I have this bad experience in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. The logo at the taxi show that the taxi belong to Mai Linh taxi. I dont know if it's real or fake.The taxi number is 52V - 2258.

May be it's our mistakes (my friend and I), for not really look carefully at the taxi. We get a taxi from Ben Thahn Market to our hotel less than 1km from that market. It is already dark, and we are too tired to walk back, so we decide to take a taxi.

After a few minutes (I think it s less than 5 minutes), we reach our hotel. Usually, if we took a taxi, they will drop us right in front of our hotel, but this fella drop us some 100m away from the hotel. the meter showed 951, i was a bit surprise, because if it's 951VND, it is damn cheap. So, i gave him 1000VND, he start screaming at us. So, I try to gave him 10,000VND, still screaming, finally, I show him 100,000. Only then I understand than he really wanted 951,000VND for that damn short ride. We tried to get out, only then we noticed he has altered his car so that we cant open the door, we cant open the window. And we noticed the dark tinted. The damn driver start driving away from our hotel, threaten to bring us the the police, which I am very happy if the damn driver really do it. Again, he cheated us, he bring somewhere, we dont know where. After more than 10-15 minutes of driving, we still cant find the ""Police Station"", I finally start screaming and knocking the window, tried to get help. He was DAMN angry, and stop the car. My friend finally BEG him, and asked him how much he really want. He still ask for 951,000VND, which, luckily we dont have it that time. I tried to rationalized with the damn driver, that we usually pay around 20,000VND for that short ride. After a very long minutes of screaming, begging and crying (ya, my friend did cried because she was damn scared that night), we (???) finally came to a conclusion that it is only misunderstanding(?????). He actually asked for 95,100 and he dont have change if we gave him 100,000. By the way, when first I show 100,000VND, he already took it and keep it. After we already REALIZED of the misunderstanding, he asked for another 100,000VND (because he already forget about the first 100,000VND, even after we reminded him), so we gave him anyway, as long as he bring us back to the hotel. He even promoting that there is no BAD people in Vietnam, all are good, good people - how sweet of him. After that scary experience, in our way back to the hotel, he even tried to have a light chat with us, asking where are we coming from. He even pointed us to his friend when another taxi pass by our taxi, sooo sweet, as if nothing ever happen before. My advise :-

i) Be extra careful when you are in Vietnam. No matter how tired you are, please be very choosy when you want to use a taxi service.

ii) Avoid car with dark tinted.

iii) If u ride with friend, one person go in first, close the door and try to open from inside. If you cannot do it, at least your friend still can open from out side and save yourself.

iv) If your see a taxi, waiting for so long, but another taxi comes and goes, dont use their service, maybe it is bad taxi.

v) Always store local emergency numbers in your handphone.

vi) Ask the locals, hotels about tips on how to choose a taxi, and trust them, because they knows better. They have been living with this very very bad people for  a long time, so please accept their advise.

vii) Trust your guts, if you dont feel good to use any taxis, dont use them. Looked very carefully until you satisified.

Bad things do happen to everyone, so take extra efforts to avoid them.

almost the same thing happened to us. but from airport to district 1. the taxi was heavily tinted and we couldnt open the door from inside. before we reached the hotel (the meter was almost 1 million dong), he took out some dodgy looking cut out coupons which demand us to pay for taxes. for airport toll and parking. we refused and told each other that we will check with hotel reception. not long after that, the taxi 'broke' down and we wanted to get out but we couldnt open the door. one of my friend managed to wind down the window and open from outside and let us all out. but traffic was heavy and he couldnt have driven off. now that i think back abt it, he could have just driven off with our luggages in the trunk.

bloody fking idiot, i hope the dodgy taxi drivers die in 1 million pieces.

this taxi experience also happened to us! we had a very nice dinner at ben than market that night and decided to get a taxi from the night market..we wer juz so quiet and tired at the back seat of the car when the driver said is this ur hotel and we said yes...he didnt park it in front of it and instead parked it a couple of meters away from the hotel...he stopped the taxi and we asked how much..he goes 951,000 dong...so that's $50..my mom and i looked at each other and wer so shocked bec. we juz paid 40,000 dong from our hotel  goin to the opera house and now this driver is askin us to pay 951,000 dong...isnt this a shocked to everyone riding a taxi? how come this drivers can do this to tourist...please arrest these people...how can they ever come back to ho chich min if they have these kind of drivers! goodnyt vietnam! beware of these taxis...

I did experience the same thing... Taxi from airport to district 1 cost me VND1,000,000. And the driver drive like crazy. Many people said that Vietnamese are friendly and kind but i think the number of that people included in that category much lower than what they wrote, my opinion, even though the driver looks nice and friendly, just choose the two most reliable taxi company in Vietnam. Such a shame that even though that taxi using meter but government never do check or inspection to make sure that it works well, this kind of people who bring bad name to Vietnam.

My bf and I got cheated in Hanoi too. We were out from Hanoi hotel and enquire about the charges to our hotel in old quarter at the tourist counter in the airport. They quoted us 30USD and we thought it was way more expensive than the usual 18USD that was said by our hotel's website. So we decided to go out of the airport to look for cheaper alternative. A guy dressed smartly asked us where we want to go and he quoted us 450,000Dong for 2 person which was slightly below 30USD. He even showed us his licence. So we decided to take it.  And we got in the cab, we realised that the cab driver wasn't the one that quoted us and it was another guy that was already in the cab. We didnt question much on that. The next minute we knew we were being drove to a very dark open space carpark with taxi cars and taxi drivers around. We even saw a bunch of taxi drivers and a policeman squating and gambling. We were so shocked with all the glances from those taxi drivers. A while later, we were asked to changed taxi and we changed. And we were in the new taxi, another guy (one of their own people) came in as well. So there were 2 of them in front and my bf and I were seated at the back. Such a weird situation. Why on earth would they want 2 staffs in the taxi to just drive us from airport to our hotel? Along the way, one of them(not driving) began talking to us. Asked us where we came from, how long we are going to stay in hanoi etc. I knew we were in the wrong taxi so I asked my bf to ignore them and don talk to them much. Along the way 2 of them just keep recieving calls and making calls out and we were so afraid that we wont be able to reach our hotel safely and it was really dark at that time. When we finally reach hotel, even before we reached and before they knew the exact location of our hotel(they asked us the blk no. only when they reached the street) they asked us to take out money. We make sure we reached the hotel then we took out 450,000dong to them. And their face changed when they only saw 450,000dong. They asked for more. And I said the man who quoted us the price said this was the amount for 2person. And they fiercely said it was only for 1 person and don allow us to get out the cab. Seeing how fierce they were and knowing we are still safe outside our hotel, my bf just passed them another 450,000dong. We were really dissappointed with Vietnam and wouldnt recommend friends and family to go back there again. Vietnamese are not as friendly as what is written online and it was kind of dangerous. We were lucky we are stilll safe.

You can avoid taxi scam by booking private airport transfer service in advance. For my last trip to Viet Nam, I got cheated in Hanoi. I and driver agreed on a price for the trip, let’s say $20.00, then once I arrived at my hotel the cabbie seems to remember agreeing on $35.00.

We argued 10 minutes and I paid to get peace in my mind. I did not want this thing destroy my holiday.

For next trip to Da Nang, Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh city, I did some searches and found this great site: www.yourlocalbooking.com. It is online booking engine and instant confirmation

The price is reasonable. Prices are a bit more than a cab and a lot less than a hotel transfer. Gives you piece of mind, especially if you are flying in late and don't want the taxi haggling hassles. We got what we pay for

Their customer service was excellent! When we met our driver at arrival hall, the representative gave me a call, take care of us. She also checked my flight status because there was a typhoon coming. That was really great. I did not expect.

This is hotline: + 84 979 58 77 44 or support@yourlocalbooking.com