Taxi Driver Online

Nottingham taxi firm criticised over 'misleading' advertising

A taxi company has been criticised for its misleading advertising, after displaying a fixed rate for a trip to East Midlands Airport, and then charging more than they had shown. A website for East Midlands Airport Taxis, eastmidlandscabs.co.uk, displayed an advert in March this year which said: “Special Offers click to book East Midlands Airport to Nottingham via a Taxi Car £19.50.”

However one customer contacted the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) when he was charged more than the advertised rate. The taxi firm did not reply to the ASA when contacted, and are yet to reply to the press when approached for a comment.

The ASA upheld the complaint made by the member of the public, and found that it was: "concerned by East Midlands Airport Taxi’s lack of substantive response and apparent disregard for the advertising code". It ruled that the taxi firm had breached four different clauses of the code: an unreasonable delay in replying to the ASA; misleading advertising; substantiation of a claim; and prices, a clause which states that prices advertised should not mislead.

The ASA continued: “We considered that consumers would understand the claim to mean they would be able to get a taxi to Nottingham from East Midlands Airport for £19.50. “The complainant told us they were unable to get a taxi for that price and that a customer representative had told them the price on the website was incorrect. “Because the advertiser did not provide us with any evidence to demonstrate the price was achievable, we concluded the claim had not been substantiated and was misleading.”

In its finding, the ASA said: “The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told East Midlands Airport Taxis to remove the claim and to ensure they used accurate prices in their advertising, and held evidence to substantiate those price claims. We referred the matter to the compliance team.”

The ad remains on the website, but the fixed rate from Nottingham to the airport has changed to £27.50.

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IDFIMH

http://eastmidlandscabs.co.uk/

Is this one of those supa dupa sites the trade has been being offered as a virtual pot of gold for the last 10 years, or a scamming existing operator?

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IDFIMH

Owned by Cab Transfers by the looks of it.

or a driver not sticking to the quote ?

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector