You probably already know that I’m a huge fan of Uber. Actually, I’m more than just a fan, I’m truly an Uber enthusiast; I have been with them since the very beginning, and have taken more rides than I can count. It’s always been a pleasant experience, and it’s wayyyy less intimidating than the taxi vultures.
My last Uber experience was… interesting to say the least. First off, let me start off by saying it wasn’t me taking the ride. My brother was in town for a Lasik appointment, and he had asked me to accompany him. However, it was taking wayyy longer than expected, and after a few hours had passed, he said, “hey Ang, why don’t you just go home, and I’ll take a taxi when I’m done.”
Instead, I made him a counteroffer – I’d get an Uber for him from my account since he’s never experienced it. In my family, I constantly rave about the service, and now the time has come for his first ride. The good thing about Uber is that you don’t have to scramble to pay at the end of the ride – all that is taken care of so you can just exit and be on your merry way.
The only challenge was this: my brother’s phone had died while he was at his appointment.
After he called me from the doctor’s office to tell me he was done, I requested an Uber for him, and one arrived to pick him up in 2 minutes. So far so good. He only had a 15-minute ride to his destination, so I kept looking for my “thanks-for-riding-with-Uber”-receipt in my inbox to confirm that he had arrived home safely.
30 minutes had passed. Nothing. “Ok, there’s traffic”, I thought.
45 minutes pass… still nothing. “Maybe I should call the driver”.
I called the driver and it went straight to voicemail. Now my mind is racing. Did the Uber driver kidnap my brother on his first ride!?!? (seriously, it happened in Washington DC).
1 hour had gone by, and it was time to plan his funeral (kidding).
Finally, after an hour and 5 minutes, I finally received that life-saving email in my inbox.
What the hell happened??? First I looked at the driver’s route map. Wow. The driver literally drove in all directions for over an hour.
When my brother charged his phone, I was able to speak to him for the real story.
He told me that the driver did not have a GPS unit, and the driver’s phone had also died. This was also the driver’s first Uber ride. Though the driver was very nice, what are the chances that someone with a dead phone ends up in a car with a driver who is clueless about where he’s going and doesn’t have any navigation?
My brother then tells me that the driver stopped at an auto body shop and made my brother go inside and ask for a paper map.
Yup.
What bothered me the most of all was that the driver charged me for the entire corn-maze route he drove. The price was outrageous. I immediately contacted Uber and asked if they could adjust the fare to something more fair (pun). They responded very quickly and adjusted it according to the fare estimate between the two points.
I still love Uber.
But the bigger question is: does my brother?
Got any interesting Uber stories of your own?
I haven’t got an Uber story (haven’t tried it myself), but I did see this piece of story in the news just the other day. Kind of crazy:
http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/09/uber-driver-takes-riders-on-high-speed-chase-with-taxi-inspector-in-hot-pursuit/
And… what was your star rating of the Uber driver? :)
Happened to jump into the front seat of a UBERx and the we got pulled over. All went well but could have been interesting :-)
JAPT, you are the older sibling right? Don’t sweat it, you were just being the protective older sibling. Your brother is likely not annoyed at all.
I have used Uber a few times most recently when leaving NYC. Everything went as planned until we got loaded in the car. Then the driver says his phone flashed and he lost his call from us. No problem right? We’re in the car and he knows our destination… WRONG! He said he can’t get paid if he can’t track the call. So he ask me to request the car again and he will pick it up. Send request…. yep you guessed it. Another driver snatches it. The current driver can’t figure out how to make it work so we have to get out of his car and go to the 2nd one that showed up. He must have been around the corner! Other than moving everything, it was a smooth ride to the airport.
He’s right. A driver can’t get paid for a ride off the platform and is not covered by the umbrella insurance policy. Also it’s strictly forbidden to do so. No app = no ride. Strictly enforced.
if you take me for a nice ride around the city, you do not get paid, not adjust to something fair, that ride is free, you waste my time and you compensate me accordingly. I do not pay for rides that exceed more than 5 or 10 mins and it was their fault…for example they made a wrong turn and he need to turn around and the turn around was more than 1Km I would ignore it or ask uber to fix it.. anything more than that you are going to get an email and I am going to ask for that ride to be waived depending on how bad it was.. your situation I would have def asked for a waiver.. also I do not use UberX it is total rubbish some joker driving me around no way.. UberBlack ONLY
This story sounds suspect. If both the driver and passengers phones were dead during the ride, how could it track their route? Hmm.
either way driver or rider scams should be squashed k WILL NOT LET ANY1 SCAM ME OR FAMILY will resort to legal or illegal means to balance the scales STAND UP FOR YASELF