Did you know Uber India is held guilty of deficiency in services by the District consumer court? The firm is now to pay a sum of Rs 10,000 for mental agony and Rs 10,000 as litigation costs to a Dombivli resident. Kavita Sharma who is an advocate, missed her flight to Chennai on June 12, 2018, at 5.50 pm as the Uber driver delayed her at her ride to the Mumbai airport. Read on to know the whole story that led to Uber being charged guilty by the District consumer court.
What Led To Uber India Being Charged Guilty?
Apparently, Kavita Sharma booked the Uber at 3.29 pm for Mumbai airport. According to her, the airport is around 36 km from her residence. However, the Uber driver arrived at her residence after 14 minutes and picked her up only after being repeatedly called. And the worst part is, even after arrival, the driver was busy on the phone. Kavita reported that the driver started the ride very late. Following this, the driver also went ahead and took a wrong turn for a CNG station, wasting around 15-20 minutes. Kavita was dropped at the airport around 5.23 pm but by that time she had already missed her flight. She also had to pay Rs. 703, while the estimated fare at the time of booking was Rs 563.
This was what led Kavita to put in the complaint on Twitter, she reported that she missed her flight because of the unprofessionalism of the uber driver. Following this, Uber refunded her Rs 139, the amount of difference between the estimated and the actual fare. After this, Kavita filed a complaint with Thane Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.
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Uber’s Response
In its response, Uber India claimed that the app they provide acts as an aggregator only and is not responsible for drivers’ unprofessionalism. Its role is just to provide a connection between driver and customer. Explaining it further, the firm revealed that all the drivers using the app work as independent contractors. Therefore they are individually responsible for any incident taking place during transportation.
Soon after the Commission stated that a passenger sends requests for transportation on the firm-controlled Uber app. This means all services provided are managed by the firm itself. And Kavita, the complainant, had taken Uber services by using the app. As such, her payment consideration as charged by the app was for the transport to Uber and not to the driver.
Now that you know both sides, who do you think is correct? Do let us know in the comments section below!
All image courtesy – Unsplash