Ease of booking a cab, actually getting the cab you booked on time and being charged fairly for your ride are the basic parameters one would consider for private taxi operators through smart phone apps.
sadly, time and again Ola has failed misrably on each of these parameters.
Staying close to western express highway in the western suburbs of mumbai one would expect these taxi services to be helpful particularly when you need them the most( office hours) .
Try booking an Ola right from 745 am to travel to airport or south bombay on a week day( my usual travel route) and the ride now button answers with no cabs found on 19 attempts out of 20.
Oops you just missed the cab pop ups tease you agonisingly, more so when you have a flight to catch and you continously "just miss" all cabs that show up for 2 seconds on the app.
once you manage to book a cab after a long struggle you instantly get an sms with driver and vehicle details which makes you feel as if the battle is won.
You wait for the drivers call of acknoledgement and give him the benifit of doubt even when you recieve no call for 15 mins. You jump a step and call the driver on the number you have been provided with, and a puzzled soul on the other end replies that he has no booking and he is at home and cannot come. ask him why is he logged in if he is not on duty he replies he can come in 45 mins!
To be fair chances are that some drivers do turns up but that too way after you recieve an sms saying your Ola has arrived!
You helplessly see through the marketing strategy which gives you a 50 or 100 Rs off on your ola ride but also charge 1.5 times or 2 timespeak charges and they continue to charge you these peak charges even on a sunday afternoon!
demand for such taxi service will always remain in a city like Mumbai, but commuters would wish a more trouble free and tension free experience while being ready to pay a fair amount of premium fare for such a service.