I use Gator City every month I travel back to home to Jacksonville International Airport. Their taxi stand is very convenient when I don't have a ride home.
On June 22 at around 5:00 p.m., I took a Gator City cab ride where the driver (a large, African American man with a strong accent) asked me (after we left the airport) that he wanted cash for the ride. I explained that I would pay the actual with my American Express and pay his tip in cash. He agreed.
Then for the next 36 minutes spoke on his cell phone (at the top of his lungs) to two different people (one he said was his pastor). He did not once concentrate on driving but talking incessantly on the phone.
When we were one minute away from reaching my destination, he hung up and put on soft music on the radio - Luckily my husband, who an attorney was at the destination when I arrived and I asked him (my husband) to retrieve my suitcase from the trunk of this taxi. I did not want this driver to drive off without my gathering my suitcase after I paid him for the fare.
When I gave the driver, my American Express card - he had no pen to write with ( I gave him mine to keep) and he gave me a handwritten receipt to sign with the amount, no date, no company name, no credit card information. He did scratch off on a carbon sheet my account number, not on the original sign sheet.
(Very shady).
The fare was $59.00 from JIA to Orange Park. I tipped him $7 because of the horrible experience.
I will never use Gator City again.
Pros: Airport Access
Cons: Bad Driver - Distracted the Whole Ride To My Destination
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