We booked a Genie cab a few days back since Taxi For Sure could not provide a cab at that time. What followed was more of an agonising trip than a pleasure ride, that we are used to. Genie charges you for each minute that the car is at halt, even when you are stuck in a traffic jam. Why is this surprising? Don’t Uber and Ola do the same?

Genie is no Uber when it comes to the kind of cars they have on offer for the basic slab. Besides, the product placement of Genie is that of a ‘pocket friendly cab service’. It is not pocket friendly, for sure. More on that later. How is it different from Ola? Ola states a waiting charge by the minute and they do inform you about the same when you book through their call centre, they even state it on their website. Genie does not! Here are screengrabs from Genie and Ola.

Genie

Ola

We were charged for 41 minutes of waiting time. When we got into the cab, the waiting time was at 14 minutes. That comes to 27 minutes of time spent in a traffic snarl or at a traffic junction. All this was paid at Rs 1.50 per minute, without any prior information.

I called up Taxi For Sure to check if they charge for such waiting time and the responce was, “No sir, why would we do that?” Pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it? We ended up paying INR 27 per kilometer! Genie does charge INR 30 for any booking through their call centre. On thing’s for sure, their product placement is completely off target and they are liable to damages for not disclosing their entire fare details.

Not Genie, you did not fulfil my wishes even after I paid you! Now go back to that lamp you call Meru!