Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.04.2012, Qupperneq 4

Dear Sir or Madam
I want to make a complaint to the Icelandic
tourist board, about a practice I encountered
on my last visit whereby taxi drivers in Reyk-
javik start running the meter up early when
they are called to pick up customers that are
obviously tourists.
Specifically, on the 4th Feb, I asked my
hotel to call a taxi to take me to the domes-
tic airport, for 8.15 am. I arrived at the front
of the hotel with all my luggage at what I
thought was 8.15 am. Once I had loaded my
bags and got in the cab I realised the driver
had already been running up the meter for a
few minutes, it was stating 1700 kr, unlike
the usual 500 kr.
I complained to the driver who said that
it is company policy to start the meter at ex-
actly the time the taxi is ordered, and I sub-
sequently called the operator who confirmed
that this was the case. However, I have been
travelling to Iceland for three years and have
never encountered this practice before, when
I have got taxi's with local friends. I am cer-
tain (and my friends agree) that the meter
was run up because I am a tourist.
I am sure that the taxi company would
never try and pull this stunt off on a local
person because you could
• reject the ride and just call a different
taxi company (there are enough taxi's driv-
ing around the center of Reykjavik)
• lose trust in the taxi company and avoid
using them again.
Overall, I find it rather depressing that tour-
ists are being exploited in this way. Taxi
fares are expensive enough in Reykjavik. If
the tourist in question realises they've been
overcharged, it gives a terrible impression of
the Icelandic people. You need to act to cur-
tail this.
I really hope you will act on this email
Yours faithfully
Neil Holdsworth
PS: The taxi company in question was Hrey-
fill. As they are Reykjavik's biggest taxi firm,
I doubt that this practice is confined to this
company.
Dear Neil,
Thank you for sending us a copy of this letter.
We just called up Hreyfill and got the low-
down on fares. Are you ready for this?
The metre starts at 600 ISK unless you
ordered a taxi for 5-8 people. In that case it
starts at 780 ISK. It does not start when the
taxi is ordered. It starts the moment the taxi
arrives to pick you up. The taxi has a sophisti-
cated computer that charges you per minutes
when the taxi is stationary. So if your taxi hits
a bunch of red lights or gets held up in traffic,
this metre is running. Are you ready for the
break down?
After one minute, you pay 135 ISK
Two minutes, 270 ISK
Three minutes, 404 ISK
Four minutes, we didn’t catch what she said
for four minutes
Five minutes, 674 ISK
Ten minutes, 1348 ISK
From ten minutes on, you pay every ten min-
utes…
After twenty minutes, you pay 2695 ISK…
Right, so don’t take a taxi during Gay
Pride.
Now, of course you also pay per kilometer.
During the daytime hours 8AM to 5PM, you
pay 299 ISK for the first kilometer and 187
ISK/km thereafter. During nighttime hours
5PM to 8AM, you pay 372 ISK for the first ki-
lometre and 247 ISK/km thereafter.
Wow. We hope that helps. Unless you
spent ten minutes fixing your hair before
coming downstairs it sounds like you were
scammed. That’s totally lame.
Our sincerest condolences,
GV

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Hi,
My partner and I had the pleasure of coming
to Iceland for the first time a couple of weeks
ago and absolutely loved your country.
However when doing research and reading
local press such as your own publication,
I was surprised at the height of negativity
within Iceland press about yourselves and
the current financial crisis.
Think everyone appreciates how tough the
global economies are right now and whilst
its always good to use lessons learnt about
our prior attitudes, I think sometimes its too
easy to focus on the bad.
And seriously what a fantastic experience
we had. We were made to feel welcome right
from the start – Iceland Air is a credit (es-
pecially compared to other national airlines
and I am a frequent f lyer) but throughout our
stay - the taxi driver, the hotel staff, the tour
guides, the restaurant staff, fellow drinkers
in the bars and everyone is just so friendly,
helpful and chatty - certainly not the case in
London! The geological wonders are obvious
but you have so much more and should re-
member this, celebrate this and make sure
you can do all you can to keep this.. the nega-
tivity should be kept in reality to ensure such
a situation doesn't happen again but again
you need to remind yourselves not every-
thing is doom and gloom
Looking forward to coming back!

Warm Regards
Shaun
Dear Shaun,
We’re really happy that you had such a great
time in our country. And we’re glad that you
didn’t get Neil’s taxi driver. And you’re right.
All this negativity can be exhausting and we
should keep in mind that it’s not all doom
and gloom. It’s only been overcast and rainy
here for the last THREE MONTHS straight!
Oh… there we go being all negative again. No
wonder we’re no longer the happiest people
in the world.
While we could do with some more positivity,
we certainly don’t want to report exclusively
on Icelanders spotting Merlins eating small
birds. If we did that, who knows what our
politicians and bankers and other authorities
would get up to…
Anyways, do come back and say hello next
time!
The Grapevine
Hello Anna,

You can write very nice,last you told me you
eat only natural products,but now you eat
pizza and spagetti, I think you are getting fat
from pizza,now it is 18 degrees in holland,
you can wear your bikini and make bikini fo-
to’s, If you have less time it is not neccessary
to e-mail me each day,I can wait some days.
In Holland we have financial crises,people
don’t buy clothes,how is that in your clothing
store,is it busy,do many people buy clothes
?Your e-mails are not boring, I like them.
Kisses,
Hans.
Greetings Hans,
Thank you for your letter. It was not entirely
boring.
Someone tweeted this the other day:
“Never buy a pizza from Iceland....Never!!!
Fookin' rank!” They must be talking about
that grocery store. The pizza here is all right.
We get Gamla Smiðjan at the office every
once in a while. We’re pretty into letter N but
sometimes we order V. It depends on how
we feel at the time. And then sometimes we
order a 2-litre coke to go with it. People prob-
ably still buy clothes. At least most people
don’t walk around naked and the stores are
mostly still standing.
Good-bye!
Anna
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