In another case against an Uber cab driver, a woman in Chennai claimed that during the ride, the driver misbehaved with her and ventured off route into a secluded path.
On the night of 17th May, Nandini Nayar got a cab booked by her friend as her mobile app was not working. According to her, the driver did not allow her to pull the glass on the window down. She said that the driver then took a turn into a secluded path, refusing to take the car back to the main road claiming that the path was a shorter way.
She said: "When my protests started getting louder and probably more frantic, he stopped the car in the middle of that random lane and told me to get out of his car. I refused, started to put the window down and insisted that he go back to the main road otherwise I would scream. He got more and more abusive, but I did what I said."
She continued: “I got on the phone with my friend to tell him what was going on, when suddenly I noticed the cab driver had picked up his phone and was trying to press 'Cancel trip' while I was still in the car, and while it was still moving. As soon as I asked him what he was trying to do, he stopped doing that. Had he done that, Uber support would not even know that a passenger was in the car.”
According to her, this was not the first time something like this had happened in an Uber cab, where the cab driver had tried pressing 'Cancel trip' while she was alone in the car at night.”
After the rape incident in the capital in 2014, in which a Uber driver, Shiv Kumar Yadav, had raped a 27-year-old woman, Uber has been in the news for all wrong reasons. According to reports, the woman in Gurgaon was headed to her home in Delhi when she dozed off in the cab. Upon waking up, she found herself in a secluded place after which the driver sexually assaulted her.
Also, the accused Shiv Kumar Yadav had been in jail earlier for seven months for sexual assault. Following the case it was found that Uber in India does not carry out background checks on drivers. After the incident, Uber announced making their three-step background check process 'more rigorous'.
As per Statista, Uber is the world’s most valuable startup. Uber entered India in 2013 and now has expanded its business to eight cities in India. With $18.2 billion as its net worth, Uber had given names like Ola, TaxiForSure and Meru a tough competition.
Uber has been trying to woo customers by providing first ride free up to Rs 300, but customers have come up with complaints of being cheated and overcharged.
Sunil, a customer, said: “I had three free rides and Rs 600 in my wallet but after taking a ride worth Rs 500 approximately I was charged from my Paytm account and all free rides had been revoked by them. Then I inquired about it so I was told that I have multiple accounts and that I violated terms and conditions. I, then, asked them for proof for the same and got a reply that there was no proof for the same.”
Sunil is one of the many users of Uber cabs who have claimed of having been cheated by the policies of free rides by Uber. There have been many others like Sunil who have been facing loss of credit money despite Uber coming up with offers of free rides.
Another user, Ajinkya said: “They did not make it clear in their terms and conditions that I need Rs 200 in my Paytm account in order to use the five free rides which I had. Upon transferring Rs 200 to Paytm account, the money was not showing credited. I lost money and upon mailing Uber, they never bothered to reply.”
“This is mental harassment. This happened around eight days back and I did not get a single reply from them. Finally after three sets of mails, they replied. Is this a way to treat a customer?,” a visibly agonized Ajinkya asked.
Uber has also been allegedly violating the rules of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and Reserve Bank of India mandate on credit card transactions in India.
According to a complaint by The Association of Radio Taxis to the RBI, customers' payment through credit card is routed to Netherlands-based Uber account near Amsterdam. It is then further transferred to a US Wells Fargo account. After some days, 80% of the money reaches a driver’s account in India.
Uber India doesn’t have a contact number to reach them except for email or through app bookings. So neither can customers reach Uber nor do they have a customer care number.