App cab glitch: Rs 2 lakh for Park Circus-Ultadanga ride

• Dalhousie–Liluah. Distance: 11km. Fare: Rs 1,99,501.85
• Girish Park–College Street. Distance: 2.5km. Fare: Rs 82,171.98
• Park Circus–Ultadanga: Distance 11km. Fare: Rs 2,05,117.48

These were some of the estimated fares on Uber Go on Thursday morning that left a section of the city stumped. Uber explained the astronomical estimated fares as a “technical glitch”, but screenshots from several users had already gone viral over social media.

CA

Anurag Singhal

had the shock of his life when he opened his Uber app to book a cab back home from

Dalhousie

to Liluah. The estimated fare for an Uber Go showed a whopping Rs 1,99,501.85. “I almost dropped the phone. It was more than 1,000 times the fare for a Premier. I didn’t dare book the Premier cab either and chose an Ola cab instead,” said Singhal, who works with an Indian MNC and had come to Dalhousie to update his Aadhaar card.

Girish Park

resident thirdyear BSc student Saptarshi Chakraborty, too, was shocked after checking the Uber Go fare and took a Metro till College Street rather attempting to book another cab. “The usual fare is less than Rs 80 and all of a sudden there was an estimated fare of Rs 82,171inthe app. I closed the app and checked two more times at short intervals, but the fare remained the same. I didn’t take a chance and took a Metro,” he said.

Although rise in fares and surge pricing, especially during the peak hours, are something that almost every Kolkatan complains about when it comes to app cabs, but what happened on Thursday was something that no one had ever heard of in the past.

The problem was, however, limited to the Uber Go section and the estimated fares for Uber Pool and Uber Premier were normal.

“I could have had a lavish Europe tour with the money that Uber asked me for on Thursday for a simple 16km ride from Esplanade to

Salt Lake

—Rs 2,02,120. I immediately took a screenshot and posted it on Facebook,” said Sinjini Banerjee, a software engineer.

Later in the day, Uber came out with a statement explaining the fare anomaly as a “technical glitch”. “We apologise to all riders who were affected by the technical glitch that was identified today. We took measures to correct the glitch as soon as it was brought to our notice. We deeply regret the inconvenience caused to the small group of riders affected by this and are in the process of reaching out to them to convey our apologies,” the statement read.

Sources said the technical issue was resolved within a few hours and no rider had to comply with the anomaly and pay the extremely high fare.