This morning, I attempted to order a taxi for our ride to El Tribut Restaurant, located only about 1.5 miles from here. It wasn’t as easy as you’d think.
We have found that using credit cards online in Spain hasn’t been as easy as you think, either. Often, our cards are declined or the processing never goes through. When ordering most taxis, they verify a credit card before confirming a reservation. I have called our credit card companies, and they have stated there is nothing wrong with any of the cards (which we knew), and they can’t even determine if an attempted charge was made.
This same experience happened when ordering groceries online from the same supermarket each time. The processing often took a few hours of trying off and on, to process. I kept trying over and over again, as I did this morning when I attempted to order a taxi.
Finally, I found a taxi company that didn’t require a credit card to confirm the ride and arranged our pickup for 12:45 for our 1:00 pm lunch reservation with Linda and Ken at the oceanfront El Tribut Restaurant, close to the port. Once in the taxi, we won’t have any trouble paying for our ride using a credit card.
Each month, we pay off all our credit card balances to ensure we never run into issues. However, all of our credit cards have high credit limits, so it’s unlikely we’d ever encounter an issue, regardless of any recent holiday home or cruise transaction.
Even in South Africa, where we seldom experience such issues, we ran into similar problems when we placed orders through the Amazon-like equivalent, Takealot. Invariably, processing a purchase required the same several-hour, back-and-forth process to get the transaction to process.
I often wondered if these issues were due to WiFi problems with the company’s end or simply poorly run and operated online payment systems.
In Spain, we’ve used Amazon.es (for Spain), placing several orders, including, most recently, two large suitcases to replace old and worn pieces, including one with a broken wheel. With all the traveling we continue to do, it’s no wonder that our suitcases only last for four or five years. Amazon processing was relatively easy, with no credit card issues.
Thirty minutes ago, we received a taxi confirmation, and soon we will head down those scary steps to the street to await our taxi.
We’ll be back tomorrow with photos and details of our much-awaited get-together with dear old friends.
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, October 20, 2015:
