Uber - Cleaning Charge

freeze

First off, apologies if I've posted this in the wrong section.

I took a ride in an Uber cab recently. Two days later I was billed a £60 charge for a "clean up" fee on top of the fare.

After contacting Uber they told me their driver reported one of the passengers spilling a drink in the cab and because of this he had to finish his shift early (bearing in mind we were dropped off at 04:18am...)

Now to cut a long story short, I was asleep for most of this journey and the other two passengers both say nobody had a drink on them to be spilled and I completely believe that and as far as I remember the driver did not say anything to me when I got out (I was the final drop).

I asked Uber to provide proof to which they sent the attached photograph, which to me demonstrates nothing. I would have thought at a minimum they would have to provide time stamped photographs, clearly demonstrating the "spill" in the cab that I was travelling in?

As you can see (hopefully), what they have provided could be a picture of any vehicle, even someones sofa, taken at any time.

To get to my point I have gone back and forth with Uber asking for some kind of reasonable proof this happened in the vehicle we travelled in as I'm adamant this didn't happen whilst we were in the cab and their general response is this is what the driver has provided and we have charged accordingly...

Would my next course of action to go to small claims court? I feel they have effectively told me "our driver says you did something, so we are going to take him at his word and charge you £60...tough". Surely a company of their size cannot act in this way?

Thanks ahead of time for any response/help and apologises for the length of the post, I hope it's clear enough

freeze

Apologies I tried to post the photo they sent me from photobucket but I'm not allowed, you'll have to take my word unless there is another way

unholyangel

They won't just be taking the driver at his word - they should be able to see from their system that he went off duty after your hire. Despite your hire being at 4am, its a 24 hour trade. Meaning their shifts can start and end at any time of the day or night.

Now, whats not clear is if they have actually debited this money from card details they hold or just billed you for it. If they have just billed you, you don't take them to court, they would take you. Were you the person who booked the car or was it someone else?

Soiling charges aren't a new thing. Its usually (I believe anyway) set by the local authority responsible for regulating the taxi industry and granting taxi licences. It would also be them you would complain to if you had any issues with a taxi driver or company so I would start there and see how it goes. Also worthwhile to note the soiling charge really doesn't fully compensate the driver. You have diminution in value of the car, the cost of having it professionally valeted unless it was maybe water, loss of earnings between the hire & having it clean & dry.

As for posting the link, try breaking up the address with spaces.

JReacher1

Someone soiled his taxi.

If it was the person before you then I think you would have noticed. Especially if there was three of you in the cab.

One of your friends is probably lying to you.

freeze

unholyangel wrote: »

They won't just be taking the driver at his word - they should be able to see from their system that he went off duty after your hire. Despite your hire being at 4am, its a 24 hour trade. Meaning their shifts can start and end at any time of the day or night.

Now, whats not clear is if they have actually debited this money from card details they hold or just billed you for it. If they have just billed you, you don't take them to court, they would take you. Were you the person who booked the car or was it someone else?

Soiling charges aren't a new thing. Its usually (I believe anyway) set by the local authority responsible for regulating the taxi industry and granting taxi licences. It would also be them you would complain to if you had any issues with a taxi driver or company so I would start there and see how it goes. Also worthwhile to note the soiling charge really doesn't fully compensate the driver. You have diminution in value of the car, the cost of having it professionally valeted unless it was maybe water, loss of earnings between the hire & having it clean & dry.

As for posting the link, try breaking up the address with spaces.

Hi, thanks for your reply, I'm aware that there will be some drivers who work later than 4am, my point was it's also plausible that this individual wanted to clock off and get a pay day. I've read multiple accounts of this happening online because it seems the threshold of proof with Uber is so low.

As its Uber it comes straight off the card associated with my account.

Agreed but again I was asleep for the majority of the journey, nothing was said to me during the last part of the journey or when I got out and I'm pretty sure I would have noticed if the seat was wet. I'm not interested whether it compensates the driver or not as no one in that cab did what he has alleged and has got a pay day off. Have no idea what the substance was because it didn't happen whilst we were in his vehicle.

My point being was if Uber had sent me a set of time stamped photographs clearly demonstrating a spillage in the vehicle I travelled in, around the time I travelled in it, I probably wouldn't be contesting it and would be chasing the other two passengers to stump up. But Uber haven't provided anything resembling that. If you are going to charge a £60 cleaning fee (probably rightly so if true) there should surely be a burden to provide reasonable proof that it actually happened?

It's kind of creating an environment where you feel obliged to film the back seat of the cab before you get out.

I keep getting this message when it comes to the link: "Sorry as a new user you are not allowed to post with links. This is done to stop spammers clogging up the site. Please edit your message below to continue."

JReacher1 wrote: »

Someone soiled his taxi.

If it was the person before you then I think you would have noticed. Especially if there was three of you in the cab.

One of your friends is probably lying to you.

Thanks for your reply.

Possibly. Or the driver is...

My point being, I have asked Uber for proof of what they or their driver has alleged and now charged for, which seems reasonable to me. They haven't been able to provide that evidence and I'm now not sure what steps to take next. I would assume it would be small claims court?


Would I need to ask Uber for details of their legal department? Contact address etc. I assume they would be the party I would take action against as they are the service provider and it is their decision whether to charge an individual a cleaning fee or not?

Again thanks for your replies and any help provided, also apologies for the rambling but this has annoyed me.

Pollycat

freeze wrote: »

As its Uber it comes straight off the card associated with my account.

Have you spoken to your card provider about a charge-back?

JReacher1

freeze wrote: »

Hi, thanks for your reply, I'm aware that there will be some drivers who work later than 4am, my point was it's also plausible that this individual wanted to clock off and get a pay day. I've read multiple accounts of this happening online because it seems the threshold of proof with Uber is so low.

As its Uber it comes straight off the card associated with my account.

Agreed but again I was asleep for the majority of the journey, nothing was said to me during the last part of the journey or when I got out and I'm pretty sure I would have noticed if the seat was wet. I'm not interested whether it compensates the driver or not as no one in that cab did what he has alleged and has got a pay day off. Have no idea what the substance was because it didn't happen whilst we were in his vehicle.

My point being was if Uber had sent me a set of time stamped photographs clearly demonstrating a spillage in the vehicle I travelled in, around the time I travelled in it, I probably wouldn't be contesting it and would be chasing the other two passengers to stump up. But Uber haven't provided anything resembling that. If you are going to charge a £60 cleaning fee (probably rightly so if true) there should surely be a burden to provide reasonable proof that it actually happened?

It's kind of creating an environment where you feel obliged to film the back seat of the cab before you get out.

I keep getting this message when it comes to the link: "Sorry as a new user you are not allowed to post with links. This is done to stop spammers clogging up the site. Please edit your message below to continue."


Thanks for your reply.

Possibly. Or the driver is...

My point being, I have asked Uber for proof of what they or their driver has alleged and now charged for, which seems reasonable to me. They haven't been able to provide that evidence and I'm now not sure what steps to take next. I would assume it would be small claims court?


Would I need to ask Uber for details of their legal department? Contact address etc. I assume they would be the party I would take action against as they are the service provider and it is their decision whether to charge an individual a cleaning fee or not?

Again thanks for your replies and any help provided, also apologies for the rambling but this has annoyed me.

If you go to court you'll probably lose.

Uber have a photo of the incident and you admit that you were asleep for the journey so don't know whether or not your friends did anything.

I would like to see how you would defend this in court. Uber have hard evidence, you have nothing.

agrinnall

Just ask your friends to split the cost between the 3 of you, £20 each, stay home one time rather than go on a night out and that's the cost (easily) covered.

arcon5

diminution in value of car?

Brilliant!!!

cono1717

If you want to PM me your photo link I can post it here to provide some context - it's likely the outcome will be the same however.

SailorSam

When i drove my Cab if someone spilt a drink a drink it was the same as if a child spilt their bag of crisps. You get in the back with a duster & brush it out. We'd definitely not call that soiling the Cab.
We use to try and charge £10 if someone had been sick or even worse in the Cab, more often than not we wouldn't even get that 'cos they were probably drunk. But even then we'd clean it up in 10/15mins. In over 20yrs on the Cabs i think only twice it was so bad i needed to go home to start cleaning out.