OLA cheating Customers with their different pricing strategy

Ola and Uber are the best leading cab aggregator services in India. These not just made it easy for the people in commute, but also made it hassle free without any bargain or having to wait for a long time to get a ride. Though the pricing is quite affordable, the Surge pricing is something that comes along with Uber and Ola services. But, is the surge pricing of Ola is what the company says it is? Let’s find out the ground reality of how Ola is cheating customers with their insane pricing strategy.

So What happens when you book a cab on Ola? The service calculates the best pricing for your ride depending on demand, the distance, the traffic, the time it takes to reach your destination. But this is what Ola wants you to see, what the company is hiding is that they charge you with the best price depending on your smartphone’s price and if or if not you pay via Ola wallet money. So, the folks at GadgetsToUse got the same doubt and tested using a low-end Moto G4 and a high-end iPhone 7 for booking.

First Test-Using Moto G4: So, with the Motorola Moto G4, Ola didn’t apply any surge pricing, nor there was any Ola wallet money. In this scenario, Ola showed a fare of Rs.126 from A to B. It is quite clear that Ola is charging you with the best pricing without any surge.

Second Test-Using the iPhone 7: With the same starting point to the destination, we booked another Ola cab and this time, the company charged with surge pricing of 2X and at this point, the high-end user had money in his Ola wallet also. With the same pickup location and drop, Ola showed a fare between Rs. 220-232, compared to the Rs.126 on the low-end smartphone user.

As you can see from above tests, it is quite clear that Ola is taking advantage of their App to identify the customer details and charge them insanely. The price almost got doubled, as soon as the user changes his/her device and also the Ola wallet status despite being the same pickup and drop location. Also, both the users were trying to book Ola micro, but not others like Ola Sedan or Prime. Though some might argue that this is a perfect strategy, one needs to seriously ask themselves if they would be comfortable paying double the fare for the same distance.

Here is the full video proof of fraud by OLA Cabs

It’s such a shame for a company like Ola which is well known and has become one of the trusted company in India in such a short time doing such cheap tactics for money and cheating customers. Do let us know what do you think about this and Would be comfortable taking an Ola ride next time?.