An Ottawa couple says double check your receipts after being charged $745.05 for a four minute taxi ride this weekend.
Around 9:16p.m. Friday, Micheline Giroux, who uses a walker, called Capital Taxi Ottawa to order an accessible vehicle to drive her from St. Laurent Mall to Donald St.
When the trip ended Giroux says she gave the driver her debit card to use in the portable payment machine. She says the driver punched in the total, inserted the card and then passed the machine back to Giroux to enter her pin.
Giroux says the meter showed $7.45 but shortly after her husband noticed a charge for $745.05 in the couple’s chequing account.
Giroux’s husband Pierre says he phoned the company Friday night and was told he would have to phone back on Monday. Monday morning Pierre says he phoned Capital Taxi and was forwarded to a voicemail.
CTV News reached out to the president of Capital Taxi on Giroux’s behalf and was told the incident was a “driver error.”
"We will be asking (the driver) for an explanation and investigating his POS unit for any malfunction," wrote Marc Andre Way, the President and CEO of Coventry Connections.
Way believes the driver was not paying attention and entered the wrong amount.
A refund of $737.60 was issued to the couple. Way estimated it would arrive in 5-10 business days.
“If it was a mistake, that’s fine, but people should be aware,” said Pierre Giroux.
Giroux was happy to learn he would receive a refund but feels the money should be returned immediately.
“It’s not fair,” Pierre said. “The $745 - I want it in my account as soon as possible.”
The couple says they are not looking to take the situation further – they just don’t want this to happen to others.
“I just want people to know they should really look at their receipt because this can happen anywhere.”
