[RSR]

I believe these are just growing pains for Uber. The company grew too fast too soon worldwide and this was bound to happen sooner than later. Imbalances are bound to occur in the growing up phase, but a smart company will soon find a comfortable operating equilibrium. I think Uber will grow out of this phase soon.

Yep, I do believe they added too many drivers without a proportionate increase in the number of riders. So the share of the pie got reduced for everyone.

I guess they're coming up with methods to increase the pie's size - such as by increasing the area of coverage for each city, by introducing hourly rentals etc.

They should also adopt a more stringent screening process for drivers & cars. It would be better to stop recruiting independent drivers now, and stick to those who sign contracts with them for new cars.

Recently, I've got two old, rickety, very poorly-maintained Indicas with Uber Go (and one of the drivers also drove for Ola). The air-conditioner in one of them was not functioning properly, and the driver had a pretty tough time driving the car in a stretch with bumper-to-bumper traffic. It was also very noisy and vibrating like hell (worn-out engine/gearbox mounts?)

Such poorly-maintained cars leave a very bad taste in the mouth for Uber users. Everytime I choose Uber Go, I dread getting an old, poorly-maintained Tata Indica. Sometimes I choose Uber X only to avoid getting an Indica. Or I just hail an Utoo Compact, where one is very likely to get a relatively new Datsun GO+.

Since Tata are now pushing Bolts & Zests into the fleet market, Uber should switch to the newer cars. They should stop accepting Indicas & Indigos into their fleet from now, and steadily phase out the existing cars, beginning with the ill-maintained ones.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by RSR

I believe these are just growing pains for Uber. ...

It seems that Uber is suffering from corporate sickness of a serious nature. I follow Ars Technica regularly: the reports are pretty bad, and the comments worse. Take a look.

Of course, it is far from the only major corporate to be psychopathic and survive, at least for a while.

[mykal shoemaker]

Originally Posted by Gansan

I could not connect to Uber since yesterday and sent a complaint. Got a cryptic reply my account has been suspended for "Agreement / Policy violations" and I will be notified if they "choose to reactivate my account again".

That's all. No explanation about what I violated. I last used the service twice on 18th March and both trips went off well.

I had similar issue with OLA. All of a sudden they blocked me. Tried to get it resolved few times. But always gets standard copy,paste replies saying "it's automated system process. They can't do anything". Looks like these companies don't have any good second level or higher complaint authorities. May be cost cutting skeleton call centre model.

[NaXal]

Following are my view, and can certainly be wrong, so please read with open mind.

This entire issue can never be solved unless the fundamentals are addressed in a right way.

Entire model is flawed from the start in our country.

Why ?

The system / platform was born in a different regulatory environment (read USA). The idea was to save fuel, by making sure, people can share rides aided with technological help (finding each other on same direction). There was no business aspect in terms of transport (app can earn being paid or from conventional platform based advertisement)

Soon, people figure out, with their regulation (read USA Market), they can start making profit via transportation model also, thus, this App Cab stuff came in.

There, you don't need a Yellow plate, neither separate license to drive as commercial, plus special insurance also (yes, in US, you do need to pay extra premium for passenger, which is optional but not as customer).

Bring that same model here, and regulations starts to mess up things.

Regulation Done Right

Cabs are separate for personal vehicle here, so to start with App Cabs will be dealing with different people compare to their (App Cab company) country of origin. Mind set of those are completely different because of our rules.

No, I am not blaming Indian regulations, in-fact I support each of them, since for our country those are needed.

What is missing though is regulation for app cabs.

Primarily with complain/dispute handling. Both for drivers and customers alike.

What more is needed

• There are no central database for sharing driver/customer violations, which may help those guilty to sign up to another platform and perform the same guilt again. It is required.
• There is no mechanism of a structured complain / dispute redressal mechanism. Compare this with Telecom/Banks, just think of the step by step hierarchy. Once again its needed.
• No, these App Cabs are not technological companies. They must be termed transportation company and brought under the regulation of transport department. Yes, discuss and draft regulation as needed with this business model, but like Banks have RBI central policy/guide line to follow, like Insurance having IRDA to follow, like Telcos having DOT/TRAI to follow, these App caps are also required to follow a central / state governing body with a structured and unified policy/guide lines.
• Penalty structure for violation monitored and implemented by Gov regulatory body to punish the company it self for not adhering those regulations (if and when they come in)

[sdp1975]

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

That's the standard behaviour, did the driver ask you to pay?
========
You do not need to tell the driver what mode you'll be paying with, moreover, none have asked me anything so far.

I did visit the trips section and saw my completed trip . I tapped here and there - could not pay using card , there was no prompt or popup anywhere , don't know what went wrong.

The driver told me that if I had opted to pay by card while booking , that's the mode I would have to use for payment. When I could not pay using card , he initially refused to accept cash saying that my card would automatically be debited !

I got confused in spite of knowing that card payment needed authentication. I went and checked my bank account , saw it hadn't been debited and paid cash. He was happy to get the cash though as he'd have to pay toll on return.

I think the app just misbehaved on that occasion. Need to see how it goes on my next trip.

[ksameer1234]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

I did visit the trips section and saw my completed trip . I tapped here and there - could not pay using card , there was no prompt or popup anywhere , don't know what went wrong.
.

I think the app just misbehaved on that occasion. Need to see how it goes on my next trip.

It does happen sometimes with me wherein I try and pay for my trip with card after the trip has ended. I see a bill of Rs. 0 and no payment is required. However, when trying to book next ride, the prompt for pending payment comes up when app is requesting for cabs in the vicinity. In such cases, it helps if one is not in hurry since after making payment, cab needs to be requested again, taking up precious few minutes.

He was happy to get the cash though as he'd have to pay toll on return.

You shouldn't have paid cash since you had already selected card as mode of payment. I don't have any experience of such situation but you should get in touch with the customer care to ensure you don't have to pay for the same trip by card again.

[sdp1975]

Originally Posted by ksameer1234

I see a bill of Rs. 0 and no payment is required.

+1 , this is exactly what had happened. The bill amount was 0 - still shows 0 - for that trip. I'll try to connect to their customer care and tell them I paid by cash and if there's a way they can rectify things.

I guess in my case the driver didn't pay any commission to Uber ? Uber thinks I still need to pay by card and that I haven't paid.

This was the first time I was using the app and I thought that if I didn't pay by cash I would end up with a free ride as I just couldn't pay by card ! That's why I made the cash payment.

Anyways, it's thoroughly Uber's fault if they have an app that doesn't work properly.

[ksameer1234]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

I guess in my case the driver didn't pay any commission to Uber ? Uber thinks I still need to pay by card and that I haven't paid.

This was the first time I was using the app and I thought that if I didn't pay by cash I would end up with a free ride as I just couldn't pay by card ! That's why I made the cash payment.

Anyways, it's thoroughly Uber's fault if they have an app that doesn't work properly.

This is a bug in their app wherein the app insists on giving you a free ride till the time you book another one when like a true-blue businessman it springs into action asking you for money.

Sadly, the cash you have paid is now a tip for driver because Uber will still record a due payment for the ride. What's sad though is that this glitch has become far too frequent now.

[msdivy]

I had to travel 16 Km today. Since Ola Micro was not available, I booked Ola Mini and the fare was Rs 260, which was as estimated by the app.
While return, booked Ola Micro and estimated was Rs 230. At the destination, app showed Rs 329 , distance being same.
Paid cash to the driver and complained to Ola on their support page. They immediately refunded Rs 99 .

What happened and what went wrong? Is this normal?

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

+1 , this is exactly what had happened. The bill amount was 0 - still shows 0 - for that trip. I'll try to connect to their customer care and tell them I paid by cash and if there's a way they can rectify things.

I guess in my case the driver didn't pay any commission to Uber ? Uber thinks I still need to pay by card and that I haven't paid.

This was the first time I was using the app and I thought that if I didn't pay by cash I would end up with a free ride as I just couldn't pay by card ! That's why I made the cash payment.

Anyways, it's thoroughly Uber's fault if they have an app that doesn't work properly.

Are you on the latest version of this app? Also please check if the android web view is also on the latest version. Sometimes when you initiate the payment, if webview is not updated it merely shows a white screen and times out.

From what I have seen, their app is a data hog and does suffer if on a slow data connection. Not trying to put forward their defence, but just mentioning some points worth checking, so it doesn't happen again.

And yes, do raise a complaint (you can do so from the trip section) about this and they should be able to set it right for you.

[avingodb]

Now, terminal 1 in Delhi has started levying Rs 150 from app based cabs for entering pickup zone, further defeating the purpose of discouraging people from driving to the airport. Moreover, this will only lead to more snarls at the arrival point

[sdp1975]

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

Are you on the latest version of this app? Also please check if the android web view is also on the latest version.
And yes, do raise a complaint (you can do so from the trip section) about this and they should be able to set it right for you.

I have auto-update turned on and I saw that I was short of 1 update which I did manually. I raised a complaint and got the response that they've updated the trip to cash , but the trip still shows card payment and a 0 bill as earlier - don't know what they did.

I'm sure they get plenty of requests/complaints like mine and somehow they manage it manually.

[TB16]

Please help!
Today morning i booked an uber for my friend. Since my payment option was set on paytm wallet, the total trip fare was automatically debited from my wallet. But i forgot to tell about this to my friend and he also paid in cash at the end of the trip. So the same amount was paid twice.

Can anything be done about this? Does uber refund the amount in such cases? Thanks in advance.

[NaXal]

Originally Posted by TB16

Can anything be done about this? Does uber refund the amount in such cases? Thanks in advance.

Without hard proof its hard to prove the same to Uber (the double payment)

But there is no harm in trying by raising a complain / support ticket. Depending on your ratings (drivers also gets to rate us by the way) and previous trip history, on good faith Uber may refund.

Things will be lot easy in case of following,

1. Driver (if honest) reports the mistake to Uber.
2. Driver forgets about the PayTM payment or simply doesn't know (not familiar with online stuff/uber accounts process) or fails to report it to owner, who reports the cash earning to Uber hence in their system, automatically double payment will show up.

So go ahead and report it, if you are lucky and above two instants are true in your case, it would be lot easier to get the refund.

[cpbopanna]

Originally Posted by TB16

Please help!
Today morning i booked an uber for my friend. Since my payment option was set on paytm wallet, the total trip fare was automatically debited from my wallet. But i forgot to tell about this to my friend and he also paid in cash at the end of the trip. So the same amount was paid twice.

Can anything be done about this? Does uber refund the amount in such cases? Thanks in advance.

Click on 'trips history', choose 'I would like a refund' and highlight the problem. Uber usually is very prompt in resolving such issues!