Uber won't close my account over "debt"

apcd2

Okell said:

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"?   !!!!!        ]

Uber Eats promise that their delivery drivers have been through a background check. If that checked person is handing over the order to their mate who may have a criminal or violent past then I'd say it makes quite a lot of difference whether person A or person B does the delivery. In this sense ordering from UE is a very different scenario to phoning up your local curry house where I'd agree that you could have no reasonable expectation as to who the delivery driver will be.

The contract isn't just "you pay us, we'll give you food". It's (maybe) a breach of contract because Uber Eats promise that their delivery drivers have all been checked. Of course the contract doesn't state that John Smith will deliver my food but if his third cousin's mate's brother with a criminal record ends up doing the delivery then arguably UE haven't performed their end of the contract.

RefluentBeans

Seems about right to scran your food, make a complaint, force a ‘refund’ from them and then complain you still owe them money. 

Your options are to go to court, or pay the fine. Please go to court, I want to see the judge laugh at your flaws argument. 

littleboo

As already said, if you feel that strongly about the delivery drive issue, either accept the order and then complain,  or reject the order. I don't see a scenario where you accept the order, eat it and then arbitrarily award yourself a full refind

HillStreetBlues

If it goes to court you're stuffed, just like after a decent take-away.

rbn

Uber Eats, and other similar services, allows delivery drivers to use a substitute: https://www.uber.com/gb/en/deliver/basics/before-you-start/staying-safe-with-the-uber-app

It's one of the things that stops them being proper employees.

goldieandblackie

Rumour has it that he is still searching for a £16 refund

Jumblebumble

born_again said:

WhosWho said:

It's clear I'm the only one in this camp.

But, whether you agree with the refund or not... the bottom line is I raised a dispute with PayPal and it was awarded in MY favour. It's as simple as that. Its irrelevant what the refund was for. PayPal have their own process for dealing with refunds etc in their terms and conditions and they sided with me, whether you like it or not.

The issue is now Uber are demanding the money back and they have no entitlement to do so. But as I'm not paying them back they are refusing to close my account.

I was just curious to whether anyone has been in the same position.

Uber have a duty to look after my sensitive and personal data and by giving it to random people they are not fulfilling their duty. Clearly you guys aren't aware that someone creates an account as a delivery driver and then that account just gets passed around mates so that everyone uses the account on a 24/7 basis. 

On a side note, a company can only hold your information for as long as necessary. I have asked they delete all information and they are refusing. They do have a right to withhold my information if they want to take me to court to reclaim a debt,  but that doesn't effect the deletion of an account. I have actually told them I am fine for them to take me to court,  but they need to actually do that if they are going to retain all of my information. 

For a forum that is meant to be based on consumer rights it's been a strange response so far. Don't let your actual consumer rights be clouded by the fact you may have a different moral viewpoint to myself. They are 2 different things and my moral views "don't affect my statutory rights" 😘

Just the same as card payment chargebacks do. But that does not stop the retailer still claiming they are not owed the money as they did not dispute with PP on the issue.

PayPal & banks work under their own rules. Which are not the same as consumer rights. They are additional & have no link to them, just the same as they do not stop a retailer from chasing you.
So I sorry to say, but using PP T/C does not stop retailer from enforcing the debt.

While they are unlikely to take it to court, they can make life hard for you. They could mark your credit history with a unpaid marker, they could employ a debt co to chase for the debt.

I'm wondering under what basis you disputed this with PP?
Given you have not mentioned you did not receive the food & the reason on not knowing who is going to deliver, is not a valid basis for a dispute. 
So would have a guess that you have not told PP the truth on the dispute. Which again could backfire if Uber went back to them.
Banks & the likes of PP do not take kindly to people not telling the truth to claim money back, as it is a breech of trust. Usual result is closure of account & is severe cases a CIFAS marker for fraud.

Can I just clarify that you are suggesting that Uber can unilaterally mark credit files?

Jumblebumble

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.

So presumably you and the OP think that if the original driver becomes ill Uber should not deliver the food at all

That would be a rather stupid  way to run a business  in my view.       

Jumblebumble

apcd2 said:

Okell said:

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"?   !!!!!        ]

Uber Eats promise that their delivery drivers have been through a background check. If that checked person is handing over the order to their mate who may have a criminal or violent past then I'd say it makes quite a lot of difference whether person A or person B does the delivery. In this sense ordering from UE is a very different scenario to phoning up your local curry house where I'd agree that you could have no reasonable expectation as to who the delivery driver will be.

The contract isn't just "you pay us, we'll give you food". It's (maybe) a breach of contract because Uber Eats promise that their delivery drivers have all been checked. Of course the contract doesn't state that John Smith will deliver my food but if his third cousin's mate's brother with a criminal record ends up doing the delivery then arguably UE haven't performed their end of the contract.

For a business that probably uses many many  drivers from overseas a background check is a bit of a waste of time as it will not uncover all criminal records abroad.

powerful_Rogue

This thread is over a year old.