Uber charge

Caroline84uk

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has had the same problem as me. I ordered a Uber home last night, which is 11 miles, and was told it was 21 pounds. Got Uber and once I got home it was 93 pounds! They added 70 pounds for sub charge as it was a busy period. I wasn’t told this and when I tried to double check the price when in Uber the app wouldn’t show me and driver didn’t know.
I’ve tried contacting Uber but only got a generic reply saying that I agreed to price changes when I signed up to the app and they have ignored me ever since. Is there anything I can do about this?

glentoran99

Uber price surges are a pretty standard part of their business model and when booking the taxi it would have been flagged up on the app as you need to confirm you accept the price surge before you can order.


https://www.uber.com/en-GB/drive/partner-app/how-surge-works/

tasticz

wow! never seen a 5x surcharge. what location did you get the taxi from?

you could also ask the bank for a chargeback...

shaun_from_Africa

tasticz wrote: »

you could also ask the bank for a chargeback...

If what glentoran99 stated about the price being shown on the app and the need to confirm this before Uber can be booked, I doubt if a chargeback will be successful.

peter_the_piper

Maybe use a normal cab next time, at least you know how much it will cost.

agrinnall

It's been happening a lot in Birmingham for the last 10 days. The lack of gritting on roads across the city has led to widespread bus service suspensions due to ice and widely reported excessive charging by taxi companies picking up the extra business.

daveyjp

Caroline84uk wrote: »

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has had the same problem as me. I ordered a Uber home last night, which is 11 miles, and was told it was 21 pounds. Got Uber and once I got home it was 93 pounds! They added 70 pounds for sub charge as it was a busy period. I wasn’t told this and when I tried to double check the price when in Uber the app wouldn’t show me and driver didn’t know.
I’ve tried contacting Uber but only got a generic reply saying that I agreed to price changes when I signed up to the app and they have ignored me ever since. Is there anything I can do about this?

Stop using them and spread the word?

Complaint to licencing authority, however unless you know where the particular taxi was licenced you may have a problem.

Don’t assume its the authority where you took the cab. I see Uber cabs in our city centre from an Council area 40 miles away.

vikingaero

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/08/02/uber-drivers-gang-cause-surge-pricing-research-says/

Google Uber Price Surge and there are lots of complaints. The above articles says Yes there are Price Surges. Uber claim their software detects this. Thing is, can you trust the scummiest company on the planet?

Caroline84uk

Thanks for your help. I managed to contact Uber on Facebook and they refunded the extra charge this time. It’s possible they did say about the extra amount and I didn’t pay attention but I had no idea they even did this! It’s outrageous they can charge 4 times as much and it was early so I would have been surprised if they were busy

JReacher1

I like uber. Don’t really understand why some cities are trying to kick them out. People claim they aren’t safe which I don’t understand as in an uber you know the car, driver, license plate and route of the car. With black cabs that is all very nameless. It could be anyone and they could take you anywhere. Plus being cashless means you don’t have any issues around money.

I suspect local taxi firms put pressure on local councils to try and ban them. They are the Luddites of the 21st century.

OP sounds like they gave you a 3.9 surge which is the highest I’ve seen. It is xmas and they would have presented that to you when you clicked the button. Still they’ve refunded the money so you’ve had a good result. Just try and be more careful next time.

stuartJo1989

JReacher1 wrote: »

Plus being cashless means you don’t have any issues around money.

Yea, I hate this aspect with a passion. The main reason being that you have no control over how much comes out of your bank account. OP's situation is what I would be fearful of.

I prefer to deal in cash, even if that involves a slight detour to the nearest cash machine.

I suspect local taxi firms put pressure on local councils to try and ban them. They are the Luddites of the 21st century.

Yea, probably. They would probably finish off the private taxi firms in the area.

The saddest thing is that, if they end up with a monopoly, they'll probably jack up the prices in line with other taxi firms and mug us all off in the long run.