A few days ago I posted about the app Q8 Grand Limo which I promoted as an alternative for Uber and Careem. That same night they sent out an SMS with a 248AM coupon code which would offer people 20% off on their trips. It kinda pissed me off since they sent it without contacting me first, nor did they even ask me if it was OK to use my brand. Nobody from Q8 Grand Limo had spoken to me at all so when I got the SMS myself, I was surprised and pissed. So I decided I wasn’t going to write about them ever again.
Then this morning I decided to try them out and had such a great experience I decided that even though I’m pissed off at them, they were so good that it would be a shame not to write about my experience.
I had to pass by the Lotus garage and pick up my car today so I pre-booked a ride for 9:30AM. I ended up waking up earlier than expected so canceled my pre-booking and reordered a cab to come right away. The time estimate given was 15 minutes and I could track the cab on his way over to my house via the app. Once the cab arrived, like with Uber, I got a notification letting me know he was here and I headed down to find a sparkling clean black Chrysler with dark tinted windows and a tan leather interior. The driver even came out to open the door for me and he was dressed in black pants, a white shirt, a black vest and a tie. First impression, it felt very fancy.
The driver had my location already plugged into Google Maps and we headed towards Rai using Google’s recommended fastest route. Once we got to my destination, he asked me how I wanted to pay and I said Knet, so he pulled out the Knet machine and I paid. The trip should have cost KD3 which is a steal for the experience, but I ended up using the coupon code “248AM” which they had spammed people with and I ended up paying just KD2.4. Thats from Salmiya to Al Rai. Very cool. It’s actually kinda of a relief that we finally have a decent cab offering. Next week I have to drop my car off again to ProTech to get window tinting and I’ll definitely be using them again.
So all is forgiven and I’m not that pissed off at them anymore. If you want to take advantage of the promo code, you need to enter 248AM in the promo code space while booking the cab. The expiry date for the code is end of the year but they’ve limited the number of times the code can be used to 1,000. So until the code is used a thousand times (by everyone not just you), then we will be able to get 20% off our rides. Thats a really good deal.
Update: OK, Q8 Grand Limo called me up now to explain the confusion. The promo code is just meant for me, it will only work with my phone number so you guys won’t be able to use it. I told them they should have called me an explained what it was before sending me the SMS without and that I already posted about it on the blog. So the person I spoke to said they’ll work on an updated promo code for my readers and send it to me when it’s ready to share.
26 replies on “My Q8 Grand Limo Experience”
Hey!
I used it last night for the first time and they’re even better AND cheaper than Careem!
Sidenote: love the shirt. Where’d you get it from?
Harvey Nichols like 3 years ago I think
Heads up: AUTOMAK is in the process of creating a similar business.
May I ask why are you not sitting in the back in a fancy limo service?
i always prefer sitting up front
You don’t sit in the front seat of a limo!
Even without the discount. 3kd from Salmiya to Rai is pretty amazing. Do they have their rates listed anywhere?
Even without the discount. 3kd from Salmiya to Rai is pretty amazing. Do they have their rates listed anywhere?
in the app
After being a loyal customer of Osta taxi for 15 years, finally there is a reliable alternative. Can you imagine I had to pay 4KD from Kuwait City – Shuwaikh Port for ONE way (round-trip 8KD) that’s INSANE OSTA TAXI!
There is another app by the same developer – called Q8 Taxi (click on the dev name in the App Store). I’m assuming this is the cheaper version of the limo service with Toyota’s and Nissan’s. Has anyone tried it?
https://248am.com/mark/automotive/q8-taxi-app/
Ah, thanks!
They are not the developer, they just get the taxi app platform from https://www.taximobility.com/ and do some final makeup and launch 🙂
https://www.taximobility.com/portfolio.html#1
Anyone tried their airport service? How much they charge for airport pick/drop? I can see in the app that they differentiate the airport service
They are running at a flat rate of 5 Kd for airport drop offs
And 10 Kd for Airport Pickup .
5 Kd for airport drop offs sounds pretty reasonable if THIS is the quality of cars they promise!
10 Kd for Airport Pickup is of course way too steep – considering those pathetic old taxis charge lower!
There are no longer any old taxis, they all got new cars except for Taxi car #1 but thats because the driver is like 85 years old, has been doing since the airport first opened or something and so thats ok. He’s the taxi car with the satellite dish. the rest of the cars are all new.
Would anyone know whether the service includes drops to the airport , but like at 1am.
Have been struggling with the issue, especially since I read that the long parking is full.
call them
My authorization code never arrived after mutliple attempts. 🙁
Oh well…
An airport pickup costed me 10kd… Not worth it
Pathetic. Tried their service for the first time on Thursday at 2230 hrs. The ‘dispatcher’ cancelled the taxi in the first booking (that’s the prompt I got on screen).
tried again – said a wait time of 16 mins! Obviously I didnt wait and hailed a cab off the street.
Reached home in 15 mins and get an SMS from Q8 saying ‘there’s a lot of rush and the first available cab will be after an hour. Shall we book for you?”
I was speechless.
Had a trip with them yesterday afternoon , worst customer service one could ever get.
My booking was dispatched late !
On top of that , they’re blaming me that I had cancelled the request whereas I received a text message on my mobile phone saying : ” Cancelled by dispatcher ”
The Philippine lady in charge of the call center can barely communicate in English language. When she ran out of excuses she started shouting in poor Arabic and English mix.
That was my last trip with them
They need to hire more professional staff.
They are simply cheating customers. No ethics. I selected a ride after checking fare estimate. It showed up to 4.5kd to my place. After paying that to driver, I received a call from them saying that I need to pay 5.5 Kd extra else they will deactivate the account. It was clearly showing in app after the ride to pay 4.5kd. During the 15-20 mins of talk he want to prove that I did some mistake!! He want to also emphasize that It’s not their app issue and they don’t want to even review it. Then he asked to pay at least 3.5kd extra. What I understood is they want to keep this app like this so that some people like me book the ride seeing a lower fare. After the ride they will ask you to pay more, business strategy. Anyway pathetic customer service, this is my experience from first ride. I won’t be using Q8 Grand Limo again.
VERY Bad service.. We booked and got a confirmation for 2 cars to pick us up from the airport and when we arrived we found out the booking was not even processed.. This service lacks professionality and respect!!!