[GTO]

I use Uber a lot over late nights, and if I'm going to a crowded place during the day with zero parking. Of late though, it's become a menace with almost every booking being followed by a call from the driver asking "where do you want to go?" ("destination kya hai?"). I refuse to answer the question and tell them clearly that Uber / you are supposed to take me wherever I want to go in the city.

About 75% of the time, the driver cancels the booking and I'm allotted another car. That leads to a few additional minutes of wait time. On Sunday evening, I had two Uber guys cancel on me, finally getting the 3rd car.

1. How do you guys handle this?

2. Is Ola better?

3. Why the heck isn't Uber disciplining its drivers? Cancellations from the driver ruin the customer experience. It should impose penalties for drivers cancelling trips after accepting them.

[lapis_lazuli]

Originally Posted by GTO

1. How do you guys handle this?

2. Is Ola better?

.

It is surprising that you discovered it so late, This has been the case for quite some time now, especially in NCR. Ola is no better. Worse in fact. Some will ask, say OK and then not cancel, so that the cancellation is done by the customer. In these cases, I just keep it as it is. The booking stays active till the driver cancels, and he is usually wasting his time, as he would not get another booking as long as he is being a smart-ass! I use another phone to book. That is my way of putting them in line. Eventually the driver cancels and I believe he is penalized a small amount. Some are clever: they will reach close to your location, refuse to go, but then report as customer has not arrived. In most cases you can raise a dispute and get a refund if the cancellation is charged on you. In Kolkata, they would not turn on the AC, but that is a different matter though. Refusals, asking about your destination and trickery, has been with Uber since long. Most drivers have BOTH the apps, so the human factor does not change. Some ask, and say they are asking to check if they would have enough gas, and they would go anywhere. So all types of excuses and drivers, co-exist!

[khan_sultan]

In NCR, OLA drivers call after booking and ask on how payment will be made. If you say it will be wallet/UPI etc, they start asking for cash payment and then just don't move or cancel after a long time if you say NO.

They give excuses of bank account not working etc (lies) and then you just have to cancel or wait for the driver to cancel.

Has happened multiple times over several days with me here in NCR.

[am1m]

This has been the case in Bangalore for a long time, both Uber and Ola!

And from time immemorial, with auto drivers. I guess the guys who would have become auto drivers became uber and ola drivers instead and carried on with their tricks.

For some time, between pandemic waves, I had good experiences with ola auto. I guess the pandemic brought about a shock and the need to work. But looks like they are back to their old tricks.

Why uber and ola don't do anything about this menace is a mystery. They should just take the driver off the platform if they have say 3 cancellations in a row or something like that. This is going to reduce trust in their service, so it's in their interest to stop these things.

[Samurai]

It is not a new trend, it is the SOP. You book, they call with questions...

Unless Uber disables the feature to call/message the customer, this is not going to go away.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by GTO

I had two Uber guys cancel on me, finally getting the 3rd car. 1. How do you guys handle this? 2. Is Ola better?

In Bangalore, post-covid Uber driver cancellation rate is noticeably higher than Ola's. When I book a cab for parents or in-laws, I look up Ola first these days. Only if there are not many cars visible (in the maps) nearby, I use Uber.

[Gannu_1]

I share your sentiment GTO. I've experienced this with Ola too.

I use both extensively as I travel to Ahmedabad and Palakkad every month so a trip to the airport and nearest metro station is taken through an Ola or Uber cab.

If its the day time, the drivers tend to the trip without any trouble but if its at night say around 11 PM - 12 AM:

First question - Saar, where drop?

/Cancellation chances are 90%. The next 10% moves to the next query.

Next - Saar, cash or online payment?

/Cancellation chances 100% since I mostly pay online. Some accepts by UPI payment, some don't and prefers hard cash at night. I can understand since they need cash for their expenses before heading home after calling it a day but at 3 PM?

Originally Posted by GTO

1. How do you guys handle this?

Sometimes, I just take the prepaid cab from the airport. I pay slightly higher but no hassles thereon.

Originally Posted by GTO

3. Why the heck isn't Uber disciplining its drivers? Cancellations from the driver ruin the customer experience. It should impose penalties for drivers cancelling trips after accepting them.

From what I've heard, frequent cancellations from a driver gets flagged in their system and they do not get trip allotments soon compared to good drivers. Perhaps someone can attest to this.

Guys who stay abroad and use Uber - is it the same experience?

[Jhinchak]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

In Bangalore, post-covid Uber driver cancellation rate is noticeably higher than Ola's. When I book a cab for parents or in-laws, I look up Ola first these days. Only if there are not many cars visible (in the maps) nearby, I use Uber.

Agreed, this has increased substantially post-covid. As far as I remember the drivers could cancel a trip only once per day or they would have to pay a fine and their ratings were stripped. Post Covid they removed this to help drivers continue to stay with uber\ola and not look at alternative careers.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by GTO

1. How do you guys handle this?

This has actually been prevalent since several years, and incredibly pronounced during specific hours (early mornings / late nights), and routes. I've faced this regularly in Pune and NCR, rarely in Mumbai though (regardless of distance / time / area). Some reasons why, based on my conversations with drivers:

a) Certain routes tend to have heavy traffic, so they spend a lot of time / fuel completing a trip. This affects the no. of trips they complete, which affects their earnings and rewards

b) Lack of return trips from some destinations

c) When drivers want to end their day's work, they try to look for destinations that are close by home, and not in opposite direction - this has been mitigated long back by Uber (and maybe Ola), by introducing a "Go Home" feature - drivers get paired with trips close to their home

d) Threat of auto wallahs at specific places such as railways stations and bus stands - a big problem in Pune. Taxis were not allowed to drop/take passengers at Pune Railway Station / Swargate bus stand, they've been harassed / beaten up by auto wallahs. - I think this has reduced a fair bit now.

e) A big problem in NCR: several taxis have specific permits. For eg. not all can travel across NCR; they might have permit for only Delhi or UP or HR. Either the taxi guys are bluffing or Uber/Ola are stupid in not building in this limitation in their algorithm.

2. Is Ola better?

Uber was significantly better pre-pandemic. Post, looks like Ola is doing better in terms of car availability. In both Pune and NCR, I've had a lot of trouble getting Uber. Apparently, a lot of drivers on Uber haven't yet returned.

3. Why the heck isn't Uber disciplining its drivers? Cancellations from the driver ruin the customer experience. It should impose penalties for drivers cancelling trips after accepting them.

It's ridiculous to be honest. I have no clue what their feedback / penalisation mechanism is, but this whole thing has gotten very lousy. What's worse is, they'll promise to come (after asking where you want to go), and then cancel.

Mode of payment is a whole different problem - because Uber/Ola make weekly/fortnightly payments, drivers prefer clients who'll pay in cash, because they lack liquidity to pay for fuel / sustenance.

Looks like demand >> supply at the moment so very little that Uber/Ola want to do about it.

That said, there's incredible resentment amongst the drivers about Uber/Ola as well. Earnings have dropped immensely, not because fares have dropped but because Uber/Ola have hiked their commission disproportionately.

For instance,
In Pune: Baner - Airport cost me 250. The Uber guy earned 110.
In NCR: Airport - Gurgaon (DLF Cyberhub) cost me 550. Ola guy earned 158.

As across the world, Uber/Ola are running their operations in India as a tech startup, with negligible accountability / responsibility on the quality of service provided. The problem lies with the lack of regulation, consumer and service provider laws.

The pandemic has further created issues in an already chaotic industry.

[TT-S]

This has been happening since many years back, here in Trivandrum. Some would not want short distance or City runs. I guess this is not very profitable with traffic blocks and congestion. Mainly cancellations followed by calling happens in peak hours as I have observed. Also, it would be difficult to get ride allotted if using anything other than cash as a payment option.

Most drivers call pretending to clarify pick up location, but what I do is to text the exact location via the app itself, once the car is allotted, avoiding any calls.

[ashishsGT]

Originally Posted by GTO

Of late though, it's become a menace with almost every booking being followed by a call from the driver asking "where do you want to go?" ("destination kya hai?").

Hello GTO,

I have a fairly mixed usage of both both UBER and OLA, and this has also been the perennial question that I get asked, every damn time I book a cab. Since I'm always in a time constraint of getting somewhere, I just book another one and pray that he does not cancel too. OLA is no better than UBER in this regard. Based on the several conversations that I have with drivers, I know that there is some sort penalty that they have to pay if they cancel the ride on their end. Some of them even have the audacity to call and ask ME to cancel it, as it would have a negative bearing on their rating.

As a customer we are also rated by them in turn, and I'm not sure if this game of frequent cancellations is going to have any impact on our rating and / or possible ride denials in the future.

Cheers,
Ashish

[aargee]

Originally Posted by GTO

About 75% of the time, the driver cancels the booking and I'm allotted another car. That leads to a few additional minutes of wait time

This is not a new trend, this has been going on since pre-covid times, atleast in Chennai & I think I've shared this once in here as well earlier.

Originally Posted by GTO

1. How do you guys handle this?

After initial frustrations, these days, I've given up the hope of getting a cab & will consider lucky if I find one. Hence, I would say I don't know because I'm not the one to have booked & too old to learn all these things & appreciate the good old ways of booking or I'm new to the city & don't know the name of the place. Earlier I used not to attend the call, but then, it serves a good reason for the drivers to cancel the trip as well. These days I make a little difficult for the drivers by giving them a 50-50 chance; but not an answer upon which he can take a decision to forgo.

Originally Posted by GTO

2. Is Ola better?

Absolutely no!! They're as bad as Ola. These jokers keep also switching between Ola & Uber hence they've their own "best practices" for customers

Originally Posted by GTO

3. Why the heck isn't Uber disciplining its drivers? Cancellations from the driver ruin the customer experience. It should impose penalties for drivers cancelling trips after accepting them.

Because, as per Uber & Ola, drivers can cancel upon several justified reasons such as customer not responding, address could not be found, customer wants to delay the trip, customer asked to come to a different pickup point than booked...basically plethora of reasons!!

Here's how one conversation went on a day when I was in good mood - It was Ola auto:
OA: Sir, Ola Auto
Me: Yes
OA: Where do you want to go?
Me: T.Nagar (I was pretty sure of making an offer he cannot resist; basically he will get a decent sum + the destination also has opportunity for more journey)
OA: Ola Money or Cash?
Me: I'll pay you in whatever mode you want
OA: How many people?
Me: 2
OA: The second person is child or adult?
Me: My wife, do I need to carry a proof as well?
OA: Ok, where in T.Nagar?
Me: Why do you ask all these? How does it matter if it's Saravana Stores or Saravana Bhavan (translation - Saravana Stores is for shopping & Saravana Bhavan is hotel and both places are quite famous & sounds rhythmic)
OA: I cannot ride without a passenger in return, hence asking
Me: Do you think T.Nagar will let you go without a return trip?
OA: Many times, I had to come without a return journey; I lose money on fuel
Me: Ok, I'll save your day, cancel the auto, I'll find alternatives

After this incident, I learnt my lesson on letting go things; these days I follow one of these:
1. Never plan a trip that has chances of returning home beyond 9:00 Pm, if so, take motorcycle/scooter or car
2. To book for friends & relatives - Sshhhh! some secrets are not worth spreading around !!

I'll credit THE BEST place to be Hyderabad (pre-covid times) & Bombay (2015 times until this post appeared), no matter the time of day, no matter the mode of payment, no matter the distance!! One might get only one call stating the cab/auto is waiting. Sometimes not even that, the vehicle simply shows up; in case of Uber, I've had many silent rides - pickup, travel, drop; no questions asked on payment as well. Not sure how it's now. Bangalore, as close to Chennai, also shows up similar tricks learnt at the sleeves!!

Oh!! One tip to share - I think it's Ola, not sure, if you happen to see a driver with more number of rides with higher * rating, those are the guys who wouldn't ask a question. I once chanced on an Ola auto who did like 1 lakh rides with 4.3 rating. He was the kind of guy like, "he never made a sound"

[GrandTourer]

Originally Posted by GTO

1. How do you guys handle this?

2. Is Ola better?

3. Why the heck isn't Uber disciplining its drivers? Cancellations from the driver ruin the customer experience. It should impose penalties for drivers cancelling trips after accepting them.

I hadn't used Uber/Ola in the longest time, but recently I had to use it very frequently in the last 2 months after undergoing knee surgery. I can 100% relate with your experience.

Almost every single time I booked a cab from Uber/Ola, the first guy would cancel, either after calling, or sometime even without calling.

To your questions:
1. I prebook Uber to avoid this. Since most of my travel in the last 2 months was planned (doctor's/physio's appointments mostly), I would schedule the cab a couple of hours in advance for the time I need to leave at. Every time I scheduled a cab, there was no cancellation or any other issues. Also, I have always got a clean car that way, however this might have been a coincidence.

2. NO!!!! Ola is far far worse.


3. I think Uber does penalize the drivers in some form (de-prioritize drivers I think). But I think the drivers have figured out a way to game the system - they strike a balance between cancelling and completing a fix number of rides. A monetary penalty would go a long way in fixing this

In any case, I'm back to driving and won't be using Uber/Ola post this week.

[vinu_h]

Originally Posted by GTO

I refuse to answer the question and tell them clearly that Uber / you are supposed to take me wherever I want to go in the city.

From a customer standpoint, yes, you are right, surely leaves a poor experience. Flip sides and you'll see Uber as an aggregator charges between 20-40%(peak/off-peak) of the fare and incentives are around # of trips and not km's. Drivers are also often handed pick up points that are many km's away.

Aggregators are listening and Ola has started responding.

[EV NXT]

Uber is dependent on the drivers more than they are on Uber.

After the pandemic the number of drivers / cars have substantially reduced and Uber is desperately clinging onto whatever little they have.

So they turn a blind eye to these minor deviations. They know the customer doesn’t have too much of a choice either.