The area I live in has little to no signal for taxi card reader machines which my driver today fully understood as when I got in the car first thing I said to him was do you accept pay by card

He responds by saying it depends if he can get signal, I think it's also important to note the driver I had yesterday also knew there was no signal near my house so I paid him before the taxi ride it was no problem and completely reasonable

This guy took the risk and to no surprise there was no signal to which I suggested going round the corner as drivers get a signal for the card machine in that spot, for some reason his card machine did not

He asks if I have money in the house which is a pretty weird thing to ask before asking me about my wallet first but that's beside the point

I told him I have a few coins in my wallet but that is it and for some reason he takes that as me saying I have the money in my wallet I'm not sure why he would think that since if I have the right amount I'd have told him I have the money not that I have a few coins

As im picking out a handful of tens and twenties for him he suddenly snaps at me out of thin air demanding that i empty all the money out of my wallet and shouts at me talking about how busy he is and doesn't have time for this which completely threw me off as we were both very friendly with eachother until this point

It's completely ridiculous I'm not going to empty everything I have in my wallet and risk my cards falling out and on top of that some of the money in my wallet is literally foreign currency and has sentimental value to me I've had those coins since my first holiday ever you are NOT having them idc if he pulled a weapon on me I'd sooner lose my hand then those coins, I had to be slow and careful as to which coins I was giving him

Never mind emptying my wallet I'm not giving this guy a single penny more for something that is his fault, on his card machine that every other driver has a fix around for, and for failing to think about the risk he was taking

I asked him if he takes card as soon as I got in the car, he told me yes, he knew it was a risk and didn't take payment first unlike the same driver from the same company did yesterday

I closed my wallet and told him not to be a dick and got out of the car he took the money in my hand and said I owe him a couple quid before even counting it so idk how that would work unless he's got super powers for automatic money counting also he literally left the metre running the whole time so its actually him who owes me the money but ofc you don't really think like that in the moment I thought about bringing it up just because the guy had turned sour and was being an asshole about the money situation he caused while keeping the metre running...I don't think so.

I told him I don't owe him anything and walked off as I knew this was all his poor planning now the look he gave me really annoyed me it wasn't a look of anger which would be understandable we were both angry anybody would do that, he was trying to intimidate me, I stopped walking and told him not to think I was scared of him, idk if he saw the Axe hanging out my bag or (id just bought it and was taking it home for those wondering why I had an Axe) or if he thought I was going to fight him but his attitude shifted entirely and said he didn't expect me to be scared in a soft calm voice

I told but good because I'm not and walked off what I should have done Is call him out on trying to scare me but you don't really think like that in the moment

Something I thought was strange was the fact he had time to stand around doing all that when he was apparently so busy...

And why would I owe him personally? I pay for the taxi ride I could easily just email the company and pay it later I'm not going to rob them I was trying to pay the entire time, I owe a taxi fair to the company if I give that owed money to a different driver next time on top of my taxi ride that debt is still paid to the taxi company, this asshole wanted it for himself which is not what you pay for that's what TIPS are for.

What I should have done I put it all back in my wallet and if the police showed up I'd have paid the company directly over the phone but I wasn't really thinking like that