Associated Cabs

just to cure your guys stupidity about rates… that’s the cities doing they control what the taxi companies can charge you guys are so bloody simple… and obviously without knowledge of the business the city of Calgary controls the charges the companies cannot charge more then what the city says… they can charge less in terms of flat rates but they cannot charge more (in addition flat rates have to be registered with the Calgary taxi commission … EVERY CAB COMPANY BY LAW MUST CHARGE THE SAME RATE… so before you whine and bitch read up on the taxi commission bylaws then talk with some knowledge… also some customers are TERRIBLE PEOPLE…

Wow! This company has quite a racquet going on at the airport, thanks City of Calgary for taking away all other options at the airport… Boo! An $ 8.30 START fee just to hop in the cab and an over-​inflated mileage rate in addition. Your company should be embarrassed for ripping off the good people of this city. Shame on you.

Only used it once, luckily only in DT, from one end 11^th St to Centre Point, was in a rush and one cab was easily accessible.
Other than their drab, stale-​white exterior paint, and the outdated parking meters, it’s what you expect… at least here they don’t frown upon credit cards lol, like back home.

Unethical drivers. Had to call for a cab from panorama hills in Calgary which is close to the airport. The guy who picked me up basically took me on a scenic ride even when I told him I wanted the shortest distance. Cab fare came to $ 40 on what should have been a $ 25 fare. Called dispatch and they don’t care. Don’t use this company unless you want to get screwed.
Driver 2788 you got a little bit extra this fare but I (along with my friends and family) will never use Associated Cab in the future.

I took Associated Cabs from the airport into downtown and then called them back for a pickup after being unable to book online as suggested by Wendy P above.
Pros: Cab only smelled mostly bad
Cons:
Loud foreign language radio — From when I got into the cab the volume was on max. When i tried to make conversation the answers were short and somewhat rude.
Rude dispatch person on the phone– When I called to get the return trip, the dispatcher was incredibly short with me and rude. She told me «someone should be on the way but they might do something else first. Good luck»
No show– I waited for the cab for over an hour but it never showed. I ended up walking to a nearby hotel and hailing a cab at the cabstand
Overall:
This town desperately needs über. The cabs are overpriced, and the cabbies and especially the dispatchers are rude.

No business is all good or all bad. I think we all know this. Associated is no different, except that their scales look something like piling the Japanese National Sumo Wrestling team on one side, with a newborn infant on the other. The bad FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR outweighs the good.
On one hand, in-​person experience I’ve had with Associated has always been quite good. Most of their drivers are knowledgeable and good communicators, and most of the vehicles are kept quite clean and pleasent.
However, I think they recruit their service staff from somewhere between the 8^th and 9^th circles of hell. I’d say about 40−50% of the worst customer service experiences I’ve ever had ALL came from Associated Cabs, but I think it can be summed up best by simply relating one specific story…
A few months ago I needed to book a cab to get to get to the Greyhound Station to catch a bus heading for a very important family event. I called the night before and everything to give them as much notice as I could, and the conversation went something like this.
«Hi, can I book a cab for 6am tomorrow morning please?»
«I guess, but I wouldn’t advise it.» (already I’m impressed, obviously)
«Why is that?»
«The weather’s looking terrible for the morning, we can’t guarentee exact arrival times.»
«I know, I don’t really NEED to leave until 7:30, so this way it should be fine, right?»
*sigh*“Okay, what’s the address?“
Great service there, Associated. Now, let’s flash forward to the next morning. 6:00 comes and goes, no cab. I wait patiently until 6:30, still no cab. As stated before I still had plenty of time, but 7:30 was an absolute «I’m on my way or I’m missing my bus» cut off, so I called back to see if I could get an ETA. This conversation was no better…
«Hi, I booked a cab for 6:00, and I know you guys can’t guarentee the exact time, but this is getting pretty late I was just wondering if I could get an update on how long it’ll be?»
«I have no idea.» (No idea at all? Really?)
«Okay well, I have to leave within the hour, does that seem at all likely?»
«I really don’t know what to tell ya. We’re super busy.»
«So you don’t even know if an hour and a half after a pre-​booked time is reasonable or not?»
«Nope»
“Okay well… thanks?”
(Operator hangs up on me)
7:10… still no cab. By now I’m freaking out, so I call back.
«Hi, I had a cab booked for 6:00 to (my address) can you tell me if it’s even been dispatched yet?»
«Nope, there are still 7 timed calls ahead of you.»
«You mean like, people who booked for earlier than 6?»
«Yep.»
“So the chances of it being here in the next 20 minutes aren’t very good then?”
«We tell people when they book timed calls we can’t guarentee the exact time.»
«Of course, but you must realize that an hour and a half later is FAR from being a matter of ‘exact’ or not, right?»
(For the second time in one day, the operator hangs up on me)
No word of a lie, I called Checker the second they hung up, and it took me 3 – 4 calls to get through, because the line was busy, but someone picked up by 7:15, and told me a cab would be there within 10 – 15 minutes. Sure enough, 7:25, a cab pulled up.
I understand bad weather effects wait times… but if one company can get me a cab in 10 minutes without warning, and another can’t get one there in an hour and a half with almost 24 hours notice, the latter just isn’t even trying.
I could say everything I have to say to Associated Cab with one finger… but frankly with the attitude of their «service» personnel, they aren’t even worth the effort in lifting it. I may still flag down their cabs if needed in a pinch, but I will definitely not rely on calling them in the future.

Bound to happen! After all, it is a cab company in Calgary!
4 stars down to a 1 for leaving hubby near stranded today when he had an appointment for pickup at 5am. He had a 6am flight from a private hangar. He stressed how important it was that the cab be at our home on time and follow up was done all morning on our part to make sure his ride would get here on time.
Cab never showed. Phone calls, yes. «We are on the way, we are on the way, the driver is lost… «blah, blah.
In the end, hubby had to drive himself white knuckled and pissed off at the last second and almost missed his plane. No matter how much you do to ensure the cab will be where you need it, they seem to run on their own schedule and there is no accountability for no-​shows or shit service.

Dispatch was great, taxi arrived in a reasonable amount of time, things got a little weird after that. Taxi driver said his credit card machine wasn’t working and he could only take cash — this was fine by me and so I agreed. As we were driving he then covered his hand over the meter and pushed a few buttons, maybe I’m crazy but when we arrived at my destination I would guess the fare on the meter vs what I expected the trip to cost to be 25% higher. I went to pay with cash only to realize I didn’t have enough and said I could only pay with visa, at which point his machine magically started to work again. I don’t know if I got ripped off or if I’m just a little leary of cab drivers these days. Either way the response time was great, I got to my destination fine, but I’m pretty sure I over paid.

This is absolutely ridiculous how bad the service is.
We had called the night before to get a cab at 7:45am this morning. In the morning we waited 45 minutes before asking a friend to drive us to our destination — which defeats the whole purpose of calling for a cab. When we called to find out why our cab never came, we were told that there were no cabs for our area and hence no cab was coming.
We were also told that making a «reservation» as it is what is states on your website, it’s not actually a reservations. it’s a «booking». (Whatever that means.) We were then told that only if a cab was in the area, they would then come to get us.
So my question is, WHY wouldn’t they call us to tell us that BEFOREHAND while waiting 45 minutes clueless to this process?! Not only is this UNFAIR for customers that have called the night before, it’s absolutely ridiculous how we were never informed of this, and making us late to our destination! Luckily this wasn’t a flight from the airport!
So finally, after saying on the phone that this is ridiculous, we were HUNG UP ON. As a service company to Calgary, HANGING UP THE PHONE ON THE CUSTOMER IS UNACCEPTABLE. This is extremely unprofessional and they cannot treat your customers like this especially if customers ARE your business.

Very very bad & dis-​honest I left my back pack in the trunk of the car, the driver said he never seen it and maybe someone else took it out (and how might that be?) 10 calls later and 1 to the manager and still nothing, they keep saying «oh no sir the driver said there was nothing left in his trunk», LIES. I refuse to accept this dis-​honest behaviour! I caught this cab from the airport to downtown Calgary and tipped the drive $ 9, how can the airport let this firm be a contractor/​service for their airport? Are there any good people left in the world, I have to say I will never take this cab company again and I will putting my complaint to the paper, google, bing, yahoo, and the airport. Do not use this bunch of criminals!!!

Shut the front door! I can reserve my cab on the interwebs? Meowzah!
Sure can! At least with Associated, I haven’t checked with anyone else yet. It’s Christmas party season and I anticipated a super long wait time to get through the dispatch to reserve myself a cab out to a friend’s birthday party. 11 minutes on hold with #TAXI and then another 7 minutes on hold with Associated while I waited for one of their customer service people to come on the line and take my address. I considered myself lucky having waited less than 20 minutes at 630 on a Saturday… and even luckier still when my cab was here within 15 minutes of that. I had budgeted about an hour just to be on the safe side.
On my way to my friend’s house, I communicated my delight at the short wait times on the phone. My cab driver smiled and said, «You know, you can also reserve your cab on our website. Everyone has a phone with internet these days! It’s so fast. The problem isn’t getting a cab, it’s getting through to dispatch. This cuts it down! And you can even check and see if a cab is on its way to you after you’ve reserved it.»
SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!!! How is this the first I’m hearing about this?
We predrink a bit at my friend’s house before heading out. I decided to test the website reservation feature. I head to Associated’s website. It looks a little archaic and I was skeptical about the online reservation system. But I clicked the button, input my name, phone number and pickup address and hit «book.» Within seconds, I had a confirmation number. It took me a little bit of snooping to find the spot to track my reservation after that (hint: Click on online reservations again, click book online, and from there you’ll see a menu option that says «track & modify my order. If you’re on a mobile phone, do this in a separate web browser from your confirmation number so you don’t lose it easily.) This was at 8:20pm and I had reserved our cab for 8:45pm. Around 8:41pm, I plugged in my phone number and confirmation number to check on the status of our cab. It was only 1 km away! Refreshing the page brought me more updates. Right up until it said our cab had arrived. We headed outside… but there was no cab! Egads! As I was expressing my dismay at what had so far been a painless process, our cab rounded the corner and we were on our way.
Lesson: Skip the phone and order your cab online.
Improvements to the system: I was expecting a text message confirmation at the very least. Adding this to the system so I don’t have to log on from my phone to check the order status would make this process a 5-​star one in my books! Also, a text message or a call when the cab arrives out front (like what you get when you phone dispatch or use #taxi) would also be wonderful!
Anyway, kudos to driver from Associated Cab #88 for telling me about the online reservation system. He totally made my evening!

The call center needs A LOT of work. I called at noon to prebook a cab for 6:00pm on a Friday night so I could go to my corporate Christmas party. The cab didn’t show up and didn’t phone the number I had provided them when I prebooked, and after 6pm on a Friday it’s basically impossible to get through on the phone. I ended up having to drive myself after waiting and redialing over and over for 40min and couldn’t have any drinks at my party, unfortunately. That being said, the drivers and vehicles are still the best in Calgary. But the call center needs some vast improvements in their customer service. I phoned them back to report the issue and they just said «sometimes we get really busy on the weekends». That’s a pretty terrible response considering I reserved the cab 6 hours in advance.

During my recent stay in Calgary, I took an Associated Cab twice for an average of 3 Stars.
— From the Airport to Downtown (4 Stars). This was a nice ride with a good driver who rode his seat belt, didn’t dart around or speed, and was pleasant to talk with about this and that.
From B’nai Tikvah (Rosh Hashana Services) to the Sheraton Eau Claire (2 Stars). A helpful Calgary Police Officer who was looking after the place during services (unfortunately that’s anti-​semitic reality in the Jewish Community) was good enough to call a Cab that never really showed up after a long wait. Another Cab was called and this one was late as I stood alone outside the Shul after everyone else had gone home. And it was too far to walk, although that Plan B almost became reality. At that point, I was so pissed that I didn’t really care or notice how he was driving.

I’m not sure how many different cab companies there are in the Calgary area, but I have been using Associated Cabs for the past couple of months as I travel for business. The drivers are always considerate and maintain clean and comfortable vehicles.
During my last commute to the city I forgot my cell phone in one of their cars. I was worried at first, because my cell phone is my link to the world! Nonethelss, I called the number on my receipt and gave the operator the car number, and my phone was returned to me at my hotel within minutes.
I will continue to use Associated Cabs to get to and from the city, and I will recommend them to all my friends and coworkers.

Best cab company in Calgary.

In my opinion, they are the best run cab company in Calgary.

For many months before I bought my vehicle I had to take taxis to my mother’s Care Facility and I always choose Associated Cabs. I really dig their easy to dial phone number and believe me this is convenient when standing out in the cold. They are pretty good too at showing up within the time allotted, so I found them extremely reliable.
But I want to get into the customer service. Extremely polite fellows and on all occasions I have had the privilege of exchanging many stories. Most of my taxi drivers have come from India, Ethiopia and Pakistan, so the cab ride always passes very quickly because it is filled with mutual immigration stories, stories about how to deal with this cold climate coming from a hot one and my ultimate favourite; food and recipes sharing! I always get the down low as well on the most authentic places to eat in the city which I am extremely happy about and I believe Mirchi as well as Atlas came highly recommended to me in a cab.
They are extremely polite guys, my luggage is always put in the trunk for me and taken out and often times taken right to my door.
But last but not least I love the option of paying with my debit card. Sometimes a taxi is a last minute thought when it’s minus 20, no bus is in site and I am not carrying cash so I am grateful for this option. Keep up the good work guys!

I’ve gotta agree with Chad — Associated Cabs is one of the best cab companies in Calgary. The drivers are always friendly and often hilarious. These guys see everything! They have the dirt on everyone and everything. They all work hard, and take pride in doing a good job.
The whole company takes pride in keeping its customers happy. If you have any issues with your driver, you’re encouraged to report to Associated. This means you can expect excellent service. One driver even ran after my friend, followed her into the store where he had last seen her to return the cell phone she had left in the back seat. That’s service!
They are always on time when you request a pick-​up, so you always make it to the airport or your meeting on time. I trust Associated more than any other cab company in Calgary.