Wolero One (Defunct?) is a Business Traveler's Worst Nightmare - My Terrible Experiences with This (Alleged) Luxury Limousine Service
Hopping on a taxi and using a ride-hailing app in Singapore is not difficult but I sometimes prefer a proper limousine arrangement (especially when traveling to and from the airport) since they are a lot more comfortable and predictable. My OCBC VOYAGE Card is great since it gives me up to two free rides each month by spending S$3,000 (one free ride) or S$6,000 (two free rides) per calendar month. While this is typically enough for me, I sometimes make two or three trips a month and therefore, I turn to the next best alternative (or so I thought), Wolero One.
Before anything else, it is important to understand that Wolero is one of Singapore's longest limousine provider - they typically partner up with banks to offer selected customers luxury limousine rides within Singapore. Wolero claims to provide "world class private limousine service" and to be fair, the rides that I have booked with them via my banks have been generally quite good - I do take these at least 10-15 times each year and so far, I have only had one bad experience (two if you count a sexist driver). Wolero One is supposedly being run by the same company and it is essentially an app version of Wolero which caters to individuals who wish to use this private limousine service on a personal basis - this means that you have to top-up credits for the app and then make the booking yourself.
Apart from the fact that Wolero One is still not optimised for the iPhone X (come on guys, it has been long enough), the booking is relatively straightforward and you can essentially choose the type of transfer and the vehicle you require for your reservations. One thing that really irks me is the fact that you driver's details are never sent to you automatically. When I book a ride through the VOYAGE Exchange Concierge with my OCBC VOYAGE Card, my driver's details are always sent to me via SMS - a lot of these rides used to be on Wolero too so I am not sure why the processes are different. In any case, the Customer Service for Wolero One is generally quite alright and a simple email request for driver's details will suffice - I usually get a response within 4-6 hours for questions like these.
What truly irritates me though is the fact that I have to ask for an invoice every time a ride is completed - some of these rides are for business and I do require invoices for the facilitation of claims. Even when I do ask for an invoice to be sent to me after the ride has been completed, they seem to struggle immensely with that. The most common response I have gotten is "kindly allow us to retrieve your invoice and we will revert back to you". I booked a ride last Friday and have been chasing them for an invoice since the start of the week but I still have not heard back - not even a courtesy response!
With bookings made on Wolero One, I found that a greater proportion of drivers arrive late for pick-up and honestly, when you are paying close to S$50 for a departure transfer, it is simply unacceptable for the untimely pick-ups or even worse, unresponsive drivers who do not even tell you that they are 20 minutes late. I am currently trying to get a refund on the balance that I have with Wolero One so hopefully that mailbox is attended and someone will eventually respond but for now, I am just going to make all my local limousine transfer via the VOYAGE Exchange Concierge with my OCBC VOYAGE Card.
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