ViaVan: Low-Cost Ride-Sharing

Not always the cheapest, quickest or most convenient, but the people behind this app have really built it with the end user in mind. For example, when you cancel a ride because it's running late, the app automatically waives the cancellation fee. No more fighting with customer service about a little fee that makes you feel screwed over. It's the little things that earn you 5 stars!

Service has gotten worse. Every time they bloody drop me off in some random street that's convinient for them and I end up having no idea where I am, and having to walk another 5-10 minutes to get to where I need to be. They won't drive you a metre further no matter how confused about the random-ass drop off point you are. You can't change or view the drop off point properly in the app before you order the car either so that's even more ridiculous. It didn't used to be like this. They used to drop me off where I needed to be, and the price was a fraction of other taxis so I didn't mind the meeting point thing, the bad attitudes of the drivers and glitchy all at all, but now it's almost the same price as uber and the service is actually getting worse. Guess I'm switching back to uber...

So hit and miss. Sometimes they arrive just when they're meant to and I get to where I need to be with no problems. Most times though, the waiting time shown initially changes once the ride is confirmed so either I'm late to wherever I need to be because im waiting longer, or it arrives early and I'm sprinting to the cab to not lose it. Sometimes the number can start increasing rather than decreasing. It can go from 1 min away then suddenly 2, 3, 4, 5 and then 16 minutes away. Absolute joke.

Is designed to be cheaper than uber but the service isnt worth it. I understand that you have to wait longer (15-18 minutes!!!!) for a car, but the most frustrating thing about this is how often the drivers cancel. it's the most blood boiling thing. I waited 16 minutes for a ride, the driver was 1 minute away, I left my house and my the time I was out of my door he cancelled!! so irritating, and I lot of drivers do this. it's very very very frustrating. it's cheaper, but 8/10 times I get uber

App & Drivers Need a LOT of work. App breaks down every week or so and the main frustrations with the app are: 1. You get penalised £3 if you are more than 90 seconds late to the pick up point while there is no penalisation for drivers or cars late to pick you up - most times by 5-10 minutes 2. Pick Up and Drop Off points are miles away from where you are. If you drop the pin at random it will actually go where you are so they often just make you walk for no reason. 3. Drivers are not trained!

This app has gone downhill. I was really excited when it expanded to all of London, but now drivers keep cancelling even when private rides, the app doesn't alert me when it's connected me to drivers, it even charges me for trips when the driver doesn't pick me up, it's so unreliable. I want to use Via Van because it's actually affordable but I just can't trust it. Vet your drivers or train them or fix the app. Do something via van!

Initially joined becuase the £39 weekly pass was an attractive feature which made me switch from Uber to ViaVan but that has now doubled, to a whopping £79!!! Which makes the pass not worth buying. The drivers are quite short in their tone of voice and seem frustrated when they call you on arrivial, rushing you along and telling you to "be quick" or "hurry up" when they just turned up 10 seconds ago makes the experience less than pleasant, starts the journey off in an confrontational and awkward way, kind of gives you buyers regret and turns you off of wanting to book more trips. Drivers are very quick to cancel jobs. Instead of a main - go - to service I was hoping ViaVan to be it's now more of a last - option service. Still a great concept and a great working app. EDIT after today I'm going back to Uber even will pay extra for Addison Lee than use ViaVan again.

Idea is great, so is the way of attracting customers for rewarding credits for referrals. However, execution is not thay great: a) pick up points are sometimes the ones where drivers actually cannot stop, which creates confusion, cancellations etc b) drivers can berude, service can be very upsetting... compared to all other services used

Great idea but so many bugs. often the app stops working blaming my internet connection when waiting for cars, yet I can use every other app on my phone fine. The user experience is not great. It will give you specific shops to wait outside of, which is great, so you follow its instructions and then it turns out it is a bus stop or lane, some drivers will stop there ignoring the road rules whilst others will not so you are forced running across the road or chasing drivers down the road.

Cheap but not reliable. I got credits to come back home late at night but there is always long waits, even for quick trips (you could do scheduled trips to prevent it) drivers take longer to pick you up or don't respect the pick up time scheduled, I was already left alone in middle of a raining night because the app don't show my address properly or the drive came earlier and I couldn't get in time to the pick up point.

Unreliable. When selecting a ride and the app says it will take 5 minutes, that could be anything from 10-25 minutes. If only they let you know you could cancel the ride and get something else, but they keep extending it minute by minute so you keep hoping. In the end you stand somewhere in the middle of some street waiting for almost half an hour. Those extra 5 euros for an Uber are sooo worth it.

Terrible, had to cancel 4 rides because 1st driver decided to take the longest route in history to come. 2nd driver same thing. 3rd driver the pickup destination was way to far for anyone to travel (especially me with a broken leg) when you order at your destination. 4th driver just decided not to move for about 10 minutes. Only good thing is prices. Fix up!

U can't remove your credit card details once u input into the app. This is ridiculous, grab did the same last time until their system was being hacked and my card was being compromised. Now I have to write in to request them to delete my account entirely in order not to have my credit card details lying around. Not worth risking it.

For free ride credit : ioanna6z9 Good app, it is much cheaper indeed than a taxi or even an uber. Many drivers don't speak English and it is worth biting that they are often late. But you get what you pay for and if you are on a budget this is definitely the best way to go.

-drivers often late for pickups. Seems to be an issue with app routing systematically underestimating travel time. But also tied to drivers going off route. -several aggressive/dangerous drivers -very frequent driver changes where i am told that my booking has been accepted and that you're just trying to find a driver. And then after several minutes of waiting, i am very often told that my driver is no longer available and i have to wait an additional 10-15min for the next ride.

Something is SERIOUSLY wrong with the security of this app as I was charged multiple times without even booking rides. The first time (multiple charges in different days with different amounts), my method of payment was Amex (card that I then had to cancel because it was compromised) and the second time I used PayPal (multiple charges in the same day and same amount). DO NOT RECOMMENDED IT TO ANYONE.

Had to delete this app, taxis never arrive, if arrive, come to the wrong place ,drivers don't speak english (and i am not English, but i had bothered to learn the language of the country i live in) had to book three or more taxis per same booking as drivers always cancel while waiting for the ride. Most awful experience.

The first ride was supposed to arrive in 4 minutes, but after about a minute I got matched with another driver - 10 min away. They kept riding away from me so after another while, I got matched with a third driver that finally managed to pick me up after a total of 30 minutes waiting with no obvious option to cancel. It was raining and cold making the whole experience just miserable. A bus ride would have been cheaper and faster.

Good price BUT is super unreliable, drivers always cancel and the eta can increase significantly, if someone's been waiting 20mins and the driver randomly cancels i think they should get credit deposited into their account. I'm writing this whilst having waited for a viavan for 20mins for them to cancel, I'm having to get an uber for £20 now!

If you are planning to use the app in London...take a black cab instead..the via van experience is a big and continuous disaster. the maps and most of the drivers are really really bad!! prefer to pay 10 times more and take a black cab instead!!

The limit of £1 credit for us who've promoted ViaVan is an insult! I'm sure many others won't be using the app until it's increased. On top of that, the fares dramatically increased, even more than doubled for a trip to the local supermarket! Strangely after attempting to book several taxis, where PayPal then sent authorisation emails for each attempt, I then got a text claiming my PayPal account was suspended due to a number of failed payments with a link to a phishing site to steal my login.

its a scam... the whole "free £20 credit" is all FALSE. They deducted only £4 from my ride which costed £21... and you have to use thr credit that way - can't use it all at once... when uber first started out, you could use that... other than that, unlike uber, with this app we had to go walk to where the app decided was a more convenient place for us to wait... which is fair enough, but i feel mislead and lied to about the whole "first ride free".. definitly will not be using this again.

terribly shame for the false advertising. I have earned by promoting this app and system a decent amount of credit which I'm unable to use as they keep sending me an error on a payment. so I can't really access my credit and once I complain them over the email, the reply was: As a growing company they develop and value my feedback so as a valid customer I would like to offer everyone not to support this company to make sure they deal with the valued customers first than rather fail

The app freezes far too often, making it necessary for drivers to restart it (or their phone) during rides, thus causing delays. ETAs are often completely unreliable, drop-off points too far from your destination, and shared rides are now usually more expensive in London than Uber's. EDIT: To add insult to injury, Viavan now also charges a cancellation fee for delayed rides where they expressly state before cancelling that the fee will be waived. Astonishing...

Signed up, put in my details and payment information then got a notice saying the account had been disabled and to email support. Tried resetting the password and the account is still blocked for no apparent reason. Easiest thing to do is to delete the app!

cheap but never on time, many cancellations. cant rely on this if you need a ride urgently. better off paying for uber or a citymapper car if there's one nearby. make sure you order the taxi at least 15 mins before you need it or you'll definitely be late.

THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER! I requested a removal of my account and they sent me a document for me to sign to confirm I agree with deleting it. I've sent that back (signed of course) and haven't heard from them since, which was almost 2 months ago. I've even sent them 5 more emails asking for the update, but I didn't get any reply whatsoever. I've even tweeted on their twitter and guess what? No reply!