Hong Kong tourist rip-off: British writer reports falling victim to overcharging by taxi driver on trip from airport
- Taxi driver blocks tourist’s view of meter with a suitcase and then fakes receipt when asked for one
- British writer Nick Toczek was upset when he took another cab and realised he had been overcharged
British writer Nick Toczek was lost for words after a taxi driver charged him almost double the regular fare for a journey from Hong Kong International Airport to North Point while on his first overseas trip since the coronavirus pandemic hit three years ago.
The 72-year-old creative writing tutor who writes children’s poetry was booked for five days at an international school for workshops and arrived in the city on February 26. He was guided by an airport employee in uniform to a taxi and was told his trip to the Ibis Hotel in North Point would cost less than HK$400 (US$50).
Toczek told the Post he was shocked when the driver, who allegedly did not put on the meter, demanded HK$600 when they arrived at the hotel around 3pm.
“I asked for a receipt. At first, he pretended not to understand what I wanted. He only reluctantly reached into the taxi and emerged with a rather small-looking paper. I then reluctantly parted with HK$600. He suddenly smiled and thanked me before driving off,” he said.
Toczek’s unpleasant experience is against the backdrop of the city’s efforts to woo tourists on its path to post-Covid normality. In February, 1.45 million people visited the city, up 556 times from a year ago.
The Transport Department logged 62 overcharging and refusing hire complaints for taxi drivers in the past two months – a 69 per cent surge from the 19 cases in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the transport complaints unit received 2,485 cases about taxi services in the third quarter of last year relating to malpractice, including refusing hire, improper driving behaviour, overcharging and meter irregularities, up 41 per cent from the second quarter.