April fool? Not funny for Ola customer hit with Rs149 cr bill

All Fools' Day, 1 April, is a day when you take any unlikely story told to you with a pinch of salt. But for Mumbai's Sushil Narsian, what he half-suspected was a prank turned out to be no joke.

Narsian was slapped with a whopping Rs149 crore bill by Ola for a simple ride that should have cost a couple of hundred rupees at the most.

Narsian booked an Ola cab from his residence in Mulund West to Vakola Market on 1 April, and was assigned a cab. But for some reason the cabbie's mobile phone got switched off, and he was unable to find the residence of Narsian.

To Narsian the cab looked to be stationary on Google Maps, so he decided to walk towards it. On reaching the driver's location, he did not find the cab.

What he did eventually find out was that the cab had been cancelled by the driver a while earlier, and he was charged a whopping Rs149 crore for a trip he did not even take.

Had Ola played the sickest of jokes on with him, he wondered, for he had only booked a journey of around 22 km, which would have normally cost him Rs200-250.

Even the Rs127 in his digital wallet linked to Ola had been debited.

He complained to the cab aggregator's social media team, and they instantly credited the Rs127 back to his account, and removed the Rs149 crore bill that was charged to him. Narsian will also be given a discount for the next 25 Ola rides he takes till 31 May.

"Initially, I thought it was an April Fools' prank," Narsian told NDTV.

After facing the Rs149-crore ordeal, he has become something of a celebrity on social media.

"Soon, you will be called for panel discussions on NDTV. And a call to the next season of Bigg Boss isn't far behind," teases his friend on Facebook. Another jokingly asks whether he had booked a cab to Neptune or Pluto.