Yesterday, Jamie, of The Forward Cabin, wrote about his really good experience with Uber where the driver took a long route. Jamie contacted Uber about the ride, and they refunded part of his fare. Awesome. But it doesn’t always work like that. I’m usually a fan of Uber too, but I had my first really bad experience with Uber a few weeks ago… and hopefully the last.
I was in Chicago for the weekend, hanging out at the Chicago Seminars hotel (though not actually attending the seminars), and wanted to meet up with a friend who lives in Chicago for dinner. She told me she would meet me at the Argyle Station on the red line. My original plan had been to take the shuttle to the airport, blue line downtown, and then red line to the Argyle stations, but I lost track of time and realized I was going to be late unless I called a cab… er… Uber. My Uber driver arrived, and I told him Argyle station. He wasn’t sure where it was off the top of his head, but pulled up the CTA map and we were on our way. Or so I thought…. Compare the location where I was dropped off to where I had asked to go. Yeah. Not close. Not close at all. Not to mention, the dude just dropped me off in some random place and told me it was right on the red line. It wasn’t, go figure. He was also a pretty major jerk when he realized that he didn’t know where to take me.
My Uber driver dropped me off in the wrong place…
Now, that’s not really even the worst of it! I submitted feedback through the app an asked for a refund since I then still had to go quite a bit further north (I did just take the CTA this time). An Uber customer service representative contacted me though email and told me that based on the pick-up and drop-off locations the fare seemed to be accurate. I get that that is true, assuming I was dropped off in the right place! I sent another email back trying to make that clear and never got a response… I ended up disputing the charge through my credit card company.
Don’t get me wrong. I still like Uber. I will still use Uber. I will still recommend that others use Uber. But their customer service could use some work, if you ask me.
If you are interested in signing up for an Uber account, you will receive $30 if you use my link. I do also receive referral credit after you take your first ride. I do still recommend Uber as a service. Thanks for your support!
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Wow can you get any more shameless with the affiliate link?!?! The company screwed you over and yet you still push them so you can get free stuff. Have some integrity!
Like I said, I do still like Uber, I will still use Uber, I do recommend that others do as well. Mistakes happen, things slip through the crack, and that’s what I chalk this up to. Granted, if it happens again I won’t say the same.
Do you use the fare estimate feature on the app? This is how I book all my rides. I punch in my exact pick up and drop off locations and then press the request button. When a driver accepts the ride, this info is already prepopulated into his GPS. This leaves no margin for error (assuming I did it correctly of course) he/she can simply follow the GPS, and it’s your proof that you requested that specific route. I can kind of see Uber’s point because if you’re verbally telling the driver where you want to go then it’s kind of a he said she said situation. He would simply say that’s where you requested to go. Obviously make sure he gets a terrible review.
Also I understand the Uber referral credit went down to $20 but I could be wrong.
Usually I do use the fare estimate feature, but in this case I was not able to find the location that I needed to be dropped off, and since I wasn’t familiar with the area I couldn’t choose somewhere nearby.