A frustrated Grab user expressed disappointment after paying an additional $8 to pre-book a ride in order to ensure punctuality for work, only to have the driver arrive late, according to a netizen on STOMP.
Consequently, the user had to cancel the initial booking and make a new one, resulting in lateness.
The incident occurred on June 6 when the user, David, had work that required him to be prompt at 8:45 am, as any delay would disrupt the entire operation.
On June 5, at 11 pm, David utilized the pre-book feature on Grab and paid the $8 booking fee.
Driver A promptly accepted the booking, and the scheduled pick-up time was set for 8:30 am, allowing for a 10-minute journey and ensuring punctuality.
However, on the morning of the appointment, David discovered that the driver was still in Tuas at 8:28 am, just minutes before the scheduled pick-up time.
The driver messaged David, explaining that he would be delayed by eight minutes due to another booking. Faced with the urgency of his work commitment, David had no choice but to cancel the booking and request a new ride, resulting in him being late.
Dissatisfied with the situation, David lodged a complaint with Grab Support, only to receive a standard templated reply that failed to address his specific concerns.
David expressed frustration at the response, emphasizing that he had paid the extra fee precisely because being late was not an option for him.
Grab’s “template reply”
Greetings from Grab
First and foremost we would like to apologize over the recent experience you had with us This Is not the experience we would like you to have with us.
We understand that you made an advance booking for this ride and the driver took up another Job which made him late for your pick-up and then proceeding to cancelling it.
At Grab. your booking will be assigned to the closest available Driver Partner Driver Partners may choose to cancel or not accept the allocated booking due to unforeseen circumstances such as traffic conditions or accidents which may disrupt your trip.
Rest assured, that our Quality team is constantly monitoring and assessing our Driver Partners cancellations to ensure that they do not cancel without a valid reason
Our Quality team will take the necessary actions against Dnver Partners who cancel excessively without valid reasons, and this will be done upon the conclusion of their investigations.
We are constantly upgrading our services to serve you better, and improvements are always explored and implemented (by us) at Grab.
This is to ensure we provide the best (service) to our customers.