Last Saturday afternoon, a Go-Jek user apparently had the infuriating experience of getting charged for a ride that wasn’t even taken. Well, the user did book the ride — it was just the actual moving from Point A to Point B that was not carried out. Still, the driver claimed the reward for the (unfulfilled) trip.
The alleged incident was shared on Facebook by a Naomi Hoe Si Wei, who posted a screenshot of her friend’s Instagram Story. According to her friend, S$9.30 was charged after the driver marked the trip as completed, even though he never carried out the actual picking up. Calls to Go-Jek went unanswered, said the friend.
Hoe advised Go-Jek users to pay for their trips with cash instead of debit or credit cards — just so riders won’t be erroneously charged.
Hoe’s friend wasn’t the only one who faced the vexing issue. Other Go-Jek users chimed in with their own encounters with getting their cards charged even though the drivers didn’t pick them up. It soon became clear that it wasn’t a one-off fluke — it was actually possible for drivers to take their customer’s money without doing the work, whether it was intentional or not.
One netizen offered a possible reason why.
Others griped about how Go-Jek was unresponsive to their complaints, with one particular user not getting a refund for nearly two months already.
‘Small number’
In response to our queries, Go-Jek — or at least its public relations team — did respond. According to the newest ride-hailing service on the block, the number of cases involving unfulfilled trip charges has been small. Still, Go-Jek will be looking into it and assured that the riders and driver-partners involved will be contacted soon.
“We are actively looking into a small number of unfulfilled trip charges that have been reported by GOJEK riders. We will be reaching out directly to the riders and driver-partners involved and will ensure that swift and appropriate action is taken to resolve the situation.”
This would be the first couple of bumps hitting the Indonesian ride-hailing service here since it launched wide across the country on Jan 10. Before that, Go-Jek had a trial run via a beta version of its app in Singapore, which sparked joy among those who were hungry for a major competitor for Grab, then the only reliable option to book a ride after it absorbed Uber’s operations into its fold.
Word on the street is that some Grab users have been receiving promotional offers for discounted rides for the last two weeks. TODAY reported about how consumers are very happy that the ride-hailing price wars might be making a comeback.
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