For all the complaints about HK taxi drivers, their still a hell of a lot better than $%#@ Uber.
They can't figure out routes and pick up locations.Original Post Deleted
And there's the way the GPS app says they are 7 mins away, 6 mins away ... 3 mins away and then the always veer off in a different direction and end up taking 20+ mins to arrive instead of the original 7 mins, require me to give directions, charge more than taxis, cancel after accepting a booking and on more than one occasion insist that they are "here" when they are at least 2 or 3 blocks away. They suck so badly in HK I will never use them again.
In fairness though, my experience in Auckland, London and Toronto has been a lot better. NY and Paris was mixed.
Pretty much depends. If you take the normal Uber you'll get crappy Honda's and Toyotas with cloth interior and drivers who can't speak English and don't know how to read a GPS most of the time now.Original Post Deleted
Uber Black has been a mixed bag for me as well. Sometimes you get great drivers in Teslas, sometimes you get bored middle-aged guys in a 5 series who can't speak much English either.
I take taxis regularly and have never experienced being overcharged in Hong Kong. I have also only had positive experiences with taxi drivers in Guangzhou. There was one exception which occurred late at night when taxis were difficult to find and the driver negotiated the price (not allowed) but I thought that I had little choice and agreed to pay over double to get home. However, he tried to say my RMB 100 note was a forgery and gave a forged note back to me. Unfortunately, he did not know that I had been ripped off by taxi drivers in nearly every Latin American country. I had remembered the first few digits of my note so his trick did not work! He was quite pleasant about it!
Been here 12 years, never got scammed by a cabbie. IMO shouting the destination to a deaf cabbie is the only problem I have. I just hope they shut up and drive however they want. I'm also fine with paying cash. All that said though I haven't stepped into one for a month, living on top of the MTR and next to rip off tunnel just makes it not worth taking a taxi.
I agree about all of those points. But for me in the times when I used it, it was just awful and I ended up wasting quite a lot of precious time... for airport pickups and drop-offs it's very good if you can pay extra.
We've seen visitors taking a taxi from the airport scammed slightly. And I have issues with their zealous tappy fingers and the "extra charges" button. I hate having to argue with them over this and things like adding a small extra bag to the trunk.
One place to watch out for is Sai Wan Pavilion in Sai Kung. There is no phone signal or evening bus service there, so drivers will wait and then charge several hundred for a ride back to Sai Kung. Seems they do this every weekend. (We walked instead and then called for a cab when we had signal... reported to police).
I would gladly volunteer my time to ticket parked idling vehicles. Pet peeve of mine.
I've taken a normal Uber in HK maybe 10 times, so not extensive experience but more than zero. I have never, ever had a "normal" car, it's always been a mix of those people carrier things (alphard?); electric vehicles (more than one tesla) and other "posh" type car (oh, one sports car, which I found a bit cramped but my friends loved).