[Hayek]

A couple of bad experiences on Uber to report, both with Uber Black in fact. Was heading out to the airport with my family. Fired up the Uber app, and saw that a Honda City was assigned to me on Uber Black. This was in and of itself disappointing, as I don't think a Honda City is good enough for Uber Black (may be ok for Uber X). But this was something I knew at booking, and chose to live with. The car was a new one, with seat cover fitted. Got the luggage into the booth and told my son, who was in the rear seat to wear the seat belt. But there wasn't a latch in sight. All the seat belt latches were under the seat covers, that too tucked in a manner such that they could not be retrieved. We had no choice but to risk our lives as we would have missed our flight If we started looking for an alternate car.

On the way back, we had tons of luggage. I had my driver come down, and chose to call for a Uber Black as well even though Merus were available as I did not want to struggle with fitting the luggage next to the CNG kit in a Meru. A Corolla was assigned this time. I opened the trunk, and there was a massive CNG cylinder, such that only one check in bag and one hand luggage fitted in it. Fortunately, I could get my family members to squeeze into my own car, and we turned the Corolla into a 2 seater by using the other seats for luggage. The car was not particularly clean, and had a broken AC vent as well. I feel Uber is letting its quality degenerate in the midst of the current price war. Have complained but not heard back as yet.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Hayek

The car was not particularly clean, and had a broken AC vent as well. I feel Uber is letting its quality degenerate in the midst of the current price war. Have complained but not heard back as yet.

I found cars in Mumbai to be of much poorer cleanliness levels and poorly maintained vs the cars in Bangalore.

Bangalore you may get 2/10 an older car else pretty much new Innova or Etios or Dzire.

This entire week was free so took Uber instead of driving up. Every driver I chatted with only praise. They get weekly payments on time and he said best part is no haggling with customer on changes.

If bill is 312 and customer gives me 500, how do I give him change? Cashless means I don't have any tension is what the driver told me. Every week I get an SMS that money has been deposited.

They have changed some policies for drivers so now drivers refuse to wait at all even for a few minutes.

It seems driver gets a bonus if he does 3 trips between 6am - 12pm or 6pm - 12am. Bonus is 300 bucks. If they have to wait then their chances of bonus are gone.

The onus is now on drivers to finish rides quicker. As a result they don't drive that relaxed as before.

I got one cancellation a couple of days back which appeared suspicious. Driver called asking where I wanted to go. Told him whitefield and he said ok he is coming. 2 mins later i see cab has not moved. I give him a call back and he says he got a puncture and cant come. Told him to fix the spare and I will wait and he said no spare call another cab. I told him it's been more than 5 mins so you cancel as i will get charged.

He said he cannot cancel after confirming but I can do it and I won't be charged. Was surprised. He said 100% sure I wont get charged. Surprisingly it didnt charge me. Booked another cad and he came in 10mins no questions asked.

[athanedar]

Not sure if it is due to the "Free ride" promotions but the quality of Uber cars is decreasing day by day.
Rode 3 times in last 7 days here in Pune on UberX and got Tata indigo twice which was not in good condition at all. Third time got Ford Fiesta which was superb.

Today also I chose to travel to office by Uber. Fired up the uber app and requested uberX. ETA was 15 minutes. The driver arrived and I boarded the vehicle. He courteously asked me whether he should turn on the trip meter on his iphone. I nodded yes and he did something on iphone and off we went. My office is 16 kms from home and it took about 40 minutes which is good at 9:45 am in the morning.
Reached office and he again asked whether he should stop the trip meter. I again agreed but to my surprise he hadn't turned on the trip meter in the first place when we started.
May be something wrong with iphone app and he was also not able to explain.
So all in all the total trip cost came to Rs. 90 which is Uber X minimum fare.

I felt pity for the driver and told him to check with Uber whether they can pay him the complete fare.

There is also a "fare review" feature on the website in the receipt details page and I requested Uber to charge me the complete fare and pay the driver for the complete trip.

Lets see how Uber responds.

[GTO]

Hope it's just a temporary situation and not growth or competitive pressures (i.e. Ola taking their drivers away). Horrible experience with Uber all weekend.

1. Tried calling for an Uber twice on Saturday & Sunday afternoons. No cabs available across all 3 categories . They might have faced an overload due to the aggressive week long offer? Well, doesn't help if there's no availability in a prime locality.

Both times, Ola sent me a cab in 10 minutes

2. Worse still, had a driver confirm a ride yesterday. A minute later, he must've hit 'end trip' as my card was charged for Rs. 93.75. Complained yesterday, no reply as of now (though I'm confident they'll step in, issue a refund & discipline the driver).

Uber better pull up its socks as Ola has 250 crores in funding. No paytm wallet rubbish either, I can pay Ola via cash (although I prefer Uber's now defunct credit card integration).

No cars across all 3 categories:

Originally Posted by akshay1234

I'm still being charged directly to my card, haven't been forced to use the prepaid wallet.

It's in effect from today. Please check if you are still being charged directly on the card (and not the wallet). If so, Uber is breaking the law.

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by GTO

It's in effect from today. Please check if you are still being charged directly on the card (and not the wallet). If so, Uber is breaking the law.

Nope my card isn't working today. It says this payment method isn't valid in this country. *sigh* Trust our Government to make everything more difficult

[poloman]

Honestly I don't like anything charged on my CC with out a PIN or signed approval from me. Whenever I visit US hotel, rental guys etc start blocking what ever amount which come to their mind. Often they won't unlock the blocked amount even after the actual bill amount is paid. This results in reduced credit limit for the full billing cycle. I find the Indian system quite foolproof.

[n_aditya]

I installed the Uber app and linked my PayTM wallet a few days ago but didn't get the bonus Rs. 50/-.

No issue.

So with the 5 free rides upto Rs. 300 each offer, I chose Uber to ride into town this last Saturday for an evening out after ages.

At a little past 9pm on Saturday, I booked an UberX from Indranagar and got a cab (showed enroute).

Called the driver to give him directions and he flatly refused to come over to the pick uo point and drive me home (around 15 kms away). He said he wouldn't get any customers on the return leg. Must have been an auto driver who just bought into the Uber bandwagon.

Cancelled 5 mins after I booked and luckily no charge on my wallet.

I'm going to send an email to Uber about this driver since he said he has no option to cancel the trip and I had to cancel to book another cab.

[poloman]

Originally Posted by n_aditya

He said he wouldn't get any customers on the return leg. Must have been an auto driver who just bought into the Uber bandwagon.

Negative feedback is piling up for Uber and its drivers. Same old story of a well oiled highly successful system abroad screwed up by Indian greed and apathy. Now I feel the auto wallahs were much better since their earning were any way not up to the mark. But despite the technology backup if a guy is cribbing for return that is unpardonable.

What was the driver's rating?

[venuvedam]

Yesterday afternoon, I called for an UberX - which was 10 minutes away from my location. The driver confirmed, called me immediately and told me he would be there in 10 minutes. Satisfied that I had the cab, I asked my friend, who was waiting in his car to go home...

Five minutes later, the driver canceled the trip and stopped responding to my phone calls.

I had to get another cab - from a local service - and lost a couple of hours in the process. I will report this to Uber but this kind of experience is now becoming common.. :(

[jagzrk]

Availed all the five free rides from Uber. Also, got total 900 Rs credit due to referrals. Feeling guilty for the free loading, put in Rs.500 in paytm wallet for Uber. It must have been a total of dozen times (11 to be precise) that I've used Uber. Every single time I had the best of service compared to Ola or most operators in India. People I've referred also had the same opinion and all praise.

I've used all categories Go, X and Black. Got Indica Vista, Dzire, Fiesta, Innova and BMW 320d. All clean and in great condition including the Indica Vista. I did write to them about my apprehensions in October and received a reply in November. Also, replied back to them about the in the delay of communication and lack of a customer care number or "what-to-do" in case of emergencies. Though they reply back to most tweets, the activity has subsided in the past few days.

Still, somehow I find them trustworthy and reliable given the list of options in my city.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

It says this payment method isn't valid in this country. *sigh* Trust our Government to make everything more difficult

While India (and most parts of the world) has moved to pin-and-chip credit cards, US is now slowly making that transition. Have to see what happened when the trasition is complete.

Originally Posted by poloman

Same old story of a well oiled highly successful system abroad screwed up by Indian greed and apathy.

Uber drivers are known for 'surge hacking'. During peak times, drivers turn-off app. When the price goes into 'surge mode', drivers switch on the app and accept rides at higher price.
PS: There are allegations that Uber companies itself gets involved in surge pricing hacking.

[GTO]

Been using more of Ola due to Uber's unavailability of late.

Wondering why the $40 billion company can't incorporate this immensely user-friendly feature that Ola's App has?

Take a look at the screengrab. It coolly shows you the ETA for each class of cab:

[ILTDrive]

Any one seen this article about Uber snooping around on customer whereabouts? Scary if you ask me.

http://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/feature...ome-editorpick

[n_aditya]

Originally Posted by n_aditya

I'm going to send an email to Uber about this driver since he said he has no option to cancel the trip and I had to cancel to book another cab.

I sent an email to Uber support yesterday but no response from them as yet.

I also believe the 5 free rides upto Rs. 300 each was valid till 30th Nov.

I hailed an uber cab a little past 9pm on 30th Nov and only got a promotion discount of Rs. 120.

Am I missing something here? Wasn't I supposed to get 300 bucks off? The driver mentioned the promotion was on only till 6pm but this wasn't mentioned on the pop-up in the app.

I've asked for a clarification on this too, in my email to Uber.

Originally Posted by poloman

What was the driver's rating?

IIRC, it was 4.2 stars.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by n_aditya

I sent an email to Uber support yesterday but no response from them as yet.

I also believe the 5 free rides upto Rs. 300 each was valid till 30th Nov.

I hailed an uber cab a little past 9pm on 30th Nov and only got a promotion discount of Rs. 120.

Am I missing something here? Wasn't I supposed to get 300 bucks off? The driver mentioned the promotion was on only till 6pm but this wasn't mentioned on the pop-up in the app.

The pop up in the app as well as all their FB feeds and their blog clearly mentioned upto 6PM Sunday.

http://blog.uber.com/freeweekINDIA

What you got was the normal 45% discount till March 2015.