You should never compromise your safety by using Ola Cabs or Ola Electric Scooters, or waste days of your time by dealing with an unethical company whose business model is to exploit their customers. Once you do business with Ola, you’re pretty much at their mercy. Ola’s parent company is ANI Technologies and their brands, OlaCabs and OlaElectric, treat their customers like gut flora. Stay away from anything connected to Ola. There is no need to put yourself in harm’s way!
My Story: I’ve always relied on Uber for transportation, despite occasional issues with their drivers. I recently took an Ola ride because Uber was repeatedly switching drivers. My first trip with Ola turned out to be a nightmare that dragged on for days. I paid the full fare during the trip using UPI. At the end of the ride, the Ola app shows that I owe the driver fare and the driver starts shouting at me. The Ola driver went feral when I explained to him that I’ve already paid the full fair to Ola via UPI during the trip. He threatened me and chased me after I got out of the cab. This man’s aggressive demands ruined my entire day, and Ola support disrupted two more days. I should consider myself lucky because those who buy Ola Electric Scooters end up taking on a full-time job of consistently submitting tickets for their malfunctioning scooters, a job that continues until they dispose of the scooter. People who complain about their Ola Electric Scooters in person are attacked and maimed. Here is a recent incident that I just saw on Twitter where the man’s Ola Cab Driver beat him up and robbed him—https://twitter.com/Jasonphilip8/status/1702009559920034046
From what I’ve read, encountering jacked up quoted fares, by 75% to 100%, at the end of the trip is an occupational hazard of riding Ola Cabs. Furthermore, the Ola app begs you to tip your driver after the ride, but I’m pretty sure that none of the tips you pay through Ola actually go to the driver. If you want to tip someone in India, always tip in cash—Never tip someone though a third party.
The Ola app doesn’t provide any way for customers to communicate with Ola. I had to go on Twitter to speak to Ola, and all I got there were incessant cut-and-paste responses—see attached photo. Ola’s support is non-existent. Furthermore, if you decline to pay the additional charge they arbitrary tack on at the end of your trip, get ready for relentless harassment with dozens of threatening calls throughout the day. Ola will call you nonstop to collect Rs. 300. Ola’s behavior borders on criminal harassment and intimidation of their customers, putting the most vulnerable, such as the sick and elderly, at grave risk. There’s nothing stopping Ola from charging an old man or a foreigner Rs. 10, 000 for a Rs. 300 trip because their CEO needs a new shirt. Such incidents happen all the time. Ola has accumulated almost 66, 000 complaints on Mouthshut, and there are hundreds and hundreds of complaints per day about Ola on Twitter. Some of them are unsettling, and some of them are outright shocking. The positive articles, reviews, and messages you read about Ola products and services are posted by seedy social media companies and dubious publications that Ola pays to whitewash the truth with happy stories and nice pictures. This behavior pattern is a signature trademark of shady Indian companies.
What if there was an urgent situation? What if the driver posed a threat to passengers after the trip? The driver could have easily attacked me. If I was a woman, it could have been much worse. Do Ola’s customers have to come on Twitter to receive dozens of cut-and-paste responses after being maimed?
ANI Technologies, the parent company of Ola, is just another shady Indian company run by a CEO—Bhavish Aggarwal—who is trying to get rich quick by cheating his customers. Their cab service is dangerous, and their electric scooters are deathtraps. In this sense, Ola is not much different from the Indian companies that make toxic cough syrup and export them to Africa. This gentleman—https://twitter.com/BALWANT1962/status/1514916199674822670—almost lost his son because Ola Electric Scooters are deathtraps. These are NOT isolated incidents. There are hundreds and hundreds of complaints per day about Ola: OlaCabs and OlaElectric on Twitter alone. You can see them if you use the following Twitter search—(ola_supports OR to:Olacabs OR to:OlaElectric).