My disastrous experience with Sitimobil: A cautionary tale

Hello everyone!

I'm a bit of a skeptic when it comes to reviewing services, but I'm sharing my thoughts on Sitimobil because I think it's essential to warn others about my experience.

I use taxis pretty regularly, sometimes multiple times a day.

First, I used Vezeet, then Yandex, and later discovered Sitimobil. They promised great service and low prices.

So, I downloaded the app, and the interface is super intuitive – not much different from the competition, to be honest:

For the first 10 rides, I got a discount, which made the price significantly lower – sometimes by 100-130 rubles compared to the competition!

Although, in general, prices (without promo code) are pretty much on par with the competition:

SitimobilYandexMy Sitimobil Experience: The Downsides - I had to wait a long time for my ride. Sometimes it was way too long, and I ended up canceling the order because the car still hadn't been assigned to me! With my first order, things didn't go smoothly either. The first time, the car was assigned, and it seemed like it was on its way to me, almost arrived... and then I saw the driver was headed in a completely different direction. I couldn't reach the driver, so I canceled the order and took a different taxi.

After that, things were mostly okay (except for the long wait, of course). I'm not one to chat with taxi drivers, and I usually listen to music or work on my messages or read something online during the ride. So, I don't have any specific requests for drivers: a clean-ish car and decent driving are all I need.

I woke up on March 21st, called a taxi to get to work, and everything seemed normal. The car arrived, I got out, and we were on our way. But only after we'd left the house and driven 50 meters, I got a notification that the order had been cancelled! I was still holding my phone, which was locked, and the screen showed a message. I opened the app, and it said 'tell us why you cancelled the order.' Um, what? The driver was just as confused, and he wasn't even fluent in Russian. To make matters worse, they'd already deducted 49 rubles for the cancellation fee. The only way to contact support was through a chat in the app, but they didn't respond right away. So, I had to get out and call another taxi. I wrote to support, explaining that I was already on my way when the order was cancelled, and they responded within a minute or two of my message.

At first, I thought it was just bots responding. I mean, what kind of support is that? The 'arrive at my location' button was completely irrelevant in my case, since I was already at the address I'd requested the taxi for. By the way, I always call a taxi when I'm already fully dressed and ready to go, so I can get out as soon as the car arrives. Occasionally, I've had to wait a bit if I've called a taxi from work and some clients have shown up unexpectedly.

I've got to admit, I was a bit surprised when they finally refunded the money I'd paid without any kind of apology. They just sent me a message saying they'd 'tried to contact the driver' but couldn't, and that they'd be refunding my 49 rubles. Whatever.

I ended up being late for work, but as a freelancer, I only had to answer to myself. If I'd been working for a company with a system of fines for being late (and some companies charge a 100-ruble fine for every minute you're late), I'd have been in a world of trouble.

Okay, so I'm still a bit miffed, but I continued to use SitiMobil. And just a couple of weeks later, something happened that made me decide I'd never use SitiMobil again and I'd never recommend it to anyone.

During the coronavirus lockdown, we were still working from home and doing online deliveries. One day I needed to go into the office to pick up some packages for delivery that day. My husband was at home with our daughter, and I decided to call a taxi (and I'm not sure what possessed me to choose SitiMobil).

So I got ready, called the taxi, and paid the 103 rubles (I had a promo code, so the price was lower). I paid in cash. The car arrived, and I got in. It was only about 1.5 minutes after I'd called the taxi. As I was getting in, I noticed that my phone was showing the remaining time of the journey on the screen, not the waiting time. I didn't think much of it at the time (but I should have, as it turned out).

I got in the taxi and we drove off. I spent the whole trip listening to music on my phone and reading the news.

So, we finally arrived at our destination. I had the money ready to pay, 110 rubles. But then the driver tells me the total is over 200 rubles! I don't remember the exact amount, to be honest, it flew out of my head after what happened next.

Naturally, I asked him why it was so much. The driver turned out to be not very good at speaking Russian (nothing against other nationalities, just stating the fact). And then he tells me: 'Pay, I don't know, this program is faulty.'

Since I could see the screen of his taximeter (his phone was attached to the windshield), I saw that he had 21 minutes of waiting time listed for my ride!

I: 'Uh, why does it say 21 minutes of waiting time if I got out right after I ordered the ride?'

Driver: 'This program is faulty'

I: 'How can it be? I got out right on time, even 3 free minutes hadn't passed yet'

Driver: 'I was waiting'

I: '21 minutes?!'

Driver: 'Yes'

I: 'What's going on? I have the time of my ride and the pickup time written down, I got out right away, even 3 minutes hadn't passed!'

So, we spent about 5 more minutes discussing these mysterious 21 minutes (basically, the driver just repeated himself), and then, pay attention:

Driver: 'Okay, fine, I'll give you 4 minutes'

I: 'What 4 minutes? If there was no waiting time at all!'

Driver: 'Fine, I'll give you 1 minute, pay up and get out of my car, you can't ride taxis, you need to take the bus, you're a junkie!'

I'm still in shock. I told him: 'I'm not paying you a single penny until you learn to communicate properly.'

And then this guy grabbed me by the right hand, screaming 'Give me my money and get out!' and tried to pry it loose. When that didn't work, he even hit me!

I said: 'What the heck do you think you're doing? I'm calling the police!'

The driver: 'Go ahead, call the police, give me my money'

I called the police.

I said: 'I'll give you the money when the police are here, or you'll just leave' (yes, by this point I'd stopped addressing him with 'you').

The driver started calling Sitimobil's support, claiming I was some kind of crazy person who wouldn't give him his money. A few minutes later, the same girl-operator called me back, and I explained the situation – the driver had hit me, and she just told me to go to the emergency room. No apology, no condolences, no attempt to understand what was going on. It was all just about the money. I explained that I wasn't refusing to pay, but wanted to give him the money in front of the police officer, since I was worried he'd just take off. She told me that in that case, she'd charge me a fee). Well, I ended up giving the money to the driver.

At this point, it seemed like it finally dawned on him that we were actually waiting for the police, and he tried to guilt trip me:

'Come on, why are you causing trouble for other people? I've got four kids to feed, I need the money! Cancel the police! You'll have kids to feed too, you'll be paying!'

I: 'I've got kids, and what gives you the right to insult other people and just shrug it off?'

The driver really showed his true colors, claiming he didn't say a word to me, and even touched me with his finger, but I was the one who hit myself in the car).

Then he got in the car, started the engine, and was about to leave, but luckily the officer arrived at that exact moment.

I didn't go to the emergency room because my clients were waiting for delivery, and it was already delayed (there was no option to reschedule for another time/day), so the driver just had a chat with the officer.

Incidentally, I sent a message to customer support:

By the evening, I checked the trip information, and realized the driver had added extra time to the trip.

So, be aware of this scam tactic used by dishonest taxi drivers. When arriving at the pickup location, the driver pressed the 'en route' button, and immediately after that- the 'waiting' button. That's why I saw the remaining travel time as if the trip had already started when I left the house.

Time spent waiting during the trip is only added in one case- if you make a stop between points A and B and the driver is waiting for you. In my case, the driver added 21 minutes of waiting time to the trip, which is the time we were actually driving. And the worst part is, if I had paid with my card, it would have been extremely difficult to get a refund later on. Those who don't have SMS notifications set up for card transactions might not even notice this. So, be vigilant!'

And here's my beautiful hand

Compared to the second incident:

Within a couple of days, I got a call from Citimobil's customer support team. The girl asked me more questions about the incident and said I could send her photos of my hand, along with the precinct's number. She explained that the driver had counted the whole trip as 'waiting time'. She told me that, according to their data, my words matched the facts, and they would take action against the driver, apologize for the inconvenience, and offer me a gesture of goodwill for my trouble.

I don't know if this driver is still working (I'm pretty sure he is) and if they actually took any disciplinary action. The fact is, if you get insulted, hurt, or killed during a Citimobil ride, it's not your fault. The customer support team will listen to your complaint, take action against the driver, and offer you a gesture of goodwill for your trouble.

Of course, it's all about human error, and you can get a bad taxi driver anywhere, but for some reason, I haven't had any similar incidents in other taxis (maybe they have better vetting or fire anyone who's not up to par?). But here, I've had orders cancelled and drivers being uncooperative.

I've decided to uninstall the Sitimobil app and switch to a different taxi service. I want to be able to use a taxi service that gets me to work on time and doesn't put me in harm's way.

Thanks for reading, I hope my review was helpful!