Heading out of town this past weekend, I remembered that I had 3 $20 promo codes in my Uber account, from referrals I made back in May. The codes were expiring Mon, Tue, Wed of this week, so it seemed like an ideal time to use one to get home from the airport on Monday. Taking my $30 ride down to $10 meant it was more economical than airport parking.
While I was in the air Monday morning, Uber decided to add a new promo to my account.
Originally Posted by Uber email
To help prevent a case of the Mondays, we have a little gift coming your way! This week, Monday - Thursday, enjoy 50% off (2) rides.
No code needed, the discount will automatically apply to your first two trips. All that’s left to do is ride!
In the small print, that 50% is reduced to a max of $5 per ride.
You can only use one promo per ride, which is fair. Apparently, though, if you have multiple promos in your account, guess what Uber does?
- Apply the one that's expiring first? Nope.
- Apply the one that was added first? Nope.
- Apply the one that gives you the largest discount? Nope.
Apparently, they apply the one that was added most recently.
Even if it's not one you chose to add or accept.
So instead of my $30 ride costing $10, it cost $25.
Multiple contacts to Uber support have yielded an explanation but no resolution or refund.
Originally Posted by Uber support response
In this case, it looks like a different promotion was applied to this trip.
Only one promotion can be applied per trip. If you have more than one promotion on your account, the last promotion added will be the first to be applied.
So without much or any notice, they basically blocked me from using my 3 expiring $20 credits. When I take off my tin foil hat, I think this was intentional, though it's probably more likely an unfortunate coincidence. But even so, they way that Uber applies promos seems very rider-unfriendly, especially when they add promos to your account with no consent and little notice.