/Real Story/ A Suspicious Death

Unwelcome phone calls

This is another customer’s experience with the APP.

Eleven days ago, I moved apartments for the fourth time since graduating from the university. I was ready to move to my new house, which was only 5 kilometers away from where I was currently living. So, I booked a van on the Huolala app a day in advance. The driver wanted to add my WeChat to check to see if my belongings would fit into his van. I sent him my pin location and some photos of my things on WeChat, but he never replied to me. The following morning, after I’d finished packing everything up, I contacted the driver again. This time he didn’t answer me until two o’clock in the afternoon.  At that time, he told me that there would be a different driver to meet me at 8 p.m. I felt furious about it, mainly because I’d already made an explicit requirement on the Huolala app that I would like the driver to come to my house by noon. Finally, this new driver ended up arriving a bit earlier at 5 p.m., and he helped me move all my belongings into my new apartment.

It seemed that everything was all done and settled until I received a strange phone call…

“An appointment?” I asked.

The male voice on the other end of the phone said, “My friend gave me your number… So, do you want to go come over tonight?”

I felt insulted by him, so I hung up.

Later, I received yet another suggestive phone call from a different man. I felt confused. How were these men getting my phone number? This same situation happened a few more times over the next few days, with different phone numbers and men calling each time. At this point, I realized that perhaps this wasn’t just a coincidence. I ended up researching some of the phone numbers, and I found out that one of them was marked as a Huolala Customer Service number. I called this number and asked how they obtained my phone number. He replied that he got my phone number online from one of the drivers’ chat groups. I was shocked to realize that someone had posted my contact information as part of a listing for sexual services!

Later I complained about the driver to the Huolala company. I hoped the driver could receive a warning and the company would punish the driver. However, HUolala’s customer service representative ignored me and claimed that this wasn’t their responsibility. The person said it was my fault for allowing the driver to collect my phone number and WeChat ID. I cannot understand why I have to take the responsibility for their worker’s intrusion on my privacy. I have called them countless times and made a clear indication that it should be their responsibility to guarantee a customer’s privacy and safety. They should not allow their workers to disclose a customer’s personal number.

Does your boyfriend live there?

This is another customer’s experience with the app.

It was my first time moving to a new house. I booked a small van on the Huolala app at 5:50 p.m. When I made this booking, I could see the driver’s ID photo. To be frank, his appearance made me feel a little uneasy, especially as a young female. I thought about canceling the order, but I decided against it as it is a bad habit to judge people by their appearance. So, I decided not to change drivers.

The driver arrived late - I had already waited downstairs for more than 40 minutes, and he drove a medium-sized van (not the small-size van I had initially ordered). At that time, one of my neighbors came out from their home and wondered why I was still there.

I said, “Because the driver was late”. At that time, I felt that this was just a statement, not a complaint.

 After getting in the car, the driver started to approach me and touched my shoulder and arm. I didn’t think much about it at the time, though. However, later he began to ask me some intrusive questions, “Why are you moving to this place? Does your boyfriend live there?”

I just said, “I’m later than planned for moving.”

He kept asking, “Why are you so anxious? Are you in a hurry to meet your boyfriend?”

It seemed so weird for a stranger to ask such private questions. I didn’t want to say another word, so I put on my headphones and pretended to listen to songs and watch videos to avoid communicating with him. But he still kept talking. He probably thought I was just angry, so he kept trying to explain why he was late to meet me.

He said that something went wrong with the last customer he picked up and I shouldn’t ‘blame’ him because it wasn’t his fault. I heard his exact words, but I didn’t reply. He became angrier and angrier as he talked about it and then said, “How can you blame me? I want to strangle you as I look at you right now.”

I felt terrified and continued pretending that I couldn’t hear him. At that point, I opened the map software to see how much longer our trip would be. At that moment, I realized that the road map on my app was different from the one on the driver’s phone. I wanted to zoom in on his phone to see which road he was taking, but he slapped my hand away.

I then sent a message to my new roommate and asked her to come and meet me outside when I arrived. When I arrived at my new home, it was already after 7 p.m. The phone rang, “This phone number belongs to you. Give me a five-star rating”.

It was the driver, it sounded like a threat to me. I was anxious that he would take some retaliatory actions. What’s more, I live on the first floor, and when I got out of the van, he saw which apartment and bedroom I entered. I didn’t sleep well that night. I was worried that someone would knock on the door. I reviewed the whole process of moving my things and realized that it showed how things went wrong several times with the driver. He would unnecessarily pat my back and touch my shoulders from time to time as I carried boxes into the car. I should have recorded what he said and what he did. However, I don’t have evidence to complain about the driver’s behavior. After that, I bought a security alarm and carried it with me wherever I went. One day, a Huolala van seemed to follow me while I was on the way home. The van was moving very slowly about the same speed as someone riding a bike. I felt scared. Then I stopped myself and waited until the van went far away. I continued walking and wondering that “Is it him? Does he follow me all the time?” It reminded me of all the things that happened that night and that terrible feeling of fear and anxiety.

How come I went to Huolala?

I have worked as a driver for the Huolala company since 2018 in Zhuhai. Like many drivers, I applied for this job after seeing an attractive advertisement with the slogan"10,000RMB or more for a month". In the advertising video, a Huolala driver was wearing an orange suit, smiling, holding up his phone, and showing his profit: RMB 11,653 in a month. After I’d been a Huolala drive for 3 years, I had an income of more than 10,000RMB in only one month, and my average monthly income has been no more than 6,000RMB. However, some of the other Huolala drivers say they have a higher income than me.