Millions of us will hail an Uber at least once this year, seduced by the convenience of its ride-hailing phone app and usually reasonably priced fares.
But one unlucky British Uber customer’s ride definitely wasn’t fairly priced. They ended up being charged £332 ($455) for a 1.75-mile journey across London.
In a letter to The Guardian newspaper, the customer, referred to only as AG, explains they were riding with two friends who they frequently drop off on a regular journey. When AG asked the driver to use their preferred route, the driver objected, and eventually kicked AG and their friends out of the cab.
But the real sting was still to come. The next day AG received a receipt from Uber for £332, which had by then already been taken from their account. The driver had run his meter for 16 hours and 27 minutes.
That works out at an incredible $260 per mile. According to London-based Prestige Car Hire’s website, AG could have rented a Porsche 911 Carrera S for 24 hours for the $455 the tiny trip cost, and still had 118.25 miles of the 120-mile free allowance left to play with.
As if the shock of the bill wasn’t bad enough, Uber’s customer service line seemed unable, or unwilling to help, forcing AG to turn to The Guardian. And, as is often the case, the prospect of some bad publicity magically resulted in the offer of a refund for AG. But we imagine they’ll be switching to Lyft from now on.