Apps vs Taxis and Banks

Well designed apps make night and day difference compared to traditional services. I wrote about Gaia GPS, which is a niche, but experience changing in the category of exploring wilderness. This time the blog is very much down to earth and everyday use: Uber and Revolut.

I took a taxi to the airport in Montreal. Yes, a regular taxi. It was a kind of an emotional move, to support local community. On the way I was wondering if the driver would accept a credit card (I realized I have not used cash for more than three months now...). There was no "Visa / Mastercard" marking anywhere. And not that long ago a taxi from the Frankfurt International Airport (the financial capital of Europe) required a cash payment. It turned out he had a terminal but something went wrong. When instructed to remove the card, I followed the prompt, and the terminal printed the card was removed prematurely. The driver complained and tore off the paper slip, exactly when the machine changed its mind and printed "Transaction Completed". Which ended up in a broken status. It was "Operation Non Complete" in French and "Transaction Completed" in English. My Garmin watch vibrated announcing my Revolut account was charged. Clearly the machine managed to complete the charge, but neither the screenshot from my Revolut app nor the printed English status was convincing enough for the driver to let me go. He insisted on a second payment. I decided to let him double charge me and then seek a refund. The second charge went without a glitch. And the watch indicated my second charge of $41 for a total of $82 on that day.

Then we started a long discussion assisted with an airport security officer, who helped as an interpreter (I don't speak French and the driver did not speak English). At some point he made an attempt for a creative interpretation of the printout, explaining to me that the term "NON" is universal and applies both to the French "complete" and the English "completed", which I obviously did not agree with. We ended up calling the Taxi company who asked for all the security of my credit card and ultimately refunded the charge. All lasted about 30 minutes, fortunately I had time. BTW this is how the "analog" security is broken: somebody hands you a phone and the person on the other end asks you about the credit card name, number, expiry date and the CVV2. You speak that loud without any chance to authenticate the other person and a dozen of people passing by able to overhear the conversation. In a digital world this would be considered a serious breach, but somehow in analog we live with it...

The bottom line is: next time I'm taking Uber. It is cheaper, hassle free and convenient. Uber is not killing the taxi industry. The Taxi industry is doing that to themselves by providing an inferior experience at higher prices. Same with Revolut: it is not killing the banking business, it just provides a better overall banking experience. Both face the users via their excellent apps, that make all that difference. Fast and functional, no frills and no strings attached.