A Singaporean has called out a Grab driver for accepting a booking but eating at a coffee shop instead of driving over.
Content creator and podcaster, DJ KC, also known as Abdul Karim Sadali, posted on Facebook on 3 June regarding a bad experience with a private hire driver.
Source: DJ KC on Facebook
After waiting for six to seven minutes and noticing the booked vehicle hadn’t moved from its position, he drove his mother over to the driver and allegedly found the driver eating at a coffee shop.
DJ KC then went over to confront the driver, who cancelled the booking.
Grab said the driver has been temporarily suspended as it had reason to believe the driver “deliberately did not head to the pick-up point”.
According to DJ KC on 3 June, he booked Grab Premium for his mother, explaining that he was tired and couldn’t drive her home.
After the booking was accepted, they waited for several minutes, only to realise the vehicle was at the same place, unmoving.
“What could have happened?” DJ KC wondered.
“Maybe driver go toilet bad stomachache. Maybe one of his wheels punctured. Maybe bad traffic jam. Maybe inside his vehicle got ghost,” he quipped.
Seeing as the vehicle wasn’t moving, he drove his mother over to the driver and found out what happened.
For illustration purposes only. Source: MarketWatch via Bloomberg
His suspicion that the driver was waiting for him to cancel the booking proved true, as DJ KC saw the driver eating at a coffee shop beside the road where he parked his vehicle.
“Why did you accept my Grab Premium booking?” he asked.
Due to his suspicions, DJ KC decided to record the encounter and captured the driver leaving the coffee shop and going to his vehicle.
He left his car and went over to the driver, showing him his active Grab booking.
“All he could say was, ‘Sir, I don’t know’,” DJ KC said.
The driver then cancelled the booking and drove off.
“After more than 20 minutes of this saga, then only he cancelled my booking,” DJ KC lamented. “I’m sure there are many times consumers have to cancel a booking because of the waiting time.”
He also pointed out that the booking system appeared to disadvantage the consumer.
DJ KC told MS News that he had submitted the video to Grab as evidence.
In response to media queries from MS News, a Grab spokesperson noted following a review of the incident and past records that the driver “deliberately did not head to the pick-up point”.
Hence, Grab has temporarily suspended the driver.
“We would like to reiterate that driver-partners have the option of going offline when they need to take a break,” the Grab spokesperson said.
Grab also noted that there are measures in place to safeguard passengers’ interests and prevent errant behaviour among driver-partners.
“Our cancellation policy ensures that passengers will not be charged when our app detects that the driver-partner is not headed towards the pick-up point or does not arrive within the three minutes of the estimated time of arrival.”
Grab also reviews suspected stalling behaviour among driver-partners and takes necessary action.
“As such, the vast majority of our driver-partners do not engage in such practices,” Grab said. “There are sometimes legitimate reasons for late pick-ups, and we encourage driver-partners and passengers to be understanding and check in with each other via a call or GrabChat before cancelling.”
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Featured image adapted from MarketWatch via Bloomberg.
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