At a time when people have become increasingly reliant on cab aggregators like Ola and Uber, a man's distressing experience with an Uber driver has gone viral on social media. The user who goes by the name Striver on X, and is a software engineer with Google, has accused an Uber driver of abusing him and his friend and abandoning them mid-ride.
In a post on X, the techie who was visiting the city explained the situation and called it his ''first bad experience in Bangalore.'' He said the driver had put his call on loudspeaker and had been constantly speaking for 30 minutes. When the techie and his friend requested him to use headphones, the driver allegedly abused them and told them to get out of the vehicle. The driver said that he was not comfortable riding them so they should get down.
''Booked this Uber @Uber_India the estimated journey time was 1.5 hours. For the first 30 minutes, the driver constantly kept talking over his phone on a loudspeaker. I and my friend got a headache after a while, and asked him politely to use headphones or talk later. Guess what happened next. We were abused, and asked to get out of the car, saying “I am not comfortable to ride with you people,'' @striver_79 wrote. He also shared the number plate of the cab.
Here's the post:
His post attracted the attention of many users who encountered similar experiences. Several users also complained that Uber drivers allegedly refused to switch on the AC and demanded additional charges upon arrival.
One user wrote, ''Uber drivers employ these tactics professionally 1. If asked whether they will switch on AC, they ask us to cancel. 2. If we don't cancel they come near the pick.up point and drive away, cancel the trip stating that the customer didn't take the ride.''
Another commented, ''Once I boarded an Uber 5 in the morning and that guy was on a call with his buddy for the entire trip.''
A third said, ''They have a habit of talking constantly over phone while driving. My driver rammed the car into a standing truck while talking over the phone. Luckily I was saved.''
A fourth wrote, ''Uber does nothing on these kind of complaints. I was threatened by the driver. I complained to Uber. I asked them what actions did you take against the driver. They said it is confidential, we can't share the details of the action. ZERO transparency.''
In another post, the techie informed users that Uber Support reached out to him after he raised a complaint. He also suggested two features for the app so such incidents can be avoided in the future.
He wrote, ''I am not sure how long will it take for you to take action, but glad that you did take some time out to call and listen to customer problems, instead of sending bot messages. How about introducing two new features. - raising issue from the app for no-ac while in-ride - raising the issue for “using phone” In both cases, uber can ask the customer to send a picture or a small clip, and then AI can verify and trigger a warning, on multiple warnings, you can take some action.''
