We’re all familiar with surge pricing and paying high amounts of money for small distances to corporations like Uber or Ola, but last Friday, a man in Canada was charged about C$18,500 for a 5.6-kilometre trip.
That’s about 14,500 in US Dollars, or 9.3 lakhs in Indian Rupees. Hisham Salama, the rider in question, took to Instagram to share this story. His friend also posted a screenshot on Twitter:
Uber looked ready to shift all the blame on the customer, as proven by a screenshot of the conversation between Hisham and the company.
Finally, it seems the uproar on social media caught their attention and they apologized as well as refunded the money back to Hisham. According to his tweet, they will be setting up a meeting with a representative and solve the problem.
Uber later defended itself saying that the huge charge was an “error” and has been resolved, adding that they have refunded the money and apologized for the experience.
A spokesperson from the company, in a statement to Slate, said, “We have safeguards in place to help prevent something like this from happening, and we are working to understand how this occurred.”
Uber further went on to put the blame on the driver, saying that his cab was a traditional cab with a meter and the driver had made a mistake while putting in the fare details into it, and that the error was not a technical glitch.
(Currency figures are 1 CAD = 0.78 USD and 50.24 INR)
That’s about 14,500 in US Dollars, or 9.3 lakhs in Indian Rupees. Hisham Salama, the rider in question, took to Instagram to share this story. His friend also posted a screenshot on Twitter:
My friend was charged 18K for a 20 Min ride (!), and they are sticking to it. What in the world??? This is insane! @Uber_Support @badassboz @Uber pic.twitter.com/RjFihVLKIC— Emily Kennard (@emilykennard) December 9, 2017
Uber looked ready to shift all the blame on the customer, as proven by a screenshot of the conversation between Hisham and the company.
@Uber @Uber_Support what turned out to be an honest mistake is now turning into the biggest blunder of 2017. I’m no longer laughing at wondering when #uber will get their act together. Can anyone help? Obviously, no 20 min fare is $18,500. pic.twitter.com/zBhtMSBy67— Hisham Salama (@The_Hish) December 9, 2017
Finally, it seems the uproar on social media caught their attention and they apologized as well as refunded the money back to Hisham. According to his tweet, they will be setting up a meeting with a representative and solve the problem.
Thank you to everyone who tweeted and retweeted about my magical $18,500 @Uber ride. @Uber_Support has refunded the fare and apologized. I am hopeful that I will be able to speak to someone on their leadership team about my issue and timing of resolution next week.— Hisham Salama (@The_Hish) December 9, 2017
Uber later defended itself saying that the huge charge was an “error” and has been resolved, adding that they have refunded the money and apologized for the experience.
A spokesperson from the company, in a statement to Slate, said, “We have safeguards in place to help prevent something like this from happening, and we are working to understand how this occurred.”
Uber further went on to put the blame on the driver, saying that his cab was a traditional cab with a meter and the driver had made a mistake while putting in the fare details into it, and that the error was not a technical glitch.
(Currency figures are 1 CAD = 0.78 USD and 50.24 INR)