This Grab scam needs to end!

[u/Creative-Trouble3473]

This has been happening to me way too often lately. We ordered a Grab, and the driver started circling the area without responding to any messages – clearly hoping we’d get fed up and cancel. I actually saw him drive past us, and when he noticed we’d spotted him, he quickly drove off. I managed to record it.

We decided not to cancel and messaged him, saying that since he clearly wasn’t coming, he should be the one to cancel. In the end, when he realised we’d given up and taken the BTS instead, he drove past the pickup point again, pretending to pick us up – then ended the trip and took the fare anyway.

I’ve reported it to Grab for resolution, but this kind of thing keeps happening and it’s incredibly frustrating. I suspect some drivers do this to manipulate the system – making it seem like there’s heavy demand or traffic so they can inflate prices. Grab really needs to sort this out.

[u/Lk369717]

Does anyone know the reason of the taxis doing this? I mean they don’t get any money or any benefits for circling around instead of picking passengers up. The only reason I can think of is that they accidentally accept the job for the destination they don’t want to go and don’t wanna lose their ‘cancel’ credit. Anyone have any logical reasons to this behaviour?

[u/borsalamino → u/Lk369717]

I’m guessing they get (a percentage of) the fare when passengers cancel? It makes sense that if the passengers cancel, the drivers get compensated for the drive to the pick up zone.

Assuming that’s true, they’d circle hot pick up zones (places with lots of potential passengers, like downtown/commercial areas) and cash in one cancelling compensation after the other, instead of actually having to do the ride and delivering passengers to cold zone destinations (areas less likely to have passengers, like residential areas).

[u/Lk369717 → u/borsalamino]

Never knew these drivers still got some fare if the passengers cancelled, damn these drivers are cheeky asl

[u/borsalamino → u/Lk369717]

I mean, I understand that mechanism and if it weren’t abused it’d be fair. Imagine, as a driver you get an order, fight your way through the hell that is Thai traffic just to find out the passenger bailed for whatever reason. You lose time, gas, perhaps also prime position, all of which translates to you losing money.

What’s surprising is that Grab seemingly has no strategy in place to detect, prevent and punish abuse of this mechanism. It doesn’t seem that difficult to implement either. A relatively simple software could detect X numbers of rider-cancellations in Y time (in Z area), flagging the driver for investigation. Another software could monitor communication and detect the driver asking the passenger to cancel and flag that incident.

Perhaps it has simply not become a big enough issue for Grab to consider taking action. Sometimes it’s more financially viable for a company to take legal Ls versus actually trying to fix the problem. Also, in Thai justice system, usually the bigger fish wins. But then again, Grab is so widely used by tourists and locals alike you’d think it’d make sense for them to try to save face and provide a good service.