Hi, I hired a cab to take my family of 5 members + 1 infant to Ooty from bangalore. It was supposed to be a weekend getaway from my busy hectic schedule. I booked the cab to pick us up from our residence at 6am in the morning. Very promptly, the driver arrived on time. After we left Bangalore, we took breakfast at Kamats. I was told by safe-cabs that I am not required to pay for any lunch/dinner/breakfast for the driver. Shamelessly and very unprofessionally, my driver sent me the bill for the breakfast that he took. I said nothing and paid it not thinking much since I did not want to disturb my good mood.
After reaching Tamil Nadu, the car (innova) started giving issues. I understood that the car needed servicing and was told by the driver that he had mentioned to safe cabs about the car battery but was told to keep quiet about it. Keep Quiet Argh.
While driving after Bandipur, the driver took a left cut from Masinagudi which was a smart thing to do since it would easily save me a few hours and some kms. Every few kms, the driver would stop and take a few minutes break either for a smoke, tea, paan. We left Bangalore at 6am. We reached Ooty at 3pm. Day wasted :(
I had told Safe cabs that I needed someone responsible since we are family traveling with an infant. It came in as a rude shock that my driver was traveling for the first time to Ooty. He had no idea of the location. No idea of the route. He did not know Ooty at all. Every location we had to go, he asked for directions. A significant amount of time got wasted in this. By Sat, we only managed to see a boat house. Imagine, just one sightseeing.
Anyways, next day was a Sunday and I decided not to waste it so I took up things on my hand. I ensured that my driver got the directions from the hotel where we were staying. I planned to go to Doddabetta peak, then drive down to Coonoor, go to a few tea plantations, take the toy train to Ooty, go to rose garden, and then leave Ooty in time to be in Mysore to watch the evening in Mysore palace and Vrindavan garden show. I told my driver, it will be a tight journey so be ready.
Next day morning, it was the same story, no sense of where we were driving. Fortunately we had google maps so managed somehow. We reached Doddabetta at 7am only to find that the place opens at 8am. I checked with my driver if he checked the timings. No answer. Quite frustated, I decided to go to Coonoor and try to make up on seeing something. We reached Coonoor only to find that he had no idea of where the tea plantations are. Again an hour wasted. We finally found one and my wife took some snaps and we came back to Coonoor station. I told my driver to take the car and wait for us at Ooty. After taking the toy-train (the best part of the trip ! !), I told the driver at Ooty to take us for brunch while I asked him to take his lunch. After 30 mins of shopping, we started our way down from Ooty at 2:30pm. and then comes the shock !
He has never driven in hilly slope. From Ooty till the foothills, he drove at a speed of 40kms per hour. My wife and kid were extremely scared when he was going over the curves at that speed. Inspite of repeatedly asking him to slow down, he not only kept the same 40km speed downhill but was also enjoying while he was overtaking vehicles. He almost ended up smashing into an Alto at a blind curve. We were extremely shaken with this. I pleaded him to slow down. The next shock came in when he missed the masinagudi curve and went all the way to Gudalur and then to Bandipur, a straight 40-45 kms extra drive. I told him that he was taking the wrong road but no heeds. 1 hour wasted.
After we crossed Bandipur, he suddenly stopped the car at a roadside restaurant and told us to wait for 30 mins while he went and had his lunch. 30 mins in afternoon sun with an infant in the car. I immediately called up safe-cabs only to be told that they will look into the matter. We were so tired by that we cancelled our mysore sightseeing and decided to come back to bangalore. All the time since the start till the end, he kept playing some local cheap songs in the car, much to the discomfort of my wife and baby. A request to stop the music was unheard !. At the drop-off point he created a huge ruckus on the settlement on the following points
1) Bangalore - Ooty - Bangalore (+sightseeing) should roughly be 600kms. His meter showed 720 kms. On refusing to pay, I was asked to call the call-centre. I called them up and told them the issue.
2) Call centre executive to me. "Did you sit in the car or not, yes or no. If yes, you should pay. I don’t care about the driver Bhatta but I want my payment for 720 kms". Do you guys even care about what the customer has gone through or it is just the kms that matter.
3) Driver Bhatta - Rs 1000/- (on what basis ???? 2 days*200 = Rs 400). Driver is not happy and threatens me to take to police station. I agree and then he relents and calls up the call-centre. He finally agrees to take Rs 600/-. No logic.
4) My wife tries to amicably settle the matter but he abuses my wife and start using slang words. I call up the call-centre and report the misbehavior and they now request me to kindly settle it with the driver. They promise me that they will investigate it tomorrow and let me know if there is a case of refund. Incase they find some truth in what I say, I will be contacted. I now await their call. At 11pm at night I am too tired to argue with a rash and rude driver and an indifferent call-centre executive. I make the payment. I will remove my this post once I get a satisfactory treatment of my ordeal. Since my post is still there, you can assume that the issue is still not resolved.
This is how my weekend ended. I wanted to spend a good time with my new-born baby and family. All I get is 48 hours of harrasment, frustation and near-death ride back.