Team-BHP - Uber vs Ola - Which do you prefer & why?

Karnataka government bans carpooling by Ola and Uber.

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Drivers complained that both Ola and Uber pay them a pittance for ridesharing trips. Vijaykumar Gowda, leader of a drivers' union, welcomed the move. Tanveer Pasha, who heads another association of drivers, said that they would wait two days for the companies to enforce the ban. "If there is a violation of the ban, we will submit a petition with evidence and seek action against the company," he said.

Bad experience with UBER on two consecutive trips on my regular route. The fare charges increase at the end of the trip, they charged me 231/- as MCD instead of 100/-. Got refunded for the first trip but this repeated again, yesterday. Revived the old twitter thread and most probably will be getting refund for this time as well.

They clearly don't take feedbacks seriously. Going to use my credits and will not use UBER again if I have to travel across state borders.

UBER Eats- Horrible Experience

I had ordered dinner from a restaurant at Kakkanad, in Kochi on UberEats. I opted for cash on delivery as the card transaction had failed.

The delivery address was at my apartment, and I had clearly mentioned the details, including the flat number and the building name, and pinpointed the apartment too.

The delivery guy picked up the delivery. I started tracking him, he was on the right way till the last turn, and instead of turning went straight, I realized he had gone to a location behind the apartment complex, where google maps directed him to. I called him up and also texted him on the uber app the correct direction. He refused to deliver even though it was just 250 meters away, he then called the uber manager and said customer refused to accept delivery, upon which the manager called me, I realized that the delivery boy lied to the manager and told him that he is 4kms away, when he was just 300 meters away. Believing him that he is 4km away, the manager asked me to go and collect the delivery from his location. I refused and told the manager, that the restaurant is just 3kms away from the apartment and how he could expect me to travel an extra kilometer and find the delivery boy.

I realized that the delivery executive was attempting to cheat! He wanted me to cancel the order somehow. I called Uber eats helpline but that wasn't of any use either, they offered me Rs.75 as Ubercredits and said they will resolve the issue. Finally the order was cancelled by the Uber manager and I was asked to pay a cancellation fee of Rs.472/- next time I use Uber taxi or food delivery. It was really disappointing, I have realized Zomato and Swiggy are far better than UberEats as they have proper customer cares!

Always had preferred Uber over Ola anyday, as I had thought the customer care was better but realized its just as bad.

Stay away from UberEats in Kochi. There are many notorious delivery executives, and the customer support is pathetic.

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Originally Posted by Sheel (Post 4658645)

I am in NCR for few days and its Uber almost all the way. I frequent Kolkata and there too its usually Uber.

But guys, tell me onw thing, I know driving a car in heavy traffic and parking is an issue, but how do you people cope with smelly cabs, rattly cars, exhausted driver?

I hear you. While visiting Kolkata last week, we found even the Uber Premier cabs wanting in terms of cleanliness and maintenance. The Uber Go cars were surprisingly tolerable - this could also be due to our low expectations. :)

As an aside, we found the surge prices rising at truly meteoric rates across both providers in Kolkata. It led me to suspect that there was some gaming involved, given how the surge was almost predictable for certain areas (e.g. Park Street) and times (post 4.30 PM).

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.

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Originally Posted by warrioraks (Post 5280523)

I thought to address this issue Uber have introduced OTP similar to what Ola have and without OTP the driver cannot start the trip.

At least in Chennai the driver needs OTP to initiate the trip.

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Originally Posted by searacer932 (Post 5280612)

I thought to address this issue Uber have introduced OTP similar to what Ola have and without OTP the driver cannot start the trip.

At least in Chennai the driver needs OTP to initiate the trip.

In Delhi NCR, Uber requires OTP selectively. Not all trips require an OTP to start. Maybe this is a solution that could be enforced on every single trip to dissuade these errant drivers.

My first rides were the free ones offered by Uber. Since then, I have used both Ola and Uber several times, including their pooling and auto rides.

Always used to compare the rates and choose the cheaper option. The only exception was when rides were scarce, during peak hours or the pickup point was a little off the main road.

There were a handful of occasions when the Ola driver cancelled after asking the destination, or when a Uber driver started the trip even without coming to the pickup point. Both Ola and Uber customer support were responsive.

Overall I found Uber slightly better than Ola.

https://www.ndtv.com/feature/bad-exp...of-car-5256454

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For the first 30 minutes, the driver constantly kept talking over his phone on a loudspeaker. I and my friend got a headache..

No AC, whimisical drivers, cancelations - so much for the "asset-light" strategy. Or is it "accountability-light" strategy?

Separately, it's absolutely funny to see "executive" passengers complaining that someone being on the phone when driving. In general, a lot of the "executive" folks spend most of their driving time on phone calls. While I understand that it is in their own cars, in their private space without disturbing others with the noise, they still do disturb others and frequently are moving dangers to others due to their distracted driving.

Cab drivers launched 'No AC Campaign' against low per kilometre rates in summer.

The Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union announced that cab drivers will not turn on the AC during rides as a protest against the low per-kilometre rates during the summer.

TGPWU stated that they are only able to earn 10 to 12 rupees per kilometre, but the cost of running cabs with AC is Rupees 16 to 18 per kilometre.

They argued that the low rates provided to drivers working with Uber, Ola, and Rapido apps will not sufficiently cover the extra fuel and maintenance expenses they incur when running the air conditioner.

However, they informed that if the customer wants the AC to be on, they can pay an adequate amount as a tip.