“This is a class action.
A young woman’s TikTok video about being overcharged for an Uber ride has gone viral. She says you should always check your receipts.
Demi (@_demi.demi) says she recently took an Uber ride that cost her $24, but when she got home and checked her receipt, she discovered she was charged almost double!
She wrote in the text overlay of her video: “Warning, Uber is scamming you”. On Saturday, her video had been watched over 264,700 times! (Via)
Did you hear about that woman who ordered an Uber and found out she’d been overcharged?
Demi said she ordered an Uber for $24, but the receipt said she paid $46.97 for the ride home.
She said this wasn’t shown on the screen when she ordered the ride and wasn’t what she’d paid.Demi then contacted Uber through the app’s help desk and requested a refund. She hasn’t had a refund yet though.
She said Uber ‘takes advantage of the fact that people don’t look carefully to see if what they ordered and what they paid for is the same thing’ and that users should always check their receipts after ordering a ride.
‘If you want to charge me $46 for a ride, that’s fine’, she said. In another video, Demi encouraged people to share their horror stories of being overcharged by Uber, and more than 400 people commented on the video, essentially saying that Uber was ripping off its customers. (Via)
Following the comments, Demi opened a form on Google to allow aggrieved customers to share their experiences with Uber or similar apps.
Uber customers say they’ve been scammed by the app.
Last September, another Uber driver had a similar experience. She said the app advertised a $12 ride, but she was charged almost twice as much, just like Demi.
In her case, though, the driver involved said she was charged more because of “fees associated with California commercial auto insurance requirements.”It’s not clear from Demi’s video whether she was charged as much.
But after her experience, last year’s customer encouraged viewers to use Lyft instead of Uber.
Here’s why public transit can cost more.
In her video, Demi suggests she was charged more because her driver took a longer route.
According to some Reddit users, this is not unusual.
On the r/Uber subreddit, another passenger claimed that her driver deliberately chose side roads, adding 20 unnecessary minutes to her trip.It’s not clear if the passenger had to pay extra, but he gave the driver a star. (Via)
Another post on the r/Uber subreddit says drivers who take longer routes don’t pay extra. (Via)
One Reddit user said, “No smart driver does. The extra time and miles are nothing compared to getting another ride.”Another user said, “Also, in markets where fares are calculated in advance, this can be counterproductive, as most fare recalculations never favor the driver.
You can also charge more for an Uber if you think you’ve been overcharged, but this is usually only the case if the driver’s using toll roads or if they’re travelling during rush hour.But this doesn’t seem to have affected Demi, as these surcharges are automatically included in the fare.
People were saying how Uber overloaded them.
In the comments on Demi’s video, loads of users shared stories of being overloaded by the app.
“I’ll never forget ordering a $25 Uber and trying to charge $99 on my card… I’ve never even used it,” says one woman.”I went to Toronto and it happened to me four times,” says another, “I showed them the original price of the reservation and everything and they blocked my account.””It happened to me too,” wrote one viewer. “I agreed to pay $35, but when I checked my statement a week later it was $60. I called my bank, got my money back and deleted the app. They still send me emails asking me to pay the bill.”
Others shared their tips on how to avoid getting scammed.
“I only use the app card for shared rides,” wrote one user.”Uber has been doing this for years. That’s why I don’t link it to my bank account, just Apple Pay, and it’s always the exact amount or $3 more.”
“I put $24 in Apple Pay and go about my day,” joked a third user.
Some users argued that other ride-sharing apps, like Lyft, are no safer.
“Lyft does the same thing,” said another user.
“Lyft does the same thing,” replied another.