[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by binand

which could be the reason prices are high).

I'm assuming Fasttrack is not a startup blowing investor money.

Uber/Ola have managed to keep fares low because investors are footing some part of the bill. That is drying up, which is why drivers' earnings are going down; hence, all this drama with the bandh.

[binand]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

I'm assuming Fasttrack is not a startup blowing investor money.

Oh no, Fasttrack is a call taxi service operating in Chennai and several other south Indian cities for quite a long time now (I remember using them in 2001).

Website: http://www.fasttrackcalltaxi.in

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Uber/Ola have managed to keep fares low because investors are footing some part of the bill. That is drying up, which is why drivers' earnings are going down; hence, all this drama with the bandh.

Personally, I think this is a facile view. While Uber is indeed a loss-making business, my guess is that its core ride-share operation has positive contribution margin.

On the other hand, drivers are possibly losing money, or not earning as much as expected. I read somewhere that Uber has 90%+ driver attrition rate.

Plus investor money for Uber is not drying up. Couple of months back Softbank invested a billion+ dollars in Uber.

[SJM1214]

Voted for Primarily Ola.

I have personally tried twice to book Uber at 3.30am(at A"bad airport) but even after waiting 15 mins, I didn't get a cab. Finally, I had to wake up a sleeping auto driver to take me home. After these incidents, I shifted completely to OLa. In fact, Ola has an option of ride Later which is most suitable for odd hours journey.

Nowadays, Uber is available round the clock in almost all the areas in Ahmedabad.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

There may be a more interesting explanation for this:



http://www.wired.co.uk/article/uber-algorithm-fake

Ah so this is indeed true!
I have always felt and observed that the cars being shown in the display prior to booking are fake.
Almost NEVER has any of those cars materialized after you press the confirmation button, and almost always the actual vehicle booked is quite far away.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by alpha1

Ah so this is indeed true!
I have always felt and observed that the cars being shown in the display prior to booking are fake.
Almost NEVER has any of those cars materialized after you press the confirmation button, and almost always the actual vehicle booked is quite far away.

I had a conversation with a Uber driver while he was dropping me to the Hyd airport. He mentioned that after dropping, he has to go and wait for his "turn" to get a passenger for return journey. As per him, when they complete a trip in an area, they are assigned a "token number" based on all the vehicles remaining idle in that area. Once their turn comes, they are notified of the trip. For a place like the airport where several cabs come in, these people have to wait for 7-8 hrs at times for their turn.

The above could be true. There were a few instances when I booked a cab and got a cab assigned. When I saw the ETA or when I was not happy with the driver's behavior, I cancelled and rebooked. I was assigned the same cab again. Believe me, I tried this 4 times, gave up, and then finally went in the same cab in my 5th attempt. There were a lot of cabs on app screen during this time.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by ashis89

I had a conversation with a Uber driver while he was dropping me to the Hyd airport. He mentioned that after dropping, he has to go and wait for his "turn" to get a passenger for return journey. As per him, when they complete a trip in an area, they are assigned a "token number" based on all the vehicles remaining idle in that area. Once their turn comes, they are notified of the trip. For a place like the airport where several cabs come in, these people have to wait for 7-8 hrs at times for their turn.

The above could be true. There were a few instances when I booked a cab and got a cab assigned. When I saw the ETA or when I was not happy with the driver's behavior, I cancelled and rebooked. I was assigned the same cab again. Believe me, I tried this 4 times, gave up, and then finally went in the same cab in my 5th attempt. There were a lot of cabs on app screen during this time.

In fact here comes the funny part: how can I trust Uber when they show no cabs around and charge a Surge? They may be faking it (no cabs around) and we have no means to counter (except switch to Ola)

[sinhead]

Hi Guys,

This incident has happened twice with my parents wrt Ola cabs -

Once they each the destination, the driver says he cant get the location on his device. Then either he presses a cancel button or does some other magic and my parents end up paying Rs 100 extra for the ride.
eg. when we booked the ride it showed Rs500. But once at the destination, and this "procedure" done by the driver, the message in the driver's gadget shows the amount due as Rs600.
That means the extra Rs100 is deducted from our account.

Has anyone faced this? Did the driver fool them?

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by sinhead

That means the extra Rs100 is deducted from our account.

Has anyone faced this? Did the driver fool them?

I have noticed another issue in Uber app, especially while travelling on a tolled road or places with paid parking(to the airport). When I book the cab, most of the times I don't see the toll amount and the parking fees in the estimate. On one occasion, the driver checked the estimate and asked me if I can pay the toll amount separately as it doesn't appear on the app. I obliged. Later when the payment was deducted, I was charged higher for toll.

Another observation. When I book a cab to the airport, I am not charged for the parking fees at the airport. When I book from airport, Uber includes airport parking charges in the bill (but doesn't show in the estimates).

Originally Posted by alpha1

In fact here comes the funny part: how can I trust Uber when they show no cabs around and charge a Surge? They may be faking it (no cabs around) and we have no means to counter (except switch to Ola)

They charge it based on the number of requests in the a particular area vs. the number of cabs. It could be a total farce.
Regarding Ola, whenever I saw surge in Uber and opened Ola, I saw even higher price there.

Note: I use these cab services very rarely and mostly to-from the airport. Hence the observations.

[ariesonu]

I have always hated UBER & find OLA to be more easier to use & they have better APP controls.

1) OLA: The OTP ensures that you don't get into wrong car
2) OLA: Asks for reason when you are cancelling the RIDE & charge you cancellation only if you are unable to provide proper reasoning
3) OLA: drivers found more courteous than UBER - Not to mention the UBER driver incidents in media.

Why the burnout:
I booked an UBER on 24th April at 0330 AM to go to Mumbai T2 airport. The first driver did not answer my repeated calls hence I cancelled it & booked another UBER. When paying-off the 2nd driver at airport, I found that the bill is higher than that was quoted for ride. Driver told me that cancellation charges have been added for previous cancelled ride & that I will have to pay. UBER had the fallacy to charge me for open fault of their driver.
Since I was already getting late due to first driver's antics, I paid & immediately lodged a compliant on HELP section of UBER app. I got standard reply from one UBER jango called RAGHVENDRA, who informs me that I am being charged for the cancelled ride, whereas my complaint clearly mentioned about their driver's unavailability.

I also brought this to the notice of @UberINSupport on Twitter and till now they have been playing mouse & cat with me.
I have been insisting UBER to refund the cancellation charges & credit them to my account.
I am determined to take it to highest level with UBER & wont let them take advantage of me like this.

Regards

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by ariesonu

Why the burnout:
I booked an UBER on 24th April at 0330 AM to go to Mumbai T2 airport. The first driver did not answer my repeated calls hence I cancelled it & booked another UBER. When paying-off the 2nd driver at airport, I found that the bill is higher than that was quoted for ride. Driver told me that cancellation charges have been added for previous cancelled ride & that I will have to pay. UBER had the fallacy to charge me for open fault of their driver.
Since I was already getting late due to first driver's antics, I paid & immediately lodged a compliant on HELP section of UBER app. I got standard reply from one UBER jango called RAGHVENDRA, who informs me that I am being charged for the cancelled ride, whereas my complaint clearly mentioned about their driver's unavailability.

I also brought this to the notice of @UberINSupport on Twitter and till now they have been playing mouse & cat with me.
I have been insisting UBER to refund the cancellation charges & credit them to my account.
I am determined to take it to highest level with UBER & wont let them take advantage of me like this.

Regards

All you have to do is open the Uber app and look under "your trips". Find the trip in question where you were charged the cancellation fee and select the option that states "review my fare" or " I would like a refund " depending on which app version you have. Then choose the option that states "the driver took too long" or "I couldn't connect with my driver". Within a day you will get credit for this fee. I do this at least once a week with no issues.

[ariesonu]

Originally Posted by Lobogris

All you have to do is open the Uber app and look under "your trips". Find the trip in question where you were charged the cancellation fee and select the option that states "review my fare" or " I would like a refund " depending on which app version you have. Then choose the option that states "the driver took too long" or "I couldn't connect with my driver". Within a day you will get credit for this fee. I do this at least once a week with no issues.

I did that immediately after paying the EXCESS amount to 2nd driver & then also connected with UBER through HELP section. That is why one RAGHVENDRA sent me a reply which had nothing new from what I had already done.
I have also conveyed this to @uberINsupport on tweets & they replied religiously but now have stopped responding.
Will be filing complaint on https://www.pgportal.gov.in/ and see how UBER responds to official complaint then.

Regards.

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by ariesonu

I did that immediately after paying the EXCESS amount to 2nd driver & then also connected with UBER through HELP section. That is why one RAGHVENDRA sent me a reply which had nothing new from what I had already done.
I have also conveyed this to @uberINsupport on tweets & they replied religiously but now have stopped responding.
Will be filing complaint on https://www.pgportal.gov.in/ and see how UBER responds to official complaint then.

Regards.

Quite often Uber replies with silly automated messages. The trick is to keep complaining on the app every other day. Forget what they said. Just make a fresh complaint again and again and eventually a sensible human will see it and fix it.

[NPV]

This is probably a new way to fleece customers:
A friend's parents took an Uber Go taxi ride recently (car was an Indica). The driver did not switch on the AC and when my friend's dad asked him to do so, he said Uber Go is a non-AC service but he can switch it on for an additional fee and when the ride ended he took an extra Rs.100 on top of the fare

For their return journey a few hours later, they asked one of their relatives to book an Uber Premier ride so that AC will be operational without additional charges!

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by NPV

This is probably a new way to fleece customers:

Wow; this is new. I've had some rides where the driver has kept the windows rolled down and started the a/c only when I asked him to. None has, so far, argued about why the a/c was needed or that I should pay extra.

I fear the growing resentment amongst drivers of Uber/Ola will soon be at a tipping point, given the diminishing returns, both in monetary and effort terms. I hope Uber/Ola don't take undue advantage of the non-existent labour and consumer laws in India; worse, the drivers go the auto-wallah route and unionize it.

The honeymoon might soon be over.

[deehunk]

I am happy with Ola cabs although there are few surprises every now and then, around 40 Ola drivers stay near to my home. We know each other very well plus I often get into one of these 40 cabs every morning.