Uber won't close my account over "debt"

Money_Grabber13579

WhosWho said:

Hi all,

Uber are really getting on my nerves over this.

So essentially, I had an Uber Eats delivery back on the 16th April 2023 for £16.24 (after discount).

As per 50% of the time the person that delivers the food is neither the person they say it'll be or in the vehicle they say. It might just be me, but it annoys me greatly. Who are they giving my details to? They don't know. I messaged them asking what they'll do about it and they ignored me.

I then raised a complaint through PayPal and said I want a full refund as compensation. Uber Eats didn't reply to PayPal after a month or so and therefore PayPal refunded me the full amount. Happy days.

I have then looked on my Uber Eats account and there is an outstanding balance for that amount. I complained and they said that I need to pay it back as I had an unauthorised refund that goes against their terms and conditions. Well it will apply with PayPals terms and conditions and if they are accepting PayPal, they are accepting PayPals terms and conditions.

Anyway, decided I'd just delete my account then and it transpires you can't delete the account with an outstanding "debt". Whenever I message them they simply say they'll delete my account if I pay the money back.

I tried emailing the ceo email hoping someone from the staff office will deal but even they ignored me (the only time I've never had a reply).

Has anyone got any tips?

Cheers

Have you also demanded compensation from Royal Mail every time a new postman delivers your mail? They will have as much information about you as the Uber Eats driver will have - your name and address.

Hoenir

WhosWho said:

Uber are really getting on my nerves over this.


I tried emailing the ceo email hoping someone from the staff office will deal but even they ignored me (the only time I've never had a reply).

There comes a point when it's pointless for a company to waste anymore time dealing with a particular customer. As a corporate entity they've a skin as thick as a rhino's backside. By not closing the account there's a permanent black flag marker in their system. Avoids ever having a similar issue again. For a company of their size your custom isn't worth having. 

Ksw3

Pay for the food that you ate. Get your account closed.

Write to the Information Commissioner's Office about your concerns re your data (I'm not sure they will take this as seriously as you). 

apcd2

I've got a (very) tiny bit of sympathy for the OP. When you order food from Uber Eats you're told that the food will be delivered by John Smith in a vehicle with registration AB12 CDE. If someone else shows up then clearly your name, address and phone number have been passed to an unauthorised third party. That's a data protection issue and could constitute breach of contract on the part of Uber or their contracted (original) driver. All official delivery drivers will have undergone a background check so a random person showing up is a potential safety risk.

But if that bothers you the thing to do is to refuse the food, complain to Uber and demand a refund. If Uber ignore the complaint then raise the data protection issue with the Information Commissioner's Office. What you can't do is accept the food (effectively forgiving the breach of contract) and then later decide that you'd like the money back.

So either pay up and close the account or just forget about it and leave the account in limbo. I very much doubt Uber will ever do anything to try to reclaim their £16.

sheramber

apcd2 said:

I've got a (very) tiny bit of sympathy for the OP. When you order food from Uber Eats you're told that the food will be delivered by John Smith in a vehicle with registration AB12 CDE. If someone else shows up then clearly your name, address and phone number have been passed to an unauthorised third party. That's a data protection issue and could constitute breach of contract on the part of Uber or their contracted (original) driver. All official delivery drivers will have undergone a background check so a random person showing up is a potential safety risk.

But if that bothers you the thing to do is to refuse the food, complain to Uber and demand a refund. If Uber ignore the complaint then raise the data protection issue with the Information Commissioner's Office. What you can't do is accept the food (effectively forgiving the breach of contract) and then later decide that you'd like the money back.

So either pay up and close the account or just forget about it and leave the account in limbo. I very much doubt Uber will ever do anything to try to reclaim their £16.

But when it came to the delivery maybe the named driver was not available so details were not passed to him, but to the driver who completed the delivery.

apcd2

sheramber said:

apcd2 said:

I've got a (very) tiny bit of sympathy for the OP. When you order food from Uber Eats you're told that the food will be delivered by John Smith in a vehicle with registration AB12 CDE. If someone else shows up then clearly your name, address and phone number have been passed to an unauthorised third party. That's a data protection issue and could constitute breach of contract on the part of Uber or their contracted (original) driver. All official delivery drivers will have undergone a background check so a random person showing up is a potential safety risk.

But if that bothers you the thing to do is to refuse the food, complain to Uber and demand a refund. If Uber ignore the complaint then raise the data protection issue with the Information Commissioner's Office. What you can't do is accept the food (effectively forgiving the breach of contract) and then later decide that you'd like the money back.

So either pay up and close the account or just forget about it and leave the account in limbo. I very much doubt Uber will ever do anything to try to reclaim their £16.

But when it came to the delivery maybe the named driver was not available so details were not passed to him, but to the driver who completed the delivery.

I don't believe you see any driver details until the meal is out for delivery so there's no reason for the app not reflecting the actual driver unless the actual driver isn't registered on the Uber Eats platform.

km1500

not saying this is the case here but it is not unknown that JE couriers get others to do their deliveries

even if that is true that would be no reason not to pay for your food

Okell

apcd2 said:

. ...When you order food from Uber Eats you're told that the food will be delivered by John Smith in a vehicle with registration AB12 CDE. If someone else shows up then clearly your name, address and phone number have been passed to an unauthorised third party. That's a data protection issue and could constitute breach of contract on the part of Uber or their contracted (original) driver. All official delivery drivers will have undergone a background check so a random person showing up is a potential safety risk...

I've never ordered takeaway food to be delivered to my house so I don't know how it works, but are you sure about "an unauthorised third party", data protection issues and a breach of contract?  I can't see why any of it matters.  (Sorry - not getting at you but I honestly don't see the problem or problems.  I agree fully with the rest of your post though)

Surely when you order something to be delivered to your address you are authorising the person you are ordering from to make whatever delivery arrangements they need to make in order to deliver whatever it is to you.  What difference does it make if delivery is effected by person A or person B?  How would A be authorised but not B?

Why is it a data protection issue - in any meaningful sense?  Any time I have anything delivered to my address, whether by Royal Mail, Evri, DPD or Amazon I have no idea whether it's going to be delivered by Tom or !!!!!! or Harry and I certainly don't know the reg. number of their vehicle.  And why should I care?  What difference does it make who delivers it?  I don't know any of them and it doesn't matter to me whether Tom or !!!!!! or Harry know what my address is.

And why a breach of contract - unless you are saying that by telling the OP who was going to deliver then UE were incorporating that into the contract?  As I say, I don't know how UE works but I find it hard to believe that the identity of the deliverer could be incorporated into the contract.  And even if it were, I don't see what contractual remedy the OP could claim - assuming the food was delivered as ordered.

But having said all that, I agree 100% with you on the following:

apcd2 said:

...But if that bothers you the thing to do is to refuse the food, complain to Uber and demand a refund...   What you can't do is accept the food... and then later decide that you'd like the money back.

So either pay up and close the account or just forget about it and leave the account in limbo. I very much doubt Uber will ever do anything to try to reclaim their £16.

[Edit:  so we can't post the diminutive form of "Richard"?   !!!!!        ]

Gavin83

apcd2 said:

If someone else shows up then clearly your name, address and phone number have been passed to an unauthorised third party.

Is that the case? I could see an argument that the delivery driver doesn't need anything other than the address. I could see some argument for a phone number (if they get lost) but certainly no reason they'd need the customers name.

user1977

Gavin83 said:

apcd2 said:

If someone else shows up then clearly your name, address and phone number have been passed to an unauthorised third party.

Is that the case? I could see an argument that the delivery driver doesn't need anything other than the address. I could see some argument for a phone number (if they get lost) but certainly no reason they'd need the customers name.

If they arrive at flats with a bunch of names and buzzers, the customer's name is going to save a lot of hassle.

I don't really see the need for any paranoia about this, I'm not expecting background checking for somebody who is going no further than my doorstep.