Govt issues notice to Ola, Uber for overcharging, deficiency in service

As per the latest official data shared by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, maximum complaints were filed against Bhavish Agarwal's promoted taxi service Ola, which appears to be a bigger defaulter among the two leading companies as more consumers have filed complaints against Ola than Uber.

New Delhi:In a strong message to cab aggregators such as Ola, Uber, Rapido, Jugnoo and others for using unfair trade practices, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on Friday issued notices to the two biggest ride-hailing platforms Ola and Uber on violation of consumer rights as customers accused the two companies of overcharging and deficiency in service among other other things.

The charges against the two ride-hailing companies--Ola and Uber--include a lack of proper consumer grievance redressal mechanism, deficiency in service, unreasonable levy of cancellation charges and lack of fairness in the formula used by them to determine the charge for rides. Last week, officials from the Department of Consumer Affairs convened a meeting with ride-hailing companies Ola, Uber, Rapido, Meru Cabs and Jugnoo and directed them to become convergence partners in the National Consumer Helpline.

They said it would enable a better complaint resolution mechanism for consumers, which is required under the Consumer Protection Act of 2019, and also with the new e-Commerce rules. As per the data from the National Consumer Helpline (NCH), which covered the 13 months, from April 1, 2021, to May 1, 2022, more than 2,480 consumer complaints were registered by consumers against Ola and 770 grievances were registered against Uber.

Customer complaints against Ola

As per the latest official data shared by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, maximum complaints were filed against Bhavish Agarwal's promoted taxi service Ola, which appears to be a bigger defaulter among the two leading companies as more consumers have filed complaints against Ola than Uber. Customers filed a total of 2,482 complaints against Ola as against 770 complaints against Uber. Of this, more than half of the complaints were related to the deficiency in services while one in five complaints were related to the paid amount not being refunded.

In the case of Ola, a total of 174 or seven per cent of the total complaints were related to unauthorised charges while 139 complaints were related to overcharging. More than 60 Ola users filed complaints against the company as it did not give the promised gifts to customers. Consumers also filed complaints against the company for blocking the account or service. The complaints also relate to the debit of an amount, which was not credited to the beneficiary.

Customer complaints against Uber

In the case of Uber, deficiency in service was the biggest consumer grievance against the company as more than 60% of complaints were related to this issue. While 14% of Uber customers filed complaints against the company for not refunding the paid amount and five per cent of them complained about charging unauthorised charges and a similar number of customers complained of overcharging. Uber customers also filed complaints against the company for not giving the promised gifts, delays in delivery of products and blocking the user accounts, among other things.

Nature of complaints against Ola, Uber

These complaints related to a deficiency in service which includes lack of proper response from customer support, driver refusing to take payment by online mode and insisting on the cash only and the higher amount charged despite going on the same route previously at a lesser charge. Ola and Uber's customers also complained about the unprofessional behaviour and the driver refusing to switch on AC when the consumer is promised an AC ride on the app. Moreover, customers also reported problems with grievance redressal mechanisms of these two companies in absence of both customer care numbers and details of grievance officer as is legally mandated to be provided on the platform.

Unjust cancellation charges

Unreasonable levy of cancellation charge wherein users are not shown the amount of time within which cancelling a ride is permitted. The amount of cancellation charge is not displayed prominently on the platform before booking the ride. Undue cancellation charges are borne by users when they are forced to cancel the ride due to the unwillingness of the driver to accept the ride or come to the pick-up location

Opaque system to determine the charges

Customers also accused these two leading ride-hailing services of lack of transparency on the method or formula used by them to decide the ride charges, which also include two different fares for the same route from two different customers. These complaints also include the inclusion of charges for add-on services by pre-ticked boxes for including add-on services without obtaining consent by explicit and affirmative action before each ride. Officials said that a significant number of complaints have been lodged by consumers across the country on more than one issue which affected their ride experience. Officials said the CCPA is regularly monitoring the consumer protection issues in the landscape of the country.

Protecting consumer rights

Recently, the government issued an advisory against the illegal sale and facilitation of wireless jammers on online platforms. The CCPA has also issued an advisory to all marketplace e-Commerce entities such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Snapdeal among others to ensure that details of sellers as mandated under sub-rule (5) of rule 6 of the Consumer Protection (e-Commerce) Rules, 2020 are made available to the consumers. These details include the name and contact number of the grievance officer which must be provided in a clear and accessible manner.

Read:CCPA cracks the whip, puts Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm Mall, Snapdeal on notice