Didi apologizes once again for service disruptions
Passengers in major cities including Beijing, Nanjing and Guangzhou say they were unable to place a car-hailing order on Didi starting Monday night.
Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi apologized again on Wednesday morning for system glitches that caused service disruptions in major cities and drew floods of complaints.
It said the breakdown, starting Monday night, had been fully repaired, and clarified that the service disruption was due to system software malfunction, not cyber attacks as some online posts rumored.
The company added it was still sorting through the aftermath of the system glitches and most of the abnormal payments and orders would be gradually corrected, as many users complained they had received unusually high charges for car-hailing trips.
Didi launched an internal review on Tuesday to determine the cause of the issue, and added it would step up software updates and risk-eliminating efforts and try its best to prevent similar glitches.
One Shanghai rider said he was charged 268 yuan (US$38) for a 7km ride that normally cost around 35 yuan.
Some users suggested Didi offer preferential compensation to drivers instead of just apologizing to passengers as the accident incurred real economic losses.
Many people said they had been unable to use Didi App and its WeChat payment mini-program since Monday night, and thus might miss the "full attendance" reward. Other problems included ongoing orders that couldn't be canceled or communicated with the drivers, or unreasonably high fees charged.
Some drivers were also unable to record and upload rides after they picked up passengers.
Didi's public bike rental service also experienced malfunctions since Monday night with some riders reporting they could not lock or unlock the bikes.
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