A frustrated cab rider’s account of being overcharged while booking through the ride-hailing app Ola has ignited a wave of anger among other such users.
In a long Twitter post, a user (@Vinamralongani) on July 2 shared his experience of being duped by a cab driver while booking through Ola at Mumbai Airport.
Upon booking the cab through the Ola app, the user called the driver, who instructed him to proceed to the designated pick-up area at Terminal 2 of the airport.
However, upon arrival, he noticed discrepancies in the car’s registration number and description.
The driver, seemingly the same person, reassured the rider by displaying his phone with the user’s number on it. Despite his reservations, the user boarded the cab due to late-night constraints and a long queue of waiting passengers.
The driver asked for the PIN to start the ride, but the app on the user’s phone failed to show the journey’s commencement. The driver attributed it to a network issue and continued the ride.
Arriving into #Mumbai – @CSMIA_Official and looking to book a cab with @Olacabs ?You may want to pay attention to this bizarre incident that happened to me last night. Please read on and retweet so that others are aware.I called the Ola driver as soon as the cab was booked on… pic.twitter.com/PAH88X2yrr— VT-VLO (@Vinamralongani) July 2, 2023
Fearing for their safety, the user said that he refrained from contacting the police or Ola support. Upon reaching the destination, the driver demanded an inflated cash payment.
The user, determined to have a record of the transaction, insisted on paying via UPI and took a photo of the car. The driver reluctantly accepted the UPI payment, but the app still showed an original fare of Rs 431, as opposed to Rs 681 demanded.
The user expressed regret for boarding the cab despite the discrepancies, emphasizing the concerning trend of drivers using the Ola app to exploit unsuspecting passengers.
Surprisingly, after the driver left, the app showed that the ride had not commenced. It was only later that the ride ended and reverted to the original fare.
The driver showed no remorse when confronted, claiming innocence.
The user called on Ola to investigate the matter thoroughly and take appropriate action. The ride-hailing app asked the user to share the CRN of this ride.
“We understand how upset you must be. We are here to help. Please share the CRN of this ride and registered email ID via DM with us so that we can get this sorted for you,” Ola Support tweeted.
Resonating with the latest incident, people on Twitter were quick to share their own plight.
One of the Twitterati said, “Yes when I booked a ride yesterday, I had put my residence address but while nearing it showed my station address ….when I edited it updated fare but not drop …driver asked me to do twice and I ended up paying more….Pune rides also payment changed to cash.”
Another tweet read, “OLA has become the Biggest Fraud is what I can say if you look at LinkedIn it looks like a complaint portal of Ola.”
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