(updated to include Grab’s response, edits)
Grab, Uber’s rival in Southeast Asia, is putting up an impressive fight against the ridesharing company. Both have deep pockets, and offer incentives to both drivers and riders.
But Grab is either struggling to phrase its promos correctly or something more sinister afoot. Today riders were in uproar when they found that a promotion that offered “$4 off 20 Grab rides next week” turned out to mean, well, not exactly that.
Those complaining that the $4 deal was cut short well before they’d used 20 rides were told that “the Terms and condition stated that the promo [has] limited .. redemptions available”. One Grab employee posted on Facebook that “We have taken your feedback and we will make it more obvious and clearer in our future communications. Stay tuned to our future promotions and happy Grabbing!”
Happy Grabbing indeed. I’ve looked at the terms and conditions and it does indeed say, at the bottom of the promo that ‘limited redemptions available’. But not all of them: see this one on my app below:
It’s hard to imagine, though, that this would be at the expense of the clear offer to “enjoy $4 off 20 Grab rides next week” — without any asterisk or weasel wording, at least close to the title.
I’ve reached out to Grab and they offered this:
I do want to assure you that our promos are genuine. There are terms and conditions and in this case, we had shared that the promo was for up to 20 rides, until the promo was fully redeemed (referencing the line on limited redemptions).
I’d like to be open with you on what happened. We could have been clearer on our communications. We had transparently highlighted it was limited redemptions in our eDMs and in-app notification of the promo, however in our notification when passengers had successfully redeemed the ‘4off’, it mentioned it was up to 20 rides without the additional line on limited redemptions. This was an oversight and I apologise for that.
We’ve unfortunately disappointed some people this time around, and we have to put our hand up that we made a mistake in not repeating that there were limited redemptions. This oversight should not have happened.
I know there are questions asked about whether we had shared that there were limited redemptions – we did make sure to highlight this when we shared this promo. You’ll also see it in the notifications panel in the Grab app.
It’s not the first time I’ve wrestled with Grab’s promotion schemes. While they’re attractive, they clearly cannot be permanent, and at best I find them awkwardly implemented; at worst I find them deliberately awkwardly implemented, designed to fool the rider into believing they’ve been offered something only to find it’s something else. In the words of one Grab rider on Facebook: bait and switch.
Grab assure me that’s not the case, but I’m sure I’m not the only chump who topped up his GrabPay wallet thinking he would be enjoying a week of cheap rides. More fool me.