Uber Customer Service Sneaky And Vile Business Practices

#1

Hello all,

I wanted to share with you the underhanded and abhorrent business practices I encountered tonight via uber support…

In the Tucson market, a minimum fare to a driver is $2.25. A cancellation fee is $3.75.

This evening, I arrived at a location where there were four people outside a house, who began to get into my vehicle. As they situated themselves, I started the trip. After I started the trip, a 5th person comes out from the house who tries to get into the car. I advise them that it is both illegal and against the Uber TOS for me to have more bodies than seatbelts in my car, and I could either take some of them, or they could cancel the ride and order an XL. They opted for canceling.

I received a minimum fare of $2.25, but feel that this should be considered a cancellation fee instead since I did not go anywhere and it was the passenger’s fault for the cancellation.

I contact Uber support via email to advise them of the situation, and the responses I received are in the photos below.

To summarize, in the event of a passenger cancellation where they would charge a fee, Uber charges the customer $5. Since this was marked as a minimum fare on their end, they charged the passenger $5.35 instead. Since that amount is greater than a cancellation fee, the amount of my compensation will not be increased. It doesn’t matter that I did not move an inch or that the passengers were attempting to break TOS and I was just doing my job appropriately, they will not fix it.

In fact, after these email responses, I called support who advised me they CAN NOT fix the fee, their system will not allow them to do it. So basically, because it is more profitable for Uber to keep the extra $0.35 and the extra $1.50 they would have had to pay me, they are perfectly content to screw the driver for doing their job well instead of biting the bullet themselves. That is a new low for corporate greed in my book.

This kind of treatment encourages dishonesty and risky behavior on the part of the driver. It puts us in a bad situation both physically and financially, and it is an unfair business practice. When you consider that the entire business model of Uber is to create a transportation model on the backs of hard working drivers which ultimately finances the replacement of every single one of them with autonomous vehicles, it is just another example of how very little they respect the drivers.

Every time I hit that “Go” button, I feel a little sick to my stomach–that I am somehow betraying my moral compass by supporting a business in this way; a business which very clearly cares about me so little. An hour of my time tonight wasted over $1.50 that was just too precious for Uber to part with. Pathetic.

For comparison, I had the exact same situation come up during a Lyft ride a few months ago. Had an agent on the line who fixed the whole thing in less than 5 minutes. And I got the full $5 cancellation fee with them.

All I’m going to say in conclusion is this…if you are a full-time driver like me, be diversified in your pursuits. You can not rely on Uber to be helpful or to care about you or to let you work hard to get your rent paid–ever. They will drop you the second they feel its profitable, and that could literally be any day. Protect yourself, and Uber at your own risk.

#2

I’ve had the very same issue and picked up a solo woman who was making one stop, and then back home. That one stop was to pick up a child from daycare. I, of course, didn’t know that, and she never mentioned it — no child seat. I was pissed. Told her I couldn’t do the ride. She said ok, and the ride was ended at the 1st stop. I got less than I would have gotten for a cancel.

#3

You didn’t mention that everyone was seatbelted in and then you turned around and said is everyone good, and they said a year. That’s the point where I turn and press the button to start the trip. All you said was people got in the car. That does not signal to me that people are ready. That’s happened lots of times to me that people get in the car and another person come out. I wait until everyone has their seatbelts on usually it’s psychology. Usually, people are not going to put on your seatbelt if they were still waiting on someone that usually the very last thing they want to do. So that usually signals to me that they are ready to go and there are no other passengers coming. I did read your post several

#4

Well written comment Doug. I share your frustrations with Uber customer service. Even with what should be simple issues, it’s ALWAYS an hour in the phone with their customer service team, who all speak English as their 2nd language, and who rarely understand, or have the authority to help the drivers, the way Lyft does. It’s an ongoing issue I have with Uber and one that ultimately may result in me not driving for them anymore

#5

I had almost the exact same thing happen to me last weekend with the same response from Uber. Really pisses me off as I canceled it from the customer’s phone specifically so that my stats wouldn’t be hurt and I’d receive the cancellation fee. At least, that’s what I thought would happen.

#6

Uber customer service is the worst! There was suspicious activity on my driver account on December 21st as to where i cannot access my instant pay nor will my direct deposit go thru. I’ve called 6 times and have threads of back n forth emails of them telling me that id be able to access my pay in 48 hours. I’ve waited 3 separate 48 hour periods for the same issue to still be in place after i did everything to confirm my actual identity and payment info as well as device…yet and still they r telling me to yet again wait ANOTHER 48 hours. It’ll now be over a week as to where I won’t be getting paid.

#7

Ever get cited at the airport?

Today I received an email from Uber support regarding an airport citation dated March 17th for double-parking.

I never parked at the airport. I have always pulled up to the curb to pick up or drop someone off.

Furthermore, there’s an agreement between Uber and the SFO airport that allows the SFO people to send the notice to Uber for automatic deduction from your pay. There are no pictures. No one walks up to you and hands you a citation. It’s simply some sort of notice from the airport people to Uber, and then you don’t find out about it for a month-and-a-half later.

This is an illegal process and a scam. I am disputing it. Currently, this double parking citation is set at $108.

So here’s the process. I called Uber support, and they gave me a number to the airport to call to dispute it. The people at the airport said they would send a notice back to Uber management and it may take a few days before I hear anything.

This only deepens the scam and causes my curiosity to boil over, and I am not going to tolerate this kind of bullshit and will fight it.

#8

I had my highest fare weekend b4 last. $119.77. The rider told me during the entire ride that he was well aware of how much the fare was going to cost and he was capable of paying the fare. The entire ride he was bragging about how much he made. My fare was adjusted by $55 and change. Prior to his ride, I had 2010 rides without a fare dispute. Uber support took his side. I have spent several hours disputing the fare adjustment with “UBER SUPPORT” One rep finally told me the fare should have never been adjusted. This was a 3x surge, and UBER credited me $22!!! What happened to the other $33??? The lack of support we get from “UBER SUPPORT” is utterly ridiculous!!! Does anyone have any suggestions? The last time I had an issue I exchanged approximately 25-30 emails over the course of several months with “UBER SUPPORT” and the issue was never resolved. I finally saw something about a Green Light session in Chapel Hill that took 3 hours out of my day. Once I finally talked to the rep that was there, he had my issue resolved satisfactorily and correctly in less than 15 minutes.