This is not the first time bogus accounts are in the picture. Maybe Uber is getting a taste of its own medicine?
Ola has reportedly been caught red-handed this Holi with a brand new accusation from Uber pointing at Ola employees creating close to 93,000 fraudulent accounts on the San Francisco-based Uber’s platform.
Apparently, over 400,000 rides, almost 50,000 in Delhi alone, were booked and subsequently cancelled using those bogus accounts over the past half year, for which Uber had to pay high cancellation charges to its drivers.
Consequently, around 20,000 drivers discontinued their association with the American taxi aggregator.
The Press Trust of India reports from the Delhi High Court that the aggrieved party seeks Rs 49.6 cr from Ola in damages against trying to “squat” on cabs associated with Uber. Ola, in turn, has downright discarded all allegations though it has been given a time of four weeks to submit a detailed written response along with supporting documents. The next hearing is scheduled for months later on September 14.
In fact, what Ola has to say that the roots of these allegations lie in the court case where it had accused Uber of ignoring rules to stop using diesel cabs in New Delhi.
In 2014, ride-hailing services Lyft and Gett had accused Uber employees of making bogus bookings in order to use up their capacity, and of booking rides just to obtain the drivers’ contact information so as to make recruitment calls later on.
There’s truth; an Uber spokesperson confirmed that they had indeed tried too poach drivers from Gett. “Local teams can be pretty determined when spreading the word about Uber and how our platform opens up new economic opportunities for drivers,” the spokesperson said.
On the other hand, Uber’s biggest competition in India claims to be no a fan of anything bogus – be it accounts, bookings or complaints.
“We can only speculate that this is a counter to the proceedings pending in the earlier case”, Ola said in a statement to Quartz (http://qz.com/645258/uber-sues-ola-for-allegedly-using-the-same-dirty-tricks-uber-was-accused-of-using-on-lyft-and-gett/ ). “It is not beyond our imagination that this is an effort to divert attention from the current realities of the market where Uber has faced major setbacks including the recent incidents of Uber vehicles being seized by the government authorities.”
We truly hope it is so, Ola. Otherwise, chalo niklo!
