[Roedou]

I was in Manila last month, and mostly took Uber; the experience was exactly like using it in the US.

I took one Grab ride, and the experience couldn't have been more different. I booked the ride on Grab, and saw the car coming towards me on the map. Just as it arrived, the driver waved to me out of his car, and then canceled the ride in the app. The car & licence plate were completely different to the one shown in the app.

Next to the driver was sat his friend, who talked to me throughout the 10 minute ride, and gave me his cards in case I needed to book a hotel or ride on my next visit.

When we arrived, I gave cash to the driver (the amount that the app had priced it at originally) and bolted. I couldn't leave any feedback in the app, because the canceled ride had disappeared.

It's hard to tell if this is a one-off weird experience, or a typical Grab ride. Either way, it made me unlikely to want to use it again, and I was planning to go back to Uber on my next trip to SE Asia.

[yladiz]

It might have been a Manila thing, but when I was in Bangkok I used Grab pretty often (maybe 5 times per week for a month) and I never had an experience like that. I had some experiences where drivers would only go to a certain part of the street, but in general it felt like Uber or Lyft in the states, plus I enjoy the UX a little better than Uber.

[sdm]

Yes, my experience is the same. Grab is my go to "taxi" app when I'm in SEA. I've always found it's drivers to be more reliable and more professional than Uber's. And the app is no where as confusing as Uber's. The big problem with Uber is that it's all tied to your phone number. But the first thing you do when travelling is pick up a SIM card for the country you're in. Grab is tied to either FB or Google login so you can just easily log in and update your phone number.

(I haven't been to Manila, so I'm not sure what it's like there.)

[robinwassen]

I had hit and miss with Uber in SE Asia. In Vietnam I did 8 trips that worked perfectly.

When I arrived to Malaysia three Uber drivers cancelled the ride in a row and tried to get in touch outside Uber to arrange the ride. Reported this to Uber which handled it well, but decided to not use Uber in Malaysia after that.

Instead I changed to Grab and did 15 trips in Malaysia and Indonesia, which all worked well.

So I would say that both services generally work well and often better than local taxi.

[exidy]

My experiences in PH has been along the same lines as yours, although not as dramatic. Uber works well as long as your driver can get to you. Manila's infamous traffic jams can result in a driver only 1 km away taking over half an hour to get to you.

I have never had a successful ride with Grab there. Rides are accepted, then simply cancelled some time later with no explanation, even when waiting at an official Grab pickup point.

[raihansaputra]

That's a 'one off' thing; fraud is pretty prevalent in rideshare applications in SEA (Uber included).

[paxys]

No way I would get into that cab.