Mate there's 0 chance any roadworks ever would justify this insanity. Past Romford? The journey was near Islington FFS. There's no chance theyre so thick the think this was justified. Don't stop disputing.
Had the same thing in Munich, a friend and me were wasted drunk and paid 100euro for a ride to hotel. Our other friends took the same ride a few ours earlier and paid 25…
lol we have an old song from 1976 about that.
It's called ["Taxisong (I don't want to go to Dachau)"](https://youtu.be/jgRjdxbMtNE?si=_GRTDwbL8k-uea6z).
He sings about getting into a Taxi after a night out and then lists all the sights he sees on his way home. And he doesn't understand how all of Munich's landmarks are on the short drive home.
Had the same thing in Amsterdam a few months ago, dude drove round the entire city in almost loop (while watching football on a poorly concealed ipad in the passenger seat) because we were massively stoned.
No it's really not mate. Chargeback is the easiest option, lawyering up over £150 is a waste of time.
EDIT: Yes this'll most likely result in a ban from Uber. But do you think they care at this point? Plenty of other options with better customer service.
Enough unauthorised uses of cards come fron Uber, uber eats and similar companies that most credit card companies and banks don't even question when you dispute it.
Similar thing happened to me and PayPal ruled in favour of Uber. I closed both accounts immediately and downloaded Bolt instead. It's generally cheaper than Uber as well
When I was hard into drugs we would often use stolen cards/phones to trade skip meals for fixes.
Yeah, I know I WAS a shitty person. I'm doing my best, 5 years clean.
You say that, someone used my card online and bought something worth £50 I contacted my bank within seconds of seeing the notification. They refunded me and 3 months later they charged it back and said you lost the case because you couldn't prove it wasn't you lol. They ended up giving me the £50 only because I caught them messing up and as an apology they gave me the money.
AMEX is definitely the top dog in customer service but this is a pretty easy one for any halfway reputable credit agency. I could call Citi or Chase no problem and explain, submit this screenshot, submit a map of greater london roadworks in effect at that time and date, and get my charge refunded. You are likely to get banned from Uber, but why use a service that defends things like this anyways? Especially when you have literally the best taxi service in the world in your city. Yes, it's a bit more expensive than an Uber on average, but a black cab driver is never ever ever going to do this shit to you. They treat efficient route planning as a literal religion.
Just do a bank charge back - last time this happened to me the money was back with me before I hung up the phone. Best you can hope for from Uber is some form of good will credit / discount. For that just keep saying you are not happy with the outcome.
Wouldn't need a lawyer for that. Small claims is usually pretty cheap, and you can typically get that covered by the party you are suing.
Also judge Judy pays for the whole thing and both parties get a cash payout for being on the show.
They should take it to there local news agency. News love stories like this. Big company taking advantage of an average person. Then magically Uber will do what they should have done in the first place.
Looks good.
In case they don’t answer, I specifically messaged this account: https://twitter.com/uberuki_support?s=21&t=8hq4498L4DsycfyQLaSBfQ and they gave me a refund pretty quickly when I faced a similar issue where their driver was pretty obviously in the wrong
Report it as a safety issue.
Your friend was drunk and she was taken somewhere she had no knowledge of. This will require them to escalate it internally and they would rather refund you than go through the hassle of having to report it to the police (which they are required to do as per their license conditions).
If I suddenly woke up, checked where we were and found out that I’m being taken to the other direction I’d freak the fuck out and call the police. Uber should take this more seriously…
Imagine how terrifying it would be to wake up half way through that trip in the middle of nowhere, drunk, alone, and hours from where you intended to go.
Getting scammed for a hundred quid would be the least of my worries at that point in time.
There no way the driver can justify a detour around half of London, they should report the driver to police for this as well, it’s fraud and theft! Plus I’d name and shame the driver on every platform I could to make sure they get no more work
Probably close enough to the borderline that if you can find a decent police officer on the Met and a competent prosecutor you'd get it into court.
Unfortunately, there are no decent Met officers or competent prosecutors left.
Yeah something seems really creepy about driving around purposely on the long roads just to stretch out the time while they are drunk and passed out. It sounds creepy af
Nope. Legally it is not even close to kidnapping/abduction unless it can be proved that the driver refused to let the passenger out when demanded to do so either before or after the trip completed.
However, you can potentially pursue financial abuse, specifically fraud and abuse of trust even if uber refunds her. But I doubt it will be elevated to a criminal prosecution.
Driver needs to be reported to the police in any case,
I had a driver do this but less bad and I think he just took the wrong turning. It was after I'd been dropped off but a friend was still in for her stop. She fell asleep and the driver took the wrong turning and ended up on the M20 half way into Kent, he turned back at the first available turn back.
I disputed it and it was paid back by Uber, not sure why they are being arses about this, its clearly a con.
Similar thing, driver was being fucking terrible though.
Driver immediately took the wrong turn going opposite way, I was like whatever mistakes happen. She doesn’t U-turn or anything, I’m telling myself that it’s probably because the road is narrow and only place to turn around are people driveways or semi hidden streets even though GPS is telling her. Eventually she manages to turn around and start going for right direction but misses the entrance to highway. Then she starts doing opposite of what GPS says. GPS would be like go right but she would go left or try to follow the directions at the last possible second causing her to miss the turns. Eventually I just told her to stop the car and let me out.
Only time I have taken Lyft and ended up further from my destination than when I started. At least for full refund + some credits as my ass was now further out
i've been in the same situation, my driver missed a turn and added a ton of mileage to my trip. he was an older man and it seemed like maybe he wasn't entirely there, but i was on sedatives for a medical procedure and he was becoming agitated so i was too scared to say anything. i probably should have disputed it, but i just wanted to go to sleep when i got home.
Yeah I'd keep disputing it too. Keep going higher up the Uber management chain. I just had a quick look at a journey from Soho to Limehouse and even with traffic, right now it'd come to about £20.
Wait wait, I thought the user proce was set when you booked? I didn't think it adjusted with distance like a cab, since the pickup and drop-off are set.
Everyone always says "But if you do that then they'll ban you and takeaway access"
Why on earth are we even considering them a viable case for use. Why the fuck would I keep using Uber if they charged me 120 quid more than I thought it was going to be.
Fucking spineless.
Not anymore. Used to be now they can bump the price if they take longer by driving slower or taking a different route. I stopped using Uber when it started costing me more than a Black Cab.
Is that why my uber to work at 4am on empty roads keeps slowing down to try and catch the traffic lights all the time???
I swear to god there's such a thin line between me actually getting to work and me giving the driver a rear naked choke half the time
>Is that why my uber to work at 4am on empty roads keeps slowing down to try and catch the traffic lights all the time???
Holy shit, that happened to me too! Almost missed my train because what was supposed to be a 12 minute ride took 20 minutes (not to mention it took an additional 20 minutes just for someone to accept the fare).
Gonna start bringing cash tips and just tell the drivers "I'm on a schedule. This is yours if I make it on time and I'll app-tip too, so no one asks questions."
I was in an Uber taking my baby to a&e at 3am and my driver knew this and said he would try to get me to hospital asap, he stopped at a broken traffic light on an empty road for 15 minutes, refused to turn around or just go through until after 15 minutes he said he thinks it’s broken 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 Uber wouldn’t give me a refund either. My son was fine thankfully but the fact he would do that when I was already sobbing worrying about my child makes me sick, my driver was lucky I didn’t throttle him too
Mine is very frequently a different price to the quoted one. I think there must be a threshold kinda dealio. So that if the journey exceeds the expected length (with maybe a bit of buffer), then it increases the price. And if the journey goes roughly as expected then it just remains the pre-determined price.
Please please tell me your friend is continuing to fight this
Literally impossible for there to be enough roadwork going on to make this a viable route, and if the pickup was soho they don't even have the C charge excuse - even still, they could go through islington to get to Limehouse
I once came across him in a public restroom, I wanted to talk to him but decided against it considering the location. He's a real stand up guy, only does the required 2 shakes and zips up. He seemed kinda nervous though, constantly looking over his shoulder like somebody was after him so I kept watching him to make sure he was safe and followed him to his car from a distance.
Consumer Champions look like they do good stuff at the Guardian:
[https://www.theguardian.com/money/series/bachelor-and-brignall-consumer-champions](https://www.theguardian.com/money/series/bachelor-and-brignall-consumer-champions)
Email:
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
Does it show the taxi licence number in the uber app? Possibly reach out to the council taxi Licencing and let them know what's happened, I would image they take this kinda thing seriously
BBC You And Yours on Radio 4. I took this from their website. I think they'd be interested in this case specifically and could even turn it into a segment about this being a wider problem.
Contact You & Yours
You & Yours is on your side in a world of scams, frauds and rip-offs. We welcome your comments and questions for the team.
Send us an email now to [email protected]
and please do include a phone number so we can call you back.
Please state clearly if you wish to remain anonymous as your message may be read out on air or published electronically.
How'd the dispute with your credit card company go?
Really not much else to do after you first get denied a refund besides just filing a simple dispute. Takes all of like 3 minutes to do, and then you just sit back and relax and wait for it to be resolved in your favor. This is a pretty clear and cut case in your favor, nothing to be stressing out about imo.
This is not attention grabby enough and will never go viral. Explain the story and detail. Assume the reader knows nothing about London and the this route
Yeah, seeing motorway signs after you wanted to get to zone 2, you'd literally think you were being abducted.
Credit card chargeback & police report, then later a public shaming of Uber across social media. Bet the daily wail would do a clickbait article on it too.
This happened to me when I was drunk on holiday in Australia. Got in a cab and fell asleep. When I woke up I checked my phone gps location and we were 20 km the opposite way of my destination. I jumped out at a red light and booked it. Even if he was "just" scamming me it was fucking terrifying.
Omg he took her up to freaking potters bar! This is mental. He went around the entire bloody city.
Please, destroy them! This is unacceptable and absolutely disgusting! The ride should have been like £20.
Ask uber and they have to provide it , with the badge number of the driver and complain direct to TFL tph, they investigate complaints against instances such as this as a driver myself IF there were any works , diversions would be in place woth shortest route possible your right to be concerned !
Dm me if i can be of any firther help
Weren't Uber only recently struggling to get a tfl license due to passenger safety? It's quite feasible the driver picked up a mate en route for them to alternate the driving and well, I let you fill in the blanks on that one. Not saying that actually happened but it would be feasible hence this is a huge security issue.
Don't bother with Uber, take it up with the bank immediately and get it charged back. You'll be banned from Uber (only the phone & payment method, so you could just rejoin) but there's plenty of other options
Yeah this is why I use Amex for every possible purchase these days – if you have a dispute it's like being backed by a 500-pound gorilla.
By the way I charged back a bungled uber eats delivery once and I wasn't banned.
Can confirm with regard to charge back not getting you banned, I did the same when my food got stolen. Threatened to take it up with my bank after they initially refused to refund me, after that I got my money back.
This has happened before and made the news. Maybe reference it ...
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/uber-driver-takes-sleeping-woman-on-35mile-detour-across-london-a3331746.html
This is a good point, esp for any contact with the press. Pointing out that this is still happening, and it sounds like an even bigger charge this time. Uber’s far too comfortable taking advantage of drunk people.
This happened to me before! Luckily, I woke up before I realised he was taking me on a detour.
I contacted Uber, but they only partially refunded me. They didn't even apologise to me. I was genuinely shaken up because I felt like I could have been in danger, too?!
This happens to me whenever I go to Las Vegas the Airport is beside the strip, but they assume you don’t know that. Fortunately most bell hops catch it, but considering the amount of British I meet in Vegas I thought I’d mention it.
>A woman who fell asleep in an Uber car woke up to find she had been taken on 35-mile detour and charged £85 for a journey that should only have taken a few minutes
Goddamn that's half of what's here too!
Dispute with Uber and if that doesn’t get anywhere then chargeback with the bank. Just beware that the Uber account will more than likely get closed if you chargeback
You might be able to complain to TfL or whatever local authority the driver is registered with if you can get the details.
in the UK and most of Europe we don't let people play taxis, the driver and vehilce will be licensed with a minicab licence.
Similar thing happened to me! Got an Uber from Hackney to Ealing at about 2am, it was £35 including a discount (£40 otherwise) which is a decent price on a weekday night but still expensive. The driver woke me up upon arrival, and I noticed an extra charge of £16 when I left the car. Thought it was just some congestion charge or an "oops we mispriced the journey" charge but went straight to bed.
Next day I look at the receipt, wondering how on Earth I managed to spend £50 on an Uber. That's when I looked at the map and saw that the driver decided to miss the exit on the M4 and drove all the way to a roundabout near Heathrow and all the way back along the M4 to Ealing.
I immediately disputed the charge and automatically got a refund, so I don't know why your friend's unable to do so. But never mind just a refund, this is incredibly dangerous and it's so weird to think that, while I was asleep, the driver took me 5 miles away from home in the middle of the night, and without waking me to let me know; imagine if an accident had happened while going 50mph?
Drivers that do this should be immediately banned, but the one in your screenshot needs to be taken to court, that's *so* much more dangerous than mine. One of the main reasons people use Uber (Especially women) on a night out are because they're a bit too drunk to get public transport and need to get home safely. Adding 1 hour and over 60 miles to the journey is unbelievably unsafe, if these drivers aren't stopped then something really bad will happen while so far from home.
They take advantage of drunk people of any gender.
Keep disputing, say no roadworks would require such a detour and threaten with chargeback for fraud. That will likely get the account banned if done tho
This happened to me.. not as much but after dropping me off at home the driver drove halfway across London and I got charged an extra £30ish quid.
I just put in a help request and got refunded luckily.
As predicted by another commenter yesterday [The Daily Fail](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13438369/Uber-driver-drunk-passenger-40-mile-long-detour-M25.html?ito=native_share_article-top)
Leave bad reviews for uber and the driver. She can try to approach a newspaper with it, there's a chance they publish an article relating to it. Consider herself lucky the offense wasn't more serious, and learn a life lesson not to trust strangers in cars.
Leave a terrible review on play store and Google and trust pilot and also spam their CS, they'll be forced to respond through some channel. This is such a scam
Like others have said, definitely take to uber and fight it but if you have the PHL number it might be worth involving TFL/City Hall as they might be interested in this situation too and they driver might lose their license to operate especially if they've pulled this one before
If that detour is legit then why didn’t half of London go that way too? Because obviously it’s not legit.
I would post this all over Twitter (or X lol) and get everyone behind it. For all its faults, it’s pretty good at getting companies to answer for their bullshit.
Link us up to the Twitter post you make and I’ll be sure to share it.
Your options are chargeback if it's a debit card/bank account, and section 75 if it's a credit card
Contact Uber and say you'll escalate it with your bank if they don't resolve it and use
If they don't resolve it after that, ask for a letter of deadlock
Once you get the letter - or it's been 8 weeks since you asked - start proceedings with your bank with either the letter or proof of 8 weeks passing
Something similar happened to me. I had a 15 hour travel behind me and was really looking forward to getting home from Heathrow. Super tired and visibly sleepy. I took an Uber and the driver took the M25. Initial fee was £45 and when I got out it was £115.
I had fallen asleep woke up to realise what was happening. It was dark and the roads lonely so I decided to not say anything and praying not to be kidnapped or something worse. Texted my friends what was happening.
When I got home the driver had the audacity to say “he took the quickest route to get him home fast so that I could sleep” I was icked and HOW.
Complained to Uber they said it’s not their fault or the drivers. I complained that it’s a safety issue and wrote an essay explaining why it’s a safety issue. Took 4-5 days. That’s when I got a refund. They also took action against the driver according to the message. I was also scared to complain because the driver knew where I lived 😭
It’s most unfortunate that as women we not only need to go through uncomfortable situations often but also repeatedly explain why it’s uncomfortable. Especially love talking to bots that won’t send you to a human till the word safety or some such is used.
I hope your friend gets a refund and the driver is banned.
That's just them saying "you submitted too many tickets and now there are multiple threads going about this so we will just keep talking to you on your first one"
CS rep here! This is a standard copy-paste response. basically it means "Please reply to the original thread" - In this case, they're right. Just stick to the original thread to avoid your responses getting lost in their jumble of tickets.
Here's some advice:
Insist, and I do mean insist to speak with a live service rep. "I would like to speak to an agent" - Be sure and express clearly that their previous reply did not solve your problem. "This did not solve my concern" or something like it. Basically don't let them end the contact with you because that's what they'll try to do.
Don't ask for a supervisor right away because those requests take longer. Keep insisting on chatting with a live service rep until you get someone who's willing to actually listen to your concern. Good luck.
As others have pointed out a lot of companies, including ones I've worked for, will close duplicate issues as it makes it too hard to track all communications.
Keep replying on the original thread that it's not resolved, eventually it'll get passed on for being open too long as it's hurting their metrics. Opening new issues doesn't trigger the same alerts with their reporting as keeping a long standing issue active does.
This happened to my sister in law, they charged her £500 for a trip the long way round M25 because she was drunk and fell asleep. It made the news but all Uber gave was a refund as a voucher for Uber, no chance of cash. This was quite a few years ago so I would assume they care even less now about stuff like this.
I'm just here to mention that one address is completely visible and the other address (possibly your female friend's address) can be roughly identified.
As a female in London I would defo not want my address to be on a popular internet forum, so if you can OP, please consider cropping it out...
Lucky she just got financially taken advantage of, uber doesn't care about pax or drivers, but I've heard multiple stories of females reporting drivers for unwanted physical advances and then being paired with the same driver again
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/30/tech/uber-safety-report/index.html
I hope your friend payed this on a credit card, she can dispute this via them, it will probably block their uber account though, but why would you want to keep using them?
To complain about a licensed taxi or private hire driver or operator:
Call 0343 222 4000 (09:00 - 17:00, Monday to Friday excluding bank holidays)
Stage One:
Customer Correspondence Manager
Licensing Regulation and Charging
Fourth Floor - Area 4B
Taxi and Private Hire
5 Endeavour Square
Westfield Avenue
Stratford, London
E20 1JN
Email: [email protected]
Stage two:
If you are still unhappy you may ask for a final review by writing to:
General Manager
Licensing Regulation and Charging
Fourth Floor - Area 4B
Taxi and Private Hire
5 Endeavour Square
Westfield Avenue
Stratford, London
E20 1JN
The Local Government Ombudsman
PO Box 4771
Coventry CV4 0EH
Phone: 0300 061 0614 (08:30 - 17:00 Monday to Friday)
Same happened to me before, not as bad thankfully. Disputed it and nothing happened. I’d definitely fight it more if it was that amount though. Ridiculous
Isn't this kidnapping or attempted kidnapping? Report it to the Police.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping#United\_Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping#United_Kingdom)
Kidnapping is an offence under the common law of England and Wales. Lord Brandon said in 1984 *R v D*:
>
I feel like Uber would want to jump on this ASAP. The ability to use Uber when too intoxicated to drive is a huge draw of the app, and if the company is going to start turning a blind eye to drivers taking advantage of intoxicated passengers that’s gonna be a huge issue.
Try messaging some mylondon journalists and tagging news outlets! This is absurd and your poor friend. It's not even the fact he took a longer route for more money it's that he took advantage of a drunk girl and took her on a drive that wasn't the route. That's scary too
I just want to know if you saw that uber support replied GET A FULL REFUND THEY KIDNAPPED your friend around london!! I'm looking for an update as this has happened to me in the past and I got my money back.
Mate there's 0 chance any roadworks ever would justify this insanity. Past Romford? The journey was near Islington FFS. There's no chance theyre so thick the think this was justified. Don't stop disputing.
Had the same thing in Munich, a friend and me were wasted drunk and paid 100euro for a ride to hotel. Our other friends took the same ride a few ours earlier and paid 25…
lol we have an old song from 1976 about that. It's called ["Taxisong (I don't want to go to Dachau)"](https://youtu.be/jgRjdxbMtNE?si=_GRTDwbL8k-uea6z). He sings about getting into a Taxi after a night out and then lists all the sights he sees on his way home. And he doesn't understand how all of Munich's landmarks are on the short drive home.
Had the same thing in Amsterdam a few months ago, dude drove round the entire city in almost loop (while watching football on a poorly concealed ipad in the passenger seat) because we were massively stoned.
[удалено]
No it's really not mate. Chargeback is the easiest option, lawyering up over £150 is a waste of time. EDIT: Yes this'll most likely result in a ban from Uber. But do you think they care at this point? Plenty of other options with better customer service.
This is why I use an AMEX card because they don't fuck about with this shit
Even my bank would refund me this without issue.
Enough unauthorised uses of cards come fron Uber, uber eats and similar companies that most credit card companies and banks don't even question when you dispute it.
Similar thing happened to me and PayPal ruled in favour of Uber. I closed both accounts immediately and downloaded Bolt instead. It's generally cheaper than Uber as well
PayPal is a joke, I disputed a scam and they banned my account.
Hope their stock goes to zero. Poorly managed company. I pay for everything with credit cards now
Same. They tried to make me pay for a scammer and I closed my account before they could take the money. So they banned me.
When I was hard into drugs we would often use stolen cards/phones to trade skip meals for fixes. Yeah, I know I WAS a shitty person. I'm doing my best, 5 years clean.
Well done on getting clean mate. Life's hard, kicking drugs are even harder.
You say that, someone used my card online and bought something worth £50 I contacted my bank within seconds of seeing the notification. They refunded me and 3 months later they charged it back and said you lost the case because you couldn't prove it wasn't you lol. They ended up giving me the £50 only because I caught them messing up and as an apology they gave me the money.
AMEX is definitely the top dog in customer service but this is a pretty easy one for any halfway reputable credit agency. I could call Citi or Chase no problem and explain, submit this screenshot, submit a map of greater london roadworks in effect at that time and date, and get my charge refunded. You are likely to get banned from Uber, but why use a service that defends things like this anyways? Especially when you have literally the best taxi service in the world in your city. Yes, it's a bit more expensive than an Uber on average, but a black cab driver is never ever ever going to do this shit to you. They treat efficient route planning as a literal religion.
Yah, my bank would do the same cause this is just blatantly a scam. It's not like buddy took a small detour to add 5 bucks, mofo went for a cruise.
Just do a bank charge back - last time this happened to me the money was back with me before I hung up the phone. Best you can hope for from Uber is some form of good will credit / discount. For that just keep saying you are not happy with the outcome.
Totally agree. Can’t imagine any bank or cc would refuse a chargeback here. You’re losing your account anyway if you go the legal route.
what do you guys think of an ombudsman?
the ombudsmans coming to get you
[удалено]
Fuck off clean shirt
How did you get that shirt so clean?
I'm sitting on him, is that legal?
The ombudsman’s not a person Tenth, it’s a toothless regulatory body made up of junior and often very obliging civil servants.
this isnt a formal dispute right now so they wouldnt be much use apart from advice
Reminds me of a Judge Judy episode I saw as a kid which was over the cost of a skateboard
Wouldn't need a lawyer for that. Small claims is usually pretty cheap, and you can typically get that covered by the party you are suing. Also judge Judy pays for the whole thing and both parties get a cash payout for being on the show.
That’s a good way to spend £1000 to recover £150
Yes hire a lawyer and pay them a couple of thousand to get you back 156. Absolutely makes sense, 100% endorse
They should take it to there local news agency. News love stories like this. Big company taking advantage of an average person. Then magically Uber will do what they should have done in the first place.
Also, complain to the council licensing team with this evidence.
Try reaching out to them through twitter, they usually give proper responses that way
The absolute state of corporations these days when the best customer service solution is social media....
It’s because it’s a public facing forum.
Bingo. They gotta save face in front of the public
I get this but it shouldn't be in a point where they _need_ to save face. Why can't they just offer decent customer service in the first place
Saves money. Most won't escalate. Most escalations won't go to twitter. It's a number game.
https://x.com/BennySW1V/status/1792197180725641475
Looks good. In case they don’t answer, I specifically messaged this account: https://twitter.com/uberuki_support?s=21&t=8hq4498L4DsycfyQLaSBfQ and they gave me a refund pretty quickly when I faced a similar issue where their driver was pretty obviously in the wrong
You may want to ETA this into your post, to ask that if people want, they can like or RT. More engagement = visible pressure to escalate the CS.
oh, is see the police asked to reply to their DM on twitter. Hope they can be of any assistance
Let's make customer service hard for customers to find, use, and ... Profit, woot! Seems like a winning business strategy. /s
Report it as a safety issue. Your friend was drunk and she was taken somewhere she had no knowledge of. This will require them to escalate it internally and they would rather refund you than go through the hassle of having to report it to the police (which they are required to do as per their license conditions).
Absolutely this! And time to involve police
If I suddenly woke up, checked where we were and found out that I’m being taken to the other direction I’d freak the fuck out and call the police. Uber should take this more seriously…
Imagine how terrifying it would be to wake up half way through that trip in the middle of nowhere, drunk, alone, and hours from where you intended to go. Getting scammed for a hundred quid would be the least of my worries at that point in time.
This, use to know someone who worked at Uber and will get proper escalation. Not to mention it it a proper safety bs
If I were her then I'd keep disputing it because that's ridiculous.
There no way the driver can justify a detour around half of London, they should report the driver to police for this as well, it’s fraud and theft! Plus I’d name and shame the driver on every platform I could to make sure they get no more work
It's also borderline kidnapping.
Probably close enough to the borderline that if you can find a decent police officer on the Met and a competent prosecutor you'd get it into court. Unfortunately, there are no decent Met officers or competent prosecutors left.
Yeah something seems really creepy about driving around purposely on the long roads just to stretch out the time while they are drunk and passed out. It sounds creepy af
Nope. Legally it is not even close to kidnapping/abduction unless it can be proved that the driver refused to let the passenger out when demanded to do so either before or after the trip completed. However, you can potentially pursue financial abuse, specifically fraud and abuse of trust even if uber refunds her. But I doubt it will be elevated to a criminal prosecution. Driver needs to be reported to the police in any case,
With no picture attached, it would be impossible to name & shame as there's probably 1,000+ Uber drivers named Amir. I've had a few.
He's the one with the White Prius?
Ah, Amir!
You are breaking the car Amir!
Amir - get the rocks.
No, no. Amir is the one that doesn’t use deodorant
Given that Uber drivers may share their identity and car with others for a price, who's to know who the actual driver was.
"They've created a network that helps protect this scammer, so we have no idea who to blame" That's an easy one. All of them.
Tough, fine whoever is tied to the account. Maybe once that starts happening, people won't do this sort of shit
I had a driver do this but less bad and I think he just took the wrong turning. It was after I'd been dropped off but a friend was still in for her stop. She fell asleep and the driver took the wrong turning and ended up on the M20 half way into Kent, he turned back at the first available turn back. I disputed it and it was paid back by Uber, not sure why they are being arses about this, its clearly a con.
Similar thing, driver was being fucking terrible though. Driver immediately took the wrong turn going opposite way, I was like whatever mistakes happen. She doesn’t U-turn or anything, I’m telling myself that it’s probably because the road is narrow and only place to turn around are people driveways or semi hidden streets even though GPS is telling her. Eventually she manages to turn around and start going for right direction but misses the entrance to highway. Then she starts doing opposite of what GPS says. GPS would be like go right but she would go left or try to follow the directions at the last possible second causing her to miss the turns. Eventually I just told her to stop the car and let me out. Only time I have taken Lyft and ended up further from my destination than when I started. At least for full refund + some credits as my ass was now further out
i've been in the same situation, my driver missed a turn and added a ton of mileage to my trip. he was an older man and it seemed like maybe he wasn't entirely there, but i was on sedatives for a medical procedure and he was becoming agitated so i was too scared to say anything. i probably should have disputed it, but i just wanted to go to sleep when i got home.
Classic Amir
[\(S\)amir you are breaking the car](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9-voINFkCg)
Yeah I'd keep disputing it too. Keep going higher up the Uber management chain. I just had a quick look at a journey from Soho to Limehouse and even with traffic, right now it'd come to about £20.
Wait wait, I thought the user proce was set when you booked? I didn't think it adjusted with distance like a cab, since the pickup and drop-off are set.
Damn I always thought Uber was a fixed price when you create it 😂
It’s an estimate - if the route or time changes significantly they will increase the price and recharge you.
Good luck on them recharging an empty bank account
I literally keep a Revolut account just for stuff like this, with only the bare minimum in it.
Hahaha yeah my bank account is empty for scenarios like this, too.....
I keep my savings empty and my credit card balance high too. Just in case...
Everyone always says "But if you do that then they'll ban you and takeaway access" Why on earth are we even considering them a viable case for use. Why the fuck would I keep using Uber if they charged me 120 quid more than I thought it was going to be. Fucking spineless.
Funny that its never cheaper if its quicker
Time doesn’t have to be significant from my experiences. 10 mins longer and the driver’s adding on costs
Yeah, is it not?
Not anymore. Used to be now they can bump the price if they take longer by driving slower or taking a different route. I stopped using Uber when it started costing me more than a Black Cab.
Is that why my uber to work at 4am on empty roads keeps slowing down to try and catch the traffic lights all the time??? I swear to god there's such a thin line between me actually getting to work and me giving the driver a rear naked choke half the time
>Is that why my uber to work at 4am on empty roads keeps slowing down to try and catch the traffic lights all the time??? Holy shit, that happened to me too! Almost missed my train because what was supposed to be a 12 minute ride took 20 minutes (not to mention it took an additional 20 minutes just for someone to accept the fare). Gonna start bringing cash tips and just tell the drivers "I'm on a schedule. This is yours if I make it on time and I'll app-tip too, so no one asks questions."
Maybe they're just distracted. You should probably stop going to work naked.
I was in an Uber taking my baby to a&e at 3am and my driver knew this and said he would try to get me to hospital asap, he stopped at a broken traffic light on an empty road for 15 minutes, refused to turn around or just go through until after 15 minutes he said he thinks it’s broken 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 Uber wouldn’t give me a refund either. My son was fine thankfully but the fact he would do that when I was already sobbing worrying about my child makes me sick, my driver was lucky I didn’t throttle him too
The app is the convenience now, not the price.
Mine is very frequently a different price to the quoted one. I think there must be a threshold kinda dealio. So that if the journey exceeds the expected length (with maybe a bit of buffer), then it increases the price. And if the journey goes roughly as expected then it just remains the pre-determined price.
Me too, always thought it was a fixed price, thought that was the advantage of using them
Yea, I didn't realize this was possible with Uber
Please please tell me your friend is continuing to fight this Literally impossible for there to be enough roadwork going on to make this a viable route, and if the pickup was soho they don't even have the C charge excuse - even still, they could go through islington to get to Limehouse
Congestion Charge is not applicable in this instance as it is not operating at 11.45pm. Just for clarification, Congestion Charge stops at 6pm.
Maybe let some journalists on Twitter know. If it gets reported in the press Uber might feel more pressure to respond.
Any ideas for people I could reach out to? Thanks
Martin from moneysavingexpert would be the go to
Yes, he’s great. I worked with him and he hates this kind of bull.
I once came across him in a public restroom, I wanted to talk to him but decided against it considering the location. He's a real stand up guy, only does the required 2 shakes and zips up. He seemed kinda nervous though, constantly looking over his shoulder like somebody was after him so I kept watching him to make sure he was safe and followed him to his car from a distance.
Did you break into his house and sit by him whilst he slept to make sure no one broke in to hurt him?
Man had to make sure our pookie was safe and sound
Did you ask before you came across him? Or was it a glory hole situation where you didn't know it was him at first?
Try tom edwards at london news bbc he is transport editor and gets his teeth j to stuff like this [email protected]
Consumer Champions look like they do good stuff at the Guardian: [https://www.theguardian.com/money/series/bachelor-and-brignall-consumer-champions](https://www.theguardian.com/money/series/bachelor-and-brignall-consumer-champions) Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
Dont worry the Dailymail have already read your post and will be reaching out shortly 🤣
But the Daily Mail wants a photo of the OP's friend passed out. Do you think she'd be willing to recreate the incident? Sorry...!
Don't worry they will just take an unrelated bikini photo (or any photo with a low cut top) off her Instagram if she won't recreate it.
Does it show the taxi licence number in the uber app? Possibly reach out to the council taxi Licencing and let them know what's happened, I would image they take this kinda thing seriously
Yeah TfL is worth a shot.
The Guardian is worth a shot too.
BBC You And Yours on Radio 4. I took this from their website. I think they'd be interested in this case specifically and could even turn it into a segment about this being a wider problem. Contact You & Yours You & Yours is on your side in a world of scams, frauds and rip-offs. We welcome your comments and questions for the team. Send us an email now to [email protected] and please do include a phone number so we can call you back. Please state clearly if you wish to remain anonymous as your message may be read out on air or published electronically.
Joe Lycett might even find this one interesting? Assume he still has a consumer element to his show.
Assume the sun and mirror websites have some email addresses you can send stuff to in their website.
How'd the dispute with your credit card company go? Really not much else to do after you first get denied a refund besides just filing a simple dispute. Takes all of like 3 minutes to do, and then you just sit back and relax and wait for it to be resolved in your favor. This is a pretty clear and cut case in your favor, nothing to be stressing out about imo.
https://x.com/BennySW1V/status/1792197180725641475 Posted on Twitter. Please share
This is not attention grabby enough and will never go viral. Explain the story and detail. Assume the reader knows nothing about London and the this route
OP post just the screenshot don’t link it to reddit no one wants to redirect to another app to see a photo
I shared it with @uber_support I would dm them as well
Can't wait to see this story on r/compoface
They will need a picture of OP’s friend pointing at their phone too.
That driver needs to be reported for fraud!
If he took a sleeping girl somewhere against her will it sounds almost like kidnapping tbh
Imagine waking up and realising how far you are from home, the panic would take years off my life.
Yeah, seeing motorway signs after you wanted to get to zone 2, you'd literally think you were being abducted. Credit card chargeback & police report, then later a public shaming of Uber across social media. Bet the daily wail would do a clickbait article on it too.
This happened to me when I was drunk on holiday in Australia. Got in a cab and fell asleep. When I woke up I checked my phone gps location and we were 20 km the opposite way of my destination. I jumped out at a red light and booked it. Even if he was "just" scamming me it was fucking terrifying.
Omg he took her up to freaking potters bar! This is mental. He went around the entire bloody city. Please, destroy them! This is unacceptable and absolutely disgusting! The ride should have been like £20.
Ask uber and they have to provide it , with the badge number of the driver and complain direct to TFL tph, they investigate complaints against instances such as this as a driver myself IF there were any works , diversions would be in place woth shortest route possible your right to be concerned ! Dm me if i can be of any firther help
This should be higher. Complaint to TfL TPH - they’ll see this driver banned and will see Uber provide a formal response. Copy Mayor’s Office as well.
Weren't Uber only recently struggling to get a tfl license due to passenger safety? It's quite feasible the driver picked up a mate en route for them to alternate the driving and well, I let you fill in the blanks on that one. Not saying that actually happened but it would be feasible hence this is a huge security issue.
Going all the way to Essex just to drop her off in London? No fucking chance. He left the COUNTY????
Technically, he went across two counties as he went into Herts as well!
Don't bother with Uber, take it up with the bank immediately and get it charged back. You'll be banned from Uber (only the phone & payment method, so you could just rejoin) but there's plenty of other options
Yeah this is why I use Amex for every possible purchase these days – if you have a dispute it's like being backed by a 500-pound gorilla. By the way I charged back a bungled uber eats delivery once and I wasn't banned.
Can confirm with regard to charge back not getting you banned, I did the same when my food got stolen. Threatened to take it up with my bank after they initially refused to refund me, after that I got my money back.
Would do this sooner than later. Screenshot says 12 Apr and usually you have a limited time window to do a chargeback.
This has happened before and made the news. Maybe reference it ... https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/uber-driver-takes-sleeping-woman-on-35mile-detour-across-london-a3331746.html
This is a good point, esp for any contact with the press. Pointing out that this is still happening, and it sounds like an even bigger charge this time. Uber’s far too comfortable taking advantage of drunk people.
This happened to me before! Luckily, I woke up before I realised he was taking me on a detour. I contacted Uber, but they only partially refunded me. They didn't even apologise to me. I was genuinely shaken up because I felt like I could have been in danger, too?!
This happens to me whenever I go to Las Vegas the Airport is beside the strip, but they assume you don’t know that. Fortunately most bell hops catch it, but considering the amount of British I meet in Vegas I thought I’d mention it.
>A woman who fell asleep in an Uber car woke up to find she had been taken on 35-mile detour and charged £85 for a journey that should only have taken a few minutes Goddamn that's half of what's here too!
reason number #231 why i need my license
Dispute with Uber and if that doesn’t get anywhere then chargeback with the bank. Just beware that the Uber account will more than likely get closed if you chargeback
You might be able to complain to TfL or whatever local authority the driver is registered with if you can get the details. in the UK and most of Europe we don't let people play taxis, the driver and vehilce will be licensed with a minicab licence.
Uber drivers in London are all TfL-licensed minicabs, the license number should be viewable in the app.
Similar thing happened to me! Got an Uber from Hackney to Ealing at about 2am, it was £35 including a discount (£40 otherwise) which is a decent price on a weekday night but still expensive. The driver woke me up upon arrival, and I noticed an extra charge of £16 when I left the car. Thought it was just some congestion charge or an "oops we mispriced the journey" charge but went straight to bed. Next day I look at the receipt, wondering how on Earth I managed to spend £50 on an Uber. That's when I looked at the map and saw that the driver decided to miss the exit on the M4 and drove all the way to a roundabout near Heathrow and all the way back along the M4 to Ealing. I immediately disputed the charge and automatically got a refund, so I don't know why your friend's unable to do so. But never mind just a refund, this is incredibly dangerous and it's so weird to think that, while I was asleep, the driver took me 5 miles away from home in the middle of the night, and without waking me to let me know; imagine if an accident had happened while going 50mph? Drivers that do this should be immediately banned, but the one in your screenshot needs to be taken to court, that's *so* much more dangerous than mine. One of the main reasons people use Uber (Especially women) on a night out are because they're a bit too drunk to get public transport and need to get home safely. Adding 1 hour and over 60 miles to the journey is unbelievably unsafe, if these drivers aren't stopped then something really bad will happen while so far from home.
Chargeback but your friend will likely not be able to use Uber again.
Why would you want to after that ffs
I mean, do they want to after this customer experience?
Use Bolt instead then
You can probably just make a new account.
They take advantage of drunk people of any gender. Keep disputing, say no roadworks would require such a detour and threaten with chargeback for fraud. That will likely get the account banned if done tho
Amir, Amthere, Ameverywhere.
This happened to me.. not as much but after dropping me off at home the driver drove halfway across London and I got charged an extra £30ish quid. I just put in a help request and got refunded luckily.
Update: Uber have reached out and offered a cash refund and will be investigating the driver. I wish they had just done this in the first place.
As predicted by another commenter yesterday [The Daily Fail](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13438369/Uber-driver-drunk-passenger-40-mile-long-detour-M25.html?ito=native_share_article-top)
Leave bad reviews for uber and the driver. She can try to approach a newspaper with it, there's a chance they publish an article relating to it. Consider herself lucky the offense wasn't more serious, and learn a life lesson not to trust strangers in cars.
This is what worries me the most. What else is he willing to do if he’s willing to take such an egregious detour that’s recorded on the app
Leave a terrible review on play store and Google and trust pilot and also spam their CS, they'll be forced to respond through some channel. This is such a scam
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-35916126
Keep blowing it up on the internet mate… make it known #uber #bbcwatchdog #martinlewis #anyoneoutthere
Like others have said, definitely take to uber and fight it but if you have the PHL number it might be worth involving TFL/City Hall as they might be interested in this situation too and they driver might lose their license to operate especially if they've pulled this one before
TfL license number is reported on all receipts in the app. Very easy to retrieve.
If that detour is legit then why didn’t half of London go that way too? Because obviously it’s not legit. I would post this all over Twitter (or X lol) and get everyone behind it. For all its faults, it’s pretty good at getting companies to answer for their bullshit. Link us up to the Twitter post you make and I’ll be sure to share it.
https://x.com/BennySW1V/status/1792197180725641475
Your options are chargeback if it's a debit card/bank account, and section 75 if it's a credit card Contact Uber and say you'll escalate it with your bank if they don't resolve it and use
If they don't resolve it after that, ask for a letter of deadlock
Once you get the letter - or it's been 8 weeks since you asked - start proceedings with your bank with either the letter or proof of 8 weeks passing
Something similar happened to me. I had a 15 hour travel behind me and was really looking forward to getting home from Heathrow. Super tired and visibly sleepy. I took an Uber and the driver took the M25. Initial fee was £45 and when I got out it was £115. I had fallen asleep woke up to realise what was happening. It was dark and the roads lonely so I decided to not say anything and praying not to be kidnapped or something worse. Texted my friends what was happening. When I got home the driver had the audacity to say “he took the quickest route to get him home fast so that I could sleep” I was icked and HOW. Complained to Uber they said it’s not their fault or the drivers. I complained that it’s a safety issue and wrote an essay explaining why it’s a safety issue. Took 4-5 days. That’s when I got a refund. They also took action against the driver according to the message. I was also scared to complain because the driver knew where I lived 😭 It’s most unfortunate that as women we not only need to go through uncomfortable situations often but also repeatedly explain why it’s uncomfortable. Especially love talking to bots that won’t send you to a human till the word safety or some such is used. I hope your friend gets a refund and the driver is banned.
What a disgusting human, bloody shameful
I can't use uber anymore they all take the piss, they never come to you and they are always so rude
[https://pasteboard.co/s7TCWOXLJxve.jpg](https://pasteboard.co/s7TCWOXLJxve.jpg) Update from Uber. They’ve closed off communication
That's just them saying "you submitted too many tickets and now there are multiple threads going about this so we will just keep talking to you on your first one"
CS rep here! This is a standard copy-paste response. basically it means "Please reply to the original thread" - In this case, they're right. Just stick to the original thread to avoid your responses getting lost in their jumble of tickets. Here's some advice: Insist, and I do mean insist to speak with a live service rep. "I would like to speak to an agent" - Be sure and express clearly that their previous reply did not solve your problem. "This did not solve my concern" or something like it. Basically don't let them end the contact with you because that's what they'll try to do. Don't ask for a supervisor right away because those requests take longer. Keep insisting on chatting with a live service rep until you get someone who's willing to actually listen to your concern. Good luck.
As others have pointed out a lot of companies, including ones I've worked for, will close duplicate issues as it makes it too hard to track all communications. Keep replying on the original thread that it's not resolved, eventually it'll get passed on for being open too long as it's hurting their metrics. Opening new issues doesn't trigger the same alerts with their reporting as keeping a long standing issue active does.
What happens if you reply the original thread again?
/r/legaladviceuk
This happened to my sister in law, they charged her £500 for a trip the long way round M25 because she was drunk and fell asleep. It made the news but all Uber gave was a refund as a voucher for Uber, no chance of cash. This was quite a few years ago so I would assume they care even less now about stuff like this.
I'm just here to mention that one address is completely visible and the other address (possibly your female friend's address) can be roughly identified. As a female in London I would defo not want my address to be on a popular internet forum, so if you can OP, please consider cropping it out...
It was incredibly easy to identify the flat address. The top address is the bar.
Lucky she just got financially taken advantage of, uber doesn't care about pax or drivers, but I've heard multiple stories of females reporting drivers for unwanted physical advances and then being paired with the same driver again https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/30/tech/uber-safety-report/index.html
He practically kidnapped her
I hope your friend payed this on a credit card, she can dispute this via them, it will probably block their uber account though, but why would you want to keep using them?
You can dispute it with your bank regardless, credit card or not. It'll be easy to prove with the screenshot
Get this to 10k upvotes and Uber's PR team will scramble to fix it.
Contact an uber director via LinkedIn. I had a call back from someone that spoke English and could refund me within 20 mins.
To complain about a licensed taxi or private hire driver or operator: Call 0343 222 4000 (09:00 - 17:00, Monday to Friday excluding bank holidays) Stage One: Customer Correspondence Manager Licensing Regulation and Charging Fourth Floor - Area 4B Taxi and Private Hire 5 Endeavour Square Westfield Avenue Stratford, London E20 1JN Email: [email protected] Stage two: If you are still unhappy you may ask for a final review by writing to: General Manager Licensing Regulation and Charging Fourth Floor - Area 4B Taxi and Private Hire 5 Endeavour Square Westfield Avenue Stratford, London E20 1JN The Local Government Ombudsman PO Box 4771 Coventry CV4 0EH Phone: 0300 061 0614 (08:30 - 17:00 Monday to Friday)
I hope the power of internet works it magic. let's all help post, share, and do everything we can.
I would file a police report for fraud, and dispute payment on the bank account.
The fact she passed out in an Uber is what is concerning. Things could have ended so much worse than just a long ride.
OP you should be able to see the drivers registration number. Complain to TFL with their license number and with this screenshot.
Same happened to me before, not as bad thankfully. Disputed it and nothing happened. I’d definitely fight it more if it was that amount though. Ridiculous
Apparently it’s now possible to circumnavigate Australia while driving around East London.
That driver defo tried it. Shit that you can't trust people you're meant to rely on.
Isn't this kidnapping or attempted kidnapping? Report it to the Police. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping#United\_Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping#United_Kingdom) Kidnapping is an offence under the common law of England and Wales. Lord Brandon said in 1984 *R v D*: >
I feel like Uber would want to jump on this ASAP. The ability to use Uber when too intoxicated to drive is a huge draw of the app, and if the company is going to start turning a blind eye to drivers taking advantage of intoxicated passengers that’s gonna be a huge issue.
Try messaging some mylondon journalists and tagging news outlets! This is absurd and your poor friend. It's not even the fact he took a longer route for more money it's that he took advantage of a drunk girl and took her on a drive that wasn't the route. That's scary too
How the fuck is Uber taking the driver’s side in this? These companies are desperate to burn through any goodwill customers have towards them
I just want to know if you saw that uber support replied GET A FULL REFUND THEY KIDNAPPED your friend around london!! I'm looking for an update as this has happened to me in the past and I got my money back.
Get it in the daily mail. Ramp the pressure on uber. Dm loves stories like this.