Via — smarter mobility. Reviews

Until I see improvements, I’ll probably stop using Viasmartermobility for a while... I dont know if its because I’m requesting a ride at a late hour or its just bad luck, but I would always get a notification that my driver cancelled before I’m either assigned a new one OR my Via request got cancelled altogether.
Tonight I have Viasmartermobility one last shot and if it ever made these terrible re-routes or driver cancellations again, I’d stop using it. And it did.

Tonight, my first driver cancelled on me, and luckily I got a new one...I didnt mind at first how my replacement driver parked a block away from my pickup address. But when he missed an exit and then Viasmartermobility gave him these roundabout routes (Viasmartermobility told my driver to take different highways that almost guided him in the wrong direction or making unnecessary exits), that’s when I told my driver to take a specific exit that would easily take me to my destination. And then Viasmartermobility tried to make him take a different route that guided him away from my destination...Viasmartermobility even told him to take an opposite turn despite my destination being so close by!
My driver apologized though, and I wouldnt want to give him 1 star. He’s def deserves a 3 star rating at least.. the low rating is most def for Viasmartermobility lately. I never had these kinds of problems back in Feb or March.. I’ve honestly become very disappointed with Viasmartermobility.

I enjoyed the rides and they were very convenient when I was in the area, but it was a pain when I had to get in the area when my school was right around the corner (but a very tedious walking distance). Some of the drivers were willing to take me there regardless of me not being able to pinpoint anything in Webster Groves on the Via GPS, which is why I gave it 2 stars, but the other drivers took me as far as the Via GPS would go and barely more, even though they were seemingly allowed to go further. Then my 2nd issue, which is even bigger is……….I left my wallet in one of the Viacles (didn’t have money in it at all)………..but now it’s gone. What’s worse is that I called them for so many days and talked to so many different people just to eventually find out that my wallet wasn’t it their vicinity anymore (they customer service got extremely tedious after a while, so I tell you, PLEASE DO NOT EVER forget to turn around and check the seat before you leave the vehicle, PLEASE, because it is not worth not looking. It was my fault of course, but honestly, they could’ve helped me out and got it back to me). Oh and p.s. if you lost something, don’t try to email them, because they likely won’t respond at all.

This is one of the most unprofessional taxi service app I’ve EVER USED. Via stole close to 100 dollars from my account because what they won’t tell you is that they have a PRE-AUTHORIZED charge for a ride that you may or may not take. I’ve got charged for rides I did not even confirm, I recently had only looked up a ride to see how much it would be, and they took the money for the ride before I had a chance to even confirm whether I wanted to take the ride or not and because it’s competitors have cheaper prices I did not take that ride but they proceeded to take that money out of my account for even looking up the ride, they took the FULL PRICE OF THE RIDE and it did not tell me or show up in my ride history. If you use via check you account, because they will steal from you and unless you contact them you will never, EVER get that money back, god forbid you do you will ether have to fight with your bank to get it orrrrr wait 48 for a email back by via because Viasmartermobility of THIEVES does not have a phone number for you to contact you haveeee to email them and then they will hold your money for a while and then you MIGHT get it back in 10 business days because if you could tell. I HAVE NOT GOT MY MONEY BACK AT ALL, THIS IS THE WORST APP I’VE EVER USED. DO NOT GET Viasmartermobility THEY WILL STEAL FROM YOU. You’ve been warned! 🤷🏽‍♀️

I’ve been using via for years and I absolutely loved it until recently. Over the last several weeks it’s been a completely different experience. Tonight Viasmartermobility “glitched” and ended my ride 15 blocks away from where I live at 2am. Neither the driver nor the passenger can contact customer service in real time anymore, so the driver just kicked me out of the car nowhere near my drop off point in the middle of the night. I tried to contact to via as I stood on the side of the road and my only option was to email them under one of their preselected customer service problems from a drop down menu. You might have guessed that random mid-ride software failures where they leave you stranded was not a choice. I should hear back from their customer service department sometime tomorrow. Back when they started Viasmartermobility you could actually contact customer service via text or phone right away and they would always fix problems and make sure everyone actually reached their destination. This is the second time Viasmartermobility has seriously screwed up in the last 2 weeks. I honestly don’t feel safe using their service anymore.

The Via app was a wonderful idea destroyed buy illogic. The idea of the rider AND the driver having an agreed upon meeting location is an system that Uber and Lyft have failed to perfect, but Via does it beautifully. Plus, the rides are justly priced, saving you money (unlike other ridesharing apps). Unfortunately, these are the only two good things about Via.
Upon trying to get a ride, I realized that I needed to run an errand so I cancelled. Viasmartermobility notified me that I would not be charged for the ride, but there might be a small fee next time- which I thought was understandable. What I don’t understand is why I was charged THE FULL PRICE of my ride, PLUS the extra cancellation fee. I tried contacting Via, but I just recieved a reply saying that my email was recieved. And they don’t even have a phone contact number! Then, I read other reviews, and I discovered that you cannot get a refund, only ride credit. The absurdity!! Just as I was about to delete Viasmartermobility , smiling at the blue Via icon trembling on my phone screen, I understood that by doing so, I would lose the money stolen from me. So, Via, you win. But heed my words: as soon as I use up my ride credit, I will win the war.

I’ve been using Uber, lyft for years now with Via being a new service that I wanted to try. In 6 months of every day use, I can tell you this....Their service is really bad. Do not use it for urgent appointments, work commute, or anything important unless you wanna be late every single time. Wait times are so off. As other reviewers say, multiply it by 2 in 99% cases. Some drivers don’t know how to use Viasmartermobility even though it is simple so apparently the training is not proper or doesn’t exist at all. I was helping one driver with Viasmartermobility through out the ride because he didn’t know how to mark a person as picked up so he just kept looping around downtown. Some drivers are just passing you by without picking you up or just keep driving in a wrong direction after you’ve waited for 15 min already. There is no call or text button as of recently so I can’t even call the driver to ask why is he driving in an opposite direction and if he going to pick me up at all. Yes, Via is half as cheap as Uber or lyft but the service is just terrible. They are not reliable. They need to get it together ASAP. I will be giving it up soon if they don’t improve and honestly I highly doubt they will.

i have had way too many bad issues with via and ive been using it for two years now. this is the most inconvenient ride share app ever. if you need to go to work, you have to at least order it an hour before you need to be there because you will be late. not only does Viasmartermobility pick up random rides when someone is about 30 minutes away without the driver confirming it but someone these people CANNOT DRIVE. today i wanted to come home from school. EASY. ive been picked up here a billion times. but after standing and waiting for 20 minutes, the via is near my school im happy but then they continue to go the wrong way TWICE. they need people who can actually use their gps and maps because i swear its not that hard. thought this was gonna be a cheap and convincing way to get from point a to point b but Viasmartermobility is so inaccurate that it hurts. they never drop me off exactly where i need them to. they've dropped me off in front of random peoples houses down the street from my house on multiple occasions. i rather spend an extra $5 for a uber if it means i get a better experience through a rideshare and thats that.

I’ve used via for several years now and pre-pandemic it was great! They have since made all rides private which makes sense. The problem is they completely snd utterly changed the usage of Viasmartermobility . EVERY SINGLE TIME I use it now it always says 3 minute car available but takes several minutes to book so that they can then say “driver had to cancel but don’t worry a new one is ____ minutes away!” Now the really annoying part is that the minutes are straight up lies. Today I waited 40 minutes for a via that was originally “6” minutes away!! This is the longest this has ever happened to me but definite not the first (this currently happens every single time to varying degrees). I finally contacted customer support who told me the driver have been disconnected from Viasmartermobility so they would send me a new one... WHY DIDNT THEY TELL ME THAT BEFORE?!!! I’m just so frustrated with the horrendous quality of Viasmartermobility right now but I have hope for it going back to normal after covid!

If you like or enjoy being early, don’t use Viasmartermobility, let’s start there. Drivers DO NOT pick you up and drop you off at the locations you choose. They say its to make things easier but today after months of being frustrated with Via I’ve reached the peak when the driver picked me up 3 blocks away from my location with barely any time to get there. What’s worse is that they start to charge you extra money when you aren’t there. I only had 4 minutes to get to the location 3 blocks from me in the cold. I’ve used Viasmartermobility to pick me up from work several times before as well so you could imagine my confusion why they didn’t even pick me up at my usual pick up spot if not my exact location. With Viasmartermobility you either get drivers who are really nice, speak to you and say hello when you enter, but drive slow as molasses or drivers who are aggressive and still drive slow as molasses. How are you gonna be rude and still make me late. The pick up time is NEVER what it says and if you pay attention to Viasmartermobility it adds time without notifying you.

Despite the price being the lowest, their efficiency and wait times are by far the longest. I’ve had 55% good experiences and 45% very very bad experiences. And those 45% experiences include everything from, wrong location pick up resulting in the driver canceling on me, very very very long wait times, rude drivers, very slow driving when you need to get to work on time, poor routing, changes in wait times nearly every single time, and wrong side of the street pick ups which resulted in me running through traffic so the car wouldn’t leave. Despite claiming they have a better navigation and better pay for their drivers their service consistently underperforms the competition (taxi cabs, Lyft, and Uber). Yes it’s cheap but as the saying goes - you really get what you pay for. They need to better handle peak hours and routing for pick up. I’ve stood on curbs with Via’s driving right past me. Routing is not better the WAZES or google maps which is pathetic. Think twice before using this. And if you do, make sure you aren’t in a hurry to get picked up or dropped off.

I ordered a Via to the airport and was told it would arrive in 9 minutes. I walked to the meeting spot (yes, they did not pick me up at my input location) when there were two minutes left. For at least three minutes, Via said the driver was two minutes away. It was raining and very early in the morning, so I tried calling the driver to check his ETA. He sent me straight to voicemail. I could see on the map that he kept driving around in circles. About five minutes later he called and said he would be arriving soon to take me to a different airport than I had input, and I had to correct him. A few minutes later he canceled the ride altogether. Via automatically ordered another ride which was going to take another ten minutes to arrive. Thankfully, Via said they would waive the cancelation fee for me canceling the ride 😂. Obviously, when trying to get to the airport, there is no time to waste. I ordered an Uber and it was there within 5 minutes and the driver knew exactly where he was going. Not worth standing out in the rain for, save time and order an Uber.

It took me a little while to get used to setting Pick Up and Drop Off, but now it’s a breeze. I have been using VIA for over a year and have never experienced any of the bad things some reviewers mentioned. Yes, you have to build in little more time because it is a ride- sharing service, but longest wait time ever was 15 minutes. Most of the time it’s 6 - 8 minutes or less. I find the drivers are quiet unless you want to talk to them. I’ve never had anyone who was rude. You expect pickups/drop offs on the Avenues and sometimes the driver may turn onto a cross street, but when they say your car is here and you don’t see them, you can immediately call the driver (or they will call you) so you can find each other. You can go from Soho all the way to 110th Street for $5.99 + tax. You can’t beat it. I really love VIA way more than Uber or Lyft.

I used Viasmartermobility for the second time today and call in a driver. Viasmartermobility automatically picks a location and makes u walk to your pick up location. First of all, I think that’s stupid. I should be picked up from my own location. Anyways, so I walk to the location I’m suppose to be and since there was snow and lots of call, I couldn’t identify where my driver was. So I called and it took the driver about 7-8 rings to finally answer. I was by a corner of two street. That’s where I was told to be by Viasmartermobility . Keep in mind it’s a normal street with traffic lights. In the traffic light , there a police officer waiting in red light. My driver says (on the phone) “listen I’m not gonna stop there because I don’t want a ticket because of u, so u have to move. Move somewhere else” and I’m like “what?” He then doesn’t even pick me up. I had to cancel the trip. Also In the car description , it said dodge but he wasn’t even driving a dodge. It was a van... horrible communication, horrible customer service, and Viasmartermobility does not seem safe at all. I’m going back to UBER or LYFT.

Viasmartermobility should receive zero stars.

I installed Viasmartermobility and created an account during a visit to NYC on the recommendation of a friend. However, finding that Lyft was less expensive, I never did use Via and tried to remove my payment info before deleting my account and Viasmartermobility .

When I went into Viasmartermobility to do this, I found that there is no way to delete payment information or an account. I contacted Via Customer Support and this is the reply I received:

“I'm so sorry for any inconvenience. Unfortunately, there must be a payment method in Viasmartermobility at all times. You can add a decoy/fake paypal account or an expired card as a payment method and once you do that, you'll be able to delete the payment method you currently have and do not want to keep stored in the system. Once this is done, please let me know so I can proceed with the deactivation of your account.”

I’d like the developer to respond to this and tell me why I should have to make up fake payment information in order to delete my real payment information from Viasmartermobility . I realize that I need to have payment information to use Viasmartermobility , but there should be a way to delete payment information for those of us who are intending to delete our accounts and Viasmartermobility from our phones. Keeping our payment information hostage is really a bad practice and makes this company liable if our accounts are accessed illegally.

An answer, please, Via developers?

I first tried Via in Washington DC this summer and it was great. On my next run with a Viapass I found the service had completely deteriorated to the point that Via was not a good option for any of my commuting. Estimates for pickup times are wildly optimistic and often they just cancel the driver and put you with a new one when the driver is already running late. I’ve had several recent experiences of being delayed 15-20 mins waiting for a vía that never came and then doing something else.

Based on this bad experience, I figured, oh well, lost the money I spent on this month’s pass, but won’t sign up again. Then, today I found Via automatically billed me for a new pass. I had disabled auto billing months ago. I guess one time when I deleted Viasmartermobility they reset that option. So misleading and shady! Don’t waste your time or money with Via! Don’t give them access to your billing info (which, by the way, you can’t delete from Viasmartermobility ). This is an all around awful company. Stay away!

I have ridden with Via multiple times. So far over 50% of my rides have been horrible! Either the driver is completely lost, or they are rude. It seems like when I have written Via about this, which has been 2 times now I have received NO response! I kept giving Via a “second” chance to see if it could have just been the drivers I have gotten. I am getting confirmation that this is always an unpleasant experience. This ride I am taking today will be my last ride. How do you pass a pickup spot by 5 blocks? I just don’t understand. Maybe it is the lack of care. I do not expect a response because I have not received one before. Hard to believe, but I typically do not complain and can be easy going. My driver today, flat out ignored me when I asked if she was familiar with a certain route. I was asking because phone reception goes out and I want to be helpful. She simple did not even respond. Then I said “hello?”, nothing, finally I say “ma’am?” And then I get a look from her. Thanks...I’m done.

Horrible, I have never in my life written a review but I was so shocked by this experience I couldn't leave it unsaid. My first driver literally canceled the ride after waiting for no more than 2 minutes, he was on the wrong side of the street and it took my about that long to walk towards him. Not only that but by the time I got to him and tried to get in he wouldn't let me and claimed I was a "no show" even though I was standing right at his door. It was raining so hard and it was so cold and he just drove away even though his car was empty. I just called another car cause I was so tired and cold and it was almost midnight. This second driver was silent the whole ride and barely acknowledged my presence and then refused to take me all the way to my destination and left me like 30 blocks away. I ended up taking the subway the rest of the way. All and all, very unprofessional and just an exhausting experience. So much for trying something new, never EVER again, sticking with Lyft or Uber or literally walking.

If you looking to get home as efficient and if possible fast, forget this service. Drivers aren’t efficient with the routes, even if they have navigation infront of them. They still go around routes. If you have expected arrival times… good luck to that if you actually get drop off as expected. Even if there is an expected time of dropoff, it would mostly likely get extended due to different circumstances, like a new pickup while enroute. And lastly, if your “fortunate” to get a driver who is from out of state (ex: NY plate) and depends on navigation apps, you’ll probably get to your destination even longer. Unfortunately, this scenarios are not hear says but rather my personal experiences multiple time and even consecutive rides. And lastly, if you require assistance through there “live chat”, good luck to you in getting a response right away… how is this assistance chat titled “live” yet you’re not sure if your going to get a response back even

I saw they had a viapass but saw it said Manhattan, so before purchasing I emailed via and asked if I could use the pass in Queens, Bronx, and Brooklyn. The representative told me that it does cover it and just to make sure I gave specific locations which he answer yes it does cover it. I said great and I purchased a week viapass to give it a try. I ordered the car (which takes forever to get to you) I didn’t notice anything unusual because I’ve only used via once before. I didn’t know what it looked like to use a pass so I confirmed a ride. Come to find out it does not cover boroughs. It only gives you a 10% discount. The representative failed to tell me this when I asked him twice. I took two rides. I rarely go into Manhattan. So I was changed the two ride (-10%) and the weekly pass which is around $70 so in total I spent $100 on something I was lead to believe would give me 4 rides a day anywhere in New York. I contacted customer support but have to wait up to 48hrs...very bad experience.

The wait time for pick up is never accurate. As soon as you select a time for pick up, Viasmartermobility gives you an even later arriving driver stating “the driver is no longer available but we have another on the way!” Yeah, but by the time they get here I’ll be even later than I was originally going to be, and if you cancel, you get charged, but was I aware that it was gonna take that long in the first place, I would have never requested e ride. I also have a M-F commuter pass, and as soon as I got that, my normal $9 commute to work, increased to $11, & then $15, and today it was charging me $19 for less than a 20 min shared drive. And $32 for a private ride. Lyft only charged me $11 for the shared ride so I took that instead. How did I pay $100 for the commuter pass to save money, but since I’ve gotten it, the prices for rides have almost doubled. It makes no sense. There have not been surges that I’m aware of. Super frustrating app if you’re not in the center of DC.

I rarely write reviews but I have to for a service that is a BIG part of my life now! If I could give it 10 stars I would. I cannot attest to other locations, but I've used via in Manhattan, LIC/Astoria (Queens), Dumbo/Williamsburg (Brooklyn), and DC area and did not ONE have a bad experience. I've probably used Viasmartermobility at least 50 times by now. The pricing is very smart and beneficial, the pickup locations are genius. I think we'd all rather get someplace faster and walk to a corner than stare at the GPS, painstakingly watching the car struggle to get to our locations only to cancel on us in the end! Via never makes the drivers go through ridiculous, unnecessary turns and I can rely on it to get to work despite NYC traffic. I've had bad experiences with Lyft and Uber and I really believe that every service should be following their model. The prices are always fare and sometimes I get to work with $3 (public transportation is already $2.75) Drivers never have a hard time using their platform. This is seriously the best. I love you Via!!!

Ive been using via monthly for a six months. Great deal for ways to get around DC. Get the monthly script. I need to travel to work where Metros are far from, and busses will take too long.

Drivers are usually good and get you where you need to go. Viasmartermobility sometimes takes longer for a pickup to happen, I assume it is based on driver availabilites and not being as big of a company as lyft and Uber.

However, when doing a rideshares VIA has the algorithm down to a science (could use some work but I've seen improvements on routes and pickup points over the months I’ve been using it. Viasmartermobility itself can use some work but I'm sure they'll figure the kinks out in the near future.