[shankar.balan]

Only UBER.
I ve been in many places across the world for personal travel.
And now we have a Corporate Account and I use it all over the world for office travel.
I like the service. It works perfectly.

[IshaanIan]

Uber everywhere!

I don't know about polished but let's face it, the interface is MUCH cooler I studied design and from that perspective, the design, layout, menus, transitions, colours, everything is just better on the Uber app. Ola is literally an eyesore for me.

They accept Paytm which is a far more versatile online payment option; I don't like creating separate online money accounts for everything and certainly don't like to have to lock all my cash into ola money.

I'd rather use my phone's 4G than rely on some free wifi cause I only use my phone at the max because somehow I get motion sickness when I try working on a laptop or reading a book in a car.

The cabs are in general much cleaner almost all the time compared to OLA.

In my experience Uber has also been around 10-15% cheaper on most occasions.

Customer service responds and takes immediate action effectively. Not sure maybe OLA does the same but I rarely use OLA to have had any conflicts so I don't know.

Works in other countries outside India so I don't have to clutter my phone with extra apps.

I just use OLA when I can't get an Uber and I'm in too much of a rush to wait and I delete the app after using it and only reinstall it when the time comes that I can't find an Uber, which is very rarely, around 5 times a year perhaps.

[Dieseltuned]

Originally Posted by Omkar

The big question.

Had a terrible experience with an Ola driver once who kept on speeding and ogling at every girl on the city streets at the same time!

Hi Omkar,

Had a similar experience with an Ola driver a few months back. Me and my office colleague had booked an Ola Cab from work to home and the driver was one such character. We were on the WEH and noticed that the driver was ogling at something and then realised that he was ogling and passing comments to a lady driver next to us. A bad feedback on the app was surely on the cards and a very stern word of complain to the police made him see some sense.

Regards
Dieseltuned

[nitinbose]

There seems to be some issue with OLA. Most drivers complain that OLA is not settling their accounts and they prefer if passengers paid cash. Many OLA drivers also decline any bookings made on card/OLA money.

[theexperthand]

Voted for Uber.

I am an out and out Uber guy.

Reasons:

• Well maintained cabs
• Usually better drivers (driving habits, general behavior etc)
• Uberpool
• Integration with PayTM
• Ease of bifurcating the travels under personal and business head and the neat periodic reports they send. Makes my life much easier to reimburse the amount I spend on office travel.

My wife is a Ola\Uber person - she hails Ola\Uber equally.

The times she prefer one over other is:

• When she checks the rates and if one is significantly cheaper than the other
• Cab availability - if one particular aggregator have cabs readily available over the other, she chooses it.

--Anoop

[vb-saan]

Not fully qualified to distinguish between Uber and Ola, but I use Uber heavily here. And even better, I travel to Philadelphia or Kochi, the app seamlessly work in the local scene.
And even better, if my MIL want to do a short trip in Kochi, I book her an Uber from Singapore – works cheaper than taking a local taxi or auto-rickshaw!

[SanjayDalal]

Since last year, I have been regularly using OLA. I have not tried Uber as yet. For airport drops I prefer Meru, which I have been using since they started service.
One thing is, I do prefer OLA money as a mode of payment ( I do not mind the couple of hundred rupees locked up.) In fact when the balance falls below 700 or so, I immediately top up with 1999 rupees.
The things I like about OLA
1) I get the exact amount payable before I start the trip.
2) Another nice point is that after each ride you have to grade the Ride from 1 to 5 stars. So most drivers are aware of this and many will say" Saar, please give 5 star"
3) Off peak and early morning rides are cheap, many times 'micra' fare is equal to an autorickshaw for distance of 24km.( in my case) .

Negative points:
1) Peak time availibilty is bad and
2) if available, the fare is absurdly high.
In last one month I have used OLA for 25 round trips!
Finally as some Bhpians have posted, cars may be shabby in many cases. But I have observed that I get a high milage Tata Indigo or Swift Desire only when I pick a micra, meaning I pay for a hatchback and get a sedan. For me that is a fair trade off.
Just FYI, I own three cars, but am forced to use OLA due to parking issues only.
I think that I will stay off Uber for now, since I am not comfortable using credit cards.
If OLA availibilty drops in comming months/years, I may reconsider Uber.

[GJ01]

Originally Posted by SanjayDalal

Since last year, I have been regularly using OLA. I have not tried Uber as yet. For airport drops I prefer Meru, which I have been using since they started service.

Doesnt Meru turn out to be costlier than Ola ?

Originally Posted by SanjayDalal

The things I like about OLA
1) I get the exact amount payable before I start the trip.
2) Another nice point is that after each ride you have to grade the Ride from 1 to 5 stars. So most drivers are aware of this and many will say" Saar, please give 5 star"
3) Off peak and early morning rides are cheap, many times 'micra' fare is equal to an autorickshaw for distance of 24km.( in my case) .

FYI - This is not limited to Ola - Uber offers the same facilities. Their grievance redressal is also better vis a vis Ola

Originally Posted by SanjayDalal

But I have observed that I get a high milage Tata Indigo or Swift Desire only when I pick a micra, meaning I pay for a hatchback and get a sedan. For me that is a fair trade off.

The same applies on Uber - most of the time if you switch between selecting the UberGo and UberX - you will find that the cars near you are at the same spot - just the icon changes. This typically means that there is just one car there and it has signed up for both categories. Its then a no brainer to select the lower option - you will most of the times get 'upgraded'.

Please note, am not trying to counter you here, just saying that these points you mention are not limited only to Ola and are offered by Uber too - that's all.

[IshaanIan]

Originally Posted by GJ01

Doesnt Meru turn out to be costlier than Ola ?

Meru for airport is something a lot of people follow because it is simply a far more reliable service especially when you're worried about whether driver will reach on time whether you'll be late etc.

[dass]

I had been using Ola for a long time, just because their app is much more user friendly on an android and i found it easier to use. But started to realise that the cost is a little higher when compared to Uber and have slowly started using uber off late. Also, I find uber drivers declining rides much lesser when compared to ola.

[anjan_c2007]

Its Ola for me though. I like their App which they have upgraded recently. Though not still available in many cities, I have had a pleasent experience with Ola, their cabs and drivers wherever I have used them.

I had difficulty about a month back to get an Ola cab at the Nagpur airport, as there were none in the vicinity. The App regretted and said no sedans are available in the vicinity. It was a rush hour as many flights had landed around then. Still at the conveyer belt receiving my checked-in luggage, I switched over to the "microcabs" choice and within a few seconds, was allocated one. The cab was a Swift DZire Tour. I am not yet clear as to how they have classified the Swift Dzire Tour (4000 mm plus) as a microcab, whereas the newer sub 4000 mm Dzire is a sedan in their vocubulary ?

[Sherlocked]

Came across this video on YouTube just now:

http://youtu.be/rJrvbYPJrbg

In this video, two guys are trying to book Ola cab sitting at the same location through their smartphones. One has a Moto G4 and the other has an Apple iphone 7.

As per the video, the iphone customer can see surge pricing on his app where as the Ola app on the Moto G4 is not showing any surge. The fare estimate being Rs. 230 on the iphone and 126 on the G4 for the same destination.

The guy in the video is trying to prove this is how Ola is cheating us! Showing surge prices to the customer having an expensive phone.

Legit?

Disclaimer: Not connected with this channel in any manner.

[GJ01]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

I am not yet clear as to how they have classified the Swift Dzire Tour (4000 mm plus) as a microcab, whereas the newer sub 4000 mm Dzire is a sedan in their vocubulary ?

Hi Anjan, the cab driver (or partner as they call in Uber and Ola) when they register on the platform, have the choice of what categories they want to offer their vehicle in. So many drivers will list their car in the Ola micro / mini / prime as the case may be so that they can get that many rides. A car that qualifies in say prime category - can always be registered in the lower categories as well. Thats why you get these larger cars in the lower categories too.

Whats in this for the cabbies you ask - well they get that many more rides and their commissions are based on the number of rides accepted. So it does actually help them get their numbers (14 daily, I thought it was for Uber) to qualify for the payout

[petrol_power]

If I am right, UBER doesn't have any customer care contact number, whereas OLA has for sure. I was always able to contact OLA in case of any emergencies, but not UBER.

My mail id was not registered in UBER and I wanted my bills to be invoiced to my mail. And since my mail was not registered, I was not getting a proper invoice (only some snapshot available in their app). And there was no customer care contact number and it took me two days to get new mail id updated as I had to exchange a few mails. And I couldnt get the invoice of my previous transactions and worried about the new set of mails required for getting a small thing, I left the process.

Similarly my friend experienced an issue in which he forgot his mobile in UBER and again google search didnt give any customer care number. Also it took 1 full day for him to get the number of the driver. Driver, as expected didnt respond properly and UBER didnt support my friend in any means.

Is there any customer care option for UBER? I never faced any issues with OLA and has been a follower of OLA ever since.

[ashis89]

I use these cab services only when I am visiting some other city and have been using UBER since the past ~2 years. Cars are better (mostly), payment is trouble-free and app is good. I have used pool 2-3 times and it was a good experience too. However, during my last business trip, I got drowsy drivers and shoddy cars who came to drop me to the airport. While one car was a CNG Xcent, the other was a diesel Etios Liva.

Let me go OT on the Toyota. The car was ~4 years old and had run 77k kms. The starter had problems and the car took 8-9 cranks to start. The front right suspension was in shambles and made all kinds of metallic clanks on bad roads. One of the front headlamp bulbs were was fused. There were a lot of rattles in the car. The driver said he always takes the car to Toyota A.S.S for service and the service is cheaper compared to other brands. The car returned ~17 kmpl in city use. I don't know how the car was being maintained by the driver but he was rash while driving it.
This proved that even a Toyota can't withstand abuse on Indian roads and can perish if not maintained properly.