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Journalism of Courage
App-based cab booking services have been a great boon to daily commuters who no longer have to worry about being turned down by errant taxi drivers. However, the system has its drawbacks and a Mumbai resident found it out the hard way. Preshit Deorukhkar booked a cab through the Uber app but suddenly found out that the driver started the ride without even picking him. Apparently, it was the driver’s first day with Uber. And, it turned out to start on a disastrous note.
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As soon as Deorukhkar realised the gaffe by the Uber driver, he quickly took to Twitter to raise the concern with Uber support and mentioned that the driver’s phone was unreachable.
However, the curious Mumbai man decided to see if the driver reached to pick him after a detour and continued to track the journey online. What happened next left him quite baffled as the driver took a joy-ride around the city at the rider’s expense.
Amused by the bizarre incident, Deorukhkar took a sarcastic route to take a jibe at the driver. He also brought to the attention of Uber that the driver had no proper name on the app and only went by ‘P’.
The customer continued to post screenshots of the journey using funny captions and quirky comments. He also tried to give the incident a thrilling twist, wondering if there was something fishy about the driver’s antics. “Pickup was in Malad West. Driver has now reached the edge of north Mumbai. I’m assuming he has to dump something in the khaadi,” he wrote.
As the driver continued to go on with his “ghost” rider, Deorukhkar’s Twitter thread got more interesting. At one point, the rider wrote, “Or he is dumping a dead body sealed in the car deep in the mangroves, me thinks.”
The “story” then went on to become murkier and was nothing less than a mystery movie. “There’s got to be some major stash buried here, right? Gold? Drugs? Arms and ammunition?” the rider tweeted.
And after all the Mumbai “sightseeing”, the driver ‘cancelled’ the ride, but with a bill of Rs 857.43.
Taking cognisance of Deorukhkar’s complaint, Uber promised to refund his money but did not apologise for the driver’s error.
The thread garnered a lot of attention online and while some used it to raise similar concerns, others found the customer’s live narrative thoroughly entertaining and said it could be a great movie. Sample these:
Share your thoughts about this thread in comments below.
