[joanne72_uk]

I went into the office of CB taxis and booked a minibus for my family to and from Manchester airport. On arrival at Manchester airport the driver demanded the full balance for the drop-off and pick-up of £100. I wrote all the pick-up details down for the driver (a copy of which had already been left with the office) of our return flight number, arrival time and arranged to be collected at 9:30am on Saturday morning.....

We arrived at Manchester airport at 9:20am after an exhausting long-haul flight, we had 3 small children with us and so were not very happy when we found there was no taxi waiting for us. We waited for half an hour and then called the office, we were told the driver was on his way and would be there in 10-15 mins, so we waited....

At 10:30am we called the office again and were told that the person on the switch-board had just come on duty and didn't know anything about it, we were told to call back in 5-10 mins.

We called back at 10:40am and were told that the driver was on his way, when we asked where he was and how long he would be the switch board guy said he didn't know.

At 11:00am we called again (the taxi was now 90mins late) and were told there had been a huge accident on the motorway and the taxi was 15-20 mins away. There happened to be a police officer in the building and so my husband asked if he could radio through and find out about this 'huge accident', the policeman did so and surprise, surprise there was no accident.

By this time it was 11:25am, the taxiu was almost 2 hours late and we were freezing, we had no more the a few pounds in english money on us and there was still no sign of the taxi, we called the office back to be told that the taxi would be there in 15-20 mins, at this stage my husband told the switch board that we were gpoing to catch a taxi from outside the terminal because it was obvious that the taxi wasn't going to arrive and that we would expect reimbersing on our return, the switchboard operator said this was fine, so after finding a cash point and haing to withdraw £100 from my credit card we got a taxi home, which we paid £100 for.

When my husband went down to CB's office he was greated with hostility, he asked to speak to the boss who basically told him it was an issue between us and the driver, mothing to do with him. The driver admitted he had forgot to pick us up and was on another job when switchboard called him, he said he got to the airport at 11:35am (2hour and 5 mins late) and refused any refund because 'he got there eventually'. After at hour of arguing the boss and driver offered my husband £35 'to shut him up', which I am sure you will understand he refused.

Where do I go from here? who do I contact to make an offical complaint? Is there any chance of getting our money back ?