Sunshine Yellow Cab

Doesn't Recommend

ACinLA

Joined 2 years ago

The Worst (and a scary experience to boot). I needed a cab today from Santa Monica and picked Sunshine Yellow Cab because of their high marks from Yelpers.

Probably the single worst cab experience I have had to date and I'm from NYC of all places.

Quick rundown:

* I was told the cab would be there in 5-10min, it took over 20min and several calls back to them during that time to make sure I had a cab on the way (I'm fine if a cab takes 20 min as long as you tell me that's how long it will take, just don't say "should be there in 5min").

* An unmarked car showed up. I confirmed that he was from the company because I had expected an actual taxi cab to show up. The driver was rude asking me where I was going before I opened up the back door.

* As we started heading east, I asked, "Is there a meter or is it a flat rate?" The driver answered "flat" (again, I expected a cab/meter) so I asked how much it would be to go the 8 miles east on Pico and he quoted me $35/40. I said that seems really high to go 8 miles straight down a single road so he called the office and said that's the price. Again, I said I thought I was getting a cab and that's as expensive as it would be to go to the airport I don't understand. I admit I don't take a lot of cabs in LA (I actually needed the cab to take me from a car repair place).

* The driver immediately jerked the car over to the side of Pico and said, "GET OUT." Mind you, at that point I was only genuinely surprised at how much the ride was costing me. Obviously, had I known it was a car service when I first called I would have asked that beforehand not once in the car.

* I said, "Excuse me?! What's your name?" The driver refused to answer me. I asked again, "What's your name?" He refused. Then turned around and yelled at me to get out and that he was going to call the cops at which point I laughed and said, "Please do!"

* He started to turn around in the front seat to face me and I honestly felt like he might grab my arm or something so I got out of the cab and he literally peeled away so fast there was smoke.

* I called Sunshine back (what I was attempting to do to double-check the price before the driver swerved over the side of the road to dump me) and didn't get an apology. In fact, he said "I'm not sure which car/driver you had" (um, that's a LIE - I said HE JUST CALLED YOU BEFORE DUMPING ME ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD)

* Guy on the phone made a half-hearted attempt to get me another cab. I told him not to bother - honestly I was dumped on the side of the road in a not-so-great location and had been treated quite terribly so took my chances on the bus.

Good luck to anyone else who thinks of using them.