I booked a cab through Ola for outstation travel. I had requested a pickup at Mumbai on Jan-13 at 11:00 PM to go to Pune and back on Jan-16. Ola sent me a confirmation on the booking and clearly stated that the duration was for 3 days. Here’s the rest of the story-
Arrived at Mumbai and by the time I could get my bags from the conveyor got 4 calls from the driver asking me where I am.
I then go an pick up my friend from the International terminal and head to Pune. On the way, the driver was blasting music and all repeated requests were in vain as he would turn it back up in ten minutes.
The driver created a ruckus in the hotel that he needed to blankets for the night. I was staying at the Taj and it was EXTREMELY embarrassing when I get a call from the front desk about this at 4 in the morning.
The car was very dirty the next day. It was smelly and filled with junk all around. I was hosting a bunch of foreigners and it was very embarrassing since this was their first ever trip to India.
5. The drive back from Mumbai to Pune just drove us nuts! the driver was on a mission to cover that distance in 2 hors. Absolutely no road rules! Had to constantly ask him SLOW DOWN!
Here’s the best part, we left Pune on the 16th at 9:00 am and had to visit just one customer before I requested a drop at the hotel (final spot). This meeting lasted only 30 mins and we were back at the hotel by 5:00 PM. Eventhough I had the booking till 11:00PM that day, I was told that I had to pay 1, 200 extra for "Local Travel". That made absolutely no sense.
And now, the Icing on the cake! When I asked the driver how much I owe him, he told me a total of 14, 000! When the original estimate given by Ola was only 9600! After one hour of waiting and 5 failed attempts to get somebody to talk to me, they told me that the booking starts at 6:00AM. So I was charged for 4 days/1000 kms (when I used only 410 kms) plus the 1200 for local travel (which lasted a total of 1 hour and 21 km - and not to mention that I still within the stipulated time slot).
Why did Ola not tell me this VItal piece of information? Cuz they don’t care. So, when you book them of outstation travel, be ready to spend atleast 1.5 times the estimate. In retrospect, I could have booked a luxury car for the same price for the same period instead of this piece of junk!
Never again! Adios "Ola"!