Shanu S.

I have been a long time customer using Ola Cabs for Outstation and Local travels, for a few years now. I've had some small issues and a couple of big ones, however today, there were two big issues in a row, hence I am forced to write this socially.

Today (30th March) I booked an outstation ride on Ola today in the morning from Delhi to Dehradun, as I had to reach there urgently.

(Ref: CRN: **************)

Shortly, a driver accepted the ride. He however called me and asked me to cancel the ride and he said that he will by-pass Ola and will take me to Dehradun offline, as he will not get much after paying Ola Commission.

I questioned him as to why he took the booking in the first place and why shouldn't he cancel as I will have to pay the cancellation charges!
To that he didn't respond and also didn't cancel.

I had no choice but to try to get support from the Ola Cabs.
Every time I tried to report the issue via the Ola Cabs app, it gave an error saying -

'Sorry we are currently experiencing a technical issue. Please try again after sometime.'

I was getting frustrated and with no help on that end, I tried calling the support on the phone using the 'Call Us' Option.

After several attempts (repeat several), I managed to speak with a customer service representative who asked me to cancel the ride and that they will ensure that I will not be charged cancellation charges.

They also asked me to book the ride again.
I did the same and a new driver picked up the ride.

(Ref: CRN: *******777)

It turned out that this new driver was a friend of the old driver! And they were parked next to each other.
I found this out when my new driver who picked me up, passed the old driver's car and honked, and they both laughed.
The new driver also told me that he was a friend of the old driver that was holding you up!

During the ride the new driver was constantly on the phone. Furthermore he was very loud on the phone.

After driving a short distance he asked me to make a payment of Rs.3000 online as one of his loan payments was due by the end of today.
This was weird and I said that I will pay in cash after the trip. After this he was complaining and started driving erratically. I had to hold on to the 'grab handles' in the car several times.
He was aggressive also at times raging at other drivers and on a few occasions we narrowly missed having accidents!

His Air Conditioning in the car was always set too low and he was constantly stopping me from opening the window, saying that the AC was on. I was feeling hot and sweaty during most of the trip.

After driving for some time he stopped at a CNG filling station and asked me for Rs.2000 in cash as he had to get the CNG gas filled up. In order to keep him calm, I readily complied.

Nearing the end of the trip he was looking a bit agitated and I was feeling uncomfortable so I decided to end the trip slightly earlier, around 7Km before my destination.
This is because I feared that he might get more upset as it was nearing the office rush time.

After ending the trip the driver charged me Rs. 900 in Tolls between Delhi and Dehradun!
I travel this route regularly and have never paid this much in toll charges!

He definitely ripped me off, as the total fare that I paid was Rs.6100, which is the maximum I have paid via Ola Cabs for Delhi to Dehradun rides.
It almost felt like he was taking revenge for his driver friend.

I had to take a local 3-Wheeler to get to my destination of 7Kms:(

After this experience, I am totally gutted and disappointed! I feel cheated!

The outstation Ola drivers are not reliable and in my experience cannot be trusted at all!
For long journeys they encourage you to cancel the ride, as they are eyeing on the big commission that they will have to pay Ola.
Moreover they come with dirty, sometimes broken, and cars with Air-conditioning that doesn't work properly or they don't want to use extra fuel.

Ola should look into this matter seriously and ensure that this doesn't happen again.

For now, count me out of all of Ola Outstation travels!