“From Floody’s website article (17/11/08) about the great facilities at the Civic Theatre and his endorsement of the Phantom of the Opera, I thought it a good idea for me and Leonie (my 22yr old daughter with CP) to do the Wednesday matinee show on the 26th Nov.

We booked the tickets, and thought ‘why put up with the hassles of parking a Transit Van in Auckland City, let’s use up some of Leonie’s vouchers and get a wheelchair taxi to drop us off and pick us up, who needs hassles - right!’. Leonie contacts RELIONUS Taxis on the 25th and books a taxi for the 26th at 12:15pm, and a pickup from the Civic Theatre at 4:15pm.

Come the 26th, off early from work via Wendy’s to get takeaways for Leonie and myself (combo #2 and #7, not up-sized). Home at midday, furiously consumed the takeaways (8.5/10), already to go by 12:15pm. Waiting, waiting, waiting… 12:35pm, darn, I call RELIONUS. Phone answered promptly by male, speaking with

a deep voice and difficult to understand, English maybe second language. General gist from conversation, yes they had bookings, but he wasn’t sure if a vehicle was on the way!!!!!.... resume waiting….. 12:45pm, that’s it! let’s use our Transit Van and forget RELIONUS. Load up Leonie in great haste and make beeline for the City. Call RELIONUS on the way and cancel both bookings… w#nk*rs!

Get to city and fortunately find empty disabled car park on street, time limit 120min, rats!, we wont be back for 150 mins. Have to take the chance….. unload Leonie and make straight for the Civic. Collect tickets, get seated and enjoy the Phantom (7/10).
Make way back to our Transit Van after show and find we have a parking ticket, oh how I hate going into the city!, check ticket….fined $15, can handle that, probably equivalent to what we would’ve paid in a private car park. Load van and head home with dark thoughts. Glass of red wine at home helps with the rest of the night”

Regarding transport, we were lucky. We had a plan B. Both Leonie and I have good verbals and can call and investigate what was happening. We made it to our destination in time in spite of RELIONUS. However for a lot of our members this is not the case! When they order a taxi for a certain time, that’s it, there is no plan B and they miss getting to their destination on time, if at all. It’s not good enough!

For Auckland getOutThere members, we will be sending out a survey form about Taxi Companies and your rating of them. We want to get these back a.s.a.p. so we can identify those giving good service and highlight to members those that are not.
If a taxi company takes a booking, they had better fulfill that booking according to what was agreed, or they should not take it!

Let’s not put up with lousy service….. the campaign for good service begins!

Harvey Brunt