Review Insights · App Store
Bolt: Request a Ride
BOLT TECHNOLOGY OU · 173,388 ratings · ★ 4.8
4.8
★★★★★
173,388 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 27 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"bolt"
12 negative reviews mention this · 44% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Don’t trust them. Booked a scheduled ride to a station. Bolt cancelled last-minute with no time to recover, and no app notification. We missed our train. Support apologized but offered nothing. Don’t trust scheduled rides here for anything time-sensitive." - maudpernet
2
"driver"
9 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Booked a Comfort, got a Standard!. I booked a comfort at London, was paired with a Kia Sorento and then at last minute changed to a Tesla 3. Had a horrible experience though the car and driver were great. The service has no way to rate the service. Only the driver gets dinge…" - RBSSanRamCA
3
"ride"
8 negative reviews mention this · 30% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Don’t trust them. Booked a scheduled ride to a station. Bolt cancelled last-minute with no time to recover, and no app notification. We missed our train. Support apologized but offered nothing. Don’t trust scheduled rides here for anything time-sensitive." - maudpernet
4
"drivers"
7 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Terrible. Tried to use bolt in Paris. Six drivers in a row canceled our ride. We never use them again." - paul ruszczyk
5
"support"
6 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Don’t trust them. Booked a scheduled ride to a station. Bolt cancelled last-minute with no time to recover, and no app notification. We missed our train. Support apologized but offered nothing. Don’t trust scheduled rides here for anything time-sensitive." - maudpernet
6
"rides"
5 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Don’t trust them. Booked a scheduled ride to a station. Bolt cancelled last-minute with no time to recover, and no app notification. We missed our train. Support apologized but offered nothing. Don’t trust scheduled rides here for anything time-sensitive." - maudpernet
7
"service"
5 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Booked a Comfort, got a Standard!. I booked a comfort at London, was paired with a Kia Sorento and then at last minute changed to a Tesla 3. Had a horrible experience though the car and driver were great. The service has no way to rate the service. Only the driver gets dinge…" - RBSSanRamCA
8
"minutes"
5 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No support for fraud. The primary reason for 1 star is not that I got scammed by a driver (see below), but that there is no way to get in touch with customer service through the app, and my email has not been answered after a week. Arrived at Porto airport and…" - dsleb
9
"wait"
5 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No support for fraud. The primary reason for 1 star is not that I got scammed by a driver (see below), but that there is no way to get in touch with customer service through the app, and my email has not been answered after a week. Arrived at Porto airport and…" - dsleb
10
"waiting"
4 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Scam drivers. Be careful if you are traveling and using bolt. Drivers would make you wait after picking time then text you their location so that you would be charged extra for waiting time which 0.47 euro/minutes." - gdjsbsksvanwob
11
"uber"
4 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Basic rides, Bolt does not validate cars nor provides support to passengers.. Basic rides, no comfort or XL. Bolt does not validate cars. Take uber to anything more than basic." - lanak575
12
"anything"
3 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Don’t trust them. Booked a scheduled ride to a station. Bolt cancelled last-minute with no time to recover, and no app notification. We missed our train. Support apologized but offered nothing. Don’t trust scheduled rides here for anything time-sensitive." - maudpernet
📋 All 27 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Don’t trust them
Booked a scheduled ride to a station. Bolt cancelled last-minute with no time to recover, and no app notification. We missed our train. Support apologized but offered nothing. Don’t trust scheduled rides here for anything time-sensitive.
Booked a Comfort, got a Standard!
I booked a comfort at London, was paired with a Kia Sorento and then at last minute changed to a Tesla 3. Had a horrible experience though the car and driver were great. The service has no way to rate the service. Only the driver gets dinged! Which is not fair to the driver.
Terrible
Tried to use bolt in Paris. Six drivers in a row canceled our ride. We never use them again.
No support for fraud
The primary reason for 1 star is not that I got scammed by a driver (see below), but that there is no way to get in touch with customer service through the app, and my email has not been answered after a week.
Arrived at Porto airport and requested a ride. Driver told me that traffic at the airport was backed up, and if I walked 100m to the gas station it would save me 30 minutes wait. Once I started walking, he claimed he had picked me up.
Arrived at Porto airport and requested a ride. Driver told me that traffic at the airport was backed up, and if I walked 100m to the gas station it would save me 30 minutes wait. Once I started walking, he claimed he had picked me up.
Scam drivers
Be careful if you are traveling and using bolt. Drivers would make you wait after picking time then text you their location so that you would be charged extra for waiting time which 0.47 euro/minutes.
Route International change
This driver did not follow the map. I am not paying any extra charges for changing the route to delay time. Waisted time
GRAB is so much better
If grab is also available in the area, use that instead. You will wait for ridiculously long to get a driver with bolt.
First use and no good
Scotter stopped like 3 times and I had to manually ride it. Defeats the purpose
نانا
اسوء مما تظن
Ils te prennent de l’argent sans prévenir
A fuir
Terrible app
Drivers are extremely rude. They will also try and pick you up further away, or not drop you off in the correct place. Maybe just a Paris thing.
Basic rides, Bolt does not validate cars nor provides support to passengers.
Basic rides, no comfort or XL. Bolt does not validate cars. Take uber to anything more than basic.
Très mauvaise expérience
Très mauvaise expérience avec les chauffeurs Bolt, ne recommande pas cette application
Unfair Commercial Practice - Stealing Tourist's Money
Do not use this app if you are an international traveler! Due to severe driver safety violations, the platform issued a refund. However, they forcibly credited the refund into "Bolt Balance" without my consent. Now I have left the country and it is physically IMPOSSIBLE for me to use this local currency balance anymore. Customer support refuses to process a manual refund back to my bank card, hiding behind robotic policy templates. This is a scam and illegal retention of consumer funds. Unethical and unacceptable!
Des voleurs
Ils annulent la course et après ils prennent 7€👎
Worst and slowest support I've ever received
Bolt seemed promising, offering cheaper rides than Uber but the cheaper rides are with tiny European which are uncomfortable. And if you lose anything in their car, good luck getting it back because their support is by far the slowest and unhelpful I've ever experienced. Stick to Uber for a more reliable ride sharing journey
Disaster app!
Disaster app, waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting…….
Constant notification spam
I am getting ads about rides multiple times a day. Would rather walk.
These people think something
I choose basic ,cheap ride with 7 lari , and I changed exactly one street down in the application shows price will not change, after 2-3 hours they like to change that price to 12.5 lari and charge me and took it from my bank ; if I would like to pay this much I was able to take yandex premium with 11 lari not even 12.5 ; so they think they have any right to do whatever they want, so people don’t download and use this… people to understand they have no right to do with bank customers how they want without any permission; support said to it is what it is so…
Malicious Price Manipulation, Hidden Fees, and Poor Service
Bolt increased the agreed price after my ride was completed. Charging me 25% more than initially agreed upon, calling the broad price range an estimate. I was charged 25% above the upper limit of the price estimate.
Another time, I requested a ride and the driver accepted the ride. At first, the app told me he would be there in eight minutes. Instead, the driver drove the opposite direction for ten minutes. After canceling, I was unable to find another driver for 45 minutes before I paid double the initial price and got the same driver that drove away earlier.
The app will give you a ride most of the time, charge you within their estimate some of the time, but is not worth the hassle of being charged extra and drivers being free to drive away after accepting a ride.
Another time, I requested a ride and the driver accepted the ride. At first, the app told me he would be there in eight minutes. Instead, the driver drove the opposite direction for ten minutes. After canceling, I was unable to find another driver for 45 minutes before I paid double the initial price and got the same driver that drove away earlier.
The app will give you a ride most of the time, charge you within their estimate some of the time, but is not worth the hassle of being charged extra and drivers being free to drive away after accepting a ride.
No way to add/edit tips
The tip screen flashes once and if you close it there is no way to reopen it, unlike with uber.
WONT ACCEPT PAYMENT
I request a ride. it tells me my ride is on the way. I walk to the pick up spot and then it declines my payment. My credit card on the other hand shows me that the transaction went through and then i have to wait for a refund. I do get the refund but what good does that do when im stranded in greece
الطائف
سقط مني غرض في سيارة السائق وعندما تواصلت معه قال أن الغرض ليس موجود رغم إني متأكد أنه سقط في مركبته وعندما تواصلت مع خدمة العملاء رفضوا الاهتمام بالمشكلة الخاصة بي ولم يبدون أي ردة فعل ولكن حسبي الله ونعم الوكيل على السائق وحسبي الله ونعم الوكيل على إدارة التطبيق على توظيفهم لسائقين نصابون و حرامين سارقون
Abandoned by Bolt
Unbelievable. Bolt “confirmed” my reservation to Heathrow three days before my flight. Kept in touch, then 60 and 30 minutes prior to pick up, told me to “get ready.” Then said it had found a driver and even gave me his name. Then at the appointed time, the message was “looking for a driver.” Then 15 minutes AFTER the appointed time, Bolt cancelled, saying it couldn’t locate a driver. On a trip to the airport. So there I am, on the sidewalk with my luggage. No car. Thank heavens for Uber. As for Bolt, never, ever again. (Plus, “customer service” is AI.)
Great Rates; Frustrating Service
Bolt will frequently be unable to connect with a driver or will have a driver cancel just a few minutes away. Eventually, if you get tired of waiting, you can cancel - but then the price goes up. They also have charged for wait time while I have been in the car riding. Drivers should be penalized for rejecting rides.
Drivers will not confirm
Bolt worked great in London. But in France (so far Paris and Lyon), not so great…app shows driver found but they don’t confirm so app just hangs for a long time waiting for another. Also in Paris, a driver was confirmed and we can see him drive (same car & license plate) towards us…but as soon as he sees us, he cancels and drives past.
Tips prompts
Please remove those tips pop-ups, doesn’t make sense showing me those asking for tips when I’m in the middle of the trip 🤦♂️. Those are very annoying, you are taking from drivers 50% commission so reduce your margins and pay drivers well and don’t ask for tips when I’m already paying higher rates.
Sentiment summary
95%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
3%
Negative (1-2★)