A woman shared her “nightmarish experience” with an Uber driver on X (formerly Twitter), alleging that the driver’s behaviour was “very abnormal” and urging the company should take “serious note of his mental health”. In a detailed post, Madhu Purnima Kishwar said that the driver yelled at her when she requested to be dropped closer to her accommodation inside the large campus, adding that she was carrying a suitcase and did not know her way around.

‘Most nightmarish experience with Uber driver’

“Dear Uber, I had the most nightmarish experience with Uber driver GAUTAM tonight,” the woman wrote in a very long post on X. Kishwar said she had booked an intercity at 8:35 pm from Pune airport to the Chinmaya Vibhooti Centre, about 52 km away.

She alleged that the driver was on a phone call for most of the journey, but she avoided interrupting him. “Driver Gautam remained so busy talking in an agitated manner on the phone for a large part of the journey that he did not even register if I asked a question about the ride. Luckily, I chose not to disturb him even tho UBER protocol forbids drivers to have long phone conversations. So, during the ride, there was no interaction or cause for a tiff.”

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In the next few lines, she described the horror when they reached the Chinmaya Mission Centre a little after 10:30 pm. “Gautam very rudely told me that his job was limited to dropping me at the main gate. And that I should find my own way. This was shocking. I was carrying a suitcase and a backpack. The campus is huge and spread over several acres. I told him this is my first visit to the place. Therefore, I insisted that he drop me at the location suggested by the security guard at the main entrance to the campus. He grumbled angrily, saying that it is not his job,” she went on to say. 

She claimed the driver finally agreed, but kept grumbling angrily. When they reached a location still far from her room, his behaviour worsened. “Gautam started yelling at me, saying it is not his job and that I should find my own way. Fuming and frothing, he drove me to the nearby building. But came to the wrong one. He again insisted I should get off and find my own way, and he was not going to waste any more time,” she further claimed, before stressing, “I pleaded with folded hands, but he was almost abusive and nasty beyond words.”

‘Drove away with suitcase…’

Hearing the argument, staff members from the mission came out and offered help. But then, she alleged, the situation became even more disturbing.

“But Gautam refused to open the trunk to get my suitcase out till I paid him,” she alleged. Even the staffers told him that he should give her the suitcase and that she would pay her. 

“He yelled at them also. And drove away with the suitcase, saying he was going to the police station to complain about non-payment of fare,” she went on to say. 

A staffer alerted the guard at the main gate to prevent the driver from leaving the campus. Kishwar said the driver then called her, asking if she would pay. 

“I told him payment was never an issue. My hosts took the phone and told him to come right back, or else they would take action.” The driver returned a short while later.

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She claimed she “readily” paid him Rs 1,700 even though the bill was Rs 1,693. “Had he not misbehaved in the most bizarre fashion, I would have gladly given him a good tip. But the entire episode left me in a state of shock. What would I have done if the people from Chinmaya Mission had not been available at that late hour to help me?”

Towards the end of the post, she wrote, “What if he had taken needless offence at XYZ, such as my telling him not to be on the phone talking in an agitated manner to someone for a long duration while he was driving on the highway late at night?”

She added, “What if he had forced me to get out of the cab in the dead of night on the poorly lit highway and drove away with my luggage?”

Kishwar also tagged Uber and suggested that the driver needs “psychiatric treatment”. “Dear Uber, Gautam is in need of psychiatric treatment. His behaviour was very abnormal. Please take serious note of his mental health. Else, he could get you into serious trouble!”

Along with her post, shared a few hours ago, she attached the screenshots of the payment she made to the Uber driver. 

Uber apologised

Uber, in response to her post, apologised for the experience she had endured. “This is unacceptable, and we apologise for this experience.”

Not just this, the company also processed a full refund for the ride. “We have provided you with a full refund and are taking appropriate actions with the driver. Please check your in-app messages for more details,” the reply further read. 

How did social media users react to this?

“This is happening quite often with all the online cab services..Pune airport pickups have been worse, I can tell you that. They are not professionals; you will hardly find a driver who is polite. They certainly have some disagreement with the payment system offered by the cab service,” one comment below her post read. 

Another added, “90% of the drivers are on a call for almost 90% of the ride duration Uber, and this aggregator just sleeps on the complaints, well also pathetic conditions of these cabs, and see on a daily basis during walks, drivers who have made these cabs their homes sleeping in.”

“Very common in Pune,” posted a third. 

A fourth said, “He dropped you at the drop location, which you had mentioned. It is not his concern if the campus is 1 acre or 100 acres. The authorities should arrange a buggy in such big campuses.”

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