Team-BHP - Review: Uber Premium Taxi Service

Quote:

Originally Posted by ranjitp1 (Post 3495147)

....I gave him 400rs and as luck would have it after alighting paid up the entire meter amount completely forgetting that I had paid for the fuel which should have been deducted.The sly chauffeur bugger never ever mentioned it either,he quietly pockets the entire amount and drives away ever so quickly.I only realised after reaching Hyd that I was had,I should have been alert but that doesnt absolve the chauffeur......!

Sent from my iPhone using Team-BHP

Call the Ola call centre and tell them of this incident. They will promptly add the 400 to your Ola money account which you can use for future trips. I have been using Ola extensively in Chennai, Bangalore & Pune and have had good experiences, although most of their fleet are regular Indica's & Indigo CS'.

This anecdote really takes the cake! rl:

Booked a cab via the Uber app.
Within 20 seconds, the driver calls us to ask where to come.
10 minutes later, the driver shows up and picks up my friend.
Within 30 seconds i get a message from my friend saying :
"I kid you not, this guy's iPhone is mounted UPSIDE DOWN!" :D

His phone (and of course the app) was literally upside down! No wonder he needed to call for directions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rehaan (Post 3457505)

I think Uber's shortcomings can be grouped into two simple categories: Technology & Training .

Given that the Uber Mumbai team is essentially 3 people, I'm not surprised there's a shortcoming when it comes to driver training (though in this case I'd imagine the driver couldn't read English either). It's a cut and paste of a global solution; which hasn't been tweaked for India as yet...

cya
R

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3502888)

Uber's fleet going downmarket? Got a metallic blue Sunny the other day :D.

Pricing was the same as what I've paid for a 5 Series / Fortuner / Accord etc.

This won't go down too well with customers. If you're charging a premium, better transport us in a premium car.

That means the are planning to start Uber X in Mumbai too. The Sunny is listed as cars available under Uber X along with Dzire and Etios.

Looks like they just added them as part of Uber black fleet until they update the app to show Uber X in Mumbai.

Ajit got a Fiesta and couple of weeks later, Uber X was launched.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rehaan (Post 3502907)

Given that the Uber India team is essentially 3 people, I'm not surprised there's a shortcoming when it comes to driver training (though in this case I'd imagine the driver couldn't read English either). It's a cut and paste of a global solution; which hasn't been tweaked for India as yet...

cya
R

I have had to remind the driver once to press the end trip button on the iphone. If you don't do that it will keep billing you.

On one occasion the Uber driver requested to fill diesel during the trip. I agreed but that 6-7 minutes waiting at the gas station was added to my bill since they charge based on minutes of the journey.

This per minute cost has a serious drawback. Some of the drivers are extremely laid back in the driving. The slower you go more the fare, unlike other cabs which charge you only for stationary time or waiting time, Uber is per minute.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3502888)

Was it just the 'honeymoon' period when they used the "real" Premium cars like the BMW (Hope they didn't do that just to gain market share!), etc and now charge the same rates for other cars as well ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by NPV (Post 3502940)

I haven't seen an Uber BMW or Audi in a while. What I've got these days is Innovas, Corollas and the last time I used it, a dzire. The price is the same regardless. May have been a gimmick to get customers hooked.

In Moscow recently, i used Uber from the hotel to airport. It was very expensive. 3500 roubles (almost 7k). I used a regular taxi on the way back and that cost me 900 roubles (the airport express in comparison is 400 roubles each and you need to take the metro or a taxi to your final destination). So India isn't yet that expensive.

I took Uber this weekend to the airport. My regular office cab hadn't been booked and they couldn't take a last minute booking.

Fired up Ola but their cab was too far away. Meru couldn't get a GPS fix for some reason. Uber worked right away - I used a promo code and got a 189 Rs ride to the airport.

The cab arrived fine but courtesy the limited map and so-so english skills of the driver, I finally had to drive out 400m to pick the gent up and bring him to my house. It was very nice to be able to guide him to my house though he didn't obey instructions fully! I think the display lags a bit from the actual motion of the vehicle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3502888)

I think the max majority of their fleet comprise Innovas. The Sunny is the lowest car that is eligible, but agree, it is pretty low end considering people get used to corolla and upwards till big German three.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Axe77 (Post 3503085)

I think the max majority of their fleet comprise Innovas.

Personally, I don't mind the Innova at all. I find the Innova captain-seat variant to be amongst the best chauffeur-driven cars out there...a lot more so than many luxury cars.

Plus, the Innova remains the most preferred taxi by Indian customers.

The Sunny was extremely comfortable too. However, you have to charge me Sunny-level fares for that car. As Vid6639 pointed out, UberX' Mumbai launch might just be around the corner.

Used Uber for the first time today. Wife had to go for a company event and dinner from Bellandur to MG Road. Meru as expected did not have cabs, Mega Cabs and Taxi-for-sure confirmed the booking and called up 3 hours and 1 hour before pickup time respectively and said cabs were not available. Getting an Auto involved some walking and hard negotiation.

After reading this thread, I had registered on Uber and also installed the App. So decided to give it a shot. Initially said no cabs available, but tried one final time and it showed a cab available. Booked it immediately. It was said to be 10min away and was accurate. Car was a well maintained Innova.

Positives

Getting a car at at time when nothing was available from the regular cab companies
Prompt arrival/good vehicle/courteous driver
Easy booking and billing process
Good option to have in Bangalore where in many cases cab companies cancel on you if the trip is not long enough and they get something better

Negatives

Expensive: Cost was Rs 554 for a 16 KM 1.5 hour journey. Return via a regular cab was 300
Since we are charged on time also, the route the cab takes is important. This cab took a route which I would not take at evening peak hour. For this trip, if I was driving, I would have taken a route that is 5 KM shorter and would have taken me 30 min less. Makes me wonder if this is slightly deliberate. :)

It's clearly a roll of the dice whenever you need a cab from these guys.

Appears that Uber's server was down yesterday at lunch time. Neither me nor my wife could open the App (whether on WiFi / 3G). Finally tried Ola and a white Innova was down my house in 15 minutes. Ola appears to give accurate arrival time estimates than the over-optimistic Uber. Drove to the Fort area at a cost of Rs. 380 (same as Uber).

Once I was done with the meeting, it was Ola that didn't have any cabs available. Uber had an Innova just 10 minutes away.

If you need reliability, you better have both of these apps on your smartphone. Neither is 100% dependable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3503363)

You misunderstand. Innova is my most preferred car rental whenever I travel. I was not complaining that they're mostly Innovas, I was just stating a fact. But sunny is just a tad below that range to command the same pricing as you mentioned.

Yesterday, the servers were indeed malfunctioning. I managed a booking, got a skoda rapid, but because of the server issues they couldn't start the meter properly. He didn't let this hold up the journey and we continued saying they'll figure out how to bill. Nice driver.

Unfortunately I got a wrong bill of about 760 odd when I should have been billed about 350 or so (10 kms and 35 mins with 100 rs base rate). They've gone out of the way to assure me it'll be sorted and known how they're operating I'm sure they will reverse it and charge me only the correct amount. I've been contacted by the car owner as well as customer support on their own to assure me of this.

One annoying thing in the software btw. If you book through iPad app, the car details pop up showing only driver face, car make and number. It DOES NOT for some inexplicable reason show the driver cell number. It has a pop up menu saying contact driver which breaks into call driver or SMS driver. When you select either option, it says device does not support this function (call / SMS). Of course it doesn't. It's an iPad. Why the hoops I don't understand. Just display the number from the word go. It's really useful particularly if you want to call the chap and tell him EXACTLY where to pick you up. for instance, come to tower one / I'll cross over to a parallel lane nearby so we don't have to circle back all the way on this one way street.

So I used Uber twice last week in Chennai. Once for a short trip to try it out and then for an airport drop after Ola messed up. Got an Innova on both occasions. Good experience with clean vehicles, although they charge an additional Rs.100 even for drops to Chennai Airport, which is not justified since there is no toll applicable here unless there is a >10 min. delay in getting out or they use the parking. They charge pickups also this Rs.100!

Just read on "Metro" news in Vancouver about Uber Taxi banned in Germany and googled it to see the below news;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...in-Berlin.html

I think we members discussed about the risk of sharing our own car with unknown persons and this exactly highlights the same.

P.S - I know this app is different from the Uber Premium Taxi that is currently available in India but certainly remember discussing about another app that allows single person driven cars to share the car with unknown people through the app, hence, posted it here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by balajird (Post 3506475)

P.S - I know this app is different from the Uber Premium Taxi that is currently available in India but certainly remember discussing about another app that allows single person driven cars to share the car with unknown people through the app, hence, posted it here.

As you mentioned, in other countries, any person with his own car can become an uber driver.

We don't have this option in India. In India Uber is a proper cab service. Whatever risk is there in Uber will also be there in Ola, Meru, Tab, Taxi4sure.