[Resolved]  Meru Cabs Mumbai — MERU - Fallen service standard

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...