the pendulum swing away from that. So now the era of dancing to the tunes of the pied piper known as the “algorithms”.
the seduction and control of the masses.
My pet peeve of the day is people I don’t know talking to me like I’m their best pal on public transport. Took the train to Glasgow Central to then walk to Queen Street to get the train to Waverley for tonight’s game. Absolute torture. I just wanted to sit on my phone or stare out the window at the central belt whizzing past, but no. On both trains I was accosted by Glaswegian pensioners (lovely people don’t get me wrong, weegies are genuinely pretty sound if a touch nosey) asking me about my day, what I was up to, blah blah blah. Leave me alone.
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Strictly come dancing pretending that the Sunday night show is not recorded in Saturday night. Ffs all the audience members are the same and wearing the same clothes.
Advertising on social media. Yesterday my wife was on website that sells leather bags, later in the day I see adverts for the same company on Facebook and Instagram!! I've never been on the website before, ever but somehow, because my wife was I'm now being targeted with Advertising.
How does that happen??
IP address.
My wife works in marketing and buys advertising so knows a bit about how it works and some of the things she's told me has surprised me. There was an ad on TV that I thought my parents would have liked and they would have watched the show it was on during. I messaged them on our group chat to ask if they'd seen it. My wife then pipes up "they probably didn't get served that ad. Everyone sees different ads on TV. Its all targeted". I had realised online advertising was targeted but not TV and radio advertising. It uses different technology and isn't as targeted as online stuff but targeted nonetheless
It’s definitely not. It’s about to be rolled out to different ads at street level. It’s being targeted above that level just now
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/10/08/tv-ads-to-target-households-on-individual-streets/#:~:text=Households%20on%20individual%20streets%20 will,location%20down%20to%20street%20level.
Probably an annual moan from me but the difficulty in getting a Christmas card that say's granny on it. In Scotland.
Shop I was in today had Grandma, Nanny, Nan, Nana then utterly hideous monstrosities with Mommy and Mom on them. You could get Mammy, Mama, ****ing Bampy but not one card with Granny?