Tada user says driver went to wrong pickup point, charged her waiting fee even though she wasn't late

A woman alleged that a driver she booked from ride-hailing service Tada went to the wrong pickup location and charged her a waiting fee.

Tada disputed the claim and told Stomp the driver was waiting at the correct pickup location. The company added that it had given the rider a full refund.

Stomper Cheryl, who was the rider, recounted her experience on April 7.

"I was a first-time user of Tada," she said.

"The driver went to the wrong pickup location and shouted at me to find him. This should have been the first red flag to me as a passenger, but I went to find him as I did not want to waste his time.

"I was with my baby and my husband. I managed to find him after a minute or so, but I was not late. Tada has a five-minute grace period, but nonetheless, the driver was at fault as he was in the wrong pickup location.

"I put my baby who was in a Doona Car Seat Stroller and he demanded to put it in the car boot. I calmly told him no.

"During the entire ride, he was driving very haphazardly and caused my baby to cry.

"After the ride, I went to check my bill and the driver had charged me a $2.50 waiting fee and $4 for a baby seat that was not even his.

"I e-mailed Tada the very same day to request for this to be refunded. I felt uneasy and I also went to check my credit card statement and found that Tada had charged me another $6.63 after my one and only ride.

"I e-mailed Tada again to flag that there was a fraudulent charge that I was incorrectly billed in addition to the higher charges by the driver.

"After a week of waiting, a Tada customer service person called Angelina e-mailed me back to say that the waiting fee was my fault and they are checking with the driver if the baby seat was his. There was no apology for the fraudulent charge."

The Stomper shared a screenshot of the April 13 e-mail.

The Stomper continued: "After receiving that e-mail, I called Tada and a customer service person called Adrian picked up. He checked the map and acknowledged that the pickup location the driver went to was wrong. However, he couldn't reverse the charges because he was merely a person who took minutes."

In response to a Stomp query, a Tada spokesman said: "We wish to share that the rider in question first reported the issue to us through e-mail on April 7.

"From our checks (including reaching out to the driver), we understand that the driver had provided a baby seat and was waiting at the correct pickup location as specified by the rider's booking, contrary to the rider's claims.

"As a gesture of goodwill, we issued a full refund to the rider for the disputed charges on April 20."