Last week I booked an Uber from our favourite pub to my home in north London – a trip of 1.75 miles I have taken several hundred times.
I was riding with two friends whom I regularly drop off on the way. I asked the driver to use my preferred route, he refused and a row ensued, to the point where he ejected us from the cab in the rain.
The next day, I received a receipt for £332 – the trip’s cost. The money had been taken from my bank account.
It seems the driver had run his meter for 16 hours and 27 minutes.
I have tried everything to persuade Uber that something is wrong. After 1hr 20mins on the phone, it simply cut me off, and the company doesn’t appear to have any system that will pick up such an absurd bill.
AG, London
Leaving aside the question of whether you want to get into a row with drivers over their route, I agree it is very odd that Uber’s systems did not pick up this obvious error.
The journey is clearly shown on the app as taking 16 hours but shows a shortish route across London.
You are not the first reader to complain that Uber’s customer services are impenetrable.
Uber says: “We are sorry that the user had such a poor experience. Due to a technical error with the trip, which we are investigating, the user was overcharged, and we have been in touch to refund the trip.”
And finally…
LT writes to praise easyJet which has cancelled her flights to Bodrum in Turkey at the end of July. Within five days of her asking for a full refund, she says the money was in her bank account. We’ll overlook the fact that this was the airline’s legal responsibility. Many passengers are still waiting for refunds from other airlines and travel agents from last year.
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