Of trust deficit, and promises broken

Recently, when using one of the two major cab aggregators operating in India, I faced an issue wherein at the end of the trip, the app in the driver's phone showed trip fare payable in cash, while I had sufficient balance in the digital wallet. Probably some network issue, and I settled in cash. Later, the wallet too was charged for the fare and hence I requested for a refund.

The company flat out refused, and continued to do so even after multiple email attempts to explain the situation. A refund was finally issued when I threatened legal action and toasted them on twitter.

But this simple episode did raise refresh some key concerns I continue to have from time to time about technology business in India.

1. Internet connectivity (in metros, not even the hinterlands) continues to remain a significant challenge in India. Fresh non-spectrum telecom capex is still significantly underfunded, user experience is patchy and unreliable, and any technology based service shall suffer be it e-education, digital payments, real-time authentication based applications and so on. In this case, the app in driver's phone could not get a confirmation of digital payment from the server and hence directed the driver to collect cash after the built-in waiting time period got over.

2. Indians, in general, continue to game any system, displaying zero ethics. Such double-charging episodes with the same cab company had occurred in the past as well, but refunds were always quick by this company, on a no-questions-asked basis (I do not know whether they used to verify the claim with the driver, though the speed of refund indicates they didn't). This abrupt and sudden shift in Company's refund policy was no doubt primarily due to hordes of cheating customers claiming they paid in cash while paying only through wallet, and demanding refunds. A commission based model would go for a toss in such a scenario. Something similar happened to foodpanda, which was in news some time back.

3. Free market principles are not gospel truth and do not apply universally. They work only in case of sufficient competition. A monopoly (that many believe e-commerce in India shall be), duopoly (cab aggregators - case in point), or cartels (cement?), even when a result of free market principles (eg. Flipkart vanquishing all its rivals, effectively monopolising the market), is undesirable. It shall lead to exploitation across the value chain both forward and backward - customers and suppliers shall both suffer with many leaving the market, potentially leading to a net decline in value of goods/serviced produced in the economy. This cab company was willing to ignore genuine double-charging incidents because it can afford some goodwill loss in a duopoly market with insignificant competition on customer side (I must point out that despite duopoly, competition remains intense in Indian cab market on the supplier side - i.e. drivers, wherein large incentives are doled out to retain supply on the platform)

4. Fear of law, and legal consequences, are a non-factor in India. The cheating customers mentioned previously, apart from having no regard to ethics and a sense of self-pride and conscience, also had no fear of getting caught and prosecuted. All this, for a paltry sum of a couple of hundred rupees that an average cab ride costs in India. Similarly, the cab company had absolutely no qualms in denying refund without giving any grounds whatsoever apart from telling me that somehow it was all my fault. They did not even bother to check with the driver (whom I called after the third refusal email from the company, he admitted collecting cash as directed by his app, but also told me that nobody from the company called him to follow up on my complaint). This company, just like most other Indian companies, has absolutely no fear of being criminally prosecuted for fraud.

5. Digital payments outside the banking network suffer from a huge disadvantage of lack of trust due to such incidents. The wallet I used to pay for this ride was owned and operated by the same company, with the usual promise of 100% security and assurance. But when the time came, the promise turned out to be hollow. This, when the payment was made for services provided by the same company. now imagine paying a mobile bill, or making a payment to your DTH operator, or booking cinema seats on bookmyshow through a wallet...and then imagine the hassle when the respective Telco/DTH operator/Cineplex tells you they did not get the payment while the wallet shows a debit. Well, no need to imagine since it has happened to many people - I know specific cases where this happened and the customers had to wait for several days for refunds and that after multiple emails/calls/SM escalations. On the other hand, digital payments through a debit/credit card, at least now, are governed by customer complaint resolution procedures prescribed by the regulator which banks largely stick to.

I do hope things change.