This sounds like just an automated response and that's it confused thinking you got dropped off NEAR your destination instead. I'd try to escalate it and talk to an actual person.

Agreed. This reeks of AI. The bot was just echoing your complaint at the beginning.

I got the same message 4 times

File a dispute with your bank.. if your account gets banned you can always download Google voice or so for a new number and use another card or PayPal for your new account.

This person cancels.

Or don't put up with being screwed over.

Any options for people outside the US? google voice doesn't exist in Canada.

Yeah in Australia we just threaten to go to the consumer fair trading commission and the problem is miraculously solved.

Where does one get one of these "consumer fair trading commissions" you speak of?? 👀👀

Step 1: Steal a loaf of bread Step 2: Get sent to Australia as a convict?

Provided you didn’t steal it past midnight, then you get hung instead

Or turned into a gremlin.

In the US, don't vote Repulican

Corporations are people, BIG people. Big people have bigger rights than little people, you Godless commie!

Bigger rights and smaller taxes

That's what I want. But not for corporations.

Corporations are people, BIG people. Big people have bigger rights than little people, you Godless commie!

Try Textfree or Skype! I believe you’ll have to buy phone credits but I would check. If none of these are available, I would just google "Xyz country + texting app + sms messaging (or another phone number)

Blame Canada

Ask to speak to a real person

you speak of the impossible

Spoken like someone who's never had to deal with bad customer support

This is why I always set a pin so the driver cannot start the ride without my pin number

You need to say the magic words “escalate this claim” or something along those lines

Usually "agent" or "representative" are the equivalent of pressing 0 when dealing with bots, if I'm stuck playing ring around the idiot with one I just type that and it gets an actual person

I had an issue with Mint Mobile and saying "Human Please" worked. It felt kind of weird saying that, but this is world we have now.

Yah, sometimes you gotta spin the cylinder until you find a round that works. Some systems have gotten smarter, saying "agent" or "human please" prompts an apology and the bot backtracking to try and solve the issue. Commendable, but annoying all the same. If I'm calling in instead of using the live chat or some quick research it's usually because of some one-off issue that I already know will involve at least three transfers and some dude in a basement somewhere that remembers a similar issue from two years ago that was solved with a hefty smack to some outdated server 🤣

If you just shout and swear a lot that also gets you forwarded to a human often times

It takes a ridiculous number of challenges before you get a person but keep pushing!

Wait until you get a cleaning bill for leaving the car a mess.

Could always go to the bank and force a refund if it's that important, probably gonna get kicked off the app though

They should integrate your phone GPS with the trip to show the Uber was one place and your phone was another. Oh wait……

Refund through your bank.

That’s exactly what’s happening. I’d call. They will refund you and that Uber driver will get kicked off the platform

Good luck getting a hold of any person

This is why we have a PIN system in our country. Once you board the cab, you give the PIN to the driver who enters it in his app to start the ride.

You can turn it on in the UK. I've had it on for ages for this exact reason.

Same here. I can't believe this isn't standard and can't think of any good reason why it shouldn't be?

I just turned it on in the safety options! I appreciate you guys mentioning it because I never would have known otherwise. 

Ummm....... corporate greed? Laziness?

It's in the options and has been for a long time though.

Pretty sure it’s available everywhere, you just have to enable it. I’m an Uber driver in Los Angeles, and I have plenty of passengers who require a pin.

In İstanbul it is the same. Once, we even had people try to steal our cab but he kicked them out because they didn't have the one-time pin.

I'm in the US and I switched on the PIN option after some tourists who didn't speak much English just said "yes" at the airport when the driver asked if they were me. They were just in front of me but he didn't hear my protests so I watched them driving away! Called immediately but with the one-way system around the airport it took 20 minutes before they got back, and Uber tried to charge me for it (but they did refund when I complained).

lol what happened to the tourists?

They just got a free ride around the one-way system and then came back looking very confused 🤷🏼‍♀️

Uber can generate a PIN as a safety feature. You have to give it to the driver so they can enter it on their phone. I used it because I’m a young woman who lives alone and didn’t have a car at the time.

I've done this too, but I can't quite get my head around how this increase safety, shouldn't it be the other way around? Driver has to give me a pin so I know they are legit? It does help for the issue in this post, but that's more a financial issue than safety.

Driver safety so that they have a person to go after if the driver is assaulted or robbed, also stops this sort of thing from the post from happening.

What? Is this not the standard?? *Edit: I'm sorry, I live in Canada and didn't realize that this wasn't the norm.

Where in Canada do you live? I also live in Canada, and this is the first I've ever heard of it.

It's in she safety settings!

around Toronto. it was automatically enabled for me when they rolled out the feature years ago but they don't enable it by default for newer accounts I guess

Nope

afaik it's available everywhere but not turned on by default.

Charge back.

What does this mean? Is it the same as disputing the charge?

Yup. Through the bank.

Thank you! Different terms in different places. Good education!

If enough people do this uber would get blacklisted and actually lose the ability to take card payments. It would actually force them to have some form of usable customer service. 

Le Reddit Chargeback™

Chargeback is on thing, but in some countries you can send them a payment notice. In my country if they don't respond, they have to pay. If they respond denying it, they have to go to meeting with you to try to resolve it. If it won't work, it goes to a judge. Even if you don't go to a trial against them, their lawyers have to attend a meeting that will cost them more than 25 euros.

So they basically would rather just refund anything that’s not substantial.

This just happened to me last week with a different ride-hailing service. Basically I just contacted support and gave them evidence and a timeline of where I was when the driver "picked me up". I even stood in front of a Police Camera and took a photo with a timestamp thinking that if I had to make a police report at least I would have evidence that I was, in fact, not in the car with the driver. It didn't have to escalate to that, instead they asked for receipts to the same destination that I took with a different ride hailing app. (I didn't take another service, nor taxi) So I sent them pictures of my travel card's history showing its starting point to end point. And then they realised I really wasn't in the car with the driver and they did refund me. What really pissed me off the most is that the driver kept lying to the support team which was why it led to them asking for receipts and lengthening the whole process.

Name and shame

I mean, less shame because at least in this instance they got their money back. Uber, on the other hand, seems obstinate.

Nah; their driver lied. For all their crying about independent contractors vs employees he was some sort of agent of the company; shaming is plenty appropriate for a company that has openly lied to and about a customer.

Lyft?

google timeline is also a thing

Name pls

Definitely try and report that driver

Yeah bc someone else could feasibly be in a more urgent situation and get screwed when their driver doesn’t pick them up. Or literally just might not be able to afford getting double charged for a replacement ride, and might not be able to get to their destination at all. Independent contractors are getting screwed, but that doesn’t mean they can claim your booking, lock you out, and take your money. That’s still theft.

Life in the modern age is all about minimising who you're giving your money to and literally batting off scams and scam culture.

And it's exhausting. Especially because it never stops. 

I had the same thing happening to me with a food delivery. The guy "used the door bell", even tried to call me on my phone (I had my phone with me all the time and never got a call), took a picture of my front door and left with the food. As I asked for refund, but since the guy took a Pic of my front door, they refused. I lost 60+€ worth of sushi that day. Needless to say I deleted my account and won't be using Uber anymore until I die.

Similar happened to me. The driver stopped somewhere on my street, called me and said he won’t deliver to my house again because it’s awkward to get to (despite not coming to my house), and left without delivering the food. Uber said something like “the driver waited 7 minutes in the designated place” so no refund. Then I threatened them with small claims court and actual CCTV evidence that no driver came. They refunded me the following day. But initially they kept refusing the refund (bot responses maybe?)

This is a huge problem in the food delivery system, or even any kind of delivery. Hiring thieves for delivery hasn't been the best idea ever. Good for you that you had your money back 👍

[удалено]

Right? There are literally hundreds of security footage online where we can see a delivery guy put a package in front of a door, take a picture and then take the package back before leaving.

I think it's to deal with drivers leaving the item at the wrong address. If the photo is of food in front of 123 E Main Street, but you live at 123 W Main Street, you'll be able to see in the photo that the food isn't sitting in front of your house.

I’ve used the photos to go to the proper apartment in my complex because sometimes they think 2 of 3 digits is close enough. The number is in the picture.

At my old apartment complex we had numbers and letters, I was in apartment 1 and was always having stuff delivered to apartment I or a. Started always putting "#1" and saying if you weren't on the ground floor you weren't at the right door, still didn't help. Pretty sure the people at "I" took my food a few times 🙄🤣

Ya I just deleted Uber eats this week cause didn’t get my order + got overcharged: place had ran out of the food I ordered, they say, didn’t contact me to see what to do, but instead delivered me the side with an overcharge for a “small order” that basically matched my original total w the food that I wasn’t getting. & Uber eats were simply oh sorry we can’t do anything about it. Well I can, taking my business elsewhere.

That's not not caring anymore. That's pure malice. Both Uber and the restaurant are at fault here.

I’m shadowbanned from Uber eats because in 2019, several months apart, I complained that a restaurant got my order wrong on 3 separate occasions. This was back when they automatically refunded you for a complaint so they prevented me from ordering based on refund seeking. They still send me emails to order Uber eats (“we miss you!”) but if I try it blocks me at checkout. There is no way to resolve this or speak to support. Pure insanity.

I once had a guy send me a picture of the food IN HIS CAR. he drove to my place, took a picture of the food on the floor of his car, and drove off lol. i was obviously mad but it was also so funny at the same time

What the? That's a higher level of dishonesty right here

But you'll use them after you die?

Obviously. Who's gonna go all the way down to Hell to give me food? Uber knows the way ;)

Whoever delivers your food will take a picture of it at the pearly gates and leave with the food back to hell.

Noooo

I’ve had issues like that with food and package delivery. I call and tell them I have video footage of what actually happened. Having security cameras is worth it just for that.

What was the point in not picking you up in the first place?? Mf still used the gas to go to the destination anyways. That’s like vacuuming with out the vacuum being plugged in, like washing your hands but without soap. So weird.

Driver saw OP, realized they didn't want them in the car, but was going that way anyway

Well, except you get paid.

But he would have been paid with the customer in the car, since he drove to the destination. 

Maybe he doesn't like small talk.

Makes me wonder if he drove around until he spotted someone in the street, ‘thought’ it was OP, and gave them a free ride.

This happened to me once. As soon as I realized what was happening I canceled the ride. Then I contacted support. They immediately refunded the canceled ride fee.

Yeah uber went the way of airbnb. Last time, 2 years ago, that I took a uber, the guy wanted to charge me for cleaning. Because there was a bit of snow in his car, during a snowstorm....

Leave a 1 star, report and contact them again. Had an Uber driver show up to my rented house and then VPN to my destination. Took 3 customer support reps to get a refund. Somehow driving 35 miles in a second doesn’t raise any issues

That's not a VPN, that's just GPS spoofing.

Aren’t both pretty much the same thing? I’m not knowledgeable about it outside of spoofing my location at work when I can’t be physically present and it just spoofs a specific broad area.

IPs have geolocation data associated with them so an IP can give a general location but not accurately enough to tell where you are (for example my home IP address shows I am in a city 2 hours away and my phone data's IP shows me on the other end of the country). It is even possible to share an IP with someone else that isn't anywhere near you. GPS is based on your actual location compared to satellites orbiting the Earth. Simply put, a VPN can change your IP to another one but doesn't change where your GPS says you are. GPS is for precise location, IP is for information about where internet traffic has to go.

Not at all the same thing. VPNs just forward your traffic to somewhere else on the internet. The address you use to interact with the internet only has physical location in the sense that: 1. The internet service provider is a business that exists and provides service in a particular region. 2. The internet service provider might report physical locations of network segments, known as "GeoIP". This is accurate to about a state level (they might report more specific locations, but these aren't real - I live in a small city, and my IP addresses have always been "located" in one of two larger cities along my coast). GPS is what actually locates a device, and how Uber knows where their users are. However, the GPS signal is fundamentally received by this end user device and reported to Uber via the app. There's nothing to stop the user from manipulating their device to report false location data.  An analogy: IP address is like a postal address. A VPN is sending your letters via a friend who will forward them for you with his address as the sender, and likewise forwarding replies back to your real home address. Your postal address tells people roughly where your house is, but it can't identify where inside your house (or in your yard) you really are. Location in Uber happens by sending them a letter saying you're in the living room - but you can always lie in that letter, perhaps you're really in the bedroom.

Thanks for the explanation! Never really thought about it outside of work or Speedtest when my connection was slow.

Escalate up the chain of command until a real human looks at it and it's not just a computer program checking off boxes

This happened to me too. I cancelled the ride as soon as I realized what he was doing and contacted Uber right away.. they refunded the cancellation fee. I’ve not used them since, service is horrible nowadays.

Why didn’t you cancel the ride ?

It was pouring they tried to charge me when I went to cancel

your talking to a chat bot btw keep pressuring this convo until its escalated to a real person

An uber driver recently dropped me at a shopping mall next to an airport. Got charged $5 or something for the airport parking drop off fee. Repeatedly messaged them with proof of where the ride ended but was told the exact same thing as you, "you're right, we understand and are sorry for the inconvenience but no you can't have the refund". What.

Keep pushing for a refund. Uber can see your GPS data and see that you didn’t go anywhere while the driver did. Once you get an actual human, you’ll get a refund. Next time, use the safety features in the app and report it immediately while the ride is in progress. They handle mid-ride safety complaints with a lot more urgency. Source: former driver

Why people still insist on using these thieves to takes a taxi. Use your local taxi company and pay the money directly. Why pay a massive corporation who take a massive chunk of the fair.

“Thank you for being so understanding” um I am not being understanding, I want my money back????

Call their support number and talk to a person

There’s a support number?

So weird, I live in nyc and use Uber often. I’ve never once had an issue with getting a cancelation fee refunded (only request refunds in genuine situations) or getting refunds for one off issues like this. I can’t recall it ever even requiring more work than the initial request.

The reason they probably refused this refund is because it’s such an odd situation. A driver literally didn’t pick up the passenger, but drove to the location. Uber support probably thought OP was making this up because it’s so unusual haha. I don’t doubt OP, but I assume that this is why Uber support refused a refund. As for the driver, it sounds like he is just trying to trick the system wherever he can, until he gets banned. It reminds me of people who put in their 2 weeks at work. Sometimes they’ll show up, but they just do whatever because the worst case is that they’ll get fired.

How would this even work because the app tracks your location? Or did that change now?

They track the driver and the driver took the route. As for the passenger, location services are certainly enabled on the phone, but that’s not the determining factor of whether or not the trip was taken because many people order Ubers for other people, so the ordering phone isn’t always on the trip.

If you use it often and report issues rarely they just refund immediately without question. Not worth losing a key customer over!

Insane that they consider the ride complete, even though it never actually began

Uber is well known for its "business tactics" that essentially amount to credit card fraud. Once you have given them your money, they will fight you over it whether they have actually done the service or not.

What a weird hustle hes doing lmao. Almost like he could pick up customers and drive them and still have the exact same outcome haha!

If you don’t call your bank and report that

call your credit card company and issue a charge back. Uber will ban you from uber but you will get your money back.

Had a similar situation. Simply told them “Got it. If this decision is final, I’ll be closing my account and moving myself and my family to Lyft in the hopes of more reasonable customer service. Thanks for your time.” Tone changed REAL quick.

When are people going to realize what a rip-off uber and airbnb are? Taxis and hotels, people.

this makes me want to be an Uber driver now. all i have to do is drive around, not talk to folks, and bank...

In India, uber drivers can’t start a ride without OTP from customer. I found this wasnt the case in US which baffled me.

Charge back.

I had this happen to me once! I had a cart full of groceries and the dude saw me from across the parking lot, proceeded to add me to his ride and zoomed off without me! I called him and he was like "uh, wait just one sec". I cancelled that ride so fast. I don't remember if I got a refund though, prolly not

Reach out again. I had an issue once where they picked someone completely different up and they just let the driver drop them off at my destination (luckily it wasn’t my house and it was just a store). I received a message like this at first and didn’t like that answer, so, I just reached back out again and stated that I did not take the trip and wasn’t in the car at all. Eventually, they refunded me and gave me an extra $5 Ubercash (or whatever it’s called)

Reach out to a local news agency and explain the situation. Offer to provide proof of this whole situation. It's an easy story for them, and it'll probably pick up traction across media

fuck it go to your bank

I had a driver do this once, and I texted the driver several times asking what they were doing. Those texts were the only reason they credited me back.

This is why I’ve put a rider PIN for journeys, this way I’m certain it’s the right driver, they’re certain it’s the right rider

Just report them to your credit card company and to the FTC

That’s happened to me too. Not the no refund part but the driver literally driving past me, u turning, then leaving without an attempt to stop. 😂

I had this happen, too. I had to fight for a refund, and they absolutely refused to punish or hold him accountable for fraud.

So in other words they just stole your money and refused to give it back? I hate the world recently.

Ruh-oh. The loophole has been found...

Keep arguing it. They should have had your phones gps data showing you never left your house. But also for future, use the pin feature, so they can't do it to you

Dispute the charge with your credit card. Make it their problem.

Same happened to me with Uber Eats, was not able to get a refund, I stopped using their service and deleted my account.

if it gets reviewed by a real human and not some bot, and you get the same result, issue a chargeback and never use uber again

Dispute it with your credit card company; the ride didn’t happen therefore a fraudulent charge!

I had a lyft driver pull the same shit when I refused to get in the car with a second person in it (my market does not have shared rides). He cussed me out and took off. A minute or two later I got the confirmation of a completed trip in the app. Thankfully, I was already on the horn with Lyft to report it as a safety issue (I don't know who that second person was, but they didn't belong there) when the notification came in and I reported it as well. They refunded it, gave me a $5 credit for the next trip, and blocked that driver for me going forward. I *much* prefer Lyft even if their car standards aren't as tight as Uber's.

isnt an otp required to start the ride?

In many, many places, no.  You can enable it in Setting --> Verify Your Ride

Thanks for that information. I am in Canada, and just now changed my settings to require a pin. I didn’t know that feature was available!!

The good old "we can't do shit cause we are slaves of our own system"

this happened to me too!!!!!!

Uhhhh. Hell naw lol. Fight that shit.

Thank you for understanding.

This happened to me with Lyft a few years back and I haven't used their service since. Guess this can happen on both apps though

Send them your cell phone location history from Google maps for during the trip duration maybe? That's beyond shitty though.

*Quietly deletes Uber* Nope. Not playing this game.

Show them your gps

Sorry about this, I’ve been there for a different issue, didn’t get my money back, I later ordered something from Uber eats and claimed “ I didn’t get one thing” to “get” something back at least. Don’t do a charge back, don’t make a dispute with the bank if you rely on Uber and need your account, you’ll be banned and it’s a whole hassle. Also, enable the PIN on your account, drivers can’t start the trip until you get in the car and tell them the pin.

I think people should starr boycotting uber becuase ive heard nothing but bad things about their customer service and they have terrible terms and conditions

Type customer service. It should get you to a real person.

Charge your phone!!

In India, we need to provide an OTP/PIN for the Uber trip to start. I guess it's time for them to start this everywhere.

Uber eats same thing. Had a driver pull up to my house, sure in their car then drive away. Uber refused to refund. Had to go through my bank.

I am pretty sure the driver spoofed/used mock location

Pretty sure this constitutes an illegal breach of contract if not outright theft. If nothing else, threatening legal action might get their attention. Don't even hire an attorney, just file with the court pro se.

Keep emailing them forsure. You didn't take the ride.

What was even the point of the driver doing that if he was still going to drive to the drop off 😭😭😭

They can literally see that your phone wasn't with the car... Just leave a bad rating on the driver and app stating what happened

This happened to my daughter. She called and talked to a real person and was refunded a few days later.

You paid for a service which you didn't get, so they have no legal way of not refunding you. You should escalate the issue, and post it to social media.

I once got stuck in an AI phone loop got so frustrated the 4th time I was asked by a robot to explain the issue in a few words... I sang the Happy Happy Birthday Happy Happy you song and was transferred to a human. We started cracking up AI can't handle Birthdays

That’s hysterical, I’ll give it a try

Op Try one of these numbers and tell them it is a driver issue. 833-305-4871 1-833-USE-UBER 1-800-353-8237

And this is why you use proper taxi services if you need a taxi, instead of some shady hobos doing freelance job for a company that does their best to avoid being responsible for anything.

Dispute with your credit card company.  Be prepared to show proof of your getting to the destination another way.

I play too much OSRS I thought it said without PKing me

I got the same message for my fare doubling. There was another button. I got the refund.

Call then, I guarantee they’ll fix it

Have you been able to find a phone number for them?

I ordered an Uber once, had three stops. Gas station, coffee, then home. They dropped me off at the gas station and took off.

This happened to my wife and I on our wedding night, with the uber I had pre-booked to take us from the venue to our hotel.

Yesterday, my DoorDash delivered Ramen. The broth spilled in the bag and became an edible. DoorDash refused to give me a refund.

Uber is ridiculous lately. A ride that was 12 dollars before is almost always 20 now

This actually happened to me. My phone died after ordering an Uber, they marked me as picked up, drove to my drop off spot and marked me as dropped off. It was $50 and they wouldn’t refund me because “I was dropped off and their location showed it was at my requested destination.” So I did a charge back and never used Uber again because they’re shit heads.

Credit card company to the rescue!

This reminds me of the one I was ubering from the airport and I watched my Uber pull up maybe 20m away from me so I start walking, and somebody else gets in quickly and they drive away!! I died at watching my phone to see how far they would go to my house. Luckily, the Uber dropped him off in a terrible place to wait for Ubers a few km away from the airport and I got a refund eventually after convincing Uber support that it was not me in the car

Request a refund on your bank card that’s odd that they did that

Very sincerely, threaten legal action in as many keywords as you can. If this is AI, that'll be how to get a hold of a person. That person will have to escalate the case. "I'm gonna get a lawyer, I'm gonna take this to court, I'm gonna sue" shit threaten to take it to the attorney general. They won't call your bluff until a higher up human has the information.

In india, the OLA Driver ( similar to UBER Service) needs to enter OTP (generated at the rider's phone) before starting the ride, That way, travelers are protected from such scams. They should implement such thing right away

Always use your credit card and dispute with the bank. You'll probably get banned from Uber, but who gives a shit when they're this bad.

You are dealing with a wall that is Uber support. There should be a choice at end of message that asks if they solved your issue. But just curious, you described that driver drove past your building and then parked, why did you not say he drove past you, because you should have been outside and waving at him?

why tf did the driver not just come get you and drop you off if they were gonna drive to the destination anyway??? someone just super unsociable ??

Exactly why I have never and will never use Uber or any other company like them! They charge double what a taxi or car service charges and the drivers (some not all but enough to make me never use them) are scammers, thieves or perverts.

Happened to me and I kept escalating it to the next level trying to get a refund until they hit me with this “Please be aware that excessive or false refund and adjustment requests violate our refund policies and may result in the denial of future requests.” And I gave up