Category: Big Story

With apologies to none at all

I am an ancient relic. When I started working, forget email or computers even faxes were a rarity and corporates had STD phones (no, not the disease-inducing ones but the ones which enabled long-distance calls), which were always under lock and key lest they were misused. Telexes were the most often used mode of communication.

In three decades, the evolution of technology in workplaces and for an individual has been astounding. And the last one decade has seen the emergence of new type of companies, brands and technology.

But what stood out were the aggregator companies. These companies used technologies to aggregate various goods and services to be available at your fingertip and one could access it through the smartphones. Mobility, hospitality, food delivery, grocery delivery, in fact any type of delivery are all assembled under one platform. Now one did not have to go to a taxi stand or a travel agent or a market but the aggregators put everything together under one roof and it was all available at your doorstep.

Personally, I revelled in the emergence of Ola and Uber, Swiggy and Zomato, Amazon and Flipkart, Make My trip and Oyo, sorry strike out Oyo. But I did enjoy the offerings of these aggregators. Planning a trip at a short notice, intra-city travel, ordering food, all became child’s play. And also, one experimented, tried new travel routes, destinations, hotels and of course food. Initial hiccups were accepted with a pinch of salt and improvements were always expected to be round the corner. But, when the novelty disappeared, the frustrations mounted. Improvements were far and few. Same problems were being encountered and overall standards of these new kids on the block was shockingly abysmal. On my travel two weeks ago, I used most of these aggregator apps and following is my review of these.

I will start with Oyo. Inspite of persistent advice from my well-wishers, not to touch Oyo with a bargepole. I decided to try it out again, after a gap of maybe 6-7 years. Earlier, I have had mixed experience with Oyo and at least twice I was pleasantly surprised with their offerings in Gurugram. So, this time when I had some work in Delhi, in an area where Oyo seemed to be the only option available, I had to clock in by 8:30 am and I did want to stay, preferably, walking distance away, so I opened my Oyo app.

I had about 6-7 Oyo options available in a kilometre radius and most were pretty cheap. The photographs were decent and approval ratings hovered between 3-3.5. I took the plunge. I even prepaid as the amount was not big. Big mistake, as I learnt later. One day before the trip I get an automated call saying there is a problem at the Oyo I have chosen. So, I was given an option to cancel or get my booking transferred to another Oyo. No mention of which. I just disconnected, worried about what to do next.

After 15-20 minutes, a customer service executive called. Like a rote she repeated the automated message. When I ask her about the option she mentioned some hotel 500 metres away from this one. I was tempted to change but I asked her about the charges of this place and will it be adjusted against my payment? Oh, for that I need to call the helpline, she said. And she volunteered the number. Irritated, I ask her why should I call? You are changing my booking so please first tell me the rate and refund/ adjustment status, I retort. Sorry, sir. She replied without any hesitation, I do not have access to that information. You just tell me if I need to cancel or transfer your booking. By this time, I had lost my patience so I asked her to cancel my booking.

I go back to my app and I find a message that my refund has been initiated. Emboldened, I look for alternatives and this time choose a Oyo Townhouse. Supposed to be a Oyo-owned property. So must be good. I book it and pay up. In the meantime, I got a message that my full money has been refunded. Since it was a UPI payment, I got it back the same way. I felt relieved and happy.

Next day, I land up in the area and I find at least 4-5 Oyos exactly in the same place where my townhouse is supposed to be. In adjacent buildings. I trudge up one of those. The receptionist looks at my app, scrolls up and down, calls someone else who repeats the process and then tells me that ‘aapka Oyo’ is two buildings away. Off, I go again. Find my Oyo. Am checked in a jiffy and someone escorts me to my room. On the way up I see two young couples coming down. No bags. Nothing on them. They just handover the key to the guy accompanying me and say, check out. And leave.

I entered the room. It was basic. Paint peeling off. The bathroom looked okay at a glance. The room had no towel or soap. On asking I was given a towel and two small bottles of body wash. I suddenly realised that I have not been given any room key. My escorter, searched the room for a lock and then saunters out saying I will get one.

Ten minutes later, I was down, wanting to go out and I asked for my room key. The guy looked around and then asked me to wait. He was busy taking photocopies of Aadhar cards of another bagless couple. Another gent sauntered in and asks if his room was ready. He had been told to come back in 15 minutes and it was now 30 minutes. He was told to go upstairs and check it himself. He gulped. I rolled my eyes and realised that I have made a mistake. I ask for room key again and am told not to worry as CCTV cameras are everywhere.

At this stage, I told them I want to check out and did some namedropping. Suddenly, a suitcase lock emerges and I am asked to please not cause a problem. I lock my room and leave. I returned late around 9 pm and found that my toilet was very dirty. The cold and my tiredness precluded me from checking out but I was clear: I will check out first thing in the morning.

I was tired and late because of my experience with Ola, the second aggregator I tried. I booked an Ola to come back at around 6:30 pm and first, my ride was cancelled. Finally, another driver turned up. As I settled down amidst the Gurugram traffic rush, my driver told me that he will take a shorter route, it’s on the map but road is not good. Positive is that it will save 15 minutes. This was what his app told him. I agreed. Another mistake. The road was not all that bad, but the route was through narrow lanes and bazars and we ended up lost. At that stage, I put the map on my phone on and started directing the driver. On my app I was getting a message to rate my trip and the driver was getting messages to pick up another passenger! It was total breakdown. Chaos. Imagine if the passenger was a female.

Technically, I should have not paid the driver as my trip was over and rating was being asked for. But I paid him in cash when he dropped me, not at my destination but a kilometre away. Oh, did I tell you? Ola now gives the option of paying online before your trip is over. Else you have to pay the driver in cash. And sometimes one pays, one gets a payment done message and 5 minutes later Ola sends a message that the transaction failed. If the money has been debited from your account please call Ola helpline. The onus is on the customer, not Ola!

Two apps down, next morning I open Make My Trip. The first surprise was that when I broadened my search to a 3-4 km radius the majority of the hotels being shown were still Oyo. This time, I researched properly. I shortlisted 3-4 options. I did not even look at the cheap ones, I read at least 5-6 reviews, read the AI generated review summary and finally picked one hotel 3.5 km away from my meeting point. I must confess, the MMT app seemed easier to navigate, its reviews seemed balanced and it had more parameters like quality of food, closeness to metro station etc.

And the place I chose, was good. The experience was as promised by the app. So, a thumbs up to MMT.

But, and there is always a but. After I paid, I was sent an offer. I could buy through Swiggy and get a discount. It was very tempting. But the fine print said that the offer was valid only for some NCR restaurants. Here I am booked near Saket. So why would you send me offers for NCR? I know Swiggy can deliver from there. But the delivery time could be more than an hour and the delivery charges will be higher.

So, is this how Swiggy or MMT use their data? They know I am in Saket so why can’t they give me an offer from nearby? I guess all this hype about using data to do targeting is an overblown proposition? Is it?

On the positive side after abandoning Ola, I took up Blu. It was a very good experience. I prebooked cabs twice. Both times the cabs were on time. They were electric cabs so environment friendly. The drivers drove safely and were polite to a fault. The app was very user friendly. It seemed a huge improvement on Ola.

But overall, I was really disappointed. It seems the new age product offerings have actually deteriorated, rather than improving. Oyo is really pits and I guess all these stories about being used mostly by unmarried couples for two hours is true. Is that its business model now? Ola seems to have lost focus completely. My trip was shown as finished without any payment or actually being finished. The driver was lost. And a one hour trip as predicted at the start ended in a two hour trip? And I do hear some pathetic stories about Ola electric scooters too. Quality, service. Is this an Ola trademark now?

These could be exceptions but it shows major flaws in the product. If after 10 year these brands have gone from bad to worse and not improved, then they fail the first test of marketing. Bad product.

And the worst part is that after I abandoned Oyo after one night, even though I had a three-night booking, even though my Ola trip had gone horribly wrong, there was no follow-up. No calls. No feedback mechanism. Both of them asked me to rate them. I gave the worst rating and then there was silence. Don’t they follow up if the rating is 1. Or maybe they cannot, as the number of ratings with least score is way too many. And therein lies a tale.

Vikas Mehta is a senor business strategy consultant and educator based in Dehradun. He writes on MxMIndia every other Monday. His views here are personal.