This website, and all pages within this website, and all videos, tape recordings, podcasts, and other materials including photographic images and captions, offer, disseminate, convey and represent our opinions, hunches, suspicions, best recollections and editorial views.
You won't believe the incompetence of this business
John,
We have begun your website at the following link:
https://www.truth-or-consequences.com/badder_business_bureau/grab_taxi_philippines/grab_taxi_philippines_sucks.html
This link will be included in our TrustPilot review and will also be sent to every corporate officer in Grab that we can find, worldwide. We now believe that you people (Grab et al) are not merely stupid, unprofessional or incompetent; we believe you are actually mentally handicapped. That's the only possible explanation for Grab's behavior, dishonesty and unprofessionalism.
Enjoy the page.
It will remain publicly posted for as long as Grab is in business.
You people win the prize.
We hope it was worth it to you.
COMPLAINT against Grab Taxi, Philippines:
Level 27F/28F Exquadra Tower
Lot 1A
Exchange Road corner Jade Street, Ortigas Center
Pasig City, Philippines
My experiences with Grab Taxi in various countries over many years was fine. It was just a normal business -- maybe not exactly perfect, but it did what I needed to do and I had no real complaints. Not in any country. Not at any time. I used Grab all the time.
Then I moved back to the Philippines after 8 years away.
Taxis in the Philippines were -- and are -- a bloody nightmare. If you called them a grand criminal enterprise with no oversight, you would be understating the problem.
So naturally I immediately signed up for a new Grab Taxi account in the Philippines.
The interface here was clumsy and extremely unprofessionally executed. It was difficult and/or confusing to set up the account, and when I did, and then tried to plug in my VISA card payment data, I was met with an error that said "WE CANNOT USE THIS CARD" or something to that effect. It was a normal VISA credit card (not a debit) issued by a major USA bank.
That wasn't much of a surprise. The Philippines is behind even Ukraine, where I had just come from, in terms of accepting and processing credit cards. I swear, even in Ukraine, at the height of the war, credit card use was easier. Not everywhere. But generally.
I therefore forgot about using my VISA card to pay for rides, and decided to just pay cash. That's a better choice for the scammy Philippines anyway. You never know what kind of bizarre, criminal charges you're going to find on your cards. It's better to never use them.
I then began the process of setting up my new life in Manila and lots, and lots of taxi rides were needed.
Each time a ride concluded, I already knew what the amount was going to be, so I had it ready in cash. Each time, I handed that sum to the driver, who thanked me and we parted ways.
On one occasion I booked a ride and I watched it in real time as the driver headed toward my location, and got within perhaps 100 meters of my location, and then mysteriously turned around (just did a U-turn in the road without hesitation) and headed the opposite direction. I assumed there was some traffic blockage and he was looking for another route. Welcome to Manila. I watched this progress -- actually two of us -- standing out in the equatorial sun, as this driver went that way, and this way, and another way, over and over and over. He never stopped anywhere so it seemed clear he was still trying to get to us. But after nearly 90 minutes we had had enough and we started looking for the "cancel ride" button in the app. Maybe it's there but two of us, one a Manila native, couldn't find it or make it work. Welcome to the Grab app.
After another 15 minutes of this nonsense, with the driver still driving essentially in circles, we gave up and found a way to message him directly, asking HIM to cancel the ride. No reply. Welcome to the Philippines and welcome to Grab Taxi. We sent more messages. No reply. The app would show that he received them,. but he couldn't be bothered to reply. But finally he did -- and we were now into this nightmare closer to two hours -- and said ok, he was canceling the pickup.
We re-booked with Grab and THAT driver showed up within 2 minutes. Clearly the other driver didn't have a traffic problem, he had a mental problem. Welcome to Grab Taxi.
Only months later did I discover that despite Grab's message saying my VISA card could not be used for the rides that DID get used, it was debiting the card for each and every ride. I discovered this when the Grab debits started appearing on my credit card. Therefore, I was paying twice, once in cash, but the driver had ALREADY BEEN PAID FROM MY CARD. NEVER ONCE did a Grab driver inform me of this. They just took the double payment and smiled. Or not. Welcome to the Philippines, and welcome to Grab Taxi.
Since my card WAS successfully being used, I started looking around on the Grab app and noticed that they had a bill paying service. I thought this might be useful. Yes, I am a glutton for punishment. Screw me once, shame on you -- screw me twice, shame on me.
In order to use it (the bill paying service) I was instructed to go through a verification process. It seemed simple and routine. You needed to upload a government ID (a passport in my case), plus something showing your actual address (a complete lease in my case), and a valid Philippines phone number (I had one), and then you had to take a moving selfy, in which you focused the camera on your face and you were told by the app to move your head up or down, left or right, etc. Pretty standard stuff.
I did all that properly and perfectly, as I am a stickler about that kind of thing, and I sat back to await the verification so I could go explore the bill paying part of the Grab Taxi app.
A week later it had not been verified, so I elected to give it another week. After two weeks it had not been verified so I checked for any reason why not, and the app said my facial verification had failed. Well, ok, something this just happens and you merely do it again. I did so and waited maybe another week, to find that the verification had failed yet again.
I submitted the facial selfy thing again and again and again, each time being told it had failed. In all, I might have submitted the facial selfy 6 or more times. Each and every time it failed. But I also began seeing that Grab was claiming the number on my passport didn't match the number I had type into the blank for the passport number. I thought well, sometimes this can happen, so I checked the number I typed against the crystal clear number on my passport (remember, I am a photographer), and of course they had matched all along. There was no discrepancy at all. I resubmitted that and was told that verification had failed again. And again. And again.
It was at this point I noticed that Grab had debited my VISA card twice for $.93 each time, even though no rides had been booked for many weeks. They just apparently randomly debited my card.
I then noticed that Grab was claiming that the document I submitted for address verification (my lease) didn't show my address. But of course it did and I enlarged the lease PDF scan that I had submitted many times, and it was perfectly clear. Perfectly clear. And it showed my address clearly.
I finally went into chat mode and informed Grab of all these problems. I was told that a rep would contact me by email and, sure enough, a WEEK later a rep did send me an email telling me that the facial recognition had failed because I was wearing glasses. Interestingly, I am a professional photographer and I organize my collection of 107,000 portraits using facial recognition tech in Lightroom. Glasses or no glasses, it finds the correct face every single time. None of my phones care if I'm wearing glasses or not, when they allow me into my accounts. So why the problem with Grab? No clue.
I did take and submit a new selfy in Grab, sans glasses, and it was rejected also. Then a few days later it was accepted.
But the errors saying my passport number didn't match my passport (false) persisted and persist to this day.
The errors regarding my address were addressed by me submitting my official Philippines government-issued ACR card, which clearly shows my address on the back. But of course that was rejected also.
My Grab tech contact, who only reports his name as "John" was notified of this numerous times by email, but of course John couldn't be bothered to respond in any way.
Finally, having reached the end of my patience, I advised John that I believed the top management at Grab was certifiably mentally handicapped, and that stupidity trickles down to the employees, and that I was done with Grab, and I supplied John with the URL to this page at
https://www.truth-or-consequences.com/badder_business_bureau/grab_taxi_philippines/grab_taxi_philippines_sucks.html
And that he could read about himself there, and that I would be posting this document on TrustPilot, which is perhaps the ONLY reliable product and services review site on the WWW.
What was John's reaction to all of this?
John still refuses to reply. Not a single word from John.
Most stable, "real" countries have agencies that oversee the stinky shenanigans and incompetence and occasional mental retardation of private companies and they have the power to file suit on behalf of "the people" and to shut those turkeys down. In the US it's the FTC, with the BBB backing them up, and ultimately the Consumer Affairs Division of their state's Attorney General. How I wish the Philippines was advanced enough to have recourse with real teeth against companies like Grab Taxi..
To John:
John,
We have begun your website at the following link:
https://www.truth-or-consequences.com/badder_business_bureau/grab_taxi_philippines/grab_taxi_philippines_sucks.html
This link will be included in our TrustPilot review and will also be sent to every corporate officer in Grab that we can find.
We now believe that you people (Grab et al) are not merely stupid, unprofessional or incompetent; we believe you are actually mentally handicapped. That's the only possible explanation for Grab's behavior, dishonesty and unprofessionalism.
Enjoy the page.
It will remain publicly posted for as long as Grab is in business.
You people win the prize.
We hope it was worth it to you.
Neither "John" nor anyone else at Grab Taxi ever replied.
So there you have it.
I have disconnected all payment methods from my Grab account.
It always amazes me that a company like Grab can go to all the trouble, pain and expense of setting up a huge corporation -- they rent or buy the administrative real estate and they pay the lawyers and they shell out uncounted millions in advertising and infrastructure all for the purpose of GETTING OUR MONEY.
And when we try to GIVE THEM that money, what did they do?
They drop the ball in grand fashion, JUST. LIKE. THIS.
Good riddance Grab Taxi.
What a bloody incompetent and unprofessional Ship of Fools.
In the US I'd tally up my wasted hours in this absurd endeavor at my current wage of $55/hr and send them a bill and WHEN (not if) they refused to pay it I'd file in Small Claims court and I'd win and when (not if) they refused to pay the judgment I'd obtain a court order to attach, seize and sell enough of their property to satisfy that judgment.
Is there a regulatory body or office in the Philippines that can rattle the cage of these stupid, stupid people?
Let's find out.
If I locate it I will detail the interaction with it and post the procedure here so that others might be afforded a small glimmer or sanity from businesses like that.
Thanks John! You've done SO WELL for your employer. You should be proud.
Will Grab Taxi be proud of you as well?
Let's find out.
This will go out to every corporate address of Grab that I can find worldwide.
Congratulations. You are truly morons.
UPDATE April 24, 2023
The above complaint was submitted to a large handful of review sites around the world and in the Philippines. Grab could not be bothered to reply to a single one. We finally realized Grab Taxi had a Facebook page so we submitted this to that. They did write back quickly to say they were sorry and that they had a "team" getting right on it right then and they would contact us by email. We said Right, not holding our breath-- and it's a good thing we didn't.
They replied to that to say not to worry, the "team" was already on it.
We waited and waited and what do you think? No reply.
We contacted Grab Taxi through their Facebook page again but this time received no response whatsoever.
So there you have it.