| Address: New Delhi, Delhi, 110054 |
My letter to uber. No action taken reported to me so far. This happened in june 2016.
I write to you to share an uber experience. I generally do not write to you people, but thought it is better to address an email to you as otherwise your call centre folks are going to select the most beautiful templates and reply to my email. I think you need to know how your business partners behave. And the liability at the end of the day rests with you.
I arrived in chandigarh earlier this week. I was here after four years, and the only great thing to change here, i felt, was uber. It was fast, quick, cheap and reliable. But then started the ugly parts. Some of your drivers are typical north indian goons, with most of them trying to achieve their daily targets of 18 rides to earn incentives. We consumers were never told his city has different uber rules - drivers said it is a point to point service, i don't get to select the route, and there is no concept of waiting at all. I thought you charged for waiting! Those were the little ugly experiences i had in the last three days.
Then came the ugliest. My mother, 59, aunt, 61, me and my wife ordered an uber from elante mall today afternoon (Driver details below). On calling him, he started getting irritated from the beginning, saying we need to come to one particular gate as it is a one way road. Rude, arrogant and careless, he sounded. But never mind. We are used to such driving an uber even in delhi. We sit in the car and say we want to go to the railway station and pick our luggage on the way. "it is a point to point service, " i was told. Fair enough. As a tourist, i have a right to inquire. And as a service industry, your partners better listen to an aggrieved customer patiently. I questioned why he can't take a route i ask for even if it is off route and then drop us somewhere. After all, i pay for kilometres and time of journey. Rudely he said, it doesn't work like that, his tone rising manifold. He said he will only go to one point, to which i say go to the hotel. "enter it in the app, " he shouts this time looking at my aged aunt. At this point, as even you guys would do, i tell him to mind his language. He was driving at this point. He says if we have a problem we can leave the car. I say just take us to the hotel and not to lecture us about point to point. He applies brakes, raises his tone, parks the car, and asks us to get off the car. All this in middle of nowhere in a town we don't know much about. My aunt says softly to the driver, "what you are doing is not right". He said he doesn't care. We all get out. Stranded, we feared we will miss our train. He cancels his ride. And moves on. Perhaps he has done brisk business since then.
All i can say is this is so, so shameful. Even if i get irritated or the rules of the city are different, he had no right to do what he did. It is like saying if i object to anything that a driver think is right, he rules and can throw me out. This has never even happened in delhi.
But this is so sad that you need to do something. A template response is the last thing i expect. The max you generally do is call the dude and say, hey don't do this in future. But of course, you have really not cared for customers as a company beyond a point. I have had instances of verbal misbehaviour with my wife in delhi. I do wonder what kind of training and hiring processes you have in place. They are a sham - because there was no way such an could have made it to your platform otherwise.
Good luck. And hope you introspect.In case you take some action, more than just a usual warning, let me know.
Bests,
Aditya kalra
Uber India customer support has been notified about the posted complaint.
