Hello ladies and gentlemen, how have you all been? I finally left Lagos and I am back in my city, I am currently in my apartment at the university and I have no plan of going home to my parents anytime soon. The university is currently on strike and I was expecting to see it devoid of students but the reverse was the case; there were still lots of students around.
Yesterday was when we traveled out of Lagos and the journey was a smooth one. We got to the university ground after 5 hours of traveling and everyone took their bags and left for their various hostels. My girlfriend was going with me because her sister is with the key to their hostel and she will be bringing it the next day (Saturday).
I decided to book a bolt ride (similar to Uber) which will take me straight to my hostel and within 5 minutes, the driver arrived. As we were loading our bags into his car, the driver told me that I will pay extra money for the load and I actually thought he was joking but he repeated the same thing.
I asked him how much does he want to carry the load and he told me straight that it was NGN2000 ($3.6), that's like 2.5 times what the ride costs! I thought he was joking and I told him that since the ride is NGN800 ($1.4), I will just make it NGN1000 ($1.8) because of the load but he refused and said I should pay NGN1600 ($2.9) or he will cancel the ride.
I immediately got angry and told him to go ahead and cancel it, I opened the door and brought down all my bags. I have been using bolt ride for over 2 years to take my bags to the university but this is the first time I am hearing a driver ask for extra money, we usually pay what the app says is the amount for a ride.
After bringing down my bags, the driver came to me and said I owe him NGN600 because he has already started the ride before he canceled it. I was very pissed off when he said that and I asked him; "why the hell will I pay for a ride I didn't take?" He kept saying that he already started the ride and I told him that it was his business.
He said he is going to report me and my account with bolt will be blocked. At this point I laughed and told him to do his worse, that it's very easy for me to open another bolt account but "what will happen if I report you and they fire you, will you be able to register with them again?", I asked him. He just got angry and drove off.
I was still pissed off and the bolt app was still open on my phone asking me to rate the driver, I gave him one star ⭐ and then proceeded to pick the reason why I gave one star. There was a box to drop a comment but I didn't use it, and I regretted it later on.
I booked another bolt ride and a new driver was assigned to me. He arrived after some minutes, packed the bags into his car and we left. I was still angry at that point and I told my girlfriend that I need to make a comment about the previous driver and let bolt management know what transpired but the review page has already closed.
My girlfriend asked the new driver if there's a way to report a bolt driver and he said yes, that we should check out ride history and we will see details of the driver there. He then asked us why we want to report the previous driver, then we explained everything to him.
He said it's very wrong for the previous driver to request extra money because of the bags we are carrying but we should just forgive him because working as a bolt rider can be very frustrating sometimes. He then explained what they (the bolt drivers) have to pass through, which is even now worse because of fuel scarcity and its subsequent price increase.
But is that an excuse for the driver to take out his frustration on innocent passengers? He can just quit if the job is no longer favorable for him, instead of trying to milk out money from others. After the whole explanation, I decided to just let it go and let karma sort out the previous driver, but it seems my girlfriend didn't let it go 😆
My girlfriend left for her apartment earlier today and she booked a bolt ride. After some minutes, she called me and said she has told the driver that was driving her about the incident of yesterday and he said he will personally report the driver. I was surprised by this and asked her if she was still thinking about yesterday's event and she said yes.
She called later again and said I should go to the bolt app and take a screenshot of the driver's profile and send it to her on Whatsapp. "This girl is still pursuing this case?", I asked in my head. I told her to just let the whole thing go because it was already looking stressful but she refused, she said other people have reported the driver before now and she still has to do the same, I just knew I have to let her do what she has in mind or she won't give it a rest.
I won't be surprised if she calls me tomorrow and says she has sued the driver and will like me to appear in court as a witness 😂 I am a very gentle person and isn't someone that carries an issue too long in my heart, I have already forgotten about the whole thing since yesterday but I guess everyone can't be like me.
So, what about you? Are you a person that easily lets go of things when you have been offended or you are someone that likes to pursue it till the very end? Take this bolt ride issue as an example, will you let it go just like I have done, or will you keep pushing it till the very end? Do let me know in the comment section 😉
Big thanks to @Bloghoundfor her huge sponsorship renewal 🤩 I am very honored to have you as one of my sponsors, you're a wonderful person ma'am 🤗
Thanks for reading 💖💖💖
Saturday March 19, 2022
Lol, money for luggage with Bolt? And 600 naira for standing in one spot when the whole journey is 800. That one is just a thief. I would have been hella pissed if it was me too. I think what's motivating your girlfriend to keep pursuing it is the fact that other people have reported him before. So if she says you should go to court, dust your suit and go 😂