Karwa - My recent experience
Whilst waiting for my new car to arrive, I have had the unfortunate experience of using Karwa for 2 weeks. I thought I would share some of my recent experience, just on the off chance I am an isolated case!
I required a taxi each morning at 0530, however if I failed to book before noon the previous day, I had to leave at 0430. This in essence means that Karwa require more than 18 hours notice to have a taxi available at my required time.
If a taxi is particularly early (20 mins) they constantly ring the house phone till I answer, which means waking the whole family.
If a taxi is late, they do not ring at all!
My taxi last week was 1 hour late, and every time I called up (every 10 mins) i got a different excuse: heavy traffic (at 5am?), taxi had broken down, taxi had got lost etc. If they had forgotten the booking it would have been easier to say so!!!!
The taxis (especially the Ford Mondeos) are in a poor state of mechanical repair, and the vibrations on the car I had this morning were so bad, I had to tell the driver to slow down as I simply didn't feel safe in the car. Surely the driver should notice if his wheel bearing is about to fail????
Taxi drivers continuously texting / calling on their mobile whilst driving over at 100kph.
I had a Ford Mondeo last week which had obviously been involved in a heavy front end collision, as the air bags had been repaired on the passenger dashboard and steering wheel, and had been taped over! No wonder the light on the dashboard for the airbags was flashing.
1 taxi wanted to 'negotiate' a rate with me as we drove down the road. The fact that I had done the same route for 10 days meant I had a very good idea of the price (around qr22), so when he said it would be Qr35 i was shocked. He didn't want to switch on the meter till I got his driver number from his badge.
All in all, I was extremely disappointed with the service Karwa provided. Newspaper articles at the start of the year stated they had a huge amount of new vehicles coming, however I didn't see one of these. The driving standard of the drivers was terrible, and the customer service from their 'control centre' was well below par.
I welcome the opportunity for private firms to bid for a taxi service in 2010, as tis can only improve the situation.
Has anyone else had such poor service?
more expensive but good car and reliable. 4622777.
welcome to the wonderful world of Karwa.. :/
and another thing you pointed out about their rash driving is very true.
cheers
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...what FORD stands for? Fix Or Repair Daily, or Found On Road Dead. And that comes from someone who has owned 2 Fords. So maybe you can't blame Karwa for the vehicle, but everything else...
(Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug...)
blue,
hopefully with a big IQ!
to know how these cab drivers are behaving and KARWA is maintaining their vehicles jeopardizing the safety of the passenger.
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Anyhow, the main cause I think is LOW SALARY of these cab drivers which should be increased as per Inflation rate in Qatar. I have met few cab drivers who have only one objection which was long duty hours & very less wages. Which is very cruel by KARWA authority.
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Moreover, if you still find such cab drivers asking for 'NEGOTIATE' with fares then they must be reported to KARWA authorities. In this way, they would know that why the cab driver made this crime & how to resolve this issue by Karwa authorities.
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Guys, we all must be very vigilant while taking cabs especially young & beautiful ladies ;-P
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Everybody wishes they could go to heaven but no one wants to die.
What karwa needs is a "Big Guy" to open up a competing company.
i have been here a year, and on the odd occasion i have used them, they have been ok.
i rented a car for 3 weeks, but with the journey to and from work, it got to be a lot more expensive.
i used an illegal taxi last week to get down C ring road, and despite being a 15 year old honda civic, it was probably better maintained that their 3 year old mondeos!
when the taxi was an hour late last wek, my neighbour kindly gave me a lift to work. however, the taxi was waiting outside my villa for 10 mins and he was knocking on the door despite being told I had gone!
*sigh*
Karwa sucks any way you look at it. Their service is appalling and what they fail to mention is that they do have loads of new cars, they are just sitting on a lot in the Industrial area. It is of little consequence to have loads of cars when you dont have the people to drive them.
A Karwa driver told me they only make QR 1,200 a month. This is why they are trying to negotiate fares as they are trying to compensate their income.
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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock - Will Rogers"
media is one of the lier here in every viscinity,karwa is a big company handled by the big person here in qatar,so why they broadcast bad about their company,opposite of that is lie!.poor management....
The Karwa bus service is much better than the taxi. 3 years now and never been late for work except in fog. If you ever need a regular taxi again, I have the number of a brilliant self employed limo driver who has been in business here for 16 years, totally reliable and knows every back road shortcut. He is actually cheaper for me to get to Dukhan by 50QR than Karwa! Let me know if you need the number. JJ
like lusitano said, almost every service in qatar is of poor and subsandard quality. Karwa of course, takes the cake. It is the worst taxi sevice I have seen on planet earth so far..and i have seen taxi services of undeveloped countries like kenya, nepal, tanzania etc. I have never seen a service where you require 18 hours to book a taxi, and that too will hardly ever come on time...usual excuse for being late "traffic". Usual excuse for not having a cab a time you need "no cab is free".
It is 'strange' how the newspaper always write a very good article report about Karwa while I always heard the opposite from friends or other people who used their services.
sorry to hear Northernlads experience. Thaough, anyone who remotely associate with KARWA, will tell the same story.
in this case, why not allowing illegal taxis - at least they give customer satisfcation, though they take a bit extra more.
WitchStix > its unbeleivable, i mean the blacklist :)) OMG.But what I am sure is that the Karwa itself is blacklisted of the ppl in Qatar.Neighter company nor drivers professional in the field.Even i am not counting what type of dialogs between customer by phone and in taxi while trying to give the direction.I am full of memories abt Karwa and someday I am going to publish it:)..Thanks God i am driving myself.Sorry for the new comers.
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Attitudes are more important than facts...
I think I had that Mondeo with the ropey bearing 2 weeks ago. I told him about it, shook the wheel with my foot to show him, but of course he just shrugged his shoulders!
you are not the only one who experience that kind of matter,karwa company have the very bad management in their field,this taxi company launch before the asian games.at that time they have a very good service and they are everywhere in doha,but what happen?the company didnt take care of their drivers,they give a low salary and a lot of consequenses to their employee(driver).as you can observe the drivers dont bother to care for their car anymore,because of their experience to their company,sometimes we are blaming the drivers,but the main reason of this shit is the company,months ago they are complaining about the private taxis,coz they cant get a passenger,but the truth is-much better to hire a private taxi rather than ride with this karwa taxi,you can find a lot of classified ads here in qatarliving,with this private taxis,you can negotiate with them in monthly basis.
Beleive me it would have been cheaper and much more conveniet to hire a car for that period.
Anyway thanks for sharing your experience, I can confirm that you are not the only one. If you want a reliable Taxi servic use one of the limousine service they are quite relaible.
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HE WHO DARES WINS
try searching for recent posts regarding the so-called "service" karwa taxi provides and you'll get your answer northenlad, and i hope that those private firms who are bidding for a franchise could do some improvement, if there will by any, i'm keeping my fingers crossed.
trip na kontraem badtripen ah!
Welcome to Qatar - that is just the quality standard that Qatar is able to offer you in taxis and any other service they might attempt to provide!
Its not that they want to go so low, but they get what they pay for. With the salaries they pay here, that will be the standard they get and offer to all their visitors (until Qatar will be known in the world for what it really is - undeveloped country pretending that they are at front run with all other developed nations!).
Poor service is the hall mark for this region ... nothing new
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northern lad, i assure you that your case is not isolated. when i got here some time back i couldnt believe that public transport was such a problem. being a woman, i just wouldnt take the buses and so karwa has been my only option for a while now.
the other day, i wanted to cancel my taxi but failed to do so in the required time and as such, i have been BLACKLISTED!!! LOL! i swaer, the guy on the other end of the phone was pretty pissed off at me and told me from now on when i phone, the taxi wont come! haha! so i resorted to Fox transport. another long story there.... but safe to just say that there is a huge need for improvemnt on public transport in this place. hence the reason there are so many cars on the road, hence the traffic.
hope you get your car soon and add to the traffic on the road. show karwa who's boss!