Attorney alleges runaround after long haul

As a tourist several times over the years, Mark Kopec had never received that special Las Vegas welcome of a taxi driver long hauling him from the airport to the Strip.

But after arriving for a professional conference June 28, he noticed something different about the route leaving McCarran International Airport.

“We see this tunnel coming up, and I said to myself, ‘This is the tunnel I have heard about,’ ” said Kopec. The tunnel under the runways is the first leg of a long haul, taking cab passengers out of the way to run up the fare.

“When we got to (The Hotel at Mandalay Bay), I just paid the fare but said to the driver, ‘You just long hauled me and you will hear from me again.’ ”

While most who are long-hauled do not file a complaint, Kopec, an attorney from the Baltimore suburb of Luthersville, Md., did. He sent in the one-page form on July 3, requesting a refund of the $20.30 fare. Taxi authority estimates posted on its website at the time estimated the shortest-distance price at $14.72, not including any waiting time.

What ensued has left him convinced that the whole process is pointless.

After nearly two months of waiting and a couple of follow-up emails, authority legal secretary Barbara Webb wrote him that Lucky Cab Co. said he had decided to drop the matter. Not so, Kopec quickly replied.

Kopec said that he was referred to a company manager who offered him a $1.50 refund based on the difference between the fare and what Lucky estimated it should be.

Company manager Steve Gerace wrote in an email that “1 to 2 dollars does not constitute long hauling.”

Kopec also wanted to know what happened to the driver, but to no avail..

“Does the taxi authority really allow the cab company to decide what the appropriate response to a long haul complaint is?” he asked in a Sept. 7 email to Webb.

After that, he said, he dropped the matter.

Authority spokeswoman Teri Williams wrote in a statement that “complaints are never delegated, or handed over to taxicab companies.”

Instead, a typical complaint is put on a two-track process with both the company and authority moving ahead independently, with refunds delegated to the company and potential driver discipline handled by both.

On Wednesday, Williams said the authority would reopen the investigation into Kopec’s complaint and apologized to him for the “misunderstanding.”

Contact reporter Tim O’Reiley at toreiley@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290.