It was the one ride that an aspiring graduate student surnamed Yang couldn’t afford to miss.

And yet that’s exactly what happened, after the undergrad’s Didi driver blew her off over the weekend, causing her to miss China’s national graduate school entrance exam.

Chinese parents and students are known for taking extreme measures to ensure their timely arrival for such exams, which pervade society and can make or break a career. People often book hotels just to be close to an exam site, and police have been known to clear nearby roads on days of important tests.

But Yang clearly hadn’t done enough homework. She booked a Didi car to get to the exam venue, which was around a 20-minute drive from her hotel. She set the ride for 1:10 p.m., figuring that would be more than enough for an exam starting at 2 p.m. At 1:28 p.m., already late for the pick-up, the driver told Yang he was on the way. But then three minutes later the driver called again to say he couldn’t make it, and canceled the trip.

Yang managed to get another Didi and finally arrived at 2:18 p.m. But she wasn’t allowed to take the exam due to her lateness. She complained to Didi, and was informed the driver would receive a relatively minor slap on the wrist, a downgrade of service rating, for the last-minute cancellation. After the story stirred discussion online, Didi offered to have the driver compensate Yang’s 180-yuan ($26) exam registration fee, and also offered her a 30-yuan ride hailing coupon.

Yang said she never expected the driver to drop a scheduled trip, even as netizens criticized her for having no backup plan for such an important event. Yang took a philosophical approach and said the negative comments wouldn’t affect her life, and that she will plan better for future events, according to an interview about her experience with The Paper. 

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