Sunday, July 29, 2012

Booking a cab in the silicon city , ain't no easy !


3 stupid things to do before breakfast on a Sunday morning? Well , while 2 of them are for private consumption , the 3rd  one is a best practice - Do not make the mistake of using an unknown taxi service as opposed to an established one especially while booking it for others. I , for whatever oxymoronic reason decided to go with some greenhorn  firm called ‘Siliconcabs taxi service’ in the interest of helping the lesser known ones grow and well , the rest is an interesting blog post.

My saga began when I called ‘Siliconcabs taxi service ‘ fellas and booked an airport taxi for a couple of friends at 1.30 pm on a Sunday  and told the office to ask the driver to report at Koramangala Bus Depot at sharp 1.30 pm  . That done, I assumed things would fall in place as they are well supposed to in the transport and travel industry. But some things are not to be ! At 1.30 pm, I get a very confused call from a cabbie who asked me if he was needed at all and did I want him to come to Koramangala Bus Depot ? Our cabbie was apparently at Banneghetta road at the glorious hour of 1.30 pm when he ought to be in the by lanes of Koramangala and was very concerned if his services wAere required at all ! I am sure Banneghetta Road is a lovely place on a Sunday afternoon and hence our man’s reluctance to leave its majestic beauty for the humble Koramangala . Of course , with all my marketing spirit I told him that indeed his presence and his wonder cab was very much required and that was the basic premise of booking his cab after all, wasn’t it  ? Once clarity streamed in his mind , he promptly decided to tell me that while it was all good that I needed his cab at 1.30 , but there was no way he could come before 1.50 pm ( nothing like reminding a customer  who’s cab is it anyways !) .  Now a little desperate, I told him to come as soon as he could and could finally got the honor to behold his glorious countenance  at the blessed hour of 2.00 pm . He looked at me disdainfully and actually said this line that Kotler would have killed the agency for ‘It’s not my problem that I am late, it’s the traffic ‘ !

*Sigh *customer delight anyone! ? Moral of the story -  Call 080-6999-9998 and book Siliconcabs taxi services only if you want to spend Sunday afternoon writing a very frustrated blogpost .