It seems to me like just about every Uber makes the news, it’s with a negative twist…
Many of us have heard about the Uber horror stories like $94 for a 2 Mile Ride and the twenty-minute ride which cost $362. Well here is another awful Uber story where another passenger may have been taken for a ride which really cost her…
Meagan, a food writer/ blogger was at her company holiday party on Park Avenue South in New York City this past Thursday. She ordered a Uber to take her back to Hoboken which is just 4.8 miles away.
Gothamist writes that “she was feeling ill and tired that night and ended up passing out in the car“. (My guess is Gothamist’s description of her illness might just be code for her being drunk.) When Meagan woke up she was shocked to see a bill for $293!
If you look at the bill shown above, you can see that Meagan’s driver Adnan was nice enough to take her on the sightseeing route of Manhattan. He went zigzagging back and forth, driving over 14 miles before getting her back to Hoboken!
Meagan said that she remembered waking up and being told that there was a lot of traffic. Little did she realize that she was being taken for the priciest cab ride of her life.
She’s contacted Uber about the situation through e-mail and twitter but hasn’t gotten what she feels is a fair response. She says that “If they took care of it or issued an apology/refund, I wouldn’t be writing“.
Meagan uses Uber regularly and has never had an issue with them before. Due to this situation, her 14+ mile odyssey will probably be he last times she ever using the service.
It sounds to me like Meagan is getting the raw end of the deal and is not experiencing the impressive customer service that I did when I was refunded $24.
Are you a Uber user? If so, what have you experiences been like?
Find out more details about the story from Gothamist here.
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The zig-zagging is from GPS errors that happen quite often in NYC. I’ve had similar Uber rides that zig-zag and rack up the distance, but a quick email to Uber’s customer support usually fixes the route (and refunds the difference).
let’s look at the bright side. She earned 2x membership rewards points! 500 membership rewards points just for riding with Uber.
Ken- Thanks for your comment and thoughts about Uber.
Jon- I would definitely agree that it is not a viable route to go from Park Ave South to Hoboken. However this is the info that I found out through the Gothamist article. I see no issue in writing about the article. Sorry you feel the way you do.
Dunkirk- That could very well be. Meagan is claiming that her Uber went on a 14 mile ride to get to her destination which is less than 5 miles away. Suspicious, no?
In NYC you can’t find a taxi? You don’t check the fare/surge before pushing the button? I think there’s two at fault here.
Anyone with half a brain can tell that that is not a viable route. There are no streets in NYC that run along that zig zag path, so unless Meagan was in an Uber helicopter, there’s more to this story and a more logical explanation. Shame on you, Michael, for regurgitating a gothamist story and not applying any common sense by looking at the map. Adnan probably didn’t do anything wrong.
Overall, I’ve got bad customer service from Uber. I’ve got a similar response from Uber in the past. I was referred by a blogger, so my first ride didn’t hurt my wallet much due to 30USD referral credit even after my similar *tour* in Boston but they didn’t even give me my referral credit for my friend. I still remember the name of the customer service agent. I think she was a BU MBA student, who never gave me the reason or a valid explanation. Overall, a bit sketchy company from my experience. Also, I have a friend who is a driver for Uber, obviously that side is even darker…I appreciate companies with a good moral standard and Uber is not one of them. So I stopped using it. I also depreciate the blogs that rely heavily on Uber credits (so no personal expense for rides) but write only good things about it. It is not surprising that bloggers get less problems and better customer service because they refer many. It is the referred who rely on their own wallet to get rides…In the end, we are not that important for uber because we bring a limited number of clients…By the way, I didn’t get your referral, so I am not blaming you: I stopped going to the blogger who constantly praise uber, so it cannot be you because I don’t visit his blog anymore.