'He kept going further and further away': 2 women allege scam by same Ryde driver 1 day apart

Complaints about ride-hailing services are nothing new, but having two people air the same grievances about the same driver in the span of two days?

It began when one woman took to the Facebook group Complaint Singapore on Thursday (Aug 31) urging others to "beware" of a Ryde driver she had felt "cheated" by.

In the now-deleted post, she wrote that she had booked a RydePool from Wilkie Edge to Jurong East and a driver named Kelvin had accepted her ride.

"However, I noticed something wrong when the driver kept going further and further away from Dhoby Ghaut to City Hall to Nicoll Highway to Geylang and then Kembangan," she continued.

"The waiting time from four minutes became 20 minutes."

The Facebook user added that she had messaged and called Kelvin to no avail, and the latter did not cancel the trip.

According to her, a friend had booked her a different ride and she was nearly at her destination when she noticed her original driver approaching her pickup location.

"I was scared he would put me as a no-show and I would be charged the full amount, hence I cancelled first and asked for cancellation waiver," she wrote, adding a comment that Ryde has reimbursed her since.

Another woman going by Jazel Pepper Tan chimed in with her story about the same Ryde driver after many netizens had claimed the previous user "booked RydePool, that's why she had to wait for long".

"But no — Kelvin is out to scam the $5.30 cancellation fee," she alleged.

Jazel wrote that she had booked a RydePool from Marina Bay Sands to Pasir Ris at the same time as the previous user and also received Kelvin as her driver. It is unclear if the booking was made on the same day.

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"My friend was booking to her place too and she got the same driver going to Hougang. We were like, 'Wow, what [are the] odds, right'," she added, but noticed that the driver was going away from their pickup point.

"So anyway, watched as he took a journey around Singapore... Kallang, Centrepoint, Somerset, Dhoby... Even better — he went to Bedok too. Why don't [you] want to pick me up leh, we going same area leh."

Jazel added that she messaged the driver but he "ignored" her, and called but received an automated message saying that he was not available.

Unlike the previous user, Jazel didn't cancel her trip and noticed that, over the last 41 hours, the driver had gone as far as Johor Bahru and was in the west of Singapore at the time of writing.

However, Jazel gave him the benefit of the doubt, writing: "I do wonder if it's a glitch."

AsiaOne has contacted Ryde for more information.

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drimac@asiaone.com

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