Taxi Driver Online

Stone Roses fans charged £160 for Uber taxi home after driver 'took wrong route'


Will Sloan had been enjoying his 20th birthday at a gig at Manchester City's Etihad stadium before he jumped in a cab back to his home in Altrincham

A group of Stone Roses fans returning home from the band's huge show at Manchester City's Etihad Stadium were stunned when their Uber driver charged them £160.

After enjoying his 20th birthday, student Will Sloan said he was left in disbelief when he found out that the journey from the stadium to his home in Altrincham.

He said: “We noticed at the time that he was going pretty much the longest way possible.

"We would usually expect to pay about £30-£40 to get home but when I found out I couldn’t believe it.

"It was outrageous!”

At the end of the journey Will and his friends questioned the driver about his choice of route, reports Manchester Evening News.

He then admitted to taking the wrong route home, saying that he would email to sort out a refund.

Will, who called an Uber using the app on his phone, said: “This just shows that if you aren’t careful Uber can cost you a fortune.

"The whole situation has put me off ever using Uber again and ruined what would have been a great birthday.”

The three pals chose to get a taxi home when they saw the queue for the Metrolink stretched from the station all the way down to the junction on Alan Turing Way and back again.

They were told the surcharge for their journey would be 4.9.

But after the trip Will went on the app’s help section and clicked on the driver ‘chose a poor route’ option.

He has now been told he will be refunded £50 instantly, making the cost of the journey just over £100.

Despite the refund, he has contacted the online taxi company asking for more.

He said: “It’s simply not enough, they have mugged us off.

"Uber have not apologised to me for taking advantage of us on an otherwise fantastic night.”

Up to 60,000 fans were at the opening gig last night when the Stone Roses were supported by Blossoms, Chronixx, and Public Enemy.

An Uber spokesperson said: “While there was a poor route taken, the fare is primarily a result of dynamic pricing.

"In this case, the trip was accepted at a high multiplier which means that the fare was higher than normal as a result of demand in the area.

“Pricing aside, the driver took a different route but both the rider and the driver wrote into support after and the fare was automatically adjusted for the route.

"Our team is currently following up on his email to support team and will adjust the fare as per our policies.”

source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/st ... 60-8208058

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

A surge of 4.9

_________________
Grandad,

They accepted and if they expected to pay £30/£40 it's not far off what they were charged.

_________________
Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

The three pals chose to get a taxi home .

But they didn't get a TAXI

Oh dear.

it can go up to 9.9 I believe the thing is as you well know immediately after a concert finishes demand goes through the roof as everyone wants to go home at the same time so it's his own fault for using uber instead of a proper hackney or PH

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

Will Sloan had been enjoying his 20th birthday at a gig at Manchester City's Etihad stadium before he jumped in a cab back to his home in Altrincham

it's about time the trade made a super complaint to the press complaints commission

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

They didn't want to wait in a queue like most ordinary people so chose a more expensive option.

That was their choice.

Now whilst there appears to be no excuse for the long way around, they should pay for the direct route at the rate they were advised at the time.

Of course next time they will just have to queue up with the rest of us.

_________________
IDFIMH

Regardless of whatever company this driver is from then surely the drivers LA should be pulling him in, as you have to take the shortest route unless the passenger says otherwise. The 4.9 aspect, would as said above, be applicable to what the fare should be.

_________________
Common sense........is just not that Common.

I don't think he needs pulling in. He may well not be familiar with the area and simply got it wrong. That part of the journey and fare has been corrected by the company. The driver did apologise to the customer at the time.

_________________
Grandad,

I understand what you are saying! However you know as well as I do - that would be no defence. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all have a price surge of 4.9 and then take everybody the longest route The country seems to be full of "Apologies" i.e bankers,someone dies etc,unfortunately it does not rectify a wrong - did the driver refund the money?

_________________
if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

The driver admitted to the customer that the route was wrong and told the customer that he would contact UBER to arrange a refund, which UBER did. What more could he have done?

_________________
Grandad,

What more could he have done!!! The journey was approximately 11.8 miles, he went on a 5.5 mile detour, that is p!zz poor to say the least. If the driver had offered him half of the money back he still would have been ripping him off, at those rates they are charging over £13.55p per mile. If the driver did not know the route in that A to B journey - he got it nearly 50% wrong in this case, then he should not be on the road, (how many others have been done due to his apparent lack of local knowledge). Remember UBER would probably had a 20/25% cut of that.....and an apology (sorts) it out! I do not think so.

_________________
Common sense........is just not that Common.

Lack of local knowledge is a crock of sh!t as has already been said you should know the area your working in (though that doesn't seem to matter with Uber drivers) and how many Taxi and Ph drivers don't have a sat nav or sat nav software on there phone, in my opinion this driver knew exactly what he was doing he was looking to fill his boots while the surge was on.

Uber in Manchester are licensed by All 10 licensing bodies of greater Manchester...therefore their drivers are from those 10 boroughs....so it is very likely that the driver who picked up the fare is not familiar with the area he was driving to.
Having said that Uber on their app will map the journey for the driver so it shouldn't really matter !
A similar journey in a Hackney would be around £30 maximum.....as they saying goes...you pay peanuts...you get what you deserve...and there's no such thing as a free lunch !