Spa Tax — Attraction in Cheltenham

A warning to the public, and a message to the company:

Earlier this year, my elderly mother (an 86 year old widow) took a Spa taxi from her home in Cheltenham to Gloucester Hospital, for an appointment to assess her broken wrist. The trip was booked in advance, the fare agreed at £20, and everything worked well. In fact my mother commented on how lovely her female driver had been.

Subsequently, my mother booked the same journey for another appointment to have her cast removed. As before, she called up in advance to book a taxi and was told that the fare would again be £20. On the day, the taxi driver picked her up and set out on the journey, at which point he asked her if she would be paying cash or card. When my mother said she’d prefer to pay by card, the driver told her this wasn’t possible because his machine hadn’t finished charging. My mother explained that she'd brought enough cash just in case, so this would be ok - until the driver then told her that the fare would be £25, which of course didn’t tally with what she’d been told the day before, or her recent identical journey. (We have since established that the fare information previously given by the taxi company had been incorrect). At this point, the driver started to get irritated and told her he would take her to a cashpoint. My mother explained that this wouldn’t leave enough time for her to get to her appointment.

What happened next is genuinely hard to believe, and utterly shocking. The taxi driver became angry and started threatening my mother, firstly with police involvement, and then telling her he would come to her home personally to collect the £5. Picture the scene for a moment: a confrontational male at the wheel of a moving vehicle hurling terrifying threats at a frail, elderly lady with one arm cast in a sling, and planting in her head the unimaginably frightening image of him randomly turning up at her home demanding money. By the time she arrived at hospital she was physically trembling.

This needs calling out for what it is - threatening behaviour and harassment which, in case the taxi company are not aware, are criminal offences. As such, this company must take this incident very seriously indeed and take the appropriate next steps, not only to ensure that something like this can never happen again, but to offer an unequivocal apology to my mother who has been incredibly shaken by the whole episode. My mother did call the company in the wake of this incident and I understand the lady with whom she spoke was receptive, but we believe it is in the public interest to be made aware of this incident - there are a great many elderly residents in Cheltenham for whom taxis are an indispensable part of their daily lives; they need to be alerted to this episode, and this driver should not be allowed anywhere near members of the public let alone elderly and vulnerable ones.

For reference, when my mother asked the driver his name, he told her it was Harry - it is impossible to know whether this is his real name, of course. The appalling thing is that, if we were to call for the sacking of this driver, it is not hard to imagine this man turning up at her door to throw more vile threats at her, or worse. But at the very least we would expect someone to apologise on behalf of the company and reach out on a purely human level to a vulnerable old lady who rarely travels now because she is too afraid to get into another taxi. In fact, she didn't even tell us about the incident until recently, long after it happened, because of her fear of potential comeback.

Clearly this incident must come to the attention of the local taxi licensing authority as they need to know that one of their drivers has potentially breached the conditions of his licence and may have engaged in criminal conduct. We would like to give the taxi company a right of response - this is why our complaint is in the form of a Google review, as it is crucial for others to see how they handle the situation. We eagerly await their immediate attention to this matter and...

To say our experience was disappointing is an understatement. We had prebooked a 6 seater to take us to a wedding and then pick us up after. The guy called us at the time we had booked the cab for to tell us he would be a few mins late, then 25 mins later no cab had turned up. We tried to call but nobody picked up, we are assuming they were call screening us as they New we were going to be late. A full 35 mins after the time we had pre booked the cab for the driver turned up. We were now going to be late for the start or the wedding.

I did try to call and cancel the booking for the eve, but again they wouldn't answer the phone, thinking we would give them the benit of the doubt, we got a text saying our cab was on its way... but more disappointment, again the guy turned up 20 mins late. No offer of a discount for messing us around.

This is a disgusting service and I won't be using them again, as they are...

I needed to book a taxi for my partner at the last minute; she had missed her coach and had an important appointment to attend in another city. It was 5.50am, I did a quick Google search for 24h cab services, called 6 other numbers, none of which picked up, but Spa Tax did! The operator was efficient in sourcing the right information and we processed payments over the phone (which I requested- you also have the option of paying cash-in-hand). Within 3mins, I had booked the cab, received a receipt via email and a text for confirmation (whilst still on the phone) with the colour of the car and the registration plate. The driver arrived at 6am on the dot and my girlfriend managed to catch her train on time. All of that in less than 10mins, with reassurance of my partner's safety when it was still pitch black....