Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/14/lyft-charges-man-150-for-vomi.html
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9 Likes
To sum up:
Ricky Marquart: no vomit
Lyft Driver: Vomitous human being
Lyft: Vomitous customer service
Tiffany Marquart: American hero
7 Likes
This makes me reconsider the conveniance that Lyft supposedly offers…
10 Likes
What I get out of this is any time you take an Uber or a Lyft, video the interior of the car and record the drivers’ verbal agreement that you didn’t hurl in the back seat.
I think I’m just going to take cabs.
5 Likes
This seems to be becoming a pretty common fraud for all the ride-hailing services.
Def document the state of the vehicle when leaving to cover yourself.
5 Likes
Have started taking cabs now that I’ve learned Lyft and Uber basically screw over their drivers. Also, left my phone in a Lyft, contacted them, they contacted the driver (who did not speak English), and after not being able to contact the driver myself, the “Lyft Team” sent me an email saying that they had done their part and now it was up the driver and there was nothing they could do. Contacted them about it again, got back boilerplate about the contract - essentially washing their hands of the whole thing.
Long story short, I got my phone back after about TWO WEEKS! And now only take Lyft when I can’t get a cab (because Lyft and Uber have seriously hurt their business).
7 Likes
I’m done with Lyft and Uber, Lyft is/was at least a little less shitty than Uber but really both are fucking terrible for everyone. Terrible for their drivers, terrible for taxi cab drivers, terrible for customer service, just all around shitty.
10 Likes
I’ve read that this type of scam has been seen more and more, i don’t think its common but the fact that a few drivers felt that it was ok to defraud customers by charging them a vomit fee is enough to make sure i never use those services.
So the driver spent ~$15 on materials to steal $150 from the passenger in a scam that he can pull off at most twice before Lyft fires him?
13 Likes
That was my thinking; if someone is constantly claiming that people are vomiting in their car during transit, something shady is obviously going on.
As far as cons go, this isn’t a very profitable one.
7 Likes
So good for her and everything but I doubt my time spent getting to the bottom of all this was worth the $150
1 Like
I doubt my time spent getting to the bottom of all this was worth $150
Are you kidding, I would pay $150 for the pleasure of proving someone else was a low-life scammer who picked the wrong couple to scam! I guarantee this woman is fist-pumping in well-earned triumph for months to come about this.
22 Likes
I dunno, it seems like Lyft’s policy was just to rubber stamp it after the driver provided a photo. If the company didn’t know about the scam I bet a driver could pull it off several times before they raised suspicion. Maybe they’ll claim they pick up lots of college freshmen from parties?
I think this particular gravy train is about to be derailed thanks to the media coverage.
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Liam Neeson in the movie Taken has nothing on this woman
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What would have been the right thing for Lyft customer service to do in this instance? If this fraud is becoming common then Lyft needs to protect their passengers, but they also need to protect their drivers, and I’m struggling to think of how they could do both unequivocally without installing passenger cams (which would will also upset a lot of people).
It’s even easier than that. Just make the pickup downtown right after the bars close.
1 Like
Hmm.
6 Likes
Pretty much what they do now, except when the customer disputes the charge it is refunded to them immediately. The driver still gets paid, but comes under additional scrutiny. If it happens more than once or twice they get fired. If a passenger disputes the charge multiple times they may also come under scrutiny and be kicked off of Lyft. If there is special evidence (like in this case) it is reviewed on a case-by-case basis and the appropriate action is taken.
Not a perfect solution, but it seems like the most reasonable compromise.
3 Likes
My concern is that taking drunks home from bars is a primary use case for taxis, so passenger puke is gonna be pretty common across the industry, and a lot of people are perfectly willing to lie to get out of paying $150. From the drivers’ point of view, the problem is more likely to be a lot of different pukers rather than a handful of serial pukers, so if you only investigate passengers after several disputes, you probably won’t see the real picture.
1 Like
