Uber Eats blocking my account

Olinda99

Olinda99 said:

or 5. learn to cook !

Uber Eats blocking your account may well have just put 10 years on your life.

sorry OP - was meant as a joke !

DullGreyGuy

rajanm said:

DullGreyGuy said:

rajanm said:

I need some advice.  At the beginning of August, two transactions took place via uber eats, while I was on holiday, to an address in Manchester.

I immediately contacted my bank and cancelled my card and the money was refunded to me (around £35 in total).  When I returned from holiday, I noticed my Uber account was blocked because apparently the two transactions still needed to be settled by me.

When I contacted Uber, they said this was because I should have reported the fraudulent activity within 30 days of the transactions taking place.  I then contacted my bank who said they reported the fraud to Uber Eats and Uber Eats reviewed the claim and took 100% liability for the issue.

My bank wrote a letter to me to outline all of this including VISA case references for both transactions.  I sent this letter to Uber Eats but they won't budge and still say the charges have to be paid before I can unblock my account.

Uber said: 'When these disputes are received by the bank, they will retrieve the paid transaction and redeposit them into the account holder's account, therefore, reversing the transaction.  This has put your account in charge back arrears...'


The bank say uber eats too liability for the fraud so should unblock my account.  Uber Eats say its up to my bank to sort it out.

I'm not entirely sure what to do next - can anyone help?

Why didnt you contact Uber Eats?

Your bank will have gone to their bank and asked them to return the funds saying it was a fraudulent transaction. Their bank will have gone to them telling them the money will be taken unless they can provide evidence that it wasnt a fraudulent transaction. Either UberEats didnt respond, they said they couldn't prove it wasnt fraudulent or they submitted evidence that wasnt accepted. 

Uber Eats will undoubtedly have hundreds of these every month, they'll know what is and isn't worth defending as inevitably it costs time and money to defend even if they've done nothing wrong. 

Normal people tell the merchant that they've taken money without their authorisation... people who are falsely claiming a chargeback dont tend to. 

Chargeback is a very crude process and ultimately doesn't settle the underlying dispute. A lot of people did false chargebacks against budget airlines when they decided they didnt want to travel due to Covid. The airlines quickly realised defending claims wasnt getting anywhere so they just put customer accounts with them into the negative so that they can only book flights with them again in the future if they pay off the debt. 

Ultimately you didnt follow Uber's process and having breached their terms they've decided they dont want you as a customer any more. Your choices are:

1) Start using Deliveroo instead 

2) Throw yourself on their mercy blaming the information your bank gave you

3) Raise a complaint to your bank that their advice was wrong

4) Try opening a new account with a different email address, mobile and payment card

These are not mutually exclusive and so you could do multiple simultaneously. 

With hindsight, I should have contacted Uber Eats.  I was on holiday and panicked - the Uber Eats account wasn't the only account that was compromised so my initial reaction was to contact my bank and cancel my card, etc.

The thing is, I did complain against the bank and they said they followed the correct procedures and also said Uber admitted liability 100% for the fraud.  So whether what I did breached their terms should be neither here nor there, the fact is I did contact Uber Eats, it was just done by my bank on behalf of me.  I don't really know how they can say I still owe them money.

The other thing I'm worried about is Uber Eats using a debt collection agency to retrieve the cash further down the line but I guess they might have bigger fish to fry.

Cancelling the card first isn't a bad idea, but you had a further 30 days to advise the merchant. Depending on how payments were being taken however cancelling the card doesn't necessarily do anything. Any Continuous Payment Authoritys that were in place can continue to be taken from a card thats been cancelled for example. 

Hmmm... thats not how a chargeback works. They may have accepted they will lose the chargeback/money but thats not the same as saying they are liable for the fraud. Your bank telling their bank telling them the transaction is fraudulent doesn't fulfil the requirement of you telling them its fraudulent; there's no way you can say their bank is your agent and you'd have to check the terms to see if telling an agent of theirs is sufficient. 


The bank process is crude and many businesses would argue is designed to favour the customer but it's not a legally binding decision. It is very open to abuse, and if you look on any proper small business forum many say dont bother defending them just go straight to debt collection processes. 

If they'll actually bother with debt collecting etc is another Q. RyanAir was a good example, lots of people decided to do chargebacks for their non-refundable tickets when they decided they didnt want to go on holiday during Covid even though legal to do so. RyanAir, to the best of my knowledge, hasn't done debt collecting against any of them however it has put all those customers accounts into the red so when they go online to book their next flight they get the £100 for the flight they want to book today plus the £250 they chargeback in 2020 and if they dont pay the full £350 then they aren't getting this next flight they want. 

born_again

rajanm said:

born_again said:

Sounds like Uber have not contested the transactions with the bank.

No - they've taken 100% liability according to my bank

That is because they never contested the chargeback. As they simply go after account holder.

They could have contested with the order details, which bank would have advised you of. If not yours then they go back saying not our customer.

This will affect ALL Uber apps.