In Twitter thread, Bengaluru resident shares 'worst, traumatising' trip, slams cab aggregator

A Bengaluru man booked an outstation ride for his family to travel to Mysore on Sunday, but the journey turned awry when collection agents blocked the car and threatened the driver that they'll confiscate the vehicle if he did not pay up his past instalments right at that moment.

A Bengaluru resident's journey to Mysore with his family ended in a nightmare after they were stranded on the highway in the middle of a trip. In a Twitter thread which has gone viral, Vikas Gowda has narrated his ordeal on what he described as a 'one of the worst, traumatising experiences'.

An Ola cabs journey went bad when agents stopped a cab to recover loans and left customers stranded in a highway. (AP file photo)

There have been instances of Bengaluru residents taking to Twitter to rant about their horrid experiences with cab aggregators, be it disputes related to 'cash or Ola Money' payment, repeated cancellations or longer waiting periods.

In a series of tweets, Gowda recalled he booked an outstation Ola trip with his family to travel back to Mysuru. An hour and a half into the trip some 'miscreants' travelling in two wheelers blocked the car they were travelling in.

"These rowdies/collection agents threaten the driver to pay up his past instalments right at that moment else they'll confiscate the vehicle. They even ask my family members to get down and figure out our ride ahead," he tweeted.

Gowda alleged that his efforts to reach out to the Ola's emergency services team proved to be futile. He claimed that the team members asked him to cancel the ride and book a fresh one. The customer added further, alleging that the team put him on hold multiple times and several people asked me to narrate the whole incident. "After all this, they said, "Because this is an outstation booking, we won't be able to help you any further," he said.

Even though Ola later got in touch with him, Gowda said that it was to get an OTP from him to end the trip, and said the ride hailing service 'had no care for people' and 'didn't ask about his family members'.

“If this is the quality of their emergency response team, after all the untoward incidents that have happened in the ride hailing space, we still are long way away from making our cab rides safe for women, families and generally people,” he added.

Gowda claimed he was even charged an extra fee for the ride, with Ola calling it an ‘additional distance fare’. Netizens were enraged on hearing the experience and several chipped in with similar stories, some going further and saying that the Ola and Uber era is over.

After the thread went viral, Ola's team issued a reply to the aggrieved customer.

“We hope you and your family reached home safely. We understand how upsetting this is and want to make sure this is taken care of. Since you've already shared the required details, the relevant team will reach out to you with assistance without any further delay,” Ola wrote.

There has been widespread anger among the netizens against the cab aggregators Ola and Uber in recent times. There have been complaints related to alleged unfair practices, with the Karnataka government assuring it would look into the issue.

With only around 30,000 cabs on the roads today as compared to the 1 lakh-odd cabs that were in the city during the pre-COVID times, Ola is stretched thin in Bengaluru and coming under fire from unsatisfied and irked customers.

A massive controversy erupted after cab drivers from Bengaluru started a no-AC policy to highlight the problems faced by them amid high fuel prices and low commissions. They demanded extra fare from passengers for switching on the AC, or cited COVID rules for not doing so.

The drivers said they had their own struggles with high commissions as they have to pay the aggregators 30% commission per ride. These commissions burn a hole in cabbies' pockets, combined with the monthly EMIs for the cab, house rents, and paying for fuel.