Radio Cab

There is a reason cabs are a dying industry. Made reservations for a 4:15 am pick for a morning flight. Weather was an issue so I call the night before to make sure they would have someone available to pick me up on time. They said that they are a 24 hr service and a driver would be assigned. I live in the suburbs so I called at 4:00 am to confirm that a driver was heading my direction. They hadn't assigned a driver and did not have an eta. I hung up, got on Uber and was on my way by 4:20. When I cancelled the cab, they still didn't have a driver assigned.

Two stars because at least the receptionist answered the phone.

I had taken Radio Cab before, and it was OK. I decided to try it again, for a ride to the airport. I made a reservation on the phone, and was quoted $34. (This was a few dollars less than Über.)

The guy was on-time - but it went downhill from there. First, when I got into the back seat, I was confronted with two very bright LCD screens: one was a small flat-screen TV (with some garbage show playing), and the other a credit card 'reader' with a very bright screen, and a very bright backlit keyboard. It was dark outside, and these two screens, mounted side-by-side, completely blocked my chance to see forward, out the front of the vehicle. In addition, the headrest of that passenger seat was so high (to mount the TV) that you could only see the sun-visor above it (not even any windshield).

I asked the driver to turn off the TV show, and he did, but that left a really bright generic "welcome" screen, which could not be turned off. It was extremely negative experience, to be in the back of a vehicle at night, not be able to see forward at all, but have two super-bright screens directed right into my face, from 16" away. I could not even tell which streets he was using.

If that wasn't bad enough, when I tried to see forward by moving to the middle of the back seat, in order to try to get a glimpse of the forward view between the two front seats, I had to deal with a flexible plastic sheeting, which had been glued and taped to completely separate the front and rear seating areas. It went from left-to-right, from window-pillar to window-pillar, and top-to-bottom, being crudely taped to the roof headliner, and draped all the way down to near the floor in front of my feet. As it was thick material, and tucked, and folded - to conform to the backs of the seats in front of me, and the rear center console - it reflected and refracted light coming in. I could not make out anything useful at all, through it.

So, basically, I was in a closed, obstructed, tight fishbowl - vision almost blinded by the screens - that had all forward view blocked, with the only way to see out being to look sideways, 90-degrees to the direction of travel. It was horrible.

There's more: When we were coming off the freeway in the vicinity of NE Portland, I saw the taxi-meter roll through $34, the fare I was quoted by the dispatcher (who knew my home address without even asking, from records of my previous ride). As we entered the airport grounds, the meter rolled through $41, and I lost track of how high it ended up as we reached the curb.

I tried to inquire of the driver why the indicated fare was about $8 more than the quote, and either his English wasn't good enough to deal with the question, or he deliberately tried to pretend he didn't understand the question, because he made a lot of noise about "where my house was located" (Ladd's Addition, well-known to drivers and dispatchers). I gave him $40, which equaled more than a 17% tip added to what I had been quoted. He was fuming. But it was me who had gotten ripped-off!

The whole experience was horrible, and I will never use Radio Cab again!

On September 4th I reserved a wheelchair cab for 9:20 the following morning for pick up.
Cab never came, called three times, was told it's coming. I had to cancel appointment.
At 11:15 two hours late I get a message "your cab has arrived " two hours late from a day before reserve. This company doesn't care. See my photos for proof. I have used Radio Cab before but NEVER again.

I was a regular with RC before COVID. Never any issues. Finally time to fly again and was quite disappointed in RC. Was confirmed to be picked up and no one arrived at the specified time. In addition, I always received a text message when the driver was on the way. I called and spoke with a young woman who couldn't have been more than 20 yrs old, obviously taking the call from her home. Said sorry, there is only one driver working Vancouver, and he is busy with another fare. No time frame when he can pick you up. Really??? No concern at all in her voice. I cancelled the fare. I am assuming there is a lack of drivers due to COVID and lack of demand. On a side note, called Lyft as a back up and they arrived 4 minutes later.

Twice in one day we tried to set up a pick up time and both times we called back after not showing up and we were told they didn't have any record of the appointment. We won't be using them again.

I waited over an hour for a cab, called back, talked to a dispatcher, was told it would be at least another 45 minutes, then the stupid woman hung up on me. I have been a regular user and tipper for 8 years and this is how they treat me.

2 months ago, the same thing happened when I had to wait over 2 hours with a cart full of groceries, some of which went bad. That day I ended up having to get a ride from a kind stranger.

Radio used to be decent, but now they just suck and don't care about their loyal customers.

INCOMPETENT! An hour late to pick me up for the airport. Rather than telling me that no driver was available, i was told that a driver would be there "soon". After 45 minutes waiting on the sidewalk at 6.15 in the morning, i finally jumped into my car and drive to the airport, costing me $120 in parking fees. I almost missed my flight, being the last person to board the plane as they were closing the craft door. I had reserved a Radio cab the day before.

Negligent and clueless. Scheduled a wheelchair cab to pick up my elderly mother to take her to a doctors appointment. Long story short, they were a no show and she missed her appointment. I called and the person who answered clearly didn't care and actually sounded like it was a regular occurrence. Wish I would have read the review on Yelp before scheduling. Seems like the City of Vancouver should take action on company like this.

What is the point of making a reservation in advance if you are going to text me at time of pick up that you don't have a driver. When I call to check, the dispatcher uses words like might, assume and maybe to describe if one would be here in n 10 minutes or so.

Follow up. RC service got so bad I switched to Yelp for a few months. More expensive but very fast arrival, in-app communication so I can ask them to come to the side entrance of my grocery store, whereas RC would consistently go to the other side, a block away, and then leave in 2 minutes. I'm happy to report that Radio Cab now has an app, ability to message drivers, pickup has been considerably quicker, and I save 3 bucks. Back in my good graces.