[B103]

Originally Posted by GTO

3. Why the heck isn't Uber disciplining its drivers? Cancellations from the driver ruin the customer experience. It should impose penalties for drivers cancelling trips after accepting them.

If a passenger books and cancels a trip then Uber would fine him/her a penalty. Earlier, if a driver was cancelling, he too had to pay a penalty. Drivers were up in arms against such Uber's policies and Uber had to oblige. If cancellation is done after some x mins, now the driver does not have to pay the penalty. This is terrible for the passenger. Driver pings for destination and after 'x' mins he cancels the trip. Passenger has lost 5 to 10 mins and same incident repeats with different drivers. I think now we will have to try for a cab, 15- 20 mins earlier than the intended start. One more change I notice is that previously, Uber was taking the money and then paying the drivers after penalties for cancelling trips, poor ratings etc. Now, we have to pay the drivers directly in many cases. Don't know if drivers can opt for this or it is a select privilege for few good drivers.

Another bad experience I had was when an Uber driver was nagging me to cancel the trip back from airport, soon as the trip commenced. I was promised a drop as if it is a personal car. This is because he will profit more in that arrangement. Now a days, there is a Uber representative posted at KIAL airport's Uber lounge and this guy will note down the details of every car getting a trip via Uber so that driver cannot cancel and pocket the trip after getting the business through Uber platform.

Typical desi jugaads ! Indians are very good at finding loop holes in every system to exploit it.

[suhaas307]

I had a terrible experience with Uber recently.

As it has been with most people, I too have received a call from the cabbie immediately after the trip is accepted, only to be asked a plethora of questions. But this time, when the cabbie asked me where I wanted to go, I told him that my destination is ‘x’ (which happened to be my office) and then mentioned to him that I am in a real hurry and if he is going to cancel he should let me know now so I can figure out alternative arrangements.

The cabbie assured me that he would come. But even though he was 5 minutes away from my location, he did not budge for several minutes, and when he eventually did arrive at my location he was nowhere to be found. I looked for him frantically and couldn’t find him. The next thing I know, Uber cancelled my trip and charged me a penalty stating that the driver had reached the location but I was not there to board the cab.

That is when I realised that the cabbie always wanted to cancel the trip but found a way to do it without hurting his ratings or getting penalised himself.

Eventually, I got another cab and raised a dispute through the app regarding the previous cancellation. I did get the penalty amount refunded but this has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth.

While I understand that Uber isn’t a great platform for cabbies, I simply cannot digest their attitude towards customers.

[warrioraks]

As a lot of others said, this is nothing new within NCR or Bangalore. In fact, we have a newer and more dangerous trend now. The outright deterioration of Uber customer care has emboldened drivers to take things up a notch and actually scam people (see quoted post below). On top of that, Uber refuses to refund the money for the misdemeanours of their driver partners which has turned into vicious circle of both drivers and riders disliking the company. Cross posting my recent experiences from another thread on this new type of scam that Uber drivers are running now days.

I have been a loyal Uber customer till now. Their cars, drivers and overall customer service has been fantastic. But over the last few months, twice I have been scammed by their drivers. Modus Operandi was very similar in both the incidents
- Customer books the cab
- The driver calls and asks for the drop location
- The driver acknowledges that they will do the pick up in 5-10 minutes
- The driver switches on the ride immediately without picking the customer
- The customer is unaware that the trip has started and is waiting at the location for the cab
- Finally when the customer realises what has happened, 10-15 minutes have passed and the active trip has already costed couple of hundred bucks
- Customer tries to contact the driver but he does not pick the phone despite repeated attempts

This has happened twice with me.
In the first incident, Uber refunded the money. However in the second, they outright refused. All they did was acknowledge the issue and mention that driver will be rated on their internal points mechanism for this misbehaviour. Whatever the heck that means.

Now I don’t see much difference across Ola-Uber service in Delhi NCR atleast.

The disheartening part was attitude of Uber customer care. They just did not want to address this issue and kept on providing robotic templatized responses. In the end, they have lost a loyal customer and at the same time, encouraged scamster drivers to continue with such deceptive tactics. It’s a shame that most companies in India end up having pathetic customer service even when they started off as gold standard at one point of time.

PS: I was able to dispute charges of the second incident and got payment blocked through my credit card company. Other Bhpians can consider this option as well in case they face a scam like this.

[aerohit]

People will have to get used to this, or find alternatives.
When Gmail or Gdrive is about to reach 95% capacity, you will have to pay. Free is not forever.
Similarly, stuff sold on amazon is now more expensive than offline merchants.
When people get used to something, they often forget about the convenience that app provides them.
Feel free to innovate or find alternatives.

[SoumenD]

Originally Posted by aerohit

...
When Gmail or Gdrive is about to reach 95% capacity, you will have to pay. Free is not forever...

When did anyone complain about paying? I don’t think any post talks about uber/ola pricing.

Its driver behaviour which is an issue. People waiting for 20-30 minutes with drivers cancelling bookings is the problem. I will have to check if we still have Meru and others in service. As there’s no guarantee these days that an Uber/Ola booking will actually work

[sgmuser]

Originally Posted by GTO

I use Uber a lot over late nights, and if I'm going to a crowded place during the day with zero parking. Of late though, it's become a menace with almost every booking being followed by a call from the driver asking "where do you want to go?" ("destination kya hai?"). I refuse to answer the question and tell them clearly that Uber / you are supposed to take me wherever I want to go in the city.

Uber is better IMHO. Ola is worse at least what I have experienced in Chennai. Yes, for strange reasons, the taxi driver asks the question about destination and I think they want to re-confirm to make sure just in case I thought.

Ola Autos cancel a lot and I had terrible experiences.

Ola is costly and they abuse this peak hour rates compared to Uber. Ola has another big scam running where the rate changes significantly to the higher side than what it shows during the initial booking time. So, Ola is a big no when it comes to ethics and integrity.

[Piyush Kanthak]

Please read full
After attending my sisters wedding, myself and my 3 cousins were waiting outside the venue for a cab in one of Bangalore's most richest developed area called Richmond road and guess what, we had to wait for a never ending 2 freaking hours for a cab to arrive

My parents were in my relative's Kwid as my uncle had taken away everyone in my SX4 home.

A total of 6 cab cancellations, 3 auto cancellations I was totally frustrated, everyone was so tired and just wanted to rest.

Finally a guy agreed to come, he was on the opposite side of the road, I requested him to please take a u turn which was only a 100 m ahead and pick us up as we couldn't cross the road due to tall dividers, for just driving a 100 m he was not ready inspire of the location telling him to turn

After two long hours we got an auto guy, as soon as the booking was confirmed I immediately called him and told him the location and also told him that I will give full ₹200 in cash, finally he arrived in 15 minutes.

This is absolutely ridiculous, not getting cabs in famous recognised and renowned place.

After 2 months I had booked a cab for my mom to my sisters house which is just opposite of the wedding venue, strangely, the Uber I had booked never gave me the OTP number, the driver already knew the drop location while accepting the booking, so has Uber given this feature where drivers know in first hand as to where the destination is? Someone please shed light on this.

[The Rationalist]

This menace have been there for years. Having used Uber in Kochi, Mumbai & Pune, Mumbai had the least cancellations till date. As an extrovert, I strike up a conversation with most of the drivers. The situation of most is not good to be honest. The apps take upwards of 30% as cuts and with rising fuel costs, most barely make ₹25-30,000. It's not easy to run a household with that money in a major city.

Many airport runs is a loss for the drivers if they decide to stay and get a return trip! It may take hours to get the next ride. Sometimes there won't be a return trip at all. In places like Kochi intra-city trips is far better due to lesser traffic, hence low turn around time. The happiest drivers of the lot are inter City ones, like Mumbai-Pune. They mostly get rides back, so earn more and have less stress.

Is there any solutions? Of course, the apps have to stop the huge commision, but I don't see that happening. There's scope for a new player who can come up with an app with lower commission I guess.

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by SoumenD

When did anyone complain about paying? I don’t think any post talks about uber/ola pricing.

Its driver behaviour which is an issue. People waiting for 20-30 minutes with drivers cancelling bookings is the problem. I will have to check if we still have Meru and others in service. As there’s no guarantee these days that an Uber/Ola booking will actually work

Because it comes from pricing. The real problem is not the drivers or the passengers but the parent companies.

So many reasons why,

1) they are for all intents and purposes treated like employees but on paper are contract, hence not a single benefit like PF, medical insurance etc.

2) Their commissions have been rising at a rate faster than fares, which means the driver gets dinged.

3) Drivers in 2015-16 were making 90,000-1l in earnings for a 12 hr work day. This is now at around 30k If they are lucky.

Ergo all these tactics to maximise earnings.

The only real solution is push up fares by 20-30%, eliminate "surges", drop OLA Uber commissions a bit and make this viable for both passengers and drivers.

But and this is the problem this means fares go upto yellow black cab levels and their already nasty losses will become worse.

The absolute reality is, Ola, Uber created a Frankenstein monster that's only kept alive by VC cash burn (or stock holder money in the case of Uber)

[kovilkalai]

I have deleted the Ola app on my phone as (IMO), they were ripping off customers. I had money deducted from my account after two drivers cancelled the rides and upon calling customer support, it was refunded with no questions asked. This is something that shouldn’t happen at all. The algorithm shouldn’t be designed this way. The only likely reason they do this is that a significant fraction of their customers don’t notice.

This was some 3-4 years ago. Nowadays, I almost never use Uber/Ola unless I don’t have a choice. For airport runs, I have a reliable taxi guy who charges me more, but I am okay with it. Downside of tech monopolies and duopolies is that we have to put up with daylight robbery and poor service.

I think state and central legislatures should start framing laws that focus on consumer rights. This will be difficult as each industry comes its own challenges. Over the next few years, industry consolidation will lead to a concentration of power and consumer rights will take a bigger beating.

[bwajlearn]

There used to be a time when people considered using these cab services exclusively as an alternate to personal vehicle. Not anymore. Even if you are in city centre.

Last 3 trips I had in Uber
1. At least one cancellation per trip.
2. One time car with different plate number and model
3. Almost all the times cars looked like it just came out of an accident.

Interiors these days I am happy if they are at least as clean as public buses. Have stopped sending family alone.

Though the problem with parent companies are there, customers and drivers are the affected ones.
I look for normal auto stand, metro, bus in order and only as last option go to Uber.

[hajaar]

I stopped using these buggers three years ago. They would ask the destination, whether I would pay with cash and randomly cancel after confirming the trip. Sometimes, they would not move for 15 minutes so that I would cancel the trip instead of them. There have been times when I have been forced to disembark because they will play loud music, that I would object to. These are the cars. The autos are even more notorious.

I started using private operators even if they are 2-3 times more expensive, have a local auto driver who drives for short distances. For any other place, I used my fortuner.

[three10]

First of all, I share all of these concerns. I have had my share of cancellations, especially when. I have to travel to the airport/railway station. The anxiety is just crippling. I avoid cabs unless i’m in these situations where i cannot leave the car at the railway station /airport (I’ve done this a few times at Hyderabad airport and would highly recommend it). However after shifting to Pune, I have no idea of how safe the parking is.

Anyways, let me offer a different perspective. From all of the posts, we can see few common themes

1. Drivers need money for operational expenses (hence prefer cash or direct UPI payments)
2. Drivers need flexibility in terms of general direction of travel.
3. Drivers need a better payout (aggregators optimising their costs to enable a driver to earn more)

My question to the aggregators (especially the so-called tech giants - Ola and Uber)

1. Why do you need a 15 day settlement cycle? Especially with the UPI infrastructure, you can easily do real time settlement. The driver gets their amount as soon as the ride ends. With this, you have eliminated the need for a driver to ask for cash instead of payment through the app.
If this is not possible, why don’t you issue a line of credit/ petro card to drivers with a fixed pre- paid quota / amount that the driver can use for fuel. I’m sure the companies have enough info on revenue generation per driver to determine what pre-paid amount each driver gets. The prepaid amount can be deducted from the bi-weekly payout. Net result , drivers will not have to worry about money for fuel (assuming that’s the biggest concern). Many oil companies have such cards available and Ola/Uber can tie up with these.

2. Provide drivers with flexibility to choose direction of travel depending on time of day, I’m sure there is enough opportunity to match an intended destination with the direction a driver wants to go. Apply surge pricing if there isn’t an enough number of drivers going in that direction.

3. All of theee companies are cloud native and have a tremendous opportunity to save costs. I’m quite sure that they can do better with streamlining their costs. Profits to the companies involved should come by increasing the number of rides (by paying better to drivers) and not by squeezing them at every given opportunity. Ultimately, as a consumer you will never probably interact (or have a minimal interaction) with an Ola or Uber employee. However the drivers are most likely the face of Ola or Uber. Treat them right and watch better returns.

IMHO, companies are too focused on valuations and their profits than actually caring for the customer. They’ve forgotten their actual purpose.

P.S : I don’t drive a cab, so not taking sides here. However I think it’s fair to say that there’s a huge responsibility that the companies need to step up to.

[brt_mhn]

Originally Posted by GTO

Of late though, it's become a menace

For me, it isn't the location problem but payment. As soon as I book one, they ring me up and ask my mode of payment. If I say online, they cancel it immediately. They want only Cash. This causes needless expenditure because Ola charges an additional fee if you pay with cash.

A truly terrible world!

Edit: And another problem with Ola was that whenever I booked a cab/auto, it would say booking failed. When I tried booking another one, the same message used to pop up. This happened over and over till the first driver came. When I looked into my ride history, there were atleast 5-6 rides booked. I lost atleast 150 bucks this way in seperate incidents. I tried escalating this to Ola but they did/would not respond.

[RoadTrippin]

I am absolutely appalled but not surprised by the responses on this thread. Everyone is a great fan of capitalism until the very moment the system is overwhelmed and the labourer whose time and skill is being exploited fights back. Uber and Ola have been cancerous in their behaviour for years now and with demand far outstripping supply the drivers are fighting back the way they can.

The drivers simply cannot afford a 30% commission on their fare to Ola & Uber. The service these scamster companies offer just does not deserve this premium. The customer is more than happy to leech off the low fares as long as the driver is bearing the brunt of it (or the VCs, when they were indirectly funding it through driver incentive programs). In addition, drivers prefer cash payments directly to them as they have control over the funds. When payments are made to the aggregators the commissions deducted are opaque with innumerous deductions and every driver i have spoken to has bemoaned this. A clear instance of the capitalistic model not working for the service provider. Unfortunately, we haven't yet seen the emergence of an alternative in what should be a free market until then we all have to suffer for the greed and incompetence of Ola & Uber.

Despite these being known issues it is only recently (in the last quarter) that they have experimented in small clusters with showing the drivers the destination prior to them having to accept it. Even now the driver has no visibility to mode of payment or value of the ride they are forced to accept. Drivers are at times expected to drive 5-10km to pick up a ride for no additional fee, this is another major lacuna in the model.

Drivers do not get to see where their customer is coming from and where they need to go or how much they will be paid for this. Let me ask everyone complaining here this: Will you accept a job where you don't know how long the work will take and how much you will get paid for it? Why do you expect the poor drivers to have to shut up and accept it? I can't fathom the arrogance in saying that the drivers should be penalised in these circumstances.

My personal experience, a) I am prepared to wait b) I call the driver and tell them up front that i will pay in cash and that i will tip extra c) I tell the driver what the fare is, what my destination is and if it doesn't work for him I offer to cancel and pick another ride. I get the very rare cancellation but my success rate is well upwards of 80% a much better alternative to the days of trying to get autos/cabs on the streets of Bangalore and Chennai.

As customers the situation is very frustrating, i get that but the culprits here are Uber & Ola for their exploitative practices not the drivers who are merely trying to make a living.