Grab says system error causing sky-high fares an 'unwelcome surprise', has processed full refunds
A system error that resulted in Grab's app displaying abnormally high fares was an 'unwelcome surprise' - for both the ride-hailing firm and its users.
Several Stompers earlier shared the sky-high fares on their Grab app at around noon on Aug 20, including a user who was quoted $2,000 for a Standard Taxi.
Some Stomp readers likened the fares to the price of a flight.
Stomper Silvana said: "I think I just found a new way to get a heart attack. The Grab app glitched out and said my fare for my ride home was over $1,500. My entire life flashed before my eyes. For that kind of cash, I could've flown to Europe!
"Thank goodness it was just a bug, but seriously, my heart stopped."
A Grab spokesperson told Stomp in an updated statement on the night of Aug 20: "We know this was an unwelcome surprise, and we sincerely apologise for this. This was due to a misconfigured fee, which we corrected within 20 minutes.
"While Grab's safeguards automatically prevented most bookings with incorrect charges from going through, we did find some users who were affected by today's errors."
For every user who was affected, full refunds for the incorrect charges were processed as of 9pm.
"We are doing everything to learn from this so it doesn't happen again," the spokesperson added. "Our customers trust us with their daily needs and we don't take this for granted."
