I am an absolutely huge proponent of Uber - ever since its launch in Toronto about ~2 years (I think) ago. I love Uber. I use it all the time, it's extremely convenient, reasonably priced, just generally awesome. I've met some amazing drivers, heard some awesome stories, yeah: Uber is awesome.

Typically (before Uber Pool) when I'm traveling within the city I use Uber Taxi as the drivers know how to get places without fucking up and sometimes you just need a piece of shit driver with no consideration for others to get to where you need to go (sorry cyclists) as fast as possible. During those rides in the taxi, while holding my breath wondering how something could smell so fucking bad, I've had many many maaaaaaaaany conversations with drivers - all who curse Uber to death. I listen, we converse, I let them know why Uber is great but I also do empathize with them as nobody likes it when a superior services comes along and takes business away from them. Understandable, definitely. I've actually never really had a problem with taxis when I was using Uber - I've had many cab drivers tell me the companies they represent have banned the use of Uber as well, so I figured for the week of December 12 - December 16 I would use Beck Taxi just to experience why everyone hates on Beck for myself.

Monday + Tuesday wasn't so bad, 10-15 minute ETAs turned into 20-25 minute wait times, however when I call for cars it's typically between 830-9 AM or 6-630 PM. Understandable, rush hour is busy. Alright - the week shouldn't be so bad right? I was pretty optimistic.

On Wednesday I called a cab at 7 PM and the nice lady on the phone said "we'll cya in 10-15 minutes". I went downstairs at 7:12 PM - a nice median in my mind, and holy shit it was cold. I waited in the cold until 7:20 PM... still no car. I instinctively pull out my phone to check where the fucker is - ahh right. I called it in. How stupid of me. So I call back: no answer. I call again: no answer. I called 7 times total. No answer and no cab. At this point, I download the Beck app and request a cab. The guy confirms after 10 minutes and it's 8 PM now. He's about 10 minutes away so in the meantime I call Imperial? (I can't remember) and request a cab. The dude was there within 5 minutes and I was on my way.

Ahhh Thursday. This morning was absolutely amazing. I woke up at 7:30 AM to prepare for a meeting I had at 9 AM. Got ready for the day, then my meeting, then at about 8 AM I think about what time I should call because of my lovely experience with the app. I call and request a cab for 8:30 AM to my place and I explain that I've had poor experience this week and I really do need this cab and if need be the cab can come earlier and just give me a call and I'll be down within a minute, MAX. No call. I pull out the app JUST IN CASE and request a car. It's 8:40, my originally requested car is still not there and the app shows a car has accepted my ride but has been sitting in one spot 10 minutes away and hasn't moved at all. It's nearing 9 AM and I know that I'm fucked now. I call in, I explain I requested a car for 8:30 AM and it's not here and that on the app I have a car that has taken my request but is sitting in one spot. The lady on the phone says she will call him and get him moving. Fine. After about 3 minutes I see the driver moving towards my location finally, and when he gets there at ~9:10 AM I cant' see him anywhere. He doesn't call. The lady on the phone confirmed my phone number and confirmed he would call on arrival. I can't see him ANYWHERE. He fucking cancels on me after 5 minutes while im on the phone with the woman in the call center to find out where the fuck is because the Beck Taxi app doesn't give you a way to contact the fucking driver. Then I call again, get another woman, and she tells me she's sending another car. This is the third fucking car. At this point it's 9:30 AM. I find another taxi company (I can't remember which it happened so fast) and hop in the car - I get to work for 9:50 AM and I'm fucking late, I have to push my meeting back, and Beck didn't even get me there after doing everything on my part to ensure I'll have a car.

Yes, I do understand what rush hour is. I understand that cab drivers may pick up people on the fly to be as efficient as possible. But what the fuck is the point of the call center and the app? They're absolutely fucking useless. Unless you hail a cab down on the street - it seems like you're fucked. I fucking hate Beck. In my personal experience, and I would hate to sound hateful, but the cars are absolutely disgusting, personal hygiene is hardly considered (if at all), their app functions as though it was built off of some cookie cutter app designer, and their call center is absolutely fucking horrendous. As aforementioned, I used to be all about the Uber Taxis but I'm not even trying to do that anymore. Fuck Taxis. How can they complain so vehemently when they are pushing a sub par service with over premium pricing? I used to do Toronto to Ajax almost every day for ~$45 when a cab would be $120. I've done well over 300 Uber rides - in that I've only had maybe 4 issues.

Let me drop the TL;DR for you right now: Beck Taxi can suck my mother fucking dick. They're fucking pieces of shit and their internal call center is a complete fucking mess. Fuck Beck, I will never use a taxi in general in my fucking entire life I'm so mad right now I'm about to skate the Rideau fuck it I don't give a shit.