Grab suspends driver who drove off without passenger, called him 'didiot' for opening auto door

He did not know it was an automatic door.

As the passenger tried to open the door of the Grab car to board the vehicle, the driver suddenly drove off.

The driver then called the passenger a "didiot" in the online chat for trying to open the auto door.

Grab told Stomp on Jan 15 that the driver has since been suspended.

Stomper Samuel, who was the passenger, posted about the incident on Facebook on Jan 4

He recounted: "I booked a car from Ubi to Paya Lebar earlier today. When the car arrived, I ran across the road and opened the door as any normal person would.

"As the door was sliding open, the driver sped away, almost pulling my hand away with him.

"Then he texted me via the app and called me an 'idiot' for opening the door when it was an automatic door."

In the screenshots of the chat shared by the Stomper, the driver mistyped "idiot" as "didiot".

The driver also asked whether the Stomper was drunk and expressed concern that the Stomper would not pay for the damaged auto door if it were damaged.

When the Stomper asked why the driver was being rude, the driver said the Stomper should learn to respect other people's property and lacked manners.

The driver included a clown emoji.

"He then drove away and even charged me a late fee for not turning up even though I had opened the door on time," said the Stomper.

But that was not the end of it.

The Stomper continued: "When I called for another car, he accepted again and I was charged again even though he didn’t turn up.

"I’m of course appalled at the driver’s behaviour and I’m even more worried about your fragile systems that would allow an errant driver to charge an innocent rider twice for a transaction he didn’t even complete."

In response to a Stomp query, a Grab spokesperson said: “We are sorry for the unpleasant encounter the passenger had with our driver-partner.

"The driver-partner's actions are not reflective of the vast majority of our partners who treat our users with respect. He has since been suspended for breaching our code of conduct.

"We have also refunded the passenger and offered our support through the Personal Accident Insurance.”