A Toronto woman is shocked after being offered a $2 credit instead of a full refund following an accident that her Hopp rideshare was involved in.
Toronto resident Lilliana Molek sat in the backseat of a Hopp vehicle, which launched in the GTA earlier this year, en route to meet a friend last Sunday. Her trip was abruptly halted after she says a car collided with the front-passenger side of the Hopp vehicle around Bathurst Street and St. Clair Avenue.
Despite wearing a seatbelt, Molek was jolted forward by the forceful impact and recalls feeling “shocked and afraid” in the moment. However, determined to reach her destination quickly, she soon gathered herself and walked in the rain to continue her journey. Because the ride was incomplete and the disruption was caused by a car accident beyond her control, Molek requested a refund (totalling $16.69) from Hopp.
And that’s when things went sour.
Molek said she was taken aback at how Hopp’s customer service managed the incident, from asking a multitude of what she feels like were unnecessary questions to being hesitant to issue a refund due to the ride being more than 50 per cent completed.
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But what added insult to injury was when Hopp offered a $2 credit to put towards future rides with the service – valid for only 48 hours – as a “gesture of goodwill.”
“I laughed out loud because I was so in shock,” Molek recounted to Now Toronto on Wednesday.
“Offering me $2 is so insulting. I almost would rather them say ‘No, you get nothing,’ than for them to be like, here’s a $2 credit. Not even a reimbursement to my account, like a credit on my Hopp account.”
After refusing the offer, Molek was then transferred repeatedly to customer service agents who didn’t offer any more help than the last. The final straw, she says, was when a representative flat out insisted that she would not receive a refund for the incomplete trip, and instead, wished her “more pleasant experiences in the future.”
Molek shared her story on TikTok, a video that quickly amassed more than 150,000 views as of publication and soon led Hopp’s management to reach out with a solution.
She confirms that Hopp has since issued the refund, but Molek is calling out the rideshare company for a lack of effective in-app support and real-person contact. During the ordeal, she says she often felt like she was speaking to AI rather than a real agent, and has also suggested improvements like better training for customer service agents.
“There needs to be some sort of external support for customers, as opposed to just having it solely be in-app. Whether it’s like a front-facing email or a phone number where people can go to get their complaints heard,” Molek said.
“I think less reliance on AI and having proper training for people to actually have proper customer service is important… At some point, I don’t know which of the agents were real or not. And if I had been speaking to real people, that almost makes it worse that I had a real person speak to me the way that I was spoken to.”
For now, Molek says she’s satisfied with the outcome of a refund but says she likely won’t be using the rideshare service again going forward.
“At the end of the day, that is all I was looking for,” she said.
“I think if they wanted to go the extra mile and save face, and as ‘a gesture of goodwill,’ to use their words, I think they could have offered me more by way of promotions or anything but I didn’t ask for that. I received a full refund, which is what I asked for.”
HOPP CANADA RESPONDS
Hopp Canada acknowledged that the incident was handled poorly, and assured that in these circumstances, an immediate full refund is typically provided alongside insurance details.
“Since then, we have launched an internal review to understand where we went wrong and to assess our standard refund practices,” the rideshare service told Now Toronto in an email statement on Wednesday.
Hopp also confirmed that a representative spoke with Molek on Tuesday to apologize and a refund was issued.
The rideshare service encourages riders who are ever involved in an accident to notify emergency services if necessary and to reach out to the Hopp support team.
