Checker Cab Company

I’m afraid my experience was not much better than Mike F.‘s.
Originally, I called Portsmouth Taxi 45 minutes before my friend and I needed a ride to the bus station, but he said he didn’t have any taxis available at that time. Instead, he said he would call our trip in to Checker Cab. He called back a few minutes later to say Checker would pick me up at 5:20.
5:20 comes and goes, so we call to check with Checker Cab. Now its 5:30 and he’s running 15 minutes late. Knowing we would cut it close for catching the bus, we called another taxi company (Rockingham) who picked us up in a matter of minutes.
The whole thing was an ordeal to deal with. Both Portsmouth and Checker were at fault, but when it comes down to it, Checker failed to pick up on time, yet again.

I read a number of 5-​star reviews of Checker Cab on Yahoo Local and elsewhere. Too bad I couldn’t find any reviews of Portsmouth taxi companies on Unilocal,or maybe I would have gotten some honest warning…
I made surprise anniversary arrangements that required taking a short ride from downtown PM. I called THREE DAYS in advance to make sure we had a taxi on time. I confirmed the reservation a day ahead time. An hour beforehand, I called to reconfirm and change the pick-​up location by a mile. The dispatcher reprimanded me for changing the location (an hour ahead of time!), informed me that he had no cabs in the area (a mile from the original location!) and said he would be sending a Portsmouth Taxi instead (the worst rated service in my research). I held my breath… for a very long time.
Portsmouth Taxi arrived 15 minutes late, seriously jeopardizing my surprise reservation. I hoped we would make up time en route, but the driver, having «just moved up from Boston», had no clue how to get to New Castle Island and also couldn’t understand the simple directions I printed out from Google Maps in anticipation of just this scenario! He made several wrongs turns, all the while laughing and joking about his own incompetence and ribbing me for being a Yankee-​loving New Yorker.
The meter charged twice the rate I was quoted on the phone. Since the driver didn’t have small change, he forgave me a buck of the fare and the tip (the least he could do at that point, but I’ll give him credit).
We ended up missing the reservation and having to wait an hour for other arrangements. It wasn’t life or death, but it was a huge, unnecessary hassle.
This just goes to show that you can prepare for any eventuality and still have everything go FUBAR. I’m almost impressed with Checker Cab for managing to make such a mess of such a simple and well-​planned 3-​mile cab ride on the one day I needed things to go right. Wow.