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Grab driver kept me waiting for over an hour, claimed he arrived, then cancelled because of my imaginary children. Would you make a police report?
GeneralThis has to be one of the most bizarre Grab experiences I’ve had in Singapore.
At 11:49pm, I booked a Grab Premium from HarbourFront.
ETA: 8 minutes.
Driver K messages me:
“sorry i dropping someone”
“you dont mind wair?”
“wait?”
Fine. I said okay. I’ll wait.
Eight minutes pass.
Then 15.
Then 30.
Then 45.
The entire time, his car is still showing around Sentosa.
ETA: 8 minutes.
At 11:59pm: 8 minutes.
12:18am: 8 minutes.
12:25am: 8 minutes.
12:39am: 8 minutes.
12:56am: still 8 minutes.
At this point, I’m starting to wonder whether I’ve discovered a glitch in the space-time continuum.
I message him.
No response.
I call him.
No answer.
I call again.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
At 12:13am, I literally message him:
“please cancel if you are not coming”
Nothing.
At this point, I actually started wondering whether something had happened to the driver.
So I called Grab.
Not because I wanted compensation. Not because I was angry. I genuinely thought something might have happened to the guy.
After multiple calls with Grab and nearly an hour of waiting, I’m eventually told that the driver says:
- His phone was lagging.
- His GPS location wasn’t updating.
- He had already arrived at my pickup point.
Because my app was still showing him in Sentosa.
So Grab gives me a number to contact him.
I call.
Then I send a very simple request:
“Hi. I am waiting for a photo of you at my pickup location of Harrys harbourfront centre”
If you’re there, send a photo. Simple.
No response.
Then, approximately 10 minutes later, something extraordinary happens.
The driver finally cancels.
After keeping me waiting for more than an hour.
After becoming uncontactable.
After allegedly claiming that he was already at my pickup point.
And what reason does he give Grab for cancelling?
Apparently, I had children with me.
Grab notification:
“We’re sorry your driver cancelled. They mentioned you’re travelling with kids.”
There was just one minor problem.
I HAVE NO CHILDREN.
I wasn’t travelling with children.
There were no children standing beside me.
No babies.
No toddlers.
No teenagers.
Not even a particularly youthful-looking adult.
After an hour of waiting, multiple unanswered calls, an allegedly broken GPS, a claim that he had somehow arrived at HarbourFront while the app showed him in Sentosa, and a request for photographic evidence of his apparent teleportation…
I suddenly became a parent.
I have timestamped screenshots of the entire thing.
The messages.
The unanswered calls.
The car sitting around Sentosa.
The eternal 8-minute ETA.
The request for a photo.
And finally, the appearance of my imaginary children.
I’ve submitted a formal complaint to Grab but I’m now genuinely curious what other Singaporeans think.
Is this just something you complain to Grab/LTA about and move on?
Or would you make a non-emergency police report so that the authorities can determine whether deliberately making false representations to Grab to potentially avoid cancellation penalties or protect incentives crosses into something more serious?
Because being kept waiting for an hour is one thing.
Being lied to is another.
But discovering at 1am that I apparently have children was not how I expected my night to end.
