Excellent Taxi

This app is supposed to make booking and paying for a local taxi more convenient, but somehow it makes the entire experience MORE inconvenient. Every single time I book and PAY for a ride through the Excellent Taxi app, the driver gets to my destination and expects me to pay again. Why do the drivers NEVER know whether a passenger has already paid through the app or is supposed to pay cash? What is the point of offering in-app booking and payment if that information isn’t clearly communicated to the driver? And this isn’t a minor inconvenience. Multiple times I’ve arrived at my destination and then had to sit in the vehicle for another 5+ minutes, with the doors locked, while the driver calls the dispatcher/company to figure out whether I’ve already paid. The worst experience was when a driver who didn’t speak much English put the dispatcher on the phone with me. The dispatcher actually went back and forth with me, insisting that I had NOT booked or paid through the app, that they had no record of it, and that I still owed the fare. This entire argument was happening while I was sitting in the locked taxi IN MY OWN DRIVEWAY. I repeatedly gave them my name and explained that I had already paid through the app. After telling them my name for probably the fifth time, suddenly they were able to find my ride and confirm that—surprise—I HAD ALREADY PAID. If this happened once, I could understand a technical issue or simple mistake. But this happens EVERY TIME I use the app. Excellent Taxi seriously needs to upgrade its technology and communication between the app, dispatchers, and drivers. If your system can’t reliably tell a driver that a passenger has already paid, then you are not ready to offer app-based payments. I specifically tried this company because it operates locally in Rockland County and I thought it would be more convenient than using Uber or Lyft. Instead, it has been the complete opposite. I’ll be going back to Uber/Lyft and will only consider Excellent Taxi when I have some extra cash lying around. At this point, they might as well stick to calling dispatch, ordering a cab, and paying cash like back in the day, because that’s clearly where their system is still stuck. The app and payment platform are simply not ready yet.