Student's £110 cleaning fee refunded after Uber taxi ride from London to BathA Bath student has hit out at Uber after it took £110 from his account to clean a "mess" without warning. Fulham fan Matthew Legg took a long distance ride back to the city on Saturday, May 26, with the cashless taxi service after watching his football side win promotion to the Premier League.
A day after paying Uber "a small fortune" for the London-Bath journey, he received an email with a picture saying: "A mess that resulted from your trip required professional cleaning. "When a cleaning fee request is submitted by your driver, we assess and charge the cleaning fee in accordance with the extent of the mess and the reasonable cost of cleaning. "Due to the severity of the incident on this trip, a cleaning fee of £110 was applied."
The message begins 'Thanks for reaching out, Matthew'
The grainy photograph, above, seems to show a piece of lettuce and a wet seat.
Matt, a University of Bath student, admitted that he had food in the car and a bottle of water but that the financial penalty was excessive. "There is simply a photo of a damp seat with no proof it was my beverage," he told Uber_Support on Twitter, "which is either water or my own sweat and a couple of pieces of lettuce."
The 21-year-old, who describes himself as a loyal Uber user with a 4.9* rating, said the fine plunged him into his overdraft. "Please act on this as soon as possible," he said. "Not to your corporation but £110 is a massive sum of money for me. "I'm truly distraught by this and I don't feel like I'm being cared for by your business or protected as I hoped I would be. "Personally I think the corporation should review taking money from a client before there has been a full review."
The case is similar to another Uber user's experience that was reported in the Guardian. "I got an Uber car home and it was a completely uneventful trip," the report in the paper's Consumer champions section reads. "The next morning an email from Uber said there had been an incident that required the car to be cleaned and that it had taken £110 from my account.
"When I disputed the claim it sent a picture of a stained car seat and I received notification, via the app, that the case had been resolved. I’m getting no replies by email or on Twitter – just a wall of silence. "The photo is meaningless. You can’t tell what time it was taken, which seat it is, or which car it is in. And I absolutely did not cause the damage."
Matt, who is hosting a football tournament at Wembley to boost male suicide charities later this month, was repeatedly told by Uber_Support that the fine was being investigated and seeing little progress.
It was only on Friday, June 1 - four days after he first made contact - that Uber said it would refund his £110, after Bath Live contacted the company. An Uber spokesman said: “The Uber app is based on mutual respect for both riders and drivers. For licensed drivers who use the app, their vehicles are their place of work and any damage or mess can mean they are unable to continue working.
"When a driver claims a cleaning fee, they are required to provide us with the details of the trip, the passengers and the incident itself as well as photographic evidence and a validated cleaning receipt which our support team then investigates. "In this instance, we have refunded the rider."
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