Overbilled 30 Minutes, Uber Refunds Me…

Uber Scam

On July 4, Kim, Lucas and I had a long layover in Miami on the way home from our trip to Nicaragua.

During the layover I wondered if it was better to rent a car or use Uber.

We ended up going with Uber, only taking two rides. Our cars showed up within minutes and both drivers seemed very nice and had clean cars. It seemed like a good move to not bother renting a car….

When we got dropped off back at Miami International Airport I noticed a problem. After the ride, I didn’t receive an e-mail from Uber with our trip details including the price…

This seemed a bit shady and suspicious. However, I hoped that this was just a delay in receiving the trip receipt e-mail.

Once through security, we headed to the AA Admirals Club. A short while later (around a  half hour after getting dropped off from our Uber) I noticed the e-mail I was looking for.

Uber Scam

We had received a fare-estimate of around $7-11 from what I recall. Our fare for this quick ride of around 7 minutes cost $19.44, almost double my estimate.

I also noticed that the receipt said the ride ended at 4:48PM. This was pretty odd considering we were already in the AA lounge by that time!

It turned out that our driver, Yamil ended our ride approximately 20 minutes after we got out of the car while also driving 12.5 miles during this time…

Uber Scam
image: Google Maps

A Google Maps search shows our destination being just 5.8 miles away from MIA and it should take 8 minutes to drive there.

Did the driver make a mistake and forget to end our fare? I can’t say that I have a clue.

I decided to rate the driver and leave feedback about my concerns.

(During my first ride with Uber back in June 2014 there was an issue with the fare. I was impressed when the community manager reached out to me based on my survey, eventually refunding me $24. Find out more details here.)

I was impressed once again by the response. The next day I had a message from Uber apologizing for the incorrect timing of this trip. My fare was “recalculated and adjusted” to $11.76, refunding me $7.68.

This made the fare closer to what I expected to pay.

I give Uber credit again for helping out with this strange situation.

While I’m impressed with Uber’s customer support in the matter, I’m surprised and disappointed by the driver’s actions unless it was just a mistake….

A bit of advice: Make sure to always check your Uber receipt after a ride. Look to see that the time of the ride and distance appear to reflect the ride you took.

(If you don’t already have an Uber account, you can sign up with my link. You’ll get your first ride free, up to $20 and after you take your ride, I’ll also earn a free ride up to $20.)

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6 thoughts on “Overbilled 30 Minutes, Uber Refunds Me…

  1. I had a similar experience with Uber about a month ago – we were dropped off at the airport and 10 minutes later we got the receipt that showed our route into the airport and then the driver going several miles after dropping us off. I emailed Uber and within a few hours they had already adjusted the charge.

  2. Jay- And that makes it acceptable?

    AMJ- uberPOOL is the shared ride service. I don’t think the others are allowed to make multiple pickups. I’m glad that you fought for your money back. It does seem like a bit of a scam.

    VC- Intesting (and sneaky) things that you’ve noticed… I hope my situation was a mistake but I’ll never know!

  3. Most of the uber drivers I’ve had have been great people, but there is always one bad uber driver out there!

    1. The driver that starts driving 5-10 miles/hr below the posted signage when he thinks I wouldn’t notice or seem to have my eyes closed. I can tell when the car is slowing down! Of course my end bill is $10 more than the usual fare.

    2. The driver that cancels a ride when surge pricing comes into effect hoping that you’ll call again and pay surge pricing. I just refresh my app and pick another pickup location with a different driver.

    I hope yours was just a mistake!

  4. I had what felt like a scamish Uber experience about a month ago while visiting Orlando. We used Uber around Disney fine a few times leading up to the incident.

    We requested an Uber X (smaller car) and a driver with a Dodge Caravan who was 8 or so minutes away accepted our ride request. I thought it was somewhat strange that we were getting minivan, but whatever. Suddenly, the driver was something like 12 minutes away. I figured that maybe she got lost or took a wrong turn or something.

    After waiting about 10 minutes, I got a call from the driver asking how many people were in our party (4). She said that she didn’t have room for all of us. I asked why she wouldn’t have room for us if she was driving a minivan and she said that it was because she had two other passengers. She then told me I would need to cancel the pickup and I obliged. I went to request another Uber and surge pricing had kicked in. We ended up just taking a regular cab back to our hotel at a much greater cost than a normal priced Uber ride.

    A little later, I received a receipt showing that I had been charged $5 for cancelling my Uber ride over 5 minutes after requesting my pickup. I immediately emailed Uber customer service informing them that I did cancel the ride, but at the request of the driver. Over email, they offered to credit my account the $5. I wanted a refund, not a credit, and it took me two more emails to get the refund.

    The entire episode with the driver felt VERY scamish to me. First, are Uber drivers allowed to pickup more than one group (which is what it sounded like this driver was doing) without their consent? I asked Uber about this and did not receive an answer.

    More to the point, I thought that it was very unsavory that the driver either picked up another party or drove around long enough for me to be past the 5 minute grace time for cancellation. I was naïve enough to cancel when she asked me to (I’ll never make that mistake again), but it seems like that is a very convenient way for drivers to make an easy $5 without any work. Only penny pinchers like me are going to take the time to write three emails to Uber demanding the money back.

    We were in Orlando for almost another week after this happened. There were a few situations were we could have utilized Uber, but our previous experience was a real turn off to the company.

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