Uber Cabs is now a household name in the cities where it operates. I have a lot of respect for MNC’s including Uber Cabs because of professionalism and transparent approach. Usually, i don’t share negative reviews but sometimes it becomes imperative when i am being cheated. The objective of my blog is to caution the readers against tactics to avoid being cheated. Though Uber Cabs is an MNC brand let’s not forget that drivers employed are Indian Drivers :). From the day of launch, Uber Cabs is in NEWS for all the wrong reasons. Trust me, nothing wrong with the brand, company or employees but because of its drivers. To reign on notorious drivers is a humongous task. I don’t think so that anyone can do this in India. The technology and convenience are responsible for the popularity of Radio Taxi in India. The “Drivers” will be responsible for the Great FALL of Radio Taxi in India.
If i ask my readers, have you ever being cheated by Indian Taxi Driver?. The answer will be definite YES. I stayed in various cities in India and found Mumbai Taxi Drivers to be comparatively honest and professional. In other cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, etc., the situation is worse. The drivers find out new ways to cheat customers. With the advent of Radio Taxi’s, the traditional ways of cheating like overcharging, route diversion, etc. are being replaced. The new ways to cheat passengers are cancellation fees and unpredictive dynamic pricing. Unpredictive dynamic pricing is as good as overcharging i.e. traditional way of cheating passengers. I will explain it later in the post.
Uber Cabs – How it cheats passenger?
Recently, i booked Uber Cabs for my parents from my residence to International Airport through Mobile App. Thanks to Uber Cabs, being senior citizens they just reached airport on time because of smartness shown by one of the Uber Cabs driver. Before that, it is important to understand how the drivers of Uber Cabs are being paid. There is no official document or info regarding the same. As i understand from one of the drivers of Radio Taxi that they need to complete X no of trips per day. He told me that this count was 5 in his case. They are being paid fixed amount per trip i.e. Rs 200. If the trip is cancelled by the rider, or “No show” by the rider then it is counted as a trip. Here lies the catch. To complete the daily quota of no of trips, a driver may adopt tactics as i faced. Besides cancellation fees, unpredictive dynamic pricing is another way of cheating customers. Let’s discuss these 2 points.
Cancellation Fees:
Uber Cabs charge a cancellation fees equivalent to min fare. In my case, i booked UberX and min fare/cancellation fee is Rs 75. Immediately after booking the cab, the cab driver called me and told me that he will not go to the international airport. Just to add, the airport is approx 50 Kms from my residence. He said that he is cancelling the trip and i can book another cab. At first place, why the driver accepted a booking if he was not willing to go. Anyways, no problem. I waited for him to cancel the trip. On the other hand, the status on the app was showing that cab is “on the way” and then “Arriving”. I was in a fix whether to book another cab or not. After waiting for five mins, i again called the driver and he told that he has already cancelled the trip. On the app, the status was still “Arriving”. I called again but the driver insisted that he has already cancelled the trip. At the same time, my parents were getting late. To my surprise, after 20 mins, i received the following email from Uber Cabs with subject “Receipt for canceled trip on Wednesday afternoon”. My Paytm wallet linked to Uber Cabs was charged Rs 75 towards cancellation fees.
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Email: When a trip is cancelled more than five minutes after a driver accepts, or if the driver has to cancel after waiting more than five minutes at the pickup location, a ₹75 cancellation fee is charged.
If you think this was a mistake, please visit help.uber.com or tap HELP in the menu panel of the Uber app and we’ll make it right.
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The mail implies two possible reasons for cancellation (a) I cancelled the trip five mins after the driver accepts the booking or (b) Driver cancelled after waiting for more than five mins at the pickup location. The option (a) is ruled out as i never cancelled the trip. It implies that Uber Cabs arrived at pick up location, the driver waited for five mins and then cancelled. Uber Cabs should apply simple logic and check from GPS whether driver arrived at pickup location or not. Uber Cabs charged Rs 75 as a cancellation fees without checking this fundamental detail. Now, it’s not a question of Rs 75 that is a small amount but question of being cheated. Assuming pan india 2,000 customers are cheated daily i.e. 200 per city per day then the collection is cool 1.5 lac per day or 45 lac per month :). Wow !!!
I escalated the matter to Uber support and received the following revert through email.
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Email: Hi Nitin,
Sorry to hear about the trouble with this pickup.
The fee for cancellations is applied automatically after 5 minutes because your driver makes a commitment to come pick you up.
In this case, I added Uber credits in the amount of your cancellation fee to your account. You can use these credits on your future trips, which I hope go as seamlessly as you’d expect.
I’m going to update this on your driver’s account now and we’ll be following up right away to address this. We have a certain set of quality and safety standards that we expect all of our driver-partners to meet, so it’s important that we know of a concern like this so we can address it appropriately.
These might be helpful resources for you as well:
Canceling my request
How to use credits
How to contact your driver
If you ever feel like you’ve been charged unfairly, we’re always happy to take a look.
Safety and accountability is built into the Uber experience, before, during and after a ride. Read more.
Regards,
XXXXXX
help.uber.com
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Though the Uber Cabs has credited “credits” in my account against the cancellation fees, i am not going to use Uber Cabs in future. It’s a good business model to cheat passengers and those who complaint reverse “credits” instead of currency.
Unpredictive Dynamic Pricing:
When i was booking Uber Cabs, i received pop up about Surge Pricing. I accepted booking at 1.4 times or 40% extra charging. On many occasions, the surge pricing was as high as 2.1 times i.e. more than double & i skipped booking. In past, i shared a post on Dynamic Pricing by E-Commerce players. The dynamic pricing by Uber Cabs is nothing but overcharging by cab drivers. As a customer, I am perfectly OK with dynamic predictive pricing. As the Uber Cabs is on demand radio taxi, i.e., you cannot book in advance. If i need a cab right now within five mins and Uber Cabs told me that they will charge double the regular fare. As a rider, i don’t have any other option but to accept it. In short, what is the difference between overcharging by an ordinary cab driver on-road and Uber Cabs.
To explain dynamic predictive pricing, i will share an example of one of my favorite restaurants. This restaurant charges a different rate for weekdays and weekends. On weekdays, a buffet cost Rs 649/= + tax. Whereas on weekends, it is Rs 849/= + tax. It is perfectly fine as the pricing is predictive. On the other hand, assume you are feeling hungry and reached the restaurant. Now at the entrance of the restaurant, you are informed that today’s price is Rs 1249/= + tax. What will you do?. It is unpredictive dynamic pricing.
The best way to handle this situation is to publish peak hour rates and non-peak hour rates. It will make dynamic pricing predictive in nature and rider will not mind paying. Also, in dynamic predictive pricing, the customer knows in advance whether he would like to avail the service or not. For example, if i am not comfortable with the weekend rates of the restaurant then i will fix some other restaurant in my budget. Similarly, as a customer Uber Cabs should inform/publish the tariff in advance rather overcharging at the time of booking.
After this ordeal, i booked another popular radio taxi at the regular fare. I uninstalled Uber Cabs application from my mobile and gave a one-star rating for cheating, wasting my half an hour and causing inconvenience.
Copyright © Nitin Bhatia. All Rights Reserved.
You yourself said there is nothing wrong with the company, brand or employees, then why to uninstall the app and give them low rating. Don’t you think its a little harsh considering they responded on your mail and credited back your points, its too early to judge them probably they will improve in future
Right. He should not raise his voice until looted 20 more times. LOL.
Hassle this person might have undergone is nothing comparable to uber credit, knowing he had flight to catch. Drivers like one should be stripped off his license to operate taxi.
In service industry, customer facing staff are brand ambassadors of the company. In this case “driver”. Will uber compensate the customer if the customer miss the flight because of time wasted by their driver?. Considering it is on demand cab service. Moreover i accepted the booking at 40% Extra charges that is similar to blackmailing by roadside cabs. As a customer i am not here to complete the daily quota of their drivers. If they have to survive then they should reign on these notorious drivers.
Nitin & Showbizz – Any person with sufficient knowledge about Uber would be very hesitant to book Uber for airport travel. That’s because a lot depends on driver availability in your area. So – you made a mistake to start with! Uber does not work on the traditional ‘make booking for specific time’ model. Here’s a fact – I would recommend Uber everyday for office but Mega for airport booking.
Although in reality given their awesome service I still book Uber for airport but keep some something in mind (of course with the knowledge of my location, general driver availability, my time, buffer half an hour, backup plan etc etc). From my house in Bangalore to airport, all other cab providers charge around 1100. With Uber, I used to pay around 540/-.
In short, Uber is not reliable.
I am a regular Uber user and a regular reader of yours as well. This article does not show the complete picture and misguides people. I agree the drivers are notorious – but their customer service is excellent. 99% of the times they are able to resolve the issue and IN YOUR FAVOR (if you are in the right). In you case, you did not like Uber credit because you might not be a regular user. For regular users like me, it does not matter at all since we are eventually going to exhaust the credit.
Surge pricing might be a way they make money – and they are supposed to make money too. Most of the times, as you said, the surge pricing is only in the peak hours.
Compare this with the many advantages:
– Nice clean cabs
– Mostly decent drivers
– Very strong customer service
– Strong driver feedback mechanism
– Extremely competitive rates that even outdo the overcharging auto wallas
In my views, having used everything that’s there in the market, Uber ranks the number 1.
I regularly use radio taxi but prefer operator that provide cash payment option as it ensure no nonsense service. Once the wallet is linked then you are at the mercy of uber. Passing of credit is a smart marketing tactics that ensure that next time also i will use uber. What if i don’t intend to use their service in future. It is anti-competitive practice as the wallet is not Uber wallet. A customer can demand refund of virtual currency.
Moreover, driver accepted booking and for his vested interest kept customer waiting who has flight to catch is cheating and unprofessional behaviour. What if customer miss the flight?. Normally people keep max margin of half an hour for flights to catch. Will uber compensate the customer for missed flight?.
Sir – the only difference is you are a new user and I am an experienced Uber user. I know the plusses and minuses and know how to get around them. And I can vouch that Uber is much economical and better than any other car you see on road. There is a remarkable difference between Uber & Ola (for that matter) drivers quality.
All users have their own experience either good or bad. It is not about new or old user. If you would have been in my place then you would have gone through same experience. In my opinion, on-demand cab is not reliable. I used Meru regularly and advance booking is more reliable option compared to relying on on-demand cab.
On-demand cab is not reliable in situations like yours :) Peace, sir. I am your regular reader. On your side only.
This problem is not only from Uber but other such service providers are also cheating Such typed cheating attempts by these taxi operators/their drivers cann’t be ignored due to their appreciable services, question is that why to cheat someone who may not be conversant with app operations or routes of the city they are travelling. I ‘m a frequent traveller from Delhi to Hyderabad/Mumbai and Banglore. Once a driver of Taxi for Sure tried to charge for 49 KM as per GPS reading from Dwarka New Delhi to Nizamudeen whereas actual distance is 24-27 KM whatsoever route is adopted. Driver expected we being senior citizen shall make payment getting late to pick the train but I immidiatelly talked Manager Taxi for Sure , although on my request manager sent revised bill for 25 KMs on my mobile but i would have no option to make payment if I would have been on marginal time for scheduled time of train . Because I was known to route it’s ok but still most of people don’t know the route/distance for their destinations and they pay. These cabs are connected with company office through GPS systems therefore operators controlling the GPS/billing system should be directed by management to keep close watch on drivers activities to maintain their credibility.
Hi Nitin,
I have never used Uber cab but frequently use ola cabs in Hyderabad. Till now I never have had any problem with them. They are quiet convenient especially for early morning trips to airport though I always prefer to pay them cash and haven’t used their wallet system. I think the drivers are also quiet well behaved till now. Hopefully the trend continues in future too.
Once the wallet or credit card is linked then you are at the mercy of uber. They are free to deduct the amount of their choice. I agree with you that cash payment prevent such kind of nuisances.
OLA:
Similar kind of situation happened (in Bangalore) for me, but not with the uber its Ola we have booked a cab (for one of the visitor of our home ) from Cv.Raman Nagar to Majestic railway station 2 hours early to the train normally in week ends/ holidays traffic is less it may take around 60 mins, we have booked cab from Ola, received a mess and in parallel Driver also made a call he said he will reach in 20 min we waited 30 min and called he said again 15 min will take we asked is it correct time at least now, he replied yes sir sure, did not reach even after 15…20 mins again called him said still 10 min , finally, I have decided to drop them by my car,because no more time we got….later i didn’t made a complaint to the customer care and never used Ola. we reached exactly time, train about depart….
for these kind of situations, what we have to do? please advice….
Uber:
But i used Uber i felt good, but the coupon i got discount first time but unable to use the different coupon again, it used to say coupon applied already
This is common problem with on-demand cab service.
A single bad experience, even when uber refunded you via uber credits, and you make a sweeping generalization that “all” uber drivers would do this.
There is inconvenience definitely, but where is the cheating ? They deducted money and then gave it back.
Cheating is 40% extra charging without any reason. Customer does not have any option but to pay. Driver cancelled the booking after accepting the booking. Driver never turned up for pick up but reason for cancellation is that driver waited for more than 5 mins at pick up location & then cancelled the booking.
Nope. I booked a ride. It showed 100 rs during booking. But at the end of the ride the price was 270. I was in hurry so i paid the driver in cash and left. After some time i complained through uber support message. They credited back 170rs as uber credit.
So far cool. But the problem is i cant book any more rides after that. The app keeps showing some or other error messages every time.(Like, your number is not supported, please update phone number etc.)
The customer care asked me to re-install the app.
When i did so, uber credit displays 0rs balance.
My saved home address, and everything is there but the money is gone.
We raise our concerns with unpredictive dynamic pricing by private players. Wish we raise our concerns with the Indian Railways reservation system too
Recently I booked Uber in pune from khadaki to
viman nagar..On completing the trip , i asked my wife to check bill, she said she is not getting bill amount. So i turned to driver for bill of trip..He then started checking amount and said that he forgot to start trip in app..WT*..so he demanded cash payment..so finally I paid app bill of 150..on next day wife’s paytm (which is linked) got debited by 70 rs..
So by doing this he achieved his one target plus cash too..
They cheat in the name of uber credit!
I booked a ride. It showed 100 rs during booking. But at the end of the ride the price was 270. I was in hurry so i paid the driver in cash and left. After some time i complained through uber support message. They credited back 170rs as uber credit.
So far cool. But the problem is i cant book any more rides after that. The app keeps showing some or other error messages every time.(Like, your number is not supported, please update phone number, please update email, etc..,)
The customer care asked me to re-install the app.
When i did so, uber credit displays 0rs balance.
My saved home address, and everything is there but the money is gone.
If after re-installation you login with same mob no then your details should have been stored/retained/restored by the app. You can clarify the status of uber credits against the mobile no they were credited.