I’ve read so many stories about shady practices used by some Uber drivers. We’ve written about some of them here. There’s “vomit fraud.” Or how a driver gets you from Point A to Point B and you end up with a higher charge. Or how a driver manipulates the system so you get no ride, they get paid and you get dinged. Even worse is this claim a driver can put against you.
It wasn’t until I went on a business trip that I fell victim to a driver’s dirty trick. We only use ride services when we have no other options, such as walking or taking public transport, so we haven’t used them often. Although this was the first time a driver scammed me, it definitely wasn’t the last. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for those who rely on ride services regularly.
In this instance, I was headed from Queens to Midtown Manhattan. I could have taken public transportation but I was in a time crunch. It would be an expensive ride but a necessary cost to make it in time for the show I had tickets for.
I called an Uber and was connected with a driver. I followed their car to my location and received the text they were arriving.
Almost immediately afterward, I received another notification thanking me for my ride and wanting me to rate my driver.
Uber charged me $8.01 for my one-minute ride. I ordered another ride, which went off without a hitch. My driver was nice, and we had a good conversation during the hour-long ride.
That is, except when I was trying to find out how to report the first driver to Uber and get a refund. It turns out there’s not an option for “My driver ghosted on me but reported I rode with him for a block and charged me $8 for the privilege.”
I ended up using the heading “My pickup or drop off location was wrong,” adding a comment that the reported ride never happened, and I requested another ride right afterward.
It took several hours but I received a reply saying they’re looking into the matter and will refund my $8 and further review the driver’s account.
Final Thoughts
If there were any Uber scams I would be caught by, this was the least harmless of them. It was easy to prove my case and get a refund. Why would I take a trip for 1 minute? Maybe the driver didn’t want to go where my ride was taking him. He could have canceled the ride but instead tried to weasel an extra $8 from me. So I had to report him to Uber, which is something I dislike doing. I don’t want to prevent anyone from making a living, but there’s no other option when you don’t work with your employer’s rules.
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