Meru Cabs Complaints & Reviews

Meru Cabs has a policy of not taking bookings more than 24 hours in advance, hence I made a booking 24 hours in advance the webpage accepted the booking displaying that the custome service person would contact me. As I did not get a call from their end I called up the center - the lady said she would check my booking online and transferred me to another customer service person, after speaking to 3 such custome service persons they finally said there was no such booking online. On trying to make a telephonic booking she said there was no cab available. On asking her what was the best time to book cabs as i had booked it 24 hours in advance which they said is not reflecting and on booking it telephonically they say none are available so when does one book a cab - how much in advance??

this has happened atleast twice in a row, what one of the drivers from the same Co had said recently is that they avoid taking short distance booking - the booking was from chembur to byculla which we do not think is a short distance the fare comes upto a good 200 bucks.

They should just stop advertising themseleves as being available anytime anywhere and clearly state that they take bookings only upto a certain distance.

I had booked a Meru Cab on 22-June-2010 for plying me from Chembur to Prabhadevi on the 23-June-2010 at 0840 hrs. I has called the call center well in advance so that my booking is confirmed. The Call Center confirmed my booking with Reference No. AU1A18868, via a SMS sent at 1513 hrs on 22-June-2010.

The SMS carried the information that the cab details would be sent 30 minutes prior to pickup.

On the day on when the service was to be rendered, I did not receive any notification of the cab details 30 minutes prior to pickup. However at about 0830 hrs I received a call from Meru Cabs informing me that my booking was canceled. Reson given was that there are no cabs available and the assigned cab had broken down.

My complaint is that Meru Cab has harassed me, wasted my time, caused me great grievance, discomfort, among others. Another 'co incidence' is that the Yello Black Taxi's had also stopped plying. Hence this aggravated my problems further. I would like to complaint in very strong words Against Meru due to their poor service and monopolistic practices.

Jaideep Singh

Meru Cab driver (Keerthi.M ,vehicle-no-KA[protected] picked up my wife & her friend from Oxford Dental College,Bangalore at 7.15 am for Victoria Hospital,Bangalore.
During the journey he kept overspeeding & on asking to slow down,misbehaved with the ladies.
On reaching the destination he started demanding more money than actual fare without giving the printed travel reciept.
I have already registered a complaint in customer support of Meru Cab,Bangalore

Hi,
I had booked a MERU cab for taking my 1 yr 3 month ailing kid to her doctor at around 6 pm IST on 24APR2010. I was told that cab has been booked from my residence and shall be available to pick up @ 7.45 pm IST and you shall receive an SMS. However since I did not receive any sms until 7.25 pm i tried calling back from my mobile # which is registered in their system [protected] and to my surprise I found operator saying "no cabs are available and nothing can be done at that hour except, concerned department shall get back after 3 working days"...this is simply unacceptable after being told that cab has been booked - it is a breach of the consumer norms specially after having confirmed the pickup. I may understand if someone told me at the onset that no cabs are available - however after providing confirmation it is ridiculous. I would like to take this issue in the consumer forum for gross negligence because the reason I book this cab was for providing a safer enroute for my ailing kid and at last minute I was left with no other option but to seek public transport which was eventually very scary until we reached doctor. I would be more than thankful if someone guides me to take this issue further legally as unless these operators are not made aware of cusumer rights they shall continue to go scot free with such irresponsible statements like "concerned department shall get back after 3 working days".

Regards,
Danish Aga
[protected]@yahoo.com

Regards,
Danish Z. Aga
[protected] (Mumbai)

We had called Meru Cabs on Apr 22, 2010 around 8am for booking a cab for Apr 23, 2010 @ 8 am. We wanted to go from Kalina to Nanavati Hospital in Vile Parle. This distance is considered as short distance by cabbies and hence they refuse to go. Even the yellow cabs do not go, thats the reason we had called Meru Cabs. But the Meru call center executive told us that there is no availability of cabs. Immediately after disconnecting the phone, we again called Meru and told them we need to go Colaba from Kalina (a long distance) to which they replied they have a cab available. When we told them that we had called for going to Nanavati and you refused, the executive said there is quota for every area. We dont think this is correct or legal. Meru Cab simply refused to go to for a short distance. This is unfair as I have to go to Hospital for a minor operation and since the auto ride is bumpy we wanted to book the Meru Cab.

I booked a Meru cab to pick me up at 10 pm today (19 Apr 2010) well ahead of time. I received 2 messages with details of 2 different cabs, but when I called up both drivers were unaware of the pick up. Subsequently I called Meru, which was unaware of the issue! After a while, I was told another cab would come and pick me up at 10:20. This is not the first time that I have had such an experience with Meru and the company is unconcerned and unapologetic about its poor service quality.

I wrote a mail:
From: PRASHANTH SHETTY
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2010 9:36 AM
To: 'feedback.[protected]@merucabs.com'
Cc: 'Prashanth Shetty'
Subject: RE: Accident
Importance: High
Sir / Madam,
I, Prashanth Shetty, staying at Nerul West, Navi Mumbai
I am owning TATA Indica XETA MH-43 R-5528. The car was parked and covered with the cover at above address.
At 12 PM on April 14, 2010 your vehicle number MH-01 JA-9148 hit my parked vehicle and badly damaged left side of driver. The impact is: the vehicle of mine parked with first gear and hand brake on, jumped 10 feet away from the place and tail lamp got broken.
My request is please pay the damage amount, extra traveling expenses (office to home and other necessary traveling) incurring during the vehicle repair.

I believe they ignored my mail. Nobody bother to contact me.

I booked a Meru trip in the evening on 7/4/10 for a 9 AM journey on 8/4/10 from Sarjapur, outer ring-road (near Intel) to Airport in Bangalore. The call centre quoted Rs. 650 as possible charges (approx.) but the driver, Mr Shankar fleeced Rs. 1,120 on the basis that he travelled 75 kms instead of a normal run of 40. When the cab started, he kept explaining that due to city traffic, he would not be able to guarantee that we could reach airport within 2 hours and that I must allow him to take the longer (by 10 kms. but faster) route. After I agreed, he went round and round from one village to another and instead of doing 10 kms. more, actually he did a good 35! Again, all this took a good 2 hours of time which throws into doubt, the very basic infrastructure of the city of Bangalore. It is ridiculous to expect tourists to do 75 kms over a 2 hour span of time instead of the normal 40 kms. Due to the city traffic problem. We could refer this matter to the Municipal authorities (among others). He kept insisting I pay cash instead of credit card ("don't you have cash of Rs. 1,100?"). The car AC was not working fine but the driver said it was ineffective due to the "outside heat" which, is strange. Later, he admitted that the equipment required service and that the filter had to be changed.

My wife was driving the car and one of the Meru cabs was coming in wrong way and by the time we turned left he came and hit us. We caught hold of the driver but it looked like a Minor thing and the driver was begging literally and even as my 8 month old baby was crying very badly on the road I did not note the number of the Cab and I also left the Driver on Mercuy assuming that it is a minor incident but when I took my car to the Service Station my entire aisle, radiator and headligyt is damaged. It is costing around Rs. 25,000/-. We called up Complaints section of the Meru Cabs and told them all the information and that the head of the security in Hyderabad was telling that he would provide the driver details and how they can help us in claiming the Damage Charges by evening and whenever we called him up he is responding to us in the same way. My wife has lost patience and we have lost peace in our life becuase of this guy and now he comes back and says you can do whatever you want.

We are not in a position to pay so much money for the repair charges.

I had booked a meru on 22nd december 09 for travelling on 23rd december evening i.e 5.30 pm . Booking was almost done 24 hours prior .
I got a text message from meru stating that i will cab details 30 min prior to pickup time and my ref . number is ALA 49412 ...
On twenty third at 5 pm i didnt received cab details so i called meru to know the status and i got a reply that we cant provide you a cab as there is no vehicle available near your vicinity ...i simply dont understand then whats the point of booking a cab 24 hours prior basis ...
I had to attend an important family function ... unfortunately i had to rush everywhere to find a local cab and i had to travel by a non air conditioned fiat taxi ......
All such inconvience was caused just because of irresponsible behaviour ...
If mery would have informed me even at 3 that cab wont come , iwould have arranged for some other cab .... but no customer needs the cab so he will call us .... such kind of careless attitude is not at all expected from any companies ...

I had booked Meru as I thought that a "professional" cab service would be safe and non-cheating when a woman is travelling alone. What I found was quite to the contrary.
The cab was booked in Bangalore from Majestic bus stand to Hoodi on Whitefield road. The driver, Manjunath instead of taking the straight route via Old Madras road took a circuitious route via Hebbal. This meant clocking atleast 11 kms extra the the final 27.7 kms. This is the equivalent of going via Delhi in a Bangalore Chennai trip.
This is obviously cheating so I dont know how safe it would be for a single woman.

I called up the customer service immediately but the response was "we are very sorry for what happened and it wont be repeated next time". Obviously a stock response for all complaints. When I specifically asked what about this trip I was told that they would get back is 78 hrs. This I guess I a delaying tactic as people would tend to forget a cab ride is this period of time.

Cab no. KA03 D4039
Driver Manjunath
Receipt no. 03N0902

I certainly am not going to use Meru cabs the next time

I am deeply disappointed witth the fall in level of services of Meru cabs.
Earlier, i used to recommend Meru cab service to one and all. Now I will be the last person in the worl;d to take meru cabs.
I booked a cab after cricvket match in chinnaswamy stadium. Booking was confirmed .I got sms. Driver gave me a missed call 20 mins before the time. I called him and he confirmed that he is waiting. I went out with my family and cab was no where. I was not even one minute late. I called up the driver and he told he has picked some other passenger. May be he would have got very good money as it was a match day. I called up meru help desk. Their agent just said he is trying to call the driver but he is nnot picking. I was stranded on road with my family at midnite because of pathetic Meru cab service.
Extremely disappointed

I had confirmed tickets to three of my family to Bangalore on 26th Sep 09 by Chalukya Exp, leaving Kalyan Station at 23 17 Hrs. I booked a Meru cab for which i goit a confirmation at 19 46 hrs that a car bearing no MH01JA 9710 would pick me up at 2145 from my residence at Kalamboli. I spoke to diver in advance and driver told me that he did not have enough gas to reach Kalyan. I called back Meru Cust Centre (Now I was calling on booked taxi follow up section and the hold time is much more than normal booking queue!). Now I was told that a taxi would come before 10 pm and pick me and my family. I did get a SMS confirmation on this too, at 2034 Hrs, car no MH01JA9131. I called up the driver at 2130 to find out his location, he cooly said he is not coming and has informed the call centre!!! During these events there was not a single call from Meru and I had personally finding out the position directly from drivers. They kept me on hold for a long time when I caled up next time. Finally when I reached them, the answer I got was as simple as this - ' make your own arrangements, we cant help you'. I tried my best to reach the station but it was too late, we missed the train. My family and I have gone through great deal of mental agony during this period due to the unpardonable attitude of Meru, more the reason we were on our way to attend the 13 day rituals of a departed soul. I am looking at a suitable action being taken against such shabby service.

I booked a cab on October 01, 2009 on the phone at about 2.30 pm for a pick-up at 3.00 pm. A very polite lady assured me that a cab would reach me by the stipulated time. At 2.33 pm I get an SMS message with the cab number and the driver's name (Ashok Yadav MH 01 JA 5178). Fantastic, I thought, these people seem to have corrected the inefficiency that I faced over the last two bookings I had made.

At 3.10 pm I called up the call centre wondering what happened, as the driver's cellphone was either switched off or not working. After a 2 minute wait another helpful lady checked if I had got the number right and when assured that I had, proceeded to tell me that the car was close by and should reach me in '5 - 10' minutes. 5 or 10, ma'am? She snapped back, 'very soon, sir. It is quite close by'.

I thought the battle was lost again, and decided to go out and look for an auto or a taxi, when I get a call from the driver. The poor man was probably semi literate or maybe dyslexic and had read only a part of the address and was standing almost a kilometer away from the pick-up point. After another couple of involved conversations with him, I managed to guide him to the pick-up point (which incidentally is a well known mall on the Western Express Highway - so the driver was also probably also directionally challenged).

Finally I got in the cab at 3.30 pm (30 min behind schedule) and started calling up people apologising for being late for my meeting. And then I called up Meru Cabs again, and after a minute long wait got to speak to another very polite lady. I told her that I wanted to log in a complaint. 'Connecting you, sir' she said, and I marveled at their efficiency. Some peppy music and then, "your expected hold time is SEVEN minutes". That's when I burst a blood vessel...

This is the second time I had bad experience with Meru cab service.


I had booked via telephone booking, yesterday a cab for Domestic airport drop for 5.30 am today. I got the sms immediately about the booking confirmation



Reference no – AL1A4166



I was told that I will receive a SMS about the driver name and contact details 30 mins prior to the schedules...

Hi,
Hope this information helps others to beware and watchout before they get fooled by the way MERU cabs represent themselves as the most promising cab serive in Bangalore.
I had booked a MERU cab for 29th June to go to new Bangalore Airport from Kormangala
( Reference AJ2A1777 ). I was initialy pleased by the way these people handled thigs so professionally. After the cab was booked, I also got an SMS stating that I will be getting cab driver information 30 mins prior to the scheduled pickup at 6.00 am in the morning. When I got no call by 6.15 am from MERU, I started calling them to check what went wrong with the cab. Everytime I called them, I was on the waiting queue for more then 10 people. After being on hold for almost 30 mins, the call goes to the customer service person's desk and gets disconected !! This kept happning more then three times when finally, I booked another cab to reach the airport ASAP ( Easy Cab )
The cab came to my place within 20 mins which was amazing...but I was already running too late.
( I should have booked just another local citi taxies or 'Easy cab' for that matter as they were very prompt )
Ultimately, I reached airport but I missed my flight ! :(
Lost my flight ticket money, Lost my bookings in other city, lost three business working days, everything went for a toss!!
When i addressed this issue to MERU, NO ONE took any responsibility to what had happened and they kept telling me we will get back to you and do something. I had to call them almost for 15 days to get an answer that they can do NOTHING about what had happened !
To add up to this poison, Just to check how unprofessional can a company get, I asked if these people atleast have courtest to give me ONE free voucher to go to airport by MERU cab ( JUST ONE TRIP TO AIRPORT !! ) and the manager had guts to say they would not even consider ONE free trip which is harldy gonna cost 200 to 300 /- for the company ! A customer(me) lost more then 50, 000/- + time + inconvenience that cannot really be accounted beacuse of some sloppy mistake MERU people made !

People, I request you NOT to book MERU cabs as what had happened to me...can happen to you once again and no one from MERU is gonna listen to your concerns. There are 1001 much better options available for you so THINK before you book a cab in future.

Hope this information would save some people. If anyone else had similar issues, plz spare some time and add the incident to this thread and help others to beware of certain things.
Regards,
Kunal
P. L . U . R