Trying Taxi Bazaar

Above: Jeep service, Annapurna Himal, Nepal

To save time and provide more comfort for my family towards the end of our trip in India this time, I’ve decided to to travel to and from Shimla (our final destination before returning to New Delhi) by taxi.

It’s not terribly expensive by Singapore standards and after shopping around, I found the rates at TaxiBazaar to be very competitive. You can find them at taxibazaar.in

They boast no hidden cost, 24/7 support and guaranteed satisfaction. Of course, an awesome website is no guarantee of awesome service. Here are a couple of reviews taken from Google.

Every company/service has its satisfied and dissatisfied customers. Most of those in the latter group appear mostly at Trip Advisor. There aren’t as many reviews there, but a couple like this are scary enough. Check this out:

As if that’s not bad enough, here are some of the worst complaints against the company. I believe one of them is a repetition from Trip Advisor. How reliable are they, you really can’t tell – unless you’re willing to give it a try. On the positive side, their booking system is user friendly and works very well. They do not ask for upfront payment (or I would have certainly given them a pass) but they do ask for an advance. After seeing the horrifying reviews, I decided that I will not pay the advance.

Interestingly, my bookings were successful. The reply from them was very prompt and they were not pushy about the advance. The moment of truth, really, is when the taxi arrives at the pickup point and the destination. That I can only tell you after Christmas.

Update 28th December 2018

We booked our first taxi from Taxi Bazaar for the trip from Chandigarh to Shimla on 24th Dec 2018. On the night before the date, I received the driver’s details. His car arrived at 8.00am as requested.

The drive was smooth and the driver was cautious. He was also very patient in trying to locate our hotel. That was the good part. I booked the return trip on the 26th Dec 2018 7am from Shimla to Delhi. On the evening on the 25th, when I have not received any driver details from them, I sent the following series of emails. The first was just to test if there was anyone working on Christmas day.

I wrote:

Please send me information for the above booking. I can’t remember the pickup time and fare at the time of booking.
Thanks.

They replied:

Good Morning Mr Chan, The Total Billing for your tomorrow’s trip is INR 5823 and the pick up time is 7:00 AM from The Thistle Lodge, The Mall, Shimla, Himachal

I wrote:

Noted with thanks.  Is the same driver coming? Please ask him to wait at the same place where he dropped us 

No reply.

I got a bit worried on that morning itself, so I repeated my question:

Is the same driver coming? Please ask him to wait at the same place where he dropped us? If it’s a different driver coming, please ask him to wait at AG Office, Cart Road as the car cannot stop at Thistle Lodge. Let me have his number so the lodge owner can direct him in case he can’t find the way.

There was still no reply. I could only wish that it was the same driver coming. I tried calling him. No reply.

I have tried contacting the driver and there is no reply. Can I assume that he will not be coming?

No reply. It was getting late. I sent them an ultimatum.

I have received no information of any new driver and received no reply from the same driver. Are you not honouring the booking?

I gave them a few more minutes’ grace before engaging another taxi. What happened when we were well on our way (10.49am as you can see) was ridiculously interesting. They finally replied.

They forgot that they sent me the following reply when I tested to see if they were still with me one day before the booked date:

Good Morning Mr Chan,
The Total Billing for your tomorrow’s trip is INR 5823 and the pick up time is 7:00 AM from The Thistle Lodge, The Mall, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India.

I received no further message from them after forwarding their reply back to them. I wasn’t expecting any compensation, but an apology would have been the least they could have given me. Complete silence. Shame on them.