Uber One offer scam / false advertising – and similar becoming more common?

perplexed_perspex

Hi,

I've been getting scammed out of small amounts of money by big companies more and more often recently. Have other people been experiencing similar? Is there anything that can be done. I'll explain one example of it below, but it's just a generally pattern where the company makes a mistake that costs me money, and then their customer support just refuses to fix it. Usually not really reading my messages.

I was at the checkout page for an Uber Eats order, and they showed an offer at the bottom saying exactly "Save an additional £6.29 on this order with Uber One". Uber One costs less than that saving (£4.99), so it was a no brainer. I paid the £4.99 and went back to the checkout, where the total had decreased – but only by £3. See screenshots below.

I contacted their customer support and they're just telling me I'm wrong. Specifically, they're saying that the order didn't qualify for Uber One, which isn't even correct (the actual problem was that they hadn't taken into account some other discounts already applied to the previous checkout total).

Before:

After:

Any help with this issue would be appreciated, or if anyone has similar experiences I'd love to hear them! thanks

Aylesbury_Duck

I assume it's something to do with the delivery fee having already been discounted to zero on the original order. Presumably Uber One saves £3 a month plus gives free delivery?

If that's the case, applying Uber One does indeed reduce the cost of the order by £6.29, but the overall cost of the order plus postage is only reduced by £3 because the £3.29 delivery was already removed on the first checkout.

What is it you want as an outcome?

perplexed_perspex

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82114385#Comment_82114385

It says "Save an extra £6.29 on this order". If I was already getting the free delivery, then it's not an extra saving. They owe me £3.29. They can't promise a discount and then just change the amount after I've paid them for a subscription.

Aylesbury_Duck

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82114396#Comment_82114396

Well they can, and they have done. I agree it looks like it's slippery practice, but how much effort do you want to go to to get the £3.29?

perplexed_perspex

Right, exactly, it's not a lot to me, and it's not worth much effort. But if they do this to 1000 customers a week, they're effectively transferring £1000s from working people to shareholders. This should be illegal, and there should be consequences if it's not fixed, no?

And I'd say it's worse than a "slippery practice", it's straight up fraudulent. Just because the amount is small, doesn't stop it from being a scam.

I can accept that the core of it is probably just a mistake in the software, there by accident. It calculates the discount incorrectly. But they're clearly unwilling to fix it, or even accept that it's a mistake now it's obviously making them money.

But this brings us to the main point of this post. This kind of thing happens more and more frequently to me. Do we just have to accept that someone will scam £5 off us every week? Is this just what life in the UK is like in 2026?

born_again

https://www.uber.com/gb/en/uber-one/

One membership to save on Uber and Uber Eats

Become an Uber One member for savings and exclusive benefits on Uber and Uber Eats.

Sign up now for just £4.99/month or £49.99/year.

If only people read what they were signing up to. No SCAM here. It is a subscription, just like Amazon Prime. 🤦‍♀️

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82114435#Comment_82114435

Can you clarify how you believe that addresses OP's concern? They knew they were paying a £4.99 monthly fee for a subscription so that's not what they're complaining about…

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82114443#Comment_82114443

Simply by reading into what you are paying against what you get.

Aylesbury_Duck

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82114431#Comment_82114431

People always extrapolate these things to the extreme, and I doubt the reality is anywhere near that. Yes, if a business is shown to be falsely advertising, using misleading promotional messaging, etc. there should be action taken, but unless you're prepared to speak to Citizens' Advice to try and push Trading Standards to investigate it, (and frankly they have bigger fish to fry) then the most effective action is to boycott the companies that you believe are scamming you regularly.

I'm not being scammed for £5 every week. I suspect most people aren't, either. What's behind you saying that you've "been getting scammed out of small amounts of money by big companies more and more often recently"? Are you signing up to subscriptions like these, or clicking on those post-checkout messages that promise ongoing discounts, and not reading the small print? Most of them are subscription services of some sort.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82114447#Comment_82114447

I don't understand the point you're making - their objection is that they were induced into paying for the subscription via the specific reference to saving an extra £6.29 on this order, but the actual saving was only £3. Are you saying that this is explained somewhere within the link you shared, and if so, where?

perplexed_perspex

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82114443#Comment_82114443

Thanks for the support @eskbanker 🙏

I feel like I'm going mad, being gaslit by the customer support, and then by someone on a forum who I guess just hasn't read my post properly. (which – fair enough – it's not the most exciting reading material 🙂)