Careem reviews
What users love and hate, from real reviews
A Middle-Eastern super-app (rides, food delivery, bike/scooter rental, money transfers) whose broad service range is undermined by collapsed support and constant money disputes.
What users love
When it works — rides are smooth and drivers are polite
Some users praise the clean, easy interface, accurate fares, punctuality and welcoming drivers; for some, CareemPay transfers are genuinely fast and cheap.
Quick and drivers are very welcoming and polite
very comfortable and authentic prices are reasonable and professionally calculated it covers all around the city services and prices are clear to the customers
Transferring money through Careem Pay is super fast, convenient & the exchange fee is also quite lower compared to other exchanges and banks.
What users hate
Support replies with scripts and never actually resolves anything
The single most common complaint: every issue gets a canned "sorry for the inconvenience", tickets are closed unresolved, and agents repeat copy-paste replies without engaging.
I received nothing but repeated copy & paste apologies from different agents, with no real resolution or compensation offered.
my support ticket was closed without resolving the issue. This level of customer service is unacceptable.
use to be good in terms of support now all i have are bots answering my questions with bad resolution
Money is taken, refunds never come back
Charges for services never rendered, withheld deposits, partial instead of full refunds — money is stuck for weeks and customers have to chase it themselves.
My money has been held for weeks, I received inconsistent information regarding the refund process
i never got the order and never got refunded. i called Careem s helpdesk who promised to get me refunded but i got no confirmation message nor any refund. pure dishonesty.
cancelation ticket raised for full refund but after 7 days nothing happend
Drivers accept then cancel — but the rider pays the penalty
Captains accept, stall, then hit "the rider told me to cancel", dumping the cancellation fee on the customer; the algorithm penalizes drivers who then offload it onto riders.
the taxi drivers accepting trips then canceling and i must pay cancelation fees !!!! it happened multiple times !!!
a driver has accepted my ride, waited a bit and then cancelled the ride by pressing a button that says that "the rider (me) told me to cancel" causing me to have to pay a 14dhs fee every time.
they deduct cancelation fees even if you didn't cancel
Food arrives cold and hours late
Orders sit in "preparing" for 1.5-2 hours, group delivery silently adds time, and captains carry multiple orders at once — food turns up cold, ice cream melted.
When the captain delivers to several customers at the same time the food arrives cold, and guess what happens to your customers satisfaction.
you will get cold food and melted ice cream . dont use this app
worst experience while ordering food today from careem food we waited for 2 hours but no reply
Orders get cancelled after a long wait
Orders are accepted and paid for, then cancelled an hour or two later ("no captain", "restaurant closed") — with the refund pushed to the wallet and a request to reorder.
Everytime Careem accept order and after 1 hour they will call and say no captain available in the area.
I waited 1.5 hours, then my order was cancelled without informing me first
they credited refund to wallet instead of orginal payment method and asking me to reorder
The final price beats the quote — "extra fees"
The app shows the driver one price and the rider another, more is deducted than agreed, and the answer is "road tolls and checkpoints" — even for Plus subscribers.
The prices shown initially are not always the final amount you end up paying. The lack of transparency makes it difficult to trust the platform.
rides give you a range of prices and when you take the ride the price is either the maximum in the range or even more than it
my estimate has risen plus I'm getting my ride bills way above my higher estimate even though no traffic at all
Missing items in the order — no refund given
Part of the order never arrives, and the reply is either a token refund, a denial citing the 24-hour rule, or a demand to reorder and pay delivery again.
Part of order missing. Reply of customer service "escalated to restaurant but no refund possible". This is theft from careem.
I paid AED 103 for two salads and two burgers, but only received one salad. Three items were missing.
If an item is missing from an order they refused to redeliver I'll have to reorder and pay delivery charges again for their mistake.
You have a wallet, but you can't pay with it
The wallet is topped up, yet the app defaults to cash and captains rudely refuse card/wallet payment, insisting on cash.
Many captains (drivers) refuse to accept payments through the wallet and insist on cash payments only.
Last 2 days even when this option is chosen it defaults to cash payment. Frustrating and cheating as you cannot spend from your wallet even though its topped up
This new payment system is total rubbish! Why would you ask for cssh even if I have balance in my CareemPay wallet!?
Careem Plus is impossible to cancel
The cancel option is hidden or absent, charges renew automatically even when unused, and Plus members get none of the promised perks anyway.
Careem plus is a automatically subscribed with no way to cancel! Horrible experience!
you can't cancel career plus . option is hidden very difficult to chat with the customer services
It's difficult to unsubscribe to their plus subscription. If you don't pay attention you will get charged even when you don't use it.
Bike/scooter rental: 20-minute relocks and held deposits
The "day pass" forces a relock every 20 minutes, the lock takes minutes to turn green, and post-ride deposits aren't returned but re-charged for the next ride.
have to lock it every 20 mins which is ridiculously short. you can't even ride a mile and come back or look for another locking dock and until the broken lock lights green another five mins.
didn't receive the security payment after ending the e bike ride and tried charging again for the next ride
the scooter is very expensive, it tells us a price then takes more. I have taken 20 min for 50 SR, and my friend for 80 SR.
Careem Pay transfers stall despite the promised timing
The service advertises a 2-hour transfer, but funds don't arrive for days, the beneficiary sees nothing, and requests for an MT103 document or explanation go unanswered.
They deducted my money, but it's not credited in beneficiary account yet. Beneficiary bank confirmed they didn't receive the transaction.
Very very bad experience with creeem don't use this app for sending money Home they'll take a whole week for funds transfer
money sent didn't receive . it's been 6 hours
"Used to be great" — decline that drives loyal users away
Long-time customers tell the same story: service, deals and support have sharply declined, and rivals (Talabat, Bolt, Deliveroo) now beat Careem on price and reliability.
Used to be a great app with great deals, discounts and offers. Now every single other food delivery app beats it with prices and deals
Careem services have deteriorated drastically over time.
I used to use this app almost everyday and the service was great but now its too bad