Uber promo code frustration
 

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.

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.

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.

They did that to me too. I got 5 rides at 50% off, and even though I'd rather use my free ride for the longer rides, I decided to stick it to Uber by taking Lyft for the longer rides, and used those 50% off rides to commute to/from work instead. In my experience, Uber is great when it works by itself, but Uber customer service is pure garbage if you ever need to contact them.