Taxi Driver Online

FARE RAGE Uber passenger’s fury after being charged £111 for a TWO-MILE trip home from the pub – 23 times the normal price



A PLUMBER was left furious after being charged £111 for a two-mile Uber journey home from the pub.

Matt Bennett woke up after a night out to find he had been overcharged for the eight-minute trip which usually costs a fiver.

The teen had gone to bed after a few drinks and hadn’t noticed the fare, but was in disbelief when he saw the total the next morning.

Shocked Matt, 18, told The Sun: “I got the Uber back thinking it was all good.

"It’s a journey I’ve done many times before and I’ve never had a problem.

“But I woke up the next day to see an excessive amount billed to my credit card.

"I was in shock, especially since my average charge is £4-7 and I’d been quoted the same.”

Matt was so stunned he rushed to tell his mum Mandy, whom he lives with in Nottingham.

She said: “I was outraged.

"Matt can’t afford the fare, he’s only 18 and only just finished his plumbing apprenticeship. Plus it’s very difficult times and he’s finding it hard to find work.

“But even if he wasn’t struggling financially, it still doesn’t make it right. I’m absolutely furious.”

Matt, who had been drinking at the Plainsman pub in Mapperley, had been charged just £4.90 for the same journey one month earlier.

He disputed the fare - 23 times the usual cost - on the app but was told it was a reasonable price for that time because they were busy.

He then phoned Uber and was again told it was a ‘surge’ charge - when it’s busy, the prices go up - as he was travelling just after the 10pm curfew.

Matt said: “They just kept telling me it was a fair price, which it definitely wasn’t.

“They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this.”

His credit card company temporarily held the payment but said they needed proof Matt didn’t accept the increased fare - something which is impossible to get after you’ve taken the journey.

So Mandy did some digging and found that if you’re getting a ‘surge’ charge then there should be a little purple ring with a yellow lightning bolt stating the increase.

She said: “It should say, ‘it should have cost you this, but it's going to cost you this’. But there’s nothing on Matt’s receipt that says surge on it.

“It really worries me because we live in Nottingham where there is a massive student community and these things are probably happening to more and more people.

“And they don't do anything about it because it's so difficult to do anything about. Uber makes it very difficult to complain.”

Mandy phoned Uber herself and asked for a manager to call her back, but a week later had still heard nothing.

After being contacted by Sun Online, Uber agreed to refund Matt’s fare.

An Uber spokesperson said: “We are always happy to review a trip if there are concerns about the route taken, and provide a fare adjustment where appropriate.

“In this case, we apologise that we did not meet our usual high standards of customer care, and the customer has been refunded.”

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IDFIMH

Got to be some kind of scam going on there.

Usually with these tales of woe the punter has fallen asleep and ended up 100s of miles from home, or the driver has gone on a round the world trip. But in this case neither happened.

There is no way Uber operate a 23 times surge, so the driver is, IMO, in someway at it.

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IDFIMH

Indeed, and below is the graphic showing the trip on the app (presumably the one above is the Sun's own graphic, so might not show the actual route taken), which often in cases like this shows that the driver has taken a massive detour.

But driver has obviously taken the direct route, and presumably x23 surge can't explain it, so something's obviously amiss.

Which in turn perhaps explains why Uber cancelled the payment so readily - they often dig their heels in about stuff like this.

SO it already varies by that much would he not be better off finding a local PH firm and getting a regular fixed price ?

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

That's maybe just the normal surge range. So he's willing to pay it because he knows he'll get a cab sooner than trying elsewhere, which is the theory behind surge-pricing.

1 am in the morning new years maybe but doubt there is much shortage otherwise

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Maybe, but who knows?

And I don't think you can compare small town like ours with the big cities.

And maybe he's had bad experiences with fares and the like with local firms. After all, hardly unknown.

And maybe he thinks it's more convenient to use the app rather than finding lots of numbers and phoning them and they're all engaged.

In fact the Uber app and the more transparent/consistent pricing seems to be one of its big attractions.

Of course, no system is perfect, and something has obviously gone badly wrong here.

So he may reconsider his options in future, but who knows?

Anyway, would be interesting to know precisely what happened here. I mean, even if a driver had found a way to scam the system, would he be daft enough to charge a fare like this?

Maybe a couple of pounds more than normal, but £100 more?

Surely no driver would be daft enough to think they'd get away with that?

On the other hand

I wonder if this was a £100 soiling charge added again

not exactly rocket science for a driver to pour a bottle of water on the seat take a photo and send it in to Uber

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Maybe but they usually show a picture of the mess with the bill.

Of course the scam could be putting that on the bill by 'mistake!!!!', in the hope that punters are too [edited by admin] to remember or to rich to check their credit card statements.

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IDFIMH

It would presumably be itemised separately on the bill, and thus would have been mentioned in the article.

Tried to find a graphic showing a bill itemising stuff like that, but couldn't find one.

But came across this photo, guaranteed to rile some on here

It's from an overseas news source, though, so maybe it's legal across there.

Also came across this - pished up guy disputed Uber's £95 cleaning fee, so they sent him these.

Oh



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... g-fee.html