Paris Taxi Return to CDG Fare Overcharge?

As far as I know the flat fee for the Left Bank to and from CDG is 55 Euros and 50 Euros from the Right Bank but there is a 7 Euro charge if it is booked in advance and a 4 Euro charge for an immediate reservation.

https://www.thelocal.fr/20160229/flat-rate-for-paris-airport-taxis-comes-into-force

I don't know if this is a similar situation, but in London, we were quoted a price, but when the taxi arrived at the hotel - LATE and pushing our schedule - he said that since we had to put luggage in the trunk, he would have to charge extra. It seemed like a setup to us and we were angry (and beyond stressed), but we HAD to get to the airport (which was quite a ways away). I can't remember what happened, except we squished in the car with luggage on our laps. We wondered if this was a trick some drivers use, sort of a cabbie's version of bait and switch.

If you you were in a regular Taxi Parisien, you were overcharged and that is not even thinking about the overtipping that happened. The only question is were you overcharged by 5€ or was it 8€. There could be a question about whether the call was ordered ahead of time and you should have paid 57€ as opposed to 54€. The flat fare in Paris is for up to 4 people and their luggage so believe no story about a higher fare because luggage had to go into the trunk. That may be the case in London (I don't know) but it is not in Paris. Parisian taxi drivers were not happy about the fixed fares when they went into effect in 2016. Really, I don't blame them about that but the bad apples have to stop these little rip offs.

JHK is correct. The correct price should have been 54€ since the taxi was called when you needed it and not, for example, the night before.

All the other "charges" were, as you suspect, bogus.

I'm really sorry that the taxi driver took advantage of you like that. That stinks.

(The concierge was also correct to say it should have been a max of 57 -- that's if the taxi had been reserved the previous night.)

Sorry that happened to you , you did get ripped off and your friend over tipped , but in the scheme of things I guess all you can do is live and learn and let it go , hope rest of trip was memorable in a better way !

This week we had a cabby in the CDG line put a 2.60 flag drop fee in and then 7 Euros (the pre-order charge) although we just got the cab in the line and was prepared to run the meter. I indicated that the fare to our destination in the 13th was 55 Euro and he immediately cancelled all of that and put 55 in the meter and that is what we paid.

Taxis should not be tipped unless they perform an extra service, certainly not more than a couple of Euro. I gave the driver 5 Euro last fall because I had an arm in a cast and he got my luggage from the apartment foyer and was very solicitious of handling for me at launch and at the airport. It is disgusting to get ripped off like this and then pay a huge tip on top of that.

This is the way official Paris taxis will lose out to Uber. They have always had an impeccable reputation and now the attempts at petty grift are undermining that. Before fixed fees we had never paid more than 45 Euro to right bank destinations from the airport and back -- so the fixed fees are not set particularly low; they are reliable though.

Why would the doorman give this price? It seems like you were not part of the conversation between the doorman and your companion so you don't know for a fact that the doorman said it or that the conversation even occurred. The conversation could have happened but your companion misheard or misunderstood what the doorman meant. The doorman could have included a tip in the amount without making that clear, for example. The conversation may not have happened and your companion may have made something up on the spot to make the discussion with you about cab fares and tipping end. Of course, the doorman could have said it as part of some sort of kickback scheme but that seems highly unlikely given how you got the taxi.

It wouldn't surprise me if the doorman did indeed give you that figure to get something out of it from the taxi driver that he referred to you. Sadly that is not unheard of, to say the least.

So what exactly was the overcharge? 5 euro ? 7 euro? "Grossly overcharged" may be overstating it a bit.

Seems like the overcharge was 8€. Not a huge amount of money in the scheme of things but it is 15% more than it should have been. I wouldn't characterize that as grossly overcharged but they were overcharged and those euros add up for the driver. The "grossly overcharged" is probably a reaction to the 70€ spent In total but 8€ of that was the companion choosing to tip. You can't blame the driver for that.

The 'gross' thing about the gross overcharge here is that it is calculative grift. The short changer who got me for a Euro in the metro in Rome didn't get much money, but it is a sign of a deeply corrupt beureaucracy when entrenched grift is part of doing business. Taxi drivers who do this are not 'making a mistake' or 'overcharging'; they are cheating customers calculatively and you can bet every time they get the chance. In my case, if I had questioned the charge and had not been both knowledgeable and assertive, I have no doubt he would have mumbled something about the 'flag drop charge' and the 'approach fee' to justify the 10 Euros of pure grift.

To add a tip to a grift makes a fool of the passenger and adds insult to injury. But then someone who doesn't learn the tipping customs of a country is also not likely to be aware they are being ripped off.

I like Janet's point of view.