Kakao T

I have been here for 2 weeks and let me tell you, the apps are GARBAGE! They are the least intuitive, nonsensical, most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen! Kakao doesn’t recognize a single address EVER!! You can copy and paste the exact address in English or Korean and view the location from Google maps, and Kakao will act like it has no idea what you’re talking about. So be prepared to spend your time on a different map (like Google) and setting every location you’re trying to get to from the Kakao map view cause it’s never seen an address in its life. Also, would you like to book a car ahead of time? JOKES ON YOU! If you set the ride for “tomorrow at 9:30”, chose the option you want, and hit request, be prepared for cars to head towards you IMMEDIATELY and you having to cancel. When you cancel, it will still show your original request of booking for the next day, but by actually hitting request, you’re getting a car immediately! WHY HAVE A BOOK AHEAD OPTION IF YOU DONT ACTUALLY OFFER IT!? I live in THAILAND in an area much less developed in Seoul Korea, and let me tell you that I’ve never had to deal with the idiocy of app use that I’ve had to deal with here. Side note, the app also crashes all the time and drivers clearly don’t get info about where you’re standing for pickup as I’ve been left or had to run to other areas to catch the cars. Also be sure to screenshot the price of your ride because the second your ride is accepted, the price vanishes leaving you and your driver in a language barrier predicament. So fun!

Does it work and get you a cab, yes. But what it fails to do is actually locate you or assist you with where you are. For example. I’m in Pohang, and I’m trying to get somewhere, i confirm the location it has me set in, but it doesn’t tell you the direction you’re looking until after the cab is called for. It had me on the opposite side of the street from which my driver stopped. It also must not alert or translate to the driver. When i noticed the issue, i immediately informed the driver that we needed to cross the street. Over 18,000 won later, and the driver leaves because we didn’t get in his car in under 30 seconds of his arrival. We recalibrate the app and submit the request again. Same results. I even ran down the street in front of our drivers car to stop him and he just continued. Now I’m down over 36,000 won and still have to request yet another 18,000 won cab. This time we do it from a location that is undeniably where we are located. We still had to race to where the app moved us to in order to make the cab on time. I wouldn’t write if it only happened this one time, but this happened on different shorter trips I’ve taken as well.

The great thing about it is that you dont have to commit your cc info to the app. It is hard to put in to and from addresses sometimes because of the Korean characters and the map shows korean street names without English versions. I hope the in app map shows while you are in the ride to see how close/ far you are.