Welcome to ‘Reviews: ‘; where BTV Taxi News will collect and publish passenger feedback in the public interest. Honesty can be brutal but that is preferable if change is to be accomplished. Surnames will be kept confidential.
Ask Dear Cabbie, for answers pertaining to our region, or even general travel advice.
12 Jan., 2012 UPDATE
Apparently Williston Taxi was rather suddenly renamed Williston Transportation and after numerous reports we have seen Danny “Fraud” driving both Williston Transportation and Vermont Tour & Charter vehicles.
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Danny Ardesh -a seemingly amiable sort- is?(was) the owner of Friendly Fare Taxi. In more recent times Mr. Ardesh has been representing Vermont Tour & Charter, presumably because its owner, Mr. Bill Cross, his working partner of many months, has been barred from the Burlington International Airport (BTV), by way of a no trespass order, for repeated solicitation in the airport terminal.
Present dots connected, four years ago at this time*, we were able to bring to a halt Mr. Ardesh’s most ambitious web publishing program. Unfortunately there were, and apparently still are not any laws in place, to reward Mr. Ardesh his just due.
* this only came to our attention in late June of 2007 while performing some basic company name web searches. We have no idea how long Mr Ardesh had been attempting to defraud legitimate existing businesses, though the copies of the material we retain read: © 2006.
Mr. Ardesh perpetrated a fraud in that he published a minimum of 16 web sites wherein he led the viewers to believe that legitimate businesses -in no way affiliated with Mr. Ardesh- were in fact associated, if not owned, by his Friendly Fare Taxi operation. Which might explain why that company name is no longer displayed on his vehicle, and in fact, someone sharing his surname, at his residential address, has recently registered ‘Williston Taxi‘ with the Secretary of States office. In some instances, when one googled the name of one of those legitimate businesses, the search result would list the fake Friendly Fare Taxi site as the #1 search, the legitimate company site being further down the top 10 list. Nonetheless, his fake sites generally appeared in the Top 10.
When contacted about this fraud in 2007, Mr Ardesh laughed in our face, stating the sites were hosted offshore, and nothing could be done to stop him. Which is essentially what we discovered when contacting the Vermont Attorney General’s office, among others, in July 2007. Unless we wanted to waste a boat load of money, in hopes of getting the courts to address this problem, we didn’t have a leg to stand on, per Mr. Ardesh’s immediate, and subsequent, ear to ear taunts.
Furthermore, there wasn’t much chance of raising funds from the affected businesses because those contacted didn’t understand the technical nature of the problem. They had paid for advertising, they had advertising, where’s the problem.
However Mr. Ardesh was wrong, in part. Once the hosting service was contacted and made aware of his fraudulent shenanigans, they removed in excess of four dozen of his sites from the web, which at the time, seemed the closest thing to justice available.
However, another remedy escaped us at the time which earlier this year we have attempted to utilize. Which was to bring this situation to the attention of the licensing agencies, specifically to the BTV airport administration charged with taxi and contract carrier licensing. Unfortunately, no response has been forthcoming, not even to see the evidence. Our hope, given the evidence available, that Mr. Ardesh would be denied the privilege of being re-licensed.
How was this fraud perpetrated? Mr. Ardesh used the basic template from his actual web site: a vehicle photo across the top with his business name and phone number overlaid, with several dead links in the left column navigation bar. But! near the bottom in the body of the page, one would see the name of the business for which they had searched, underscored, by what appeared to be some sort of graphic design which when the font size was increased several times(which most viewers -unaware something was amiss- probably would not bother with), actual text would be discovered(purporting, in butchered English, that the named company was actually associated with Mr. Ardesh’ Friendly Fare Taxi company). The trick was that the text was rendered so small, it was unreadable, except by search engines which analyzed the underlying HTML programming code. (These days, search engines will no longer be fooled by this sort of trickery, as font size is now analyzed since their algorithms have been adjusted to disallow text sizes unreadable by the human eye).
My apologies for not publishing these facts before now, it simply never occurred until recent months, when Mr Ardesh -while representing himself as Vermont Tour and Charter- again taunted us, by denying his fraudulent behavior ever occurred.
We’d love to see you in a court of law Danny ‘Fraud’, perhaps you’d be kind enough to arrange it.
We suspect they’ll need remove their shoes. What do you think?
Dear Cabbie
My husband and I took ASFAR taxi late Friday night from the corner of Church and Main in Burlington to our home on East St in Essex Junction and he charged us $42 dollars. We didn’t notice until we were told the amount, that the meter had never been turned on. We have taken this same ride from various taxis many times over the last two years and we have never paid over $30; we felt ripped off, but also didn’t want to end our night with an argument with the cabbie. As far as I’m concerned ASFAR is a shady snake!
Marie M
11 June, 2012
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DC’s response:
Hello Marie
First off, Thank You for taking the time to notify us, and the authorities with the City of Burlington! That’s the first step, of a journey most never begin, BRAVO!
The good news, is something could, and even may be done.
If it were up to me, by now Asfar Taxi would have been contacted and an appointment would have been scheduled, for a company representative to present every driver/vehicle trip sheet for the day in question.
In addition, you would have been contacted in search of additional information: a more precise time of day, whether you saw the drivers Burlington issued Taxi Picture License on display, could you two identify him, if you could provide any additional identifiers of the operator and/or the vehicle, and whatever else you might wish to add.
Comparison of the information would follow, with notations made to the company file.
For a variety of reasons, not much can be done without more substantial evidence. Chances are the fare wasn’t recorded, at least not at the rate you paid. It could be said you were mistaken. Which is why even local travelers should always demand a signed receipt from the driver; if only on the reverse side of a company business card; because it is solid evidence and well within your expectations as outlined in the City of Burlington’s ground transportation regulations. If you are refused, note the vehicles plate number and proceed as you did.
In this instance, the probable outcome is your only satisfaction would be the knowledge that the City of Burlington is said to have begun keeping count of complaints, both in number and severity. Which we’re given to understand, could be used to deny an operator, or even a company, the necessary permits to do business in the greater Burlington area. [ That said, we know of two companies that have been barred from the airport(one of which is HQed in Burlington), which continue to circumvent the regulations. In addition, we're given to understand there are a number of unlicensed taxi's operating in downtown Burlington, at this present time. ]
In any case, now the world is warned of your experience and we thank you for that!
yours sincerely, Dear Cabbie
ps ALL: Soon -August or September, 2012- all Burlington licensed taxi’s will be required to have meters. For the last couple of decades, only airport queue permitted taxi’s were required to have meters. Suffice it, the airport rate is a premium rate because those operators often sit at the airport for hours between rides.
See for yourself what’s being done across the pond. How long before it reaches a taxi near you?
During the last couple of months, Paul Robar and Dominic Ladue have passed away. Mr Robar rather suddenly due to the complications of an aneurysm, Mr Ladue after an extended battle with pancreatic cancer.
Both died young and each loved their families.
Here are the new Airport Taxi rates for 2011-12. They have increased somewhat. The City Rates have as well but I don’t have that information at hand to publish presently.
Effective 1 September, 2011
Burlington Airport
TAXI CAB RATES
* Unchanged ** Increased
$ 8.50* - First 2 Miles, Flag Drop Fee - the minimum fare
$ 2.90**- Per Mile for the following 8 Miles
$ 2.25** - Per Mile for Remaining Miles
$31.20** - Per Hour, Waiting Time
$ 1.00* - Per Extra Passenger
NO FEES FOR LUGGAGE
A Receipt is Issued Upon Request
“Complaints for Airport Taxis”
RVarney@BTV.AERO
[ If you would like to offer helping hands, visiting Vermont Response can advise you where you might be most handy.]
To be sure, many areas of south and central Vermont have been tragically flooded as a result of Hurricane Irene passing through slowly while dumping an immense amount of accumulated moisture in getting here. BUT! even amidst that devastation neighboring areas are untouched and open for business.
Point being much of Vermont is unscathed. So Please do not cancel your visit to Vermont before contacting your innkeeper or area representative. The simple fact is, Vermonters count on you visiting.
Beyond that, Vermonters, among others, are busy helping their neighbors clean up, and your prayers will go a long way in assisting our recovery.
Thank you for valuing Vermont!
Fair Warning:
It has been brought to our attention by BTV Director of Operations, Rick Varney that the post (below), “Meet ‘Danny Ardesh’” has been copied to paper and is being distributed at Burlington Int’l.
Supposedly -based upon a variety of feedback- Danny must have annoyed Chicken Man because a paper copy of Meet Danny Ardesh is reported to be distributed all over Burlington, throughout the Airport and on parked cars too. It’s Everywhere.
(That seems farfetched but maybe it’s true…and wouldn’t that be great Danny!!).
Although we thank you for helping us get the word out about Mr. Ardesh; do be careful where you distribute this information -when in doubt, get permission- because BTV’s position is, anyone caught distributing anything without permission on airport property, will be arrested. Ayup, arrested!
Finally, may we suggest, as alternatives: post this story to your favorite list(s), or notify your city counselor, or other less risky means. We’d hate to see anyone arrested, although it might bring more attention to the deeds of this louse*.
* a contemptible person, not the wingless, parasitic insect, and yet….
(Mind you, no interest was expressed in determining the validity of the information).
Proposed Ordinances Draft available as follows:
http://www.btv.aero/about_us/flightinfo/documents/Ordinance2011.pdf
Though we have as of yet been unable discover the URL location, we are given to understand the City of Burlington, and/or its Airport site, BTV.aero, have provided an online area for public comment. Naturally, we will provide that address here once it comes to our attention. In the meantime, please feel free to haggle constructively here keeping in mind the people making these rules have little to none, first hand experience in this industry. YOU, may very well have more informed opinions to offer, so please participate.
“Here is a more reasonable solution to the up coming vote on metered rates for all of Burlington. If the Taxi commission wants to make things less confusing and be more like “the big city” that we are not, instead of metering all cabs post on the out side of the cab the zone map and the rates that taxis can charge up to on a 2′ x2′ placard. NY does this and there is a 300.00 fine if it is not there.
rework the wording of the zone regulations so that every one can understand them and post that as well. I have lived in the Burlington aria for about 30 years and I have no idea where the “northerly terminus of the Burlington Belt line Phase IV” is. Nor do any of the cab drivers that I have spoken to, some have been driving here for more than 20 years. As for the wording of the latest licences I think that only the prices may have changed.”
Todd Jimmo
Editor’s Note: Mr Rick Varney is often, though not the only, ground transportation go-to-Administrator at Burlington Int’l Airport.
At this time, apart from thanking Mr. Jimmo for forwarding his constructive comments to Tips@BTVTaxiNews.