Cab call services. Call a cab, make a booking and we will be there in no time at all, or so it says.
I did the same thing early on; made a booking in the afternoon for a trip in the evening. Well, one needs to give leverage to human error. Shouldn't one?
The time was nearing. Clicked "Enquire" on the web site and out popped google maps. It showed the cab was on my street. My trusting mind was taken in, here he is, it said, on time. And again, my mind was tad confused when no one rang the bell 10 minutes later. I clicked Enquire again. And google maps said he is going away, and off he went to the next suburb without picking me up!! I wished to pull him back to my pick up location, drag him down the streets with my mouse through google.
Mind you, this is not the first time. It has happened before and I was at my nerves end. Even after giving enough lead time, even after industrially creating an account on the company's website, this is what is being provided. And then I called the service centre. As expected, the girl who picked the call took no responsibility for what happened, "I have no idea why the driver did not come". I felt sorry for her!! but sorrier for me. I was angry, I was late. I asked for escalation. The bloke who picked up said the same thing "I do not know why the driver did not come, alright??!!" Its not alright, not alright at all.
And he said, we are busy at this time around that area. I tell him "Mate, the cab was here on my street earlier, I could see him on the map and then he drove away!". He made some illogical, lame excuse ( may be it was logical, but I was in no state to reason with that). I wanted to place a formal complaint, and then I did not. Live and let live, after all.
And finally somehow, "heaven-sent" or "cab call sent", it did arrive, 30 minutes late. My one hour appointment at the destination was cut short to half an hour one. That's that.
As I sit back and rethink, this is what dawns:
A thing that hit me hard when I moved out of India was the absence of auto rickshaws. I missed the freedom of walking out onto the street (any street) and hailing one of those little buggies to go anywhere, anytime. The city that I am currently in offers public transport, yes, but takes away that anywhere anytime freedom!! And to me that seemed a big bargain. To survive in these parts of the world, you ought to drive a car, else you are done for. You car = your freedom, when in Melbourne. Fair enough, for the resident population.
What about the floating population, people who are in transit, people who are on foreign assignments for limited time-spans? As someone said, in the midst of all the chaos, there is an unsurpassable grace that India offers, unfound elsewhere. Period. A frustrated, open ended period.
I did the same thing early on; made a booking in the afternoon for a trip in the evening. Well, one needs to give leverage to human error. Shouldn't one?
The time was nearing. Clicked "Enquire" on the web site and out popped google maps. It showed the cab was on my street. My trusting mind was taken in, here he is, it said, on time. And again, my mind was tad confused when no one rang the bell 10 minutes later. I clicked Enquire again. And google maps said he is going away, and off he went to the next suburb without picking me up!! I wished to pull him back to my pick up location, drag him down the streets with my mouse through google.
Mind you, this is not the first time. It has happened before and I was at my nerves end. Even after giving enough lead time, even after industrially creating an account on the company's website, this is what is being provided. And then I called the service centre. As expected, the girl who picked the call took no responsibility for what happened, "I have no idea why the driver did not come". I felt sorry for her!! but sorrier for me. I was angry, I was late. I asked for escalation. The bloke who picked up said the same thing "I do not know why the driver did not come, alright??!!" Its not alright, not alright at all.
And he said, we are busy at this time around that area. I tell him "Mate, the cab was here on my street earlier, I could see him on the map and then he drove away!". He made some illogical, lame excuse ( may be it was logical, but I was in no state to reason with that). I wanted to place a formal complaint, and then I did not. Live and let live, after all.
And finally somehow, "heaven-sent" or "cab call sent", it did arrive, 30 minutes late. My one hour appointment at the destination was cut short to half an hour one. That's that.
As I sit back and rethink, this is what dawns:
A thing that hit me hard when I moved out of India was the absence of auto rickshaws. I missed the freedom of walking out onto the street (any street) and hailing one of those little buggies to go anywhere, anytime. The city that I am currently in offers public transport, yes, but takes away that anywhere anytime freedom!! And to me that seemed a big bargain. To survive in these parts of the world, you ought to drive a car, else you are done for. You car = your freedom, when in Melbourne. Fair enough, for the resident population.
What about the floating population, people who are in transit, people who are on foreign assignments for limited time-spans? As someone said, in the midst of all the chaos, there is an unsurpassable grace that India offers, unfound elsewhere. Period. A frustrated, open ended period.
