Where Taxi Hailing Apps in India are going terribly wrong!

Very recently, I had a not-so-pleasant Ola experience while travelling from Noida to Gurgaon for an official meeting. On booking a mini, a pop-up box told me my request was being upgraded to a Sedan, but I’d have to pay mini charges. I was happy. Maybe Ola was honoring me for being a dedicated user of its taxi services. Not bad at all, I thought to myself. But as I headed towards the cab, the happiness started to fade away. I saw a dust-laden Indica parked at a distance with its paint coming off from everywhere. The number plate read the same as on my Ola app. As I sat inside it, I found out that the state of the car was worse. There was a moist unpleasant smell coming from the dirty white cotton seat covers. Dried pan stains on the footmats disgusted me. Open wires dangling from the dashboard was an ugly sight. Updated to a Sedan? I thought it was worse, ridiculous than a mini! With not too much time in hand, I decided to take the ride.

However, such and many other problems are regularly faced by people like us who opt for taxi booking apps for commuting on a regular basis. It’s a shame that in India, these companies have enough demand, but such poor services. A look at a few of such complaints will make you never want to use these cabs at all.

For instance, 27-year-old Shobhit, a resident of Gurgaon, booked a TaxiForSure cab to travel to IGI airport. “It took me half an hour to explain to him where I stay because location accuracy is big issue with the app. When I sat in the cab, he told me I had cancelled the trip. I was shocked because I hadn’t. He said he couldn’t take me till I booked it again. So I had to cancel the ride only to find the app showing no cabs. I struggled for 10 minutes, but it was of no use. The driver refused to take me and I could not find any other cabs in the vicinity. I ultimately missed my flight. It’s name should be TaxiNotSure,” he says, adding that he wrote a stinker mail to the company, but never got a reply.

In another encounter, Tokas Jain, who works as sales professional in GSK, was on an official Kolkata trip. “I had booked a cab in Kolkata and it never reached me. It picked up some other passenger with my booking and the same was billed to me. Fortunately, I use cash for making payments. Had there been balance in my wallet, I wonder whether they would have ever refunded the money,” he says.

Deepti Purohit, a journalist based out of Noida, had not even booked a cab, she had merely installed Ola on her phone. A day later, she found a bill in her mailbox that said she had taken a trip and had an unbilled amount of nearly Rs 400 to bear. Dumbfounded, she wrote a mail to the company, who later apologized to her for the mistake.Uber had one of its users Aditya Samod fuming with anger when money was debited thrice from his wallet without any reason, “I added Rs 500 by Paytm. I booked taxis thrice, but none of the drivers come. They either did not answer the call or refused to come. But every time I cancelled a ride, Uber charged me Rs 150. I wrote to them, but have only been assured assistance so far,” he says.

Kaamna, a PR executive, who often uses these apps, made a significant observation: “Drivers take a longer route deliberately that results in inflated bills. I boarded a cab from Barakhamba to Gurgaon and he intentionally took a long deserted route. Despite telling him to take the shorter route, he refused. I called up TFS helpline number. They put me on hold for more than 10 minutes. I was all alone yelling at the driver and it was evening time. There was no response from customer care. Till now, I have not received even a single call from their side to know if I am safe,” she says. “And the drivers are talking on the phone all the time!,” she complains.

Aakanksha Jain, a journalist, said one of these days she had booked TaxiForSure cab. “On reaching the destination, I never got the bill on my app. I asked the driver and he said it was Rs 265. I paid him. But later, I was shocked to find out that the actual bill was Rs 172,” she says. She also highlights how Ola autos are merely an addition to the Ola app, but absolutely inefficient in practice. “I got off the metro to book an auto since the app showed options just 2 minutes away. For the next ten minutes, I stood there as the app scanned the options, but none of the auto drivers accepted the booking. Finally, I had to take an auto from nearby,” she says.

Personally, I felt it was bizarre when the Indica car’s shabby Ola driver said to me “please rate me 5 star, madam” with a wide grin as he dropped me off. After paying him the money, I went back to the app to give him 1 rating, and was shocked to see that he already had an overall rating of 4.5! He perhaps requests each traveler to extend the favour. Moreover, I am surprised why Ola allowed such a car to be in its list! Uber, TaxiForSure and the likes. It’s time you do something about it!

(Image credits: BCCL)