Passenger Cars

Update 3/Feb/21 - used it for a couple more rides since the new update and changing my review to 5 stars as promised. No problems anymore! First of all, kudos to finally updating the app so it looks and feels more slick. It didn’t let me login with my existing credentials though so I had to register from scratch which was a bit annoying (registration is a friction point so its always worth investing in migrating users). Booked a ride for next morning but the app would say I don’t have any bookings even though my card was charged and a confirmation sms was sent. Had to call customer service to confirm which beats the purpose of the app. Fix these minor issues and I’ll change my review to 5 star.

A driver I’ve got a good relationship with, spoke about the known faults on the new system. I was quoted £5.90 on a journey I’ve made 5-6 times in the last 4 weeks. The driver went in completely the wrong direction but assured me I was on a pre-paid set fare so I sat back relaxed and chatting. When I get in I get a notification from the bank the fare was £7.60. I might have tipped that, I didn’t have any change on me. But to take money from me, without knowledge, without agreement is theft. I feel like I’ve been conned tonight. Not a nice way to end my evening.

Passenger Cars have done themselves no favours by rolling out an update which doesn’t retain the existing account. A simple message saying ‘please recreate your account’ would have helped, rather than the seriously frustrating ‘incorrect password’ type messages. Using the ‘forgot password’ facility just results in, well, silence, because the implementation isn’t even sophisticated enough to send you a ‘no account found’ message. It really wouldn’t have been hard to let existing users know that they will need to recreate their account. (I actually only leaned that by reading the angry reviews here!) So, left high and dry last night I found another company, which is a shame as I have used Passenger Cars for years, but unfortunately lazy app development costs you business when you don’t communicate with your customers.