A Hyderabad consumer court has asked Ola Cabs to pay a customer Rs 95,000 in compensation after he was overcharged for an incomplete journey. The complainant Jabez Samuel had approached the Hyderabad district consumer disputes redressal commission - III seeking compensation from Ola Cabs in Hyderabad, after he was forced to pay Rs 861 for a journey made in October 2021 despite the driver dropping him off midway after a distance of around five km. The commission has directed Ola Cabs to refund the complainant the trip charge of Rs 861 with interest (12% per annum), and also Rs 88,000 for mental agony suffered, and Rs 7,000 towards the cost of the proceedings.
In the complaint filed under Section 35 of The Consumer Protection Act, Samuel said that on October 19, 2021, he had booked a cab from Ola Cabs for four hours. After Samuel, his wife and an assistant boarded the cab, he alleged that they found it to be untidy. He also alleged that the driver declined their requests to turn on the air conditioner, behaved rudely, and asked them to get down after travelling for four to five km. The complainant said he had to make alternative arrangements and skip some of their scheduled programmes.
After a bill of Rs 861 was generated for the incomplete journey, Samuel said he made a complaint through email to support@olacabs.com, and received a call from a customer care executive who failed to transfer the call to a higher official. After this, Samuel said Ola customer care executives made frequent calls asking him to pay the bill, following which he paid it in January 2022, although the actual distance travelled should have cost only Rs 150 to 200. The complaint said that considering the “mental agony, hardship, pain” and other inconveniences suffered by the complainant, the company’s attitude “amounts to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice.”
The commission, in its June 27 order, noted that Ola Cabs did not come forward to appear before it. It said that while the deficiency of transport service provided by Ola Cabs caused harassment and tension to the complainant, it found the compensation claim of Rs 4,99,000 to be exorbitant. It decided that the complainant was entitled to a compensation of Rs 88,000, along with Rs 7000 on expenses incurred for the proceedings.