Watch out for driver initiated cancellation fees.
 

I've held off on using Über for a while since they pretty much ignored me. I had the new rider promo (free ride), and the driver cancelled the ride. They counted that as a ride and refused to give me an actual free ride when I contacted them. I didn't begin using Über until Lyft let me down (no drivers in the area)

FYI, if the driver waits 5+ minutes and the passenger no-shows they can cancel the ride and you get charged $5. That may be how your free ride money got used up.

The driver cancelled within a minute of accepting the ride.

Watch out for driver initiated cancellation fees.
 

So I am in Las Vegas and request an Uber pick up while at the SEMA show in Vegas. Traffic is crazy but the have a lot set up for drivers and customers to meet. App advises me that my ride is 1 min away. After 10 min and no show I look at the app and the driver cancelled. Message says to re-request. I do and the driver is there in 30 seconds. As I get in the car I get an email that I am being charged for the DRIVER cancelled trip.

I contact UBER support and they give me a credit on my account. After this why would I want a credit. I email them back and they credit my credit card which should have been done in the first place.

Since then I have asked why I was charged...numerous times and all they do is send me customer initiated cancellation policies.

I guess what it comes down to is that if the driver cancels for any reason after 5 min have elapsed from requesting the ride you get charged. I understand that if the customer doesn't show isn't ready etc it would be a valid fee.

This wasn't. I was where I was supposed to be and the driver didn't show. I guess really the driver owes me $5.00.

Has this happened to you? Check your Uber bills because this Driver Cancellation policy is crap.

I heard back from Uber.

They were under the impression from the driver I wasn't there. No call, no text nothing from the driver. I guess I wasn't there...watching every car that came into the paking lot and checking the licence plates.....Ya right.

On Uber if you cancel a ride you can indicate whether the customer should be charged or not. When I was driving if I cancelled because I couldn't get there I'd always mark to not charge the customer.

With Lyft it used to never charge the customer for driver initiated cancels. A lot of passengers caught onto this and would call the driver and say that they needed to cancel the ride but "couldn't figure it out" :rolleyes:. So Lyft changed to allow driver initiated cancels to charge the passenger and passengers flipped out.

If you aren't where you claim to be or something like that I'd indicate to charge the passenger. Too many passengers waste driver time because they request the ride without paying attention to the location. It's people like that who have messed it up for people like you.

gj83...thanks for the reply. I have finally developed a better understanding of how the system works along with cancellations.

I had something similar happen a few months ago. I was at the EWR Airtrain Station (P4 I think) where the hotel shuttles do pickups. I requested an Uber and the driver accepted and said he was on his way. He texted asking where I was, I told him. All of a sudden he changed from 10 minutes away to arriving to cancelled. From the map it looked like he was at one of the terminals and just didn't want to drive over. Pretty frustrating.

The other night a driver had a problem finding mrsmicah. She called him to say she was standing outside at the address she had given him, but for whatever reason he had trouble getting to the address (it's a slightly confusing area, but still...). After a few minutes he canceled the ride, charging her. Probably not coincidentally, when she went to request a new car, there was a Surge in effect.

An e-mail or two to customer service got the cancellation fee refunded. Not sure if she's been able to get the surge surcharge removed from the rebooked ride.

Looks like you folks aren't the only ones who have had an Uber driver pull the cancellation fee scam... :td:

http://www.thedriversucks.com/your-s...ncellation-fee

This stuff pisses me off because there is such little recourse for what essentially amounts to theft.

I never got my "first ride free" on Uber because of this. The driver cancelled, which took my free first ride, and Uber refused to give it back to me.

this wknd my driver went to the wrong address and cancelled the ride >:0. well see what uber support will do

I got another one of these fees reversed the other day for a driver who no-showed and canceled me.

Remember that Uber support almost always requires two e-mails to get the resolution you actually want. The first contact they'll usually try to blow you off or give you something less than what you asked for (if you ask for a refund, they might give you a ride credit instead). The second contact they'll usually do what you want.

Happened to me yesterday. I was staying at a hotel by LHR and ordered a car to take me to LHR. The driver got close, within 2 minutes and set himself to "Driver Approaching". He then cancelled it after a few minutes. I complained to Uber who gave me a credit. I tried with three other drivers and they cancelled before getting close so I guess no one wanted the fare :rolleyes:

Driver's do not have the option to set "Driver Approaching." That is GPS based and is automatically prompted in the Uber system.

The driver does have to manually indicate that they are at your pickup address.

These cases scream "Class Action" to me.

I had this happen twice to me in Jakarta two weeks ago. Both times I emailed UBER, both time it was reversed to my CC and both times the reply came within 5 mins.

I had 3 cases last week in Kuala Lumpur where a certain toll fee (always the same toll) didnt auto appear. One case the driver manually requested and UBER notified me. In the two other cases I messaged UBER to add the amount and they replied and did so with thanks (and sending a revised invoice).

I haven't had an issue with Uber yet, but they will get one e-mail from me, just like everyone else gets. If that one contact doesn't resolve the issue, and it has been more than 48 hours, Amex gets a disputed charge request. I'd imagine these are fairly easy to process for Uber since Uber does not anything from me (the customer) authorizing the charge.

This happened to me in Dubai. I was at the souk and traffic was really heavy. I contacted Uber and they credited my account for a future ride, but this was no good, because the credit was in AED, and the credit wasn't even received until after I got back to the States. So I disputed the charge with AMEX because I have no patience for run-around and shenanigans and didn't want to go back and forth with Uber, and AMEX quickly reversed the charge on my credit card. Uber's policy is that if a driver waits for more than five minutes the customer is charged a cancellation fee, but this is bogus if the driver doesn't show up, and doesn't even call if he's having trouble finding you.

I'm pretty sure credit card disputes under a certain amount (maybe $30?) are written off by the credit card company without ever going to the merchant.

That's my thought as well, which is why it's probably not worth it to go back and forth with Uber if you don't get the right resolution the first time.

Agree. In fact this would be of high interest to the NY or CA attorney generals. Anybody who charges consumers for services not received is guilty of fraud. If they do this on a widespread basis intentionally then this is organized fraud and a civil or criminal RICO case might be appropriate.

But I don't think it's inappropriate for Uber to charge you if you request a car and don't show up to meet the driver, which is what these fees are intended for. The fact that some drivers abuse the system doesn't make Uber criminally liable.

I don't have a problem with a cancellation fee provided there is a grace period (the current 5-minute rule seems sufficient). I have cancelled several rides recently when the actual pickup time was clearly going to exceed the estimate. If you estimate 3 minutes and the revised time shows 8 I will cancel almost every time because I know the actual will be longer as most drivers don't seem familiar with optimizing their routes and rely on google maps which is often wrong.

However I find it hard to believe that Uber cannot tweak its software to distinguish between driver-initiated cancellations and passenger-initiated ones. And in any case, you can't charge a fee for a service you don't provide. Really it should be the other way around - Uber should assess a penalty against the driver and credit the customer.That would quickly eliminate this nonsense.

Their software does distinguish between driver-initiated cancellations and passenger-initiated cancellations. And when drivers initiate the cancellation, they can choose whether to charge the customer the cancellation fee or not. They're only supposed to charge the customer if it's the customer's fault that the ride didn't happen (usually because the customer no-shows). Also drivers who cancel too often can get terminated by Uber.

The software might, but the email they send doesn't. I was hit with this scam last week and the receipt from Uber, the first indication I had that the ride wasn't coming said that I was being charged because the driver was already enroute. I was furious, mostly because I had been standing out in the cold waiting for a car that was never going to come.

Scammed again...

But this was different, rather than me being charged a cancellation fee when the driver cancelled like I was above, this time the driver cancelled and then got Uber to charge me the full fare of the trip.

You really seem to have terrible luck with Uber. I'd find another provider if I were you.

I have generally had positive experiences with Uber in California, New York and Hawaii but the ability for drivers who simply don't show up to charge cancellation fees or in the more recent case charge for a trip that just didn't occur seems like a ridiculous flaw in their system.

If the charge isn't justified, a simple e-mail or two to Uber will almost always get it reversed. Same with Lyft.

What do you propose as an alternative if a passenger no-shows? It wouldn't be fair to drivers if they had to wait forever for a passenger and not get paid something.

Well it isn't like Uber uses GPS or anything...

If the driver has been sitting around in the pickup location for whatever set threshold of time, charge the late or no-show passenger. If the driver never comes within a mile of the pickup location and cancels en route there should be no opportunity to charge the passenger anything.

You'd think they'd do that because it makes sense. I had a driver drive away from me after I requested a ride. The idiot accepted again after I cancelled and re-requested. I sent Uber a complaint, and a rep responded with broken English (Are they outsourcing their customer service now?). I responded saying that I have three choices in rideshare services in Boston, and that I really wanted to use Uber, but Uber has essentially forced me to use one of their competitors due to their terrible service. They basically gave me a credit to get me to go away.

I have not had such luck with Lyft. They don't respond to emails or messages, but will only respond on social media in exchange for posting my email address publicly to "look into my account." Afterwards, they gave me a credit to get me to go away and hope that they don't lose me as a customer.

These companies genuinely do not care, but they're still better than the cabbies around here though.

Yes. Uber's 1st tier customer service is all Manila based.

I was a victim of a no-show scam today. Driver suddenly stops moving on the map about 1/2 block away from the pickup point. He calls me and I tell him where I am. The map doesn't move, and suddenly he cancels me. Of course I get dinged with the no-show fee which at first CS tried to not refund. Finally they refunded it, but getting sick and tired of these scammy Uber drivers.
Cheers
Howie

I haven't been taking Uber lately, since Lyft often has the lower fare (since Uber raised their fees) although the cancellation fee was a problem for both platforms. (Also because Uber rides stopped earning ThanksAgain points for me after 1/31) Recently, Lyft has been better; with the app and customer service being more proactive. Here were my experiences.

1. Driver didn't bother to drive around the lagoon at MIA to pick me up at the Hilton. He simply hit the pick-up button, then hit drop-off right away. Gave me the perfect opportunity to give the guy one star. Lyft called me right away and told me that I will be refunded ASAP (apparently the up-front fares charge the amount on the screen regardless of what happens on the ride). I'm sure the trip time of 0:00 was raised a flag on their end.

2. Driver was absolutely terrible at navigating. She missed a couple turns, took a couple wrong turns, then when she pulled into the island where the MIA Hilton is located, she drove around the parking lot, and then left without coming to pick me up. At this point, it was more than 5 minutes, so when I cancelled (I didn't think that this driver would have been safe to ride with anyway) I was dinged the $5 cancellation fee. I contacted them about it, and the automated system simply credited me $5 towards my next ride without human intervention needed.

3. I requested a ride to my residence, and was matched with a driver making a drop-off nearby. He decided that he was "here" when he was one street over, so I cancelled on him (I'm sure he didn't want the ride anyway). No cancellation fee although I think the 5 minutes didn't start counting until after he dropped off the other person.

4. This past Wednesday, the day after the snow storm, I requested a ride. The driver made a bunch of wrong turns, and said he was "here" when he wasn't. Eventually the guy called me and I told him where I was. I live on a dead end street on a hill, and it was iced over and had snow banks. He didn't feel comfortable trying to drive up the hill, and I didn't feel brave enough to walk downhill on ice to go meet him, so I cancelled. This was well beyond the 5-minute mark (he took about 20 minutes to arrive even though the app said 7 minutes) and Lyft never charged me any sort of cancellation fee. I'd like to assume that Lyft took the road conditions into account and suspended the cancellation fees (or at least covered them in situations like this)

It is possible your driver was not lazy but was not at the airport. EWR requires drivers to be on property so some use root to spoof their GPS with a hot spot on property while they drive around hoping to get other fares in Newark.

I don't use Uber much, but did recently at SEA. First driver was within about 2 minutes of arriving, then cancelled. Later received an email that I'd been charged $5. Disputed online and got a $5 future credit, but I wanted my $5 fully refunded. Went through several back and forth's with the email customer service folks, with no luck. In fact, they were very snippy in their responses.

Escalated by DM'ing them on Twitter, and my $5 was eventually refunded.

I once had a driver with a sub-2 rating accept my ride. Then, his car never moved for more than 10 min. Eventually I cancelled and was charged a cancellation fee. I requested the fee back, obviously. Must be nice to just sit in your car and collect $5 cancellation fees.

Good grief... I drive and I ride and I recognize that Uber/Lyft makes a point to separate the driver from the rider so there are pieces to the puzzle that you guys/gals are missing.

That said for every 5 scamming drivers out of 100 you post about the driver get 10 times as many passenger scams.

People are greedy and deceitful and it goes both ways. Oh and the same crappy customer service the drivers get too when complaining about pax.

1. Driver is driving towards pax and gets cancelled on: $5
Too often there would be bad traffic or a distant driver was the only one willing to accept the trip. Next thing you know the pax cancels after wasting time and gas. If a driver heads towards you for 5 mins and then you cancel there is a fee. This feature was needed for the drivers but it can be abused.

Solution: Look at your phone if the driver doesn't move or takes odd routes without contact just cancel before 5 mins. If 5 mins pass screen shot your phone showing that the driver is not where you are and send that to customer service.

2. Driver stopped somewhere and then cancelled: $5 fee
Again to often a pax would type Hilton hotel and click on the first Hilton that comes up. In major cities there can be 3 or 4 Hilton hotels with 5 miles of each other. Also after choosing your location sometimes when you put your phone in your pocket your butt/thigh will move the pin. Driver arrives, waits, cancels, fee ensues.

Solution: Verify that the pin is where you are; don't be afraid to contact the driver. Do not text unless it is simple instructions like the gate code when the driver is near the gate. Drivers love pax who contact and if a mistake happens no worries just contact the driver before his/her time and money is wasted.

3. Driver gets really close, drivers aimlessly, cancels: $5 fee
Ok so when this one is not a scam there are many things that might have happened. First Uber/Lyft will automatically say the driver arrived when he/she arrives at the street address for a large complex or building. If your hotel is a resort inside of 123 Paradise Lane the clock starts automatically even if you're inside on 1423 Pretty Water Rd. Sometimes there's a code; sometimes Google/Waze doesn't know the address inside of the complex. This is SO IMPORTANT: make sure your telephone number on your account matches the phone you made the request with. If a driver calls and calls with no answer after 5 mins 1 sec. that driver is on to the next passenger leaving you with the cancel fee because time is money.

Solution: Keep your phone up to date, contact the driver if things seem off, answer that weird number that calls as soon as you request a car (it's your driver being call forwarded by Uber/Lyft).

Thankfully things have improved, at least on Lyft. Lyft (not sure about Uber) will auto-cancel rides on drivers who either take too long or drive away at no penalty to the rider, and will also automatically ping another driver. I've also haven't had very many (that stick out) unsatisfactory or bad rides in a while (I commute using Lyft) so it seems that Lyft has been doing a decent job weeding out those who don't make the cut.

This is very good advice. I've actually been doing this the entire time, but sometimes I feel guilty about canceling at 4:50 just in case the GPS location on their vehicle is not displayed correctly on my end. The caveat with canceling and re-requesting is that Lyft will sometimes match you up with the same driver, or surge/prime time may be in effect or has increased since the first request.

Today, across from St Pancras/KingsX in London in front of a Burger King --which I hadn't noticed until Uber correctly pointed out where I was -- I ordered an Uber. Minutes after the driver was supposed to show, the driver canceled without ever appearing.

Result was surprising to me (but not to others on this thread, obviously), I got a GBP5 cancellation fee.

When I complained on the Uber app later on, it gave me back the GBP5, but as a credit on a future ride. I won't need Uber on this trip and don't know when I will ever want them again in the UK. Guess all I can do is object to my credit card issuer.