Govt To Uber, Ola: Enough Is Enough! Stop Invalid Cancellations, Extra Charges, & Inconvenience For Customers

By Sheetal Bhalerao Last updated May 11, 2022

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/govt-warns-app-cabs-taking-users-for-ride/articleshow/91476709.cms?UTM_Source%3DGoogle_Newsstand%26UTM_Campaign%3DRSS_Feed%26UTM_Medium%3DReferral

The government held a meeting on Tuesday with the ride-hailing platforms such as Ola and Uber to discuss their policies regarding the rising customer complaints on surge pricing and ride cancellations against these cab aggregators.

Center Meeting Cab Aggrigator

Apart from these issues, the Center was also keen to know about the measures taken by such platforms for consumer data protection.

Further, the center discussed about the issues related to fare calculation and ride cancellations.

The proposed meeting seems to hold a great significance as there have been hundreds of complaints by consumers regarding alleged unfair trade practices by these platforms.

This will also consider the ride cancellation policy as drivers force customers to cancel trips after accepting bookings, which results in customers paying cancellation penalties.

Complaints Against Cab Aggregators

On Monday, the Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said, “We have sought information from cab aggregators how they handle cancellation charges and surge pricing and how they calculate fare,”.

Besides this, he said, “We have asked why the charges to go from point A to point B are different for two different people.”

The ministry is concerned about the data protection too as they would also like to know whether these ride hailing apps have taken adequate measures to safeguard consumer data on their platforms.

According to the official, the government has sought information and will discuss with them all these issues and based on the outcome, further action will be taken.

On the same subject, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) Chief Commissioner, Nidhi Khare said, “We have received several complaints from consumers regarding the cancellation and pricing policy of cab aggregators. The number of complaints is very high and therefore we have called the cab aggregators for explanation of their policies,” last week.

Further adding that the regulator has received many complaints of alleged unfair trade practices, including cab drivers forcing consumers to cancel a trip and bear a penalty as the drivers do not want to accept the ride for whatever reason.