Blueline Taxis 4+

During this pandemic ( Covid ) I’ve had to use a taxi a fair few times, Phoenix taxis are the other company around my area.

Hands down blue line are the best, there cheaper, friendlier, but what impressed me was the operator told me they were short on drivers in my area when I booked one, then rang me when it was due to update me, yes it was 25 minutes late but during these times it’s understandable, hats off to Blueline and there customer service, Highly recommended!!

I really like Blueline as a company but the transactions via the app needs fixing. It’ll charge you when you book, but if the end price is more (which is sometimes the case, and this I can understand in some circumstances) then you get charged twice. Sometimes you don’t have enough money to be charged twice! I almost got stuck with a driver at the airport because I paid the initial £25 fee when booking, but because it cost £26 the payment rejected as it tried taking a full £26 rather than the additional £1 needed. This was a day before payday for me - I was flying back home and so I didn’t have enough to essentially be charged twice. Thankfully the driver was understanding to a degree - he took a pic of my ID and I promised to bank transfer to him next day, which I did and then I got the £25 back from Blueline! V strange mechanism and needs adjusting… either charge the max fee and refund what isn’t spent, or charge the max fee and only take the extra charges accrued?

Considering cost of living these days this might leave a lot of people unstuck and cause undue stress. I was lucky I had a driver that gave me the benefit of the doubt!

Regular customer of Blueline using the app around 5 times a week with no issues until the new version which I updated this morning.
As things stand I no longer appear to be able to add a tip when booking and I can’t find anywhere to save my regular addresses for trips to favourites. The app is also less instinctive to navigate than it previously was with less features. Trying to work out if your taxi is on the way took some doing. Previously it was really clear.
Overall disappointing.
I am now paying a waiting charge. Now given that I was outside prior to taxis arrival I know it wasn’t a waiting charge so I assume it’s the standing charge that is on the meter at the start of the journey so I recommend renaming this as it’s misleading.
The absence of a clearly signposted tip function is the thing which disappoints me the most. Like many people I don’t really carry cash since COVID, but equally I have been brought up to always tip taxi drivers. Updated the app today and have had to take two journeys where I had no means of adding a tip which leaves me feeling incredibly uncomfortable. Neither of my drivers seemed to be clear either on if I’d paid suggesting the app is less intuitive at their end too.
I really hope the app is tweaked quickly as it’s such a reduction in service from the previous version that I am considering switching taxi companies