Ola cabs is an indian giant startup taxi service firm which has been succesfully launched in many parts of India, but customer service is unsatisfactory, and when you consider Uber cabs, Ola cab service with respect to their management, is pathetic.
I will first explain a few of my recent experiences and what actually went down in complete detail.
1) CRN 868458152, Narayan Patra, 10: 05 pm, 13 july 2017 in white xcent. I called him to pick me and my family from Orbit Hotel, near Disha Hospital in Teghoria, kolkata to go to City Centre 2, but he, instead told me that he won't go and that he is cancelling the ride. Not only this he also talked rudely, impatiently and gave slang language to my uncle in the phone whom we were visting.
2) CRN 868412509, Satyam Kumar, 09: 37PM, 13th july 2017 in micro white eon. We were waiting on the wide main road in front of Orbit Hotel, waiting to go to city centre 2. But after waiting for like 5 minutes I called him to ask where he was. He told me that he went inside the market( which was just close, 20 steps away), and went deep inside the block, so I asked him to bring out the car and come near Orbit Hotel and gave full nearby landmark like Spandan Hospital and Disha Eye Hospital, not to forget that Orbit Hotel is double the size of the hospitals. But the driver wasn't able to find it and kept driving around even after very well description by my uncle, for around 40 minutes with my unwell uncle and aunty waiting with us near the road. But after repeated guidaince when I asked him that if he knew the area, he said that he didn't know. My argument in this context is that how could he miss a 150 m long front of Orbit Hotel, which was decribed so well with all nearby big shops, hospitals and restaurants, where there is a 54 m wide road with no obstruction of view. Also he had my location on his mobile in maps, which he too admitted. But still he was so idiot to neither know nor do anything to come pick us up. So after 45 minutes I had to cancel and call another ride, which had even worse outcome as explained in example 1. At last we took rickshaw, then bus, exchanged bus and then we walked home.
3) OSN 540790929, Narendra Mathur, 07 july, 2017, 07: 47 pm, IIT powai to kanjur marg railway station. We all know, in mumbai everything follows a strict time and everything is moving fast, but for this driver it is not so as I had to wait for sometime, waiting on one side of the traffic single while he was on the other side and other options of travel were passing by. So out of patience and time I had to cancel the ride and went on the other share car, because I had to catch a train from Mumbai CST, before which I had to catch a local train from Kanjur Marg.
4) CRN 734874920, Dharmendra Kumar Ray, 19th May 2017, 11: 36pm, City centre 1 to City Centre 2, kokata. I booked the cab at the above time and soon within 5 minutes he himself cancelled it even without saying anything before and even before I could call him. You will find cancellation by the driver is quite common in Ola Cabs.
5) OSN 458114275, Somnath, 14th may, 2017, 9: 22 pm, Kolkata international airport to City centre 2, in white alto in share. I had to wait for this guy for over an hour. I called him several times to know where he was and how much time would he take and told him my location several ten times. But he went somewhere else. Out of frustration I enquired if he would come pick me up, he said he would. So I asked when he would, to which he said( shockingly) that when he would he get an another passenger then he would come back and pick me up; to which I asked that how much time would it take, he said he doesn't know, when he gets another passenger then only he would come to me. Just think, after waiting for a cab for over an hour, what would you do?
6) CRN 479021345, Debu Ghosh, 04th December, 2016, 09: 27 am, in white indica, from ruby to Netaji Subhash Engineering college. I had an exam in the college, so I was time bound. But even after waiting for about 30 minutes this guy couldn't come to me and repeatedly kept saying that he was stuck in traffic, which I knew was incorrect as the road and lane which he was following( saw his location in google maps) was moving swiftly and timely. I agree that there was traffic in that road, but it was not so much that he could move. So when another ola came near me, I booked it as soon as I could.
These experiences have been some which I recall and they were bitter. The example 4 made me to think about hiring Uber cabs then on.
When I visited Guwahati, surprisingly I couldn't get a single ola cab in 2.5 hours. I kept on trying for ola for 2.5 hours because I am indian and want to help my nation and its companies and good ideals grow, and with this thought I kept on trying. Finally my patience ran out and I deleted ola app( as I have less space in my mobile rom) and installed Uber app and got an Uber instantaneously. Yes, I got the Uber cab in just 1 mintues while I kept trying for an Ola before for 2.5 hours. See this is the condition of indian giant startup, as a matter of fact for most of indian service providing companies.
I have Ola experience of over a year. I lay some points as to why Ola is so bad and Why I rated Ola cabs so low rating:
1) getting a share taxi is chaotic
2) some Ola drivers are awful
3) ola management is awful to its drivers
4) sometimes ola app shows error location search needs internet even though I am connected to data and recieving notifications online and surfing.
5) it says Rs 6 per km but ola doesn't show the detailed reciept and so we don't know how much more or less we are paying. And sometimes drivers demand extra money.
6) surely ola is not the cheapest
7) drop in incorrect place even though location has been correctly put in
8) we get larger vehicle when we need smaller and vise versa.
9) cancellation charge extra of rs 50 when it's driver's fault
10) in share booking it says that 1 minute to arrival befor booking. And after booking it says 5 minutes to arrival, and 5 minutes doen't ever come( all the time)
11) cabs are sometimes unavailable even at daytime in the main areas of the cities.
12) no offer on share or regular rides for regular customers
13) no service at night, i.e. app service gets closed at 12: 00 which contradicts ola ads.
14) useless service centre, they don't ever respond properly
15) there is a feature to book ola auto and ola rickshaw which is useless since since we never get the auto nor the rickshaw.
16) often coupon codes are invalid and we don't get the benefit in the current booking.
17) Don't Ever Keep money in ola Money. They cut money without our consent.
18) bad behaivour of drivers
19) ola changrs prices every ride, everyday, everyhour, every second, every place
20) shares take immensely longer route to reach some place
21) sometimes bad odor, unhygienic and little maintenance
22) since few cabs are available all the time, we have to book cabs fast. So while booking, in rate, it says lowest rate estimate. Example, if I see I have to pay 125 in the rates, but in reaching the destination, I can be charged even rs 210. They should show full rate estimate and vow to never violate it.
23) there is no visible benefit to be ola select member
24) not reliable, as booking ola is like gambling to get a good ride and driver.
25) lack of transparency in rates
26) pathetic service, poor customer support
There is one incident in which I booked an ola for my parents. The driver had to detour a little and the rate went up from 55 to 280 in kolkata.
There is one more bitter experience. Myself, my parents and my bhabhi booked an ola in an evening. When the driver came I saw that his car wasn't maintained. During the ride I noticed bad odor and no maintenance of the car. The driver was driving ruthlessly and carelessly as he drove over many manholes and potholes while keeping both the eyes, looking down on his numerous phones instead of looking on the road and nearby car. Even once collided slightly on the back bumper of another car. And even after the accident he didn't change. This kind of drivers are common in ola but rare in Uber.
Ola has options like share, micro, mini, prime, shuttle, rentals, outstation, taxi, auto, and rickshaw booking. Of these only micro, mini, and prime options are useful. Because in outstation they charge heavily( example 1000), rentals near impossible to find and charges heavily, share is pathetic, shuttle should not be preferred, taxi is also near impossible to find and auto and rickshaw is just for show.
I would suggest my fellow indians, in light of above arguments, to not prefer ola and only go for ola when you can't find any other modes of travel.
