My Story: This Was My Last Experience With Ola

Update on 21 October 2015:

The story has been doing rounds on social media since quite some time, however according to Ola Cabs, the issue was already resolved on 12 October 2015. Responding to The Logical Indian, Ola Cabs stated in an email-

“We suspended the services of the said driver from the Ola platform within minutes of receiving feedback from the customer. Safety of users is paramount and Ola is committed to innovation to ensure safety of our commuters.”

Tarashree Sahoo took it to social media to express his concerns and make the authorities aware about the issue. The post from Tarashree’s Facebook timeline has been shared over 20000 times.

Here’s what he has to say-

“This was my last experience with Ola. Last Thursday that was 1st of October, I was on my way to a meeting. Since it was hot outside I decided to call for an Ola cab instead of travelling in an auto.

Mid-afternoon without any traffic at all, they prompt for a 1.2x charge. I still go for it. Then Ola sent me a confirmation message with booking number – CRN129911044.

I try calling the driver’s number a couple of times, no connection. Then I try calling Ola CS and immediately I receive a call from a random number, the driver asks me about my location and I give him the info. When the cab arrived, I and my friend were shocked to see it loaded with two passengers already (looked more like they were the friends of the driver).

The driver tells me that they would also travel with us, to which I disagreed. And to this he replied – “Ok then. Cancel the booking.” Then I took few pictures saying that I will definitely raise a complaint against this situation, to which he replied – “Go ahead and do it.”

Two things that worry me is that-
1. What happens to the safety of a passenger? Why would anyone travel with two strangers in the same cab? What if, it had happened to a female passenger?
2. The driver’s reply clearly states that he doesn’t care whether you complain to Ola or not. Because he is pretty sure Ola is not going to take any action against them.”

Tarashree later updated that he received a response from Ola Cabs regarding the matter. The Logical Indian community requests the Ola Cab authorities to pay attention to such issues as it’s a matter of passenger’s safety and security.