A Chinese taxi driver with a strong sense of ethics went out of his way to return almost 6,500 yuan (US$950) to a Chinese-American visitor who accidentally overpaid for his ride using a mobile payment service.
The incident happened on Monday in Xian, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi province, when the driver, Zhang Peng, was checking his WeChat wallet, Chinese Business Gazette reported on Wednesday.
He noticed that one of his customers had paid 6,500 yuan for a 65 yuan fare. Based on the time stamp, Zhang guessed that the payment had probably been made by a group of four people he had picked up at the railway station and taken to a hotel.
After first asking his taxi firm’s dispatchers if they could help to track down the group – they could not – Zhang decided to see if they were still at the hotel where he had dropped them, which they were, the report said.
After explaining the situation at the reception desk, Zhang was reunited with his passenger and explained what had happened.
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The visitor, who was identified only by his surname, Liu, said he was making his first visit to the city and had been confused by the layout of the payment app.
“These systems like WeChat Pay and Alipay are all new to me,” he said.
“I don’t really know how to use them. In the US when I pay, there’s usually a space for decimal points, so I thought I had to do the same here and ended up accidentally paying so much more.”
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As a reward, Liu told Zhang to give him back just 6,300 yuan, but the ethical driver was having none it, and insisted he return the full amount, less the real fare, the report said.
Liu instead thanked Zhang with a glowing testimonial on WeChat, China’s most popular messaging service.
“I can’t believe it,” he wrote in Chinese. “For some people, money is their only goal, and 6,500 yuan is a lot of money. I felt so excited yesterday because you returned it. I really appreciate it.”
scope51791 on July 25th, 2018 at 17:52 UTC »
I live in China and not all cab drivers are saints. I had a few incidents where cab drivers have successfully and unsuccessfully given me fake money, usually going back home after a night of drinking. If you give them a 100 yuan bill, they will switch it with a fake one while you're not looking and claim that you gave them a fake. The trick is to rub your nail on the bill over Mao's hair while the cab driver is looking at you so you're are showing them you know it's real. The real bills have a ribbed texture. I have a friend who takes a picture of the serial number of the bill so if the driver says it's fake, he can see the picture to see if it's the same bill lol.
restlessanchor on July 25th, 2018 at 16:43 UTC »
This is not at all shocking to me. I was in China a couple years ago and was leery to take a cab based on stories you hear of foreigners getting taken advantage of. I was totally wrong. Grabbed a cab to go see a temple in a smaller town and the cabbie speaks almost no English, I speak no Chinese but we gave him the name of the place and off we went. He made a wrong turn as he was new to this town (new city, sorry.. We understood that much). He calls someone, asks a question and looks frustrated with himself, then takes us in another direction leading to the temple. In my jaded thinking he did it to run up the meter. We arrive and he looks at the meter and it is 18 Yuan (like 3 bucks). I give him a 20 Yuan note, annoyed on principle but it is only like $3.50, he gives me back 5 Yuan. He would not take any more. "My bad" he said in broken English each time I tried to hand him more money. I tried to explain it was a tip, he refused. I get out and my wife scolds me for being so cheap and not giving him the 20. We were all about Chinese cabs after that. Fast, cheap, and never once got taken advantage of. None took our offered tips. However driving there can be a bit stressful as you dart around in crazy traffic. The trick is to take a card from your hotel with the address on it, then you can go explore to your hearts content, get completely lost, hail a cab and hand them the card and be back to the hotel in no time with no words needing to be spoken. To be honest I am not sure I have ever felt as safe in a big city as I did in China. My wife and other traveling companions agreed, they never felt uncomfortable walking alone at night like they might in the US.
ilikedeadpeople on July 25th, 2018 at 16:29 UTC »
That is so, so awesome. I lived in Shanghai for four years, and some of the best people I met were taxi drivers. Then again, I also had a cabbie disappear with my phone when I accidentally left it in the cab...so...you win some you lose some