Wait - I would assume all the fare calculation is automated. How can that be fat-fingered?
Maybe it was rush hour?
How can anybody still be surprised when stuff like this happens with Uber?
It’s not like they have a history of being terrible people or anything.
Paging @thirdworldtaxi…
Unregulated market! What can go wrong?
No, seriously, what has to go wrong to be regulated as it’s has to be?
This is wealthy people trying to make public works like mass transit a thing of the past.
“Just share your shitty cars and vans amongst yourselves, poors. If we needed you … we would have ordered a towncar for you to drive to us.”
In the words of Hollingsworth Hound, “What’s more fair than a free market?”
Ah, so reading the actual article. The trip was 60 bucks, some of which was to be refunded. Somehow along with the refund they decided to also to charge the $16,000.
When the error was not fixed within three hours the person went straight to the media. Really!? When did my generation become such impatient entitled assholes.
About the same time other people in your generation became massive corporate apologists?
But… do you truly think this is an effort by Uber to rip her off to the tune of $16,000? You don’t have to be corporate apologist to find the whole thing a bit hyperbolic.
What exactly did Uber do to this person? Sure, they are really stingy when it comes to refunding people when drivers do a crappy job. And yes, they sent her an e-mail that made it look like they were trying to charge her credit card for a ridiculous amount of money.
But it’s not like they actually charged her. And is there ANY company on earth with e-mail customer service that can resolve an issue like this in under three hours? Do you think that if an old-school local car service driver had ripped her off for an extra $20 beyond the proper fare, she would have received superior customer service from his dispatcher?
I have no problem with people hating on Uber for the CEO’s abhorrent politics or the company’s hostility to both their customers and their drivers. But all they really did here was take a little while to sort out a mistake that didn’t hurt anyone.
Fair enough, no contest to that, we sure are.
But, in this case, it’s not like she was even charged the amount to her credit card (it had expired), it’s just her smartphone app showing her scary big numbers.
If this actually went to collections, or actually charged her credit card, then yes, this would be a story. That hasn’t happened yet.
Free Marketeers - We don’t need regulation!!!111
Reality - Wait, then how did we get regulation?
Free Marketeers - Things we can’t or won’t now recall!! So, like, No Reason!
Uber (yes, they’re an easy target, and deservingly so - as are regular taxis, for different reasons) is based around the internet, its app and improved service over taxis. I thought that better service for customers was their USP?
They quickly acknowledged what the fare should have been and said they were giving her a discount, which was what should have happened, so all good.
It seems odd that they haven’t been able to quickly address the ludicrous billing, which it sounds like they still haven’t completely fixed, if she’s continuing to get receipts for increasingly silly amounts of money.
The weirdest bit of the story for me is that you can even use the app to call a car when your CC on file has expired.
I always enjoy the threat of going to the BBB. Carries as much, or less weight, than threatening a negative Yelp review.
But yes, Uber needs to get their stuff together here. The customer also needs to calm down a bit, and give Uber a chance to resolve what is obviously an error in their system. The Uber rep was not claiming that they were on the hook for 12k–when they make that claim, or refuse to reverse the credit charge is when you go to the media.
Unless, you have a ridiculous limit, a 16K auth to a valid card basically nixes your ability to use it. It’s a big deal, and you can usually clear out bad transactions pretty quickly though your payment processor.
On the other hand, please don’t mistreat customer care folks when you get into an issue like this. They’re people too.
What Uber (and all the other faux-taxi services) need is a “meter” screen on their app. Fine - they don’t want to burden the drivers with a physical meter, and I know people who just don’t want to see the money: they want to fantasize that they’re getting lifts from friends or being picked up by a limo. But some of us (boomers?) like to see a meter showing all the charges and “surge” multiples on a screen, so they can say, “hey, wait a minute - this is getting expensive!”
I admit this may not deal with this specific situation, if the extra x1000 happened after. But it would have helped me a couple of times when we hadn’t noticed a “surge” thing happen, or when it just gets more expensive than you had anticipated.
But the e-mail indicated that the charge was rejected and the customer even said that the charge hadn’t shown up on any of her cards. I don’t think your credit line gets impacted when the charge is rejected, does it? (I know a lot about credit cards, but am not 100% sure about that one.)
I dunno about you, but if we take them at their word that Uber tried to charge $16,000 directly to their credit card, then hung up on them when they called to get the charge removed, I’d talk to my credit card company first; if they weren’t able to help, and Uber continued to insist that I owe them $16,000, I’d find the court of public opinion a likely quick way to draw attention to the situation to get it resolved.
