Fraudulent billing is a rising trend hitting Uber riders. Sometimes it is for rides they never got, but increasingly they are billed for cleaning of messes that never happened, often false claims of vomit.
So what happens if there was never any vomit?
Some passengers have to send three or four emails to resolve their complaints. They must tell Uber that there was no incident, and then wait for the company to investigate and, if it agrees, reimburse their money.
Several victims told el Nuevo Herald about their vomit fraud cases.
[...] Vomit fraud is not the only way that some Uber drivers are cheating customers.
Some drivers never pick up the passenger but then charge for the trip. Some combine frauds and report incidents of vomit in trips that never took place.
Source: The Miami Herald : It's called vomit fraud. And it could make your Uber trip really expensive
(Score: 4, Insightful) by corey on Thursday July 26 2018, @11:39PM (2 children)
And this is yet another reason why I continue taking taxis and am yet to create an Uber account.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @12:58AM (1 child)
I've never caught an Uber either. If this happened to me and I had to fix, I'd bill them at my hourly rate for wasting my time. Unsurprising how many chancers back the fuck off once I tell them that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @06:03AM
What about contesting the credit card charge?
(Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Thursday July 26 2018, @11:49PM (6 children)
That smartphone in your hand ? Do not hesitate for a second to it as a camera every time you are dealing with any rented/hired transport.
Saved me hundreds of dollars already, when rental car companies "discovered" scratches on the paint or tires upon car return. If I ever take a Lyft (boycotting Uber), I'll be filming the arrival at destination, and the driver leaving. At a minimum, they'll believe I was filming them.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday July 26 2018, @11:56PM (5 children)
2 problems with your plan:
1. You can't film a trip that never happened.
2. You can't use the video to prove a negative - the driver will just claim that the vomit happened off-camera.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 26 2018, @11:59PM (4 children)
On the other side of that coin: the driver will assume certain things about a person who neurotically films everything with their cellphone, and one of those things is that they do not intend to take a false damage claim lying down. Just like "useless" car alarms, it is actually less hassle to scam on the cars with no alarms.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday July 27 2018, @01:25AM (3 children)
This guy gets it. First of all, Lyft drivers can't rate you until you accept the ride. It's a pretty well-designed system and of the many Lyft rides I got only one driver who kinda-sorta badmouthed it. Plus, if you're hitching a ride, you're probably paying attention to the Lyft app and having actual conversation with the driver and passengers (if applicable) rather than multitasking over to the camera.
Oh, and in case you didn't see that above, drivers rate you, and Lyft drivers are very particular about ratings - if you have below 4 or 5 out of 5 stars, then you're not riding after sundown. And if some sonofabitch was waving his camera around our ride for "insurance" purposes, I'd give them 1 star. That's when you become chum, and have to settle for Uber rides instead. Almost all rideshare drivers drive for both Lyft and Uber, and when you ask them which gets priority, it's always the Lyft riders.
I don't know about Uber, but Lyft drivers often keep cameras themselves because they want to be proactive in having hard proof of vomitings or other hostile behavior. And I'm totally fine with being recorded.
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Friday July 27 2018, @04:50AM
I don't use Lyft often - in fact only when I travel because corporate makes me and their official transportation strategy is a corporate Lyft account.
It's been a few months but I don't remember ever giving positive confirmation to my phone that the driver showed up and I started the ride. What I remember, every time, is the car showed up and I walked up to it, they ask if i'm me and I get inside.
Am I supposed to be doing something so they can rate me?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday July 27 2018, @11:39AM
I'm totally fine with being recorded, as long as it's mutually available.
What's not cool is being filmed without having the power of filming on your side too - too much can be taken out of context, selectively edited, etc.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @07:24PM
wat
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 26 2018, @11:57PM (4 children)
This is the perfect application for a blockchain record:
1. Every trip the Uber driver makes is recorded, permanently and publicly.
2. Every vomit case, billing complaint, and other sad fact of life ever connected with that driver is also recorded permanently and publicly.
3. When hailing an Uber, your app shows you potential drivers with a rating scale based on your own criteria, what's important to you. If you don't want the closest driver, take them off the list (and maybe ban them from your consideration for a period of time.)
Would be nice to be able to turn this about on the customers as well, but they're going to have an easier time of switching identities after they've made a nuisance of themselves.
The problem with this kind of "new transparency" is that it will show people real life: bad stuff does indeed happen to good people, and forgiveness is a necessary part of life in society. These "zero tolerance" morons who only function today by their ignorance will have to learn how to process the concepts of forgiveness and understanding. On the other hand, there are some truly bad eggs out there and we all deserve to know who they are before we get into their car for a 30 mile trip on a busy freeway.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @12:07AM (3 children)
Better solution: get another ride from the Uber driver that scammed you the first time, and accidentally slice his throat from ear to ear with a straightrazor. You'll probably get billed for blood removal, but at least this time the charge will be legit.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Knowledge Troll on Friday July 27 2018, @04:53AM (1 child)
Yeah but if you do this no one at the trial is going to thank you for improving the Uber customer experience. They'll just use loaded words like "murderer" and "psychopath" and maybe "premeditated" but not "public service" and "hero."
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday July 28 2018, @12:18AM
The key is to steal a cellphone to hail the Uber with, noone will ever know...
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @06:20AM
Do you do that before or after you get to your destination? Or do you do it at a stoplight, get out and wait for another Uber?
Remember kids, timing is everything.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday July 27 2018, @12:06AM (3 children)
A very common fraud is for a restaurant to receive a dry cleaning bill, with a letter that claims that a waitress spilled food all over the perpetrator's suit.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Friday July 27 2018, @12:52AM (2 children)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKNdVQKHsFc [youtube.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Friday July 27 2018, @04:56AM (1 child)
What the fuck was that
That was too weird to use a question mark.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @05:01AM
Looked like the file was badly corrupted...probably a botched defrag.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by GlennC on Friday July 27 2018, @12:25AM (6 children)
Given that some drivers are finding out just how badly they're getting screwed by Uber and those who use their service, I'm not surprised that some drivers are figuring out how to try to make a little more money.
This is just the other side of the "I want what I want, as cheap as possible, fuck everyone else and damn the consequences" state our world is in.
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @01:42AM (2 children)
And on the other hand, sales of rubber "gag" vomit are going through the roof! Uber is making America Grate Again! (At least until the fake vomit tariff goes into effect later this month.)
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @06:22AM (1 child)
We can only aspire to become as great as your spelling.
(Score: 4, Touché) by janrinok on Friday July 27 2018, @08:51AM
I'll think that you'll find the spelling was deliberate - but you were probably distracted by the whooshing sound....
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @02:17AM (1 child)
That's a wordy way of saying "capitalism."
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Friday July 27 2018, @03:33AM
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Knowledge Troll on Friday July 27 2018, @05:06AM
I call this the Groupon effect. When people get ripped off by a company that helps normal people rip off the service providers you get quality service providers that stop using the service and are left only with those who will game the system. I recognized this when my mother decided to get a Groupon for a roof inspection despite my warnings that legit businesses were screaming about losing money on the initial sales and never being able to make up the loss leader because only tightwads used the service and just went with the next deal they could find.
The price was really good so I'm sure it was quite enticing. What happened though is someone came out, climbed a ladder and got onto the roof, ran a leaf blower for 10 minutes, then left.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @01:45AM (1 child)
I'll probably never use uber because as far as I can tell you have to have one of those fagoty toy smart phones just to get a ride. The entire thing is a sham sponsored by cell phone salesmen.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Knowledge Troll on Friday July 27 2018, @05:02AM
At least Lyft has absolutely no provision to hail a driver down on the street. All rides must originate from the phone app and there is absolutely no way to select any specific driver. I know this because I took a round trip in a single Lyft and told the driver up front about it to make sure they were ok with waiting for about 10 minutes while I ran my errand.
When I got back in the car for the return trip the driver hit the wrong button and finished the trip with me sitting in the car. He was really unhappy about that because he can't originate the ride, I had to, and we couldn't specify that we wanted each other so we had to hope that Lyft noticed I was literally right next to him and pair us for the service.
Fortunately it worked in my case but I may have had to wait for another car to come instead.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @08:53AM
The drivers have an incentive for claiming vomit (they get shitty pay and filing a vomit complaint is easy). All you Uber apologists who thought it was OK that Uber is "disrupting" Taxis are probably OK with the free market doing its thing here, right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @09:54AM (1 child)
... will be the name of my new band.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday July 27 2018, @01:37PM
I like Uber Vomit!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 4, Interesting) by opinionated_science on Friday July 27 2018, @10:43AM
I have had a few ubers get close and the app says "your driver has arrived and will wait 2 mins before...etc..".
Thing is the driver was parked some distance away -no at all local (this was california), and I got the idea that perhaps they have found some game triggering payment for being "close".
It seem to only happen in California (LA, about 3 times), but I suppose it could be generic.
Anyone else?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @03:53AM
In Australia there is a problem with muslim drivers raping female passengers. Usually when they are drunk.