Ridesharing has shaken up the taxi industry – first Uber, then Ola have been changing our notions of how easy it is to get a lift from a stranger and what it costs.
Ola has been challenging hard with offers like $5 for a ride under 5kms.
But Fair Go has heard complaints about that offer and about how hard it is to get an answer from Ola when what you want is your money back, or a debt collector off your back.
Natasha Bell was slugged $21 on the home leg of a journey to the pub with her mate. Getting there by the same route had cost $5. She struggled to get any answers, eventually tracking down an email for the Australian arm of the company.
Ola advised Bell: “You should have been charged only NZ$5.00 for this ride.
“However, this falls outside the time frame to report such issues.
“As this ride is quite old, the bill is frozen and the system will not allow us to adjust the fare or process a refund.”
Which makes Ola’s ”system” sound like something outside Ola that it can’t control. And as for “quite old”, 12 days did not seem long to Bell, especially after struggling to reach Ola in the first place.
Ola has since told Fair Go that customers have seven days to complain which it feels is reasonable.
Bell disagrees.
“A lot of whānau don't know how to carry on and make a complaint, so I thought Fair Go would be the best place for it. I've watched it since I was a kid – you’ve been the best.”
We’ll take that five-star review and move on to Crystal Stephensen who also clicked on an Ola $5 for 5k. She was stung $24.
“I’d catch the bus for that,” Stephensen told Fair Go, even if it meant lugging the shopping for half an hour.
Stephensen also struggled to get Ola online – its Facebook page sent her a string of generic message replies and then advised it was surge pricing.
Ola insists this is disclosed in advance when a customer makes a request.
The customer will be shown this price range - which includes the surge - upfront in the app before confirming the booking. At the end of the trip the price will come within the projected range. There might be isolated incidents when the price is higher or lower than the projected range.
Stephensen insists she wasn’t given that surge price upfront. Fair Go has also seen advice to her from Ola, suggesting she should have tapped on some options in the Ola app to check the ride fare breakdown before she booked, which doesn’t sound very clear or upfront.
Marlon Magwili’s case, though, is more than just a scrap over an unfair fare. Magwili came to Fair Go because an unpaid fare will tarnish his credit record. Magwili even fears that could hurt his chances of staying here.
“It's really serious for me because I'm just on a visa. I don’t want to get involved with any problems with the law. I'm just trying to live here as honest as possible as I know.”
Ola quoted Magwili $12-13 but the driver didn’t stop the meter when he dropped Magwili and his mate at a Christchurch bar. The fare was over $60 as Magwili watched the car driving loops on the Ola app.
All his efforts to remedy the situation went nowhere and that customer contact was sketchy.
“Only chat... and then they will pass me to another contact person... and then you will start all over again. I was wasting my whole afternoon and the following day.”
Ola sent Magwili’s unpaid, unfair fare to a collection agency which seemed not to hear his plea to lay off while he disputed the debt.
Fair Go asked Ola for some explanations and all three got a refund, or a note saying they were no longer being chased. Stephensen was happy. Magwili was elated when Ola said it would fix any damage it did to his credit history.
But Bell was unimpressed with Ola’s goodwill gesture of a $50 credit - which she had 21 days to use and didn’t show up in the app anyway.
With no real explanation of the mess either, Bell is done: “Goodbye Ola”.
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