Termini Taxi Ripoff

They said the distance was too short.

I doubt there's much to be done. My guess would be that if they had to wait in line at a taxi stand, they wanted to make the wait worthwhile and didn't want a quick trip? If that's the case, were it ever to happen again, she could try walking away from the station and getting a taxi that happens to be driving by.

Or summon an Uber.

Or check the bus schedule and maybe take a bus. Or walk.

Google Maps is good for finding schedules and routes for how to get where with the amount of time it will take to do that, using different kinds of transportation, including feet. I used it constantly when I was in Rome in 2017.

Another first poster who comes here to claim a "ripoff".

Too bad you or your wife didn't come here before the trip. There's plenty of warnings against using unlicensed taxis. Chalk it up to learning the hard way.

Unfortunately, no

Final cost was an outrageous 36 euros. Is there any recourse when a licensed taxi refuses to take a fare?

As others have written, no. The police cannot do anything because there is no ID# or Cabbie info they can trace back to.

For future travelers reading

https://www.romewise.com/taxi-in-rome.html
https://www.romewise.com/taxi-in-rome.html#avoid-taxi-ripoff-rome

A couple of miles from Termini -- A bus may or may not have helped or been available. And, the women would need to run into Termini to buy BIT (tickets)

Lugging luggage, being tired or jet-lagged, maybe very late arrival, unfamiliar territory, giddyness of "being in Rome" -- a lot of factors play into it.

And, not every traveler knows about this travel forum. Some come on and exclaim that they just learned of it through a friend or found it happenstance while browsing.

It is shame about the false fare. An experience for sure but not a nice welcome to Rome.

Hopefully, if they are still on their trip, they are kicking back and enjoying some wine! If they already returned, then hopefully their visit to Rome was fun.

I don't know if a Rome taxi driver can legally refuse to take a fare for such a short route, but I can understand why those drivers who have been queuing outside the station would be reluctant to do so. However Termini is a 'two-way' destination with legal taxis arriving to drop off passengers and not joining the pick-up queue. I wonder if those pointing elsewhere were actually asking your wife to take one of those, rather than an unlicensed cab. It does seem unlikely a proper taxi would actually promote an illegal one.

I wonder if those pointing elsewhere were actually asking your wife to take one of those, rather than an unlicensed cab. It does seem unlikely a proper taxi would actually promote an illegal one.

Nick brings up a very good point. Could be -- tiredness, language or a misunderstanding (as pointed out)

It's not clear whether the women were arriving at Termini from another city or from the airport. If it was from the airport then, as is frequently recommended, taking a regulated taxi or shuttle service from the airport directly to ones lodging avoids this issue. Just a thought for future travelers.

How odd - we didn’t have any trouble with our taxi ride from Termini for the same distance. We did have trouble facing down the aggressive, presumably unlicensed, driver who stood right in front of the queue for the taxi rank and wanted us to go with him. It was pretty obvious he was rogue, but he did finally snare someone behind us. In our case it was a pouring rain Sunday and there’s was a long wait, but the driver didn’t seem to mind the distance (or lack of).

First, I can't understand why would anyone get on The car of an unlicensed driver without having agreed a price

Then I can't get why would anyone give him the extortionate fare he asks.

But above all I can't understand why would anyone trust a rogue driver that's also aggressive and stays between you and the licensed drivers!

"which was only a mile and a half from Termini. All the licensed taxis refused to take them."

That certainly differs from my experiences. I tend to stay at one or two hotels which are close to Termini, probably about the same distance, and I've never been refused by the licensed taxi drivers.

I've dealt with the unlicensed taxis in Rome in the past, and always ask the price in advance. If it's too high, I tell them their prices are too expensive and start to walk away. In most cases one of their colleagues will offer to make the trip for a more reasonable price.

Back in 2012 a taxi refused to take us from the Vatican to our hotel at Campo di Fiore because the distance wasn’t far enough, and that was with my 85 year old mother right there. We walked around the corner and found another driver more than willing to transport us.

That certainly differs from my experiences.

Ken, a possible explanation is that in August many cars are driven by substitute drivers who have only one month to make as much money as possible.

As a side note, I doubt you stumbled upon real unlicensed cabs. They are almost nonexistent in Italy and confined within specific ethnic groups. Most of the times those preying on foreign tourists are licensed limo drivers (aka NCC) who are illegally working as cabs. I pity these free-lance drivers, because of companies like RomeCabs they make less and less money every summer; Nevertheless I'd really appreciate if you did not give money to tax cheaters. You know, I'm the one who will be forced to pay for their health care and retirement checks.

Dario,

"Nevertheless I'd really appreciate if you did not give money to tax cheaters. You know, I'm the one who will be forced to pay for their health care and retirement checks."

I use unlicensed cabs as little as possible. The one incident that comes to mind took place one afternoon near the Vatican. It was late in the afternoon and I was suffering severe foot pain and needed to get to a clinic in the Piazza Navona area. I was a bit unfamiliar with that area and didn't see any licensed cabs, and was too tired and too sore to go look for the licensed versions. The first cab driver I approached gave me an outrageous fee estimate so I told him "è troppo caro" and started to walk away. Before I had walked too far, one of the others standing nearby (who may have sensed my predicament) offered to transport me for a much more reasonable fee. Needless to say, I accepted the offer and he kept his word.

I wasn't aware of the issues with the unlicensed cabs so will try to avoid them in future. Thanks for the info.

If it's any consolation, I also have to pay for tax cheaters and scammers who don't pay their fare share.

After a long day of walking we wanted to take a taxi from the Colosseum to our hotel in Trastevere. At the Colosseum ticket booth we were told that the nearest taxi stand was on the other side of the Colosseum up the hill so we started walking. After getting half way up the hill a couple of regular Rome taxis stopped to let out passengers and others who were walking up the hill jumped in to take an unoccupied taxis. We approached the next one who quoted us 25€ for our not very far ride. We knew the fare should only be about 10€. We kept walking up to the taxi stand and got a taxi who only charged us 10€. Lesson learned, only take a taxi from a taxi stand do not get in an official one on the street. They don’t seem to use a metered rate and quote whatever they want.

We were also a little reluctant to have a business call a taxi for us but we did this one day from Eaterly in Rome when we realized there weren’t any nearby stands. I think the fare was only about 3-4€ more than what it had taken to get us there and we thought this was a very fair price for having to have a taxi called for us.

The solution would have been to record the taxi number (usually a city name plus a number, for example Torino12), then call the municipal police at the refusal by the official taxi driver to take your wife.
The taxi service is a public service and a taxi driver cannot refuse to provide the service as a condition to keep the license. Failure to do so results in the suspension of the taxi license (in most regions for 30 to 90 days). Unfortunately the habit of refusing service when the distance is brief is a common malpractice by taxi drivers (especially at Malpensa where they want to take you only to the city of Milan for the 95€ fare), and not only with foreigners. They do it more often with foreigners because many Italians fight back and report them.

Hi
The warnings have been around for years, and my experience at Termini, is unregistereds spotters will attempt to get you in a car even before you get to the taxi rank. It’s no different from those who frequent the ticket machine areas “offering help” and pickpockets.
They are a fact of travel life. You need to be aware and deal with it.
No one ripped Your wife and her friend off, they put themselves in that position.

Regards

Tclune,
You may find the following amusing excerpt from our TR to be of interest:

'A second misunderstanding occurred at Rome’s Termini Station and this time, I could not claim that hearing shortcomings were to blame. Maybe the cause was lack of sleep due to an unholy early train departure time (from Trani via Bari). We had been warned not to trust Termini taxis drivers there, and that the maximum fare to our Monti rental should be no more than 7 euros. So, when our turn came at the head of the line, I sternly asked the young driver whether his taxi metre was working. He was a bit taken aback and pointed to his perfectly-functioning meter. In short order, we pulled up in front of our rental and the driver kindly commenced to unload our pair of suitcases. He mumbled some total fees, which I misunderstood to mean were to be combined as extra amounts for the heavy bags. For all my “Ain’t nobody gonna’ rip us off!” bravado, I ended up paying the driver more than he asked! Eedyawt!! Eedyawt!!!'

I am done. The end.