Checker Cab of Cambridge

Horrible. This CAMBRIDGE cab picked me up in BOSTON. hmmm not supposed to be there. I was almost to my destination when I noticed there was no credit card machine (red flag) so I told my driver I was paying by card. He comes back with the predictable «no cash?». Uh, no sir– as I stated I will be paying by card. He pulls out his shady mobile credit card machine in the front seat, swiped my card and prompted me for tip. As I am departing the cab, he yells out that the card didn’t go through. Well, at this point I am confident that it did, and he could not provide me a receipt or any proof that anything was declined or «not processed» since there was no official credit card machine in the vehicle (required for Boston cabs –stick to Cambridge, buddy). My fare had also disappeared from his meter (perhaps because I already paid?). He starts whipping out random pieces of paper and raising his voice telling me I need to pay. He told me he would call the cops, which I welcomed. HE ACTUALLY CALLED 911. Told the dispatcher I didn’t pay him. I ended up speaking with the dispatcher, who asked that I just give the cabbie my card and call my credit card company in the morning. Obviously I listened to her, forked over my card and paid (again). Morning comes and lo and behold I check my credit card statement — what a surprise! My card went through the first time. and the second time. This guy obviously knew I was onto him and did take off the 2^nd charge before I had to call Cambridge Checker cab to complain. Had I not been adament about the fact that I paid, I am sure that this guy would have screwed me over and I’d be charged twice. I’m confident this is a regular scheme of his. Beware and UBER FOR LIFE.

I took a Checker Cab Monday Night. They were terrific I think better then Über anyday. I did not see any dirty cabs the cab I got iin was brand new clean the driver was dressed well and polite. Did you know Über rates go up at night. And mostly everyone who is saying how great they are. Wait until you really see there rates.

This is the second week in a row that the taxi never came. They «lost my reservation.» beware using this company when you have a flight to catch

I wish I could give them a «0». Last Friday on Valentines I took my wife & kids in to Disney on Ice. We parked at the Cambridgeside Galleria and had dinner. As I had 2 kids (7 &4) and it was 20 degrees out, we could not walk to the Garden so I grabbed a cab (Checker Cab). We got in the cab. The guy REFUSED to take me to the garden unless he could go the LONG way through Charlestown. I told him it was a quick ride past the Museum of Science, but he knew he would not make a huge fair by going that way, and refused, making us get out of the cab and leaving us on the side of the road, with 2 young kids & 20 degrees. I will NEVER EVER use Checker cab, and I recommend that you never do either. They are the absolute WORST cab company in the city.

I booked a cab to the airport with another company that was very late. So, I called Cambridge Checker, and the dispatcher was able to get me a cab within five minutes that got me to the airport really quickly. The whole trip was about $ 35 and only took 20 minutes.

They don’t let you give zero stars huh?
I’m sitting in south station now after missing my train. My front desk called for a cab 50 minutes before my train departure time. Called multiple times with the same «five more minutes» reply. Ended up hailing a cab on the corner but missed my train anyways. Had to pay 76 dollars to change two tickets to the next train and going to miss dinner with my friends in NYC. Thanks checker cab for sucking. If you can’t send a cab just say so, so I can call someone else more reliable.
Such a waste of my time and money.

So, I’ve ridden with them. BUT, more importantly, the operator is awfully nice – a strange but welcome surprise!

I called and let the dispatcher know I was only going 1.5 miles but that I needed to use a credit card (sadly, I was all but out of cash since I spent it all on the cash-​only cabs my hotel flags down). The dispatcher clearly said this would be fine.
My cab arrived quickly, but getting in was a bit sketchy — why didn’t he have the dome light working? Fast forward to arriving at my hotel and handing him a card to pay the $ 7 fare. He refused to take it, pointing to the sign that said $ 10 minimum for cards. Of course said sign was invisible in the dark cab interior. Well I had $ 2 in cash, so he didn’t have any options. He said the dispatcher would be angry, but of course I had just spoken to the dispatcher so there’s clearly a disconnect there. He ended up charging me $ 10, which will be shortly reduced to $ 0 after I explain this to the CC company.
I don’t blame the driver for preferring cash, but the dispatcher and drivers need to get their act together.

Not long after moving to Cambridge I gave up owning a car. The lack of parking space made it much more realistic to rely on public transportation and taxi services. Somewhere around 1989, or nearly 25 years ago! — I became a customer of Checker Cab.
There have been many changes over the years; changes in ownership, changes in dispatchers and operators, and changes in drivers. One thing remains constant: Checker Cab provides me with reliable and efficient service.
I make an average of ten taxi trips per week. Multiply this by nearly 25 years and you’ll know why I not only get from point A to point B, but I have come to know and appreciate all the folks who make up the company. A taxi is a public transport and I am aggravated by people who complain if a taxi takes too long to arrive, or who think the driver is taking the wrong route. Traffic conditions, demand for service, the number of taxi cabs on the streets at any one time — there are many things that can affect services. My experience — and I depend on taxis when I travel all of the US and internationally — has been that Checker operators take the time to be honest about delays, something that is very important if I am going to be standing outside in rain, snow or very hot weather.
If you know you need a taxi at a certain time call ahead. I always call the night before to arrange for a pick up if I am headed to the airport or have an important commitment. You can rely on them to provide excellent service. (And, if you think you haven’t gotten good service, call the office and speak to the boss. They listen to customers and will take your concern seriously.)

Hit and miss. Some really lovely drivers, but also more than a few questionable folks in even more questionable cars. Dispatchers are fine — weekends there’s often a really lovely woman handling calls — but seriously, what is UP w them need all of my details all of the time?! I call from the same number at a borderline alarming frequency… caller ID /​customer profiles anyone?

What a bad costumer service!!! I called to schedule a pick up to the airport and the women on the phone didn’t have any patience to listen to me, was extremely rude, got annoyed saying I was holding her up and when I confronted her about the «lovely» service, she even answered me that there are other people waiting that she will help right now and I should wait!
This whole conversation only took 2 minutes but for her it was too long… So, instead of waiting for her I decided to hang up the call. DON’T USE THIS COMPANY, they don’t deserve their costumers.
Luckily, after that, I called the yellow/​green cab service of somerville and received the best service! :-)

Do I need to get out a map and give specific directions to these drivers?
THEY G
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V
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TIME I
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This is the most annoying thing about taxi companies. This particular company managed to turn an ordinary two and a half mile drive into a twenty minute, eight mile
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complete with congested rush hour traffic.
The ride cost me over twice what it should have and when I spoke to the driver about it, he said that the normal route, the one I expected him to take, was always bad at that hour.
Not true, Mr. Taxi Driver. That’s my neighborhood you are talking about. As we sit here in frozen traffic, more than five miles away from my home, farther away than where you picked me up, I watch the meter go up and up and start feeling my blood pressure boil.
Then when Mr. Taxi Driver goes straight past my street, meaning we have to go around the
B
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C
adding four more dollars to the fare, I almost lose it.
This taxi annoyance is turning into one of my major pet peeves. I don’t like being taken advantage of and can only imagine what goes on with the sweet innocent tourists who fly into Logan and ask a cab driver to take them to their hotel.
Just bring me home by the direct route, please.

Checker cab — Cab # 14 — April 18^th — approx 8:15 AM — @ the condominiums right across Museum of Science.
1) Hire drivers who follow the building policy of not blocking the drive way
2) Hire drivers who are not racists and don’t spout off racial slurs when a resident asks them politely to move the cab a couple of feet forward so they can pull their car out
Never again personally. Furthermore, our building will seriously reconsider the use of your services moving forward.

The dispatcher was a jerk. He’s so used to drunk people calling for cabs that he assumes everyone is. I gave him my phone number and he read it back to me incorrectly. When I tried to correct it he said,“You’re not making any sense!”. Finally, I asked that he call when the cab was out front because I was in the back of the bldg. 20 min. later he calls to say he’s been trying to reach me, the cab’s been out front for 15 minutes. I said my phone was right in front of me, it’s on and I had no calls. He told me to just get out front and catch the cab and that my phone was broken or something.
The reason they get 3 stars, is my cabbie was very nice. Chatty, very chatty, but nice. He told me funny cab stories and insisted on waiting outside my building until I got in.
This cab company would do well to get rid of the jerk in dispatch. I was visiting friends and their two young girls, I was hardly boozing it up. A little kindness and respect goes a long way. And if you hate your job so much that you end up a jerk like this guy, do everyone a favor and find a new job.

Best, fastest cab company in Cambridge. Good response times. If you need a cab, and you’re in Cambridge, there’s no reason to call anyone else. Driver-​friendliness is above average on the whole.

My husband and I use this company whenever we need a cab. They usually arrive within 5 minutes, which is excellent. There was ONE time however when we had company over, and they decided to take a cab home. My friend called Checker Cab, and it literally took over an hour to arrive. Guests were not happy. BUT this only happened one time.
The drivers are always very courteous, which I like too.

So I’ve called Checker Cab a couple times now to take me to my boyfriend’s place in Somerville, seeing as it’s cheaper than the $ 50 ticket I get from parking there overnight. I tend to «yelp before I buy» as it were, so I checked taxis in Cambridge. Checker was not top on the list. In fact, I called two other places first who told me they had no cabs available. Next I tried Checker. I’m leaving off one star because the lady who answers the phone is so unfriendly. She always sounds pissed off, like she hates her job. I can’t blame her, I’m sure she deals with all kinds of creeps and weirdos, but geez, I go out of my way to be super polite to her «thank you so much!» and I get curt replies. Ah well, at least she doesn’t drive the cabs.
Anyway, every time I call, the cab arrives less than 5 minutes later, which is awesome. Another bonus: the cabs don’t have those scary partition things that make you feel like you’re trapped in a box. As someone with not a small bit of claustrophobia, that’s a very important attribute for a cab.
The ride is short, the cost is cheap, the cabs are comfortable. And the driver I had last night was a gem! We had a lovely conversation. I’ve also had a really quiet driver — that’s fine too, we don’t need to become friends. Bottom line, I can’t complain about the drivers who always take the most direct route and seem to drive safely. I’m saving Checker’s number in my phone and I’ll definately be calling them again.

Checker Cab is easily the least customer friendly cab company both in terms of the dispatch and the actual cab service. Everybody just seems like they’re in a rush and they don’t care too much about you… even though you are paying them for the cab ride! The cabs tend to be dirtier than other Cambridge cabs and the drivers are not friendly. The drivers either talk on their phone (not paying attention to the road), want to talk to you about their problems, or just seem pissed off. It’s weird how this behavior is so consistent with Checker. I literally used them for 7 years before figuring out that there were better cabs in Cambridge!
I’ve had much better experiences with Ambassador cabs (also Cambridge) and Metro cab (boston but I think they will pick you up if you call).

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_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​– Bweeeeeeee RAPID 0 to 60 on downtown Boston roadways!
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Bweeeeeeee hold on for SHARP turns! _​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​–
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_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​Bweeeeeeee SLAMMING on breaks to avoid collisions!
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Bweeeeeeee you almost HIT a cyclist! _​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​-​_​
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ A roller coaster of a ride home! ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Bweeeeeeee!

No. See my Fung Wah bus review too. It’s the same review.