Getting charged cancellation fees from Uber

Mikew1990

Hi, sounds abit stupid but over the weekend I had a couple of Ubers cancel on me and I received a cancellation fee. I managed to get a refund on these after a mate told me about it as it wasn’t me who cancelled it was there drivers, I just always thought it was something you had to deal with till then! 

So going back on my receipts I’ve probably spent a few hundered pound for no reason on cancellation fees which I’ve tried to get a refund on but they won’t because they was over 30 days ago.

I know I’ve been naive but surely I should get a refund on all of them because it was there drivers who have always cancelled on me, has anyone else managed to sort it? 

Thank you 

Aylesbury_Duck

How far back do these fees go?

Aside from any consumer rights, you really should check bank/card statements regularly.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Sort of thing to contact Mail Money Online or similar about, dealing with Uber will be a headache but if the drivers have cancelled and it can be shown then any fees from the past 6 years could claimed. 

Poor practice by Uber, is this common or a problem only for OP? 

MattMattMattUK

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Sort of thing to contact Mail Money Online or similar about, dealing with Uber will be a headache but if the drivers have cancelled and it can be shown then any fees from the past 6 years could claimed. 

Poor practice by Uber, is this common or a problem only for OP? 

I do not use Uber much any more but I have never has a cancellation fee when they have cancelled (I have never cancelled one myself), but I have only had 4-5 cancelled in the many years I have been using them (all after a music gig or football/rugby match). I am wondering if there is a situation where if the app loses connection for an extended period of time that could trigger it, if they are in a particularly bad service area?

DullGreyGuy

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Sort of thing to contact Mail Money Online or similar about, dealing with Uber will be a headache but if the drivers have cancelled and it can be shown then any fees from the past 6 years could claimed. 

Poor practice by Uber, is this common or a problem only for OP? 

Uber do not charge you a fee if the driver cancels, or even if you cancel within a few minutes of request. 

The problem is that some drivers are clearly playing about and rather than them cancel they will contact you and ask you to cancel it saying they accepted by mistake or they're on their way home or they have a fair under Bolt etc. Obviously if you do what they ask and it's after a few minutes you get charged.

You just need to refuse to cancel it for them, most the guys will then cancel it themselves after a bit but had two cases where it was a long time after and could watch him going from central London where he was supposed to pick up out into Essex at 3am in the morning. 

The problem is whilst the job is still live with them you cannot book another cab via Uber... hence get someone else to do it or use Bolt or one of the other alternatives. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

DullGreyGuy said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Sort of thing to contact Mail Money Online or similar about, dealing with Uber will be a headache but if the drivers have cancelled and it can be shown then any fees from the past 6 years could claimed. 

Poor practice by Uber, is this common or a problem only for OP? 

Uber do not charge you a fee if the driver cancels, or even if you cancel within a few minutes of request. 

The problem is that some drivers are clearly playing about and rather than them cancel they will contact you and ask you to cancel it saying they accepted by mistake or they're on their way home or they have a fair under Bolt etc. Obviously if you do what they ask and it's after a few minutes you get charged.

You just need to refuse to cancel it for them, most the guys will then cancel it themselves after a bit but had two cases where it was a long time after and could watch him going from central London where he was supposed to pick up out into Essex at 3am in the morning. 

The problem is whilst the job is still live with them you cannot book another cab via Uber... hence get someone else to do it or use Bolt or one of the other alternatives. 

Thanks for explaining, I can see why casual users would get caught out by this, I assume the drivers get some kind of penalty if they cancel too many jobs.

So OP would need driver's messages to back up each cancellation (unless that's all in app as well). 

saajan_12

Did they physically cancel, or tell you to and you did it? If the former, then you shouldn't have been charged in the first place. If the latter then yes they're trying to shift the penalty onto you, and would have been better to wait for them to cancel .

DullGreyGuy

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

DullGreyGuy said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Sort of thing to contact Mail Money Online or similar about, dealing with Uber will be a headache but if the drivers have cancelled and it can be shown then any fees from the past 6 years could claimed. 

Poor practice by Uber, is this common or a problem only for OP? 

Uber do not charge you a fee if the driver cancels, or even if you cancel within a few minutes of request. 

The problem is that some drivers are clearly playing about and rather than them cancel they will contact you and ask you to cancel it saying they accepted by mistake or they're on their way home or they have a fair under Bolt etc. Obviously if you do what they ask and it's after a few minutes you get charged.

You just need to refuse to cancel it for them, most the guys will then cancel it themselves after a bit but had two cases where it was a long time after and could watch him going from central London where he was supposed to pick up out into Essex at 3am in the morning. 

The problem is whilst the job is still live with them you cannot book another cab via Uber... hence get someone else to do it or use Bolt or one of the other alternatives. 

Thanks for explaining, I can see why casual users would get caught out by this, I assume the drivers get some kind of penalty if they cancel too many jobs.

So OP would need driver's messages to back up each cancellation (unless that's all in app as well). 

Even cancelling 1 job puts them to the back of the queue for new jobs being offered and multiple cancellations comes with heavier penalties (at least the last time I was chatting to a driver about it). However they get a share of the cancellation fee so some could be wanting to avoid the penalty and others may be wanting to receive the fee whilst their car is still on their driveway not consuming fuel. 

Part of the problem, if you give them the benefit of the doubt, is when the job is offered they only get told the price and the approximate destination. After they accept it they may discover it's on the wrong side of a terrible one way system or bus gate etc. Obv some its not the case as had one chap call to say he'd take me half the way but didnt want to cross the river as traffic was too bad. He eventually cancelled and thankfully got a replacement quickly. Very coincidently we ended up sitting behind him in the traffic and followed him across the river