My bad experience with Uber
A few weeks back, I wrote a post on LinkedIn regarding Uber’s digital payment system where I don’t need to input my bKash pin to proceed with the payment, the system automatically deducts that from my bKash account after completing a ride.
Some people found this user-friendly and said, after completing the ride the network can be slow or there could be a rush. So, the auto deduction of payment from the digital wallet is necessary. Also, some people and I too found that very problematic. I feel like, if they have the power to deduct money without providing the pin, they have more control over my digital wallet than I do.
Now coming to my recent experience. A few days back I was looking for a ride and I was comparing the fare between Uber and Pathao as usual. Pathao was showing the long route and also higher fare than Uber’s. So, I decided to try Uber. It showed that it has a 10% discount if I pay with bKash, so I connect my bKash account in the payment section. I requested a ride and a rider accepted it. The rider was 5/6 minutes away and I was waiting for him.
Suddenly I saw bKash sent me a message that the payment was successful, and Uber sent a notification that my ride was completed. I was shocked. A lot of messages and notifications were coming and I saw a screen that said, “Your ride has been completed within a very short time, did you get into an accident?” (or something like this). I checked the trip details and figured out that, the rider had started the ride without picking me up and ended it after some time which costs me the minimum fare that was deducted from my digital wallet.
I was recalling my previous post, where one of the product managers from my workplace shared her experience regarding a similar issue. She said,
“…the experience got bitter when I was being charged without any permission. One time, one rider confirmed that he was coming to pick me up. I could track that he is near my location but he suddenly canceled with the option “waited for the user too long”. Uber instantly charged me and deducted money from my bKash. After facing this quite a several times, I removed my credentials completely.”
I removed my bKash wallet from Uber, complained about the trip, and sent a request for a Pathao bike.
I usually do one thing after the ride, if I like the behavior and the professionalism of the rider, I ask him if he prefers the digital payment or not. Because, I knew that if I pay digitally, they will get the payment after some days from the company. This time, the rider told me, “No problem about the digital payment. Usually Uber creates problems, Pathao is fine.”
I felt interested and asked him again, “What’s the issue with Uber?” He said, “Their calculation is not so good. They sometimes provided less payment than I deserved. Also, they pay back the riders one time every week. Pathao is flexible here. You have paid by digital payment, right? I can transfer the amount anytime to my bKash account.”
After hearing that, I felt so good. Finally, Pathao has solved a major problem that was causing many refuses while requesting a ride. I really appreciate their move. However, they didn’t implement Google Map in their app yet. As a result, many shortcut road remains skipped while selecting the best route for the destination.
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Thank you for reading such a long write-up. I am really interested to hear about your good and bad experiences with any of these ride-sharing platforms.
Have a good day!
