yladiz parent
It might have been a Manila thing, but when I was in Bangkok I used Grab pretty often (maybe 5 times per week for a month) and I never had an experience like that. I had some experiences where drivers would only go to a certain part of the street, but in general it felt like Uber or Lyft in the states, plus I enjoy the UX a little better than Uber.
Yes, my experience is the same. Grab is my go to "taxi" app when I'm in SEA. I've always found it's drivers to be more reliable and more professional than Uber's. And the app is no where as confusing as Uber's. The big problem with Uber is that it's all tied to your phone number. But the first thing you do when travelling is pick up a SIM card for the country you're in. Grab is tied to either FB or Google login so you can just easily log in and update your phone number.
(I haven't been to Manila, so I'm not sure what it's like there.)