Directions to Ibis Hotel in Berlin from Tegel Airport

[Dicebot via Digitalmars-d]

On 05/03/2016 01:14 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> I arrived as well. I foolishly chose to ignore this thread and assumed
> taking the taxi from the airport to the hotel is a proper choice. So I
> hop on the taxi and ask if he takes credit. He says no taxi at the
> airport does. So I walk to an ATM and get some Euros, then hop back in
> the cab. There's no driver/car identification displayed inside and I see
> no meter. I ask where the meter is, he says it's on the left (where I
> can't see what it shows).
> 
> We get to the hotel, he says it's 76 Euros. I'm like, Jesus this is
> high. He goes, yeah Tegel is far away from this hotel, next time try to
> book the other airport. I ask for a receipt, he handwrites me one on a
> standard form with no stamp and no identification.
> 
> As I walk to the reception I ask the receptionist what's the usual taxi
> price to the airport and sure enough I paid twice the usual. I mention
> what I paid and to her credit she makes an effort to call the number on
> the receipt and tries to figure out what happened. They say they can't
> do anything without a stamp on the receipt so she suggests I call the
> police and try to get his plates off of some security cameras. I figure
> life is too short to press on, but this is quite the bummer - Germany
> was really the last place where I assumed this kind of stuff cannot
> happen. In fact it was the reason for which I didn't heed the
> non-visible meter warning; something similar did happen to me in
> Romania, in a very different era.
> 
> 
> Andrei

As it was already mentioned, Berlin is the least german city in the
whole Germany - but this sounds like some very bad luck even for Berlin :(