Ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft are now the standard for travelers looking to enjoy an evening in town without worrying about parking or DUI charges. But they are starting to have many of the same problems that drove people away from taxis and car services in the first place.
The apps are supposed to fix the price of your ride once you select it—a feature unlike most taxis. But one TikToker claims that her Uber driver managed to overcharge her by over $75 for her latest ride.
TikTok user Richele (@roxalynne) posted her video describing her latest Uber experience two days ago. It currently has over 19,400 thousand views.
In it, Richele tells her viewers that she had made plans to see a concert the night of the incident. She admits she knew the surge pricing at the event would mean her ride home would be pricy but accepted the fact and opted for a $53 dollar ride back to her home after the event let out.
“I was like, that sucks but okay, I need to go home,” she says.
Richele made it home but said that her driver never ended the ride. She says the company connected her after the driver dropped her off.
“Uber’s like, ‘Hey your ride appears to be on a detour, is everything OK here?’” she explains. “And I’m like, ‘No, everything is not Ok here,’ and I looked at my options, and the only thing I could report was a safety concern.”
“It’s not a safety concern!” she told her viewers.
She states that the driver ended the ride 20 minutes after she was dropped off and then attempted to charge her $126 dollars—$73 dollars more than the locked-in price of the ride.
After contacting her financial institution, Richele says she was informed that Uber had attempted to charge her the original price and the $126 and even tacked on an additional charge of $73.
Richele states that she is currently disputing the charges with Uber but is still waiting for the company to get back to her via email.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Uber via email for a statement.
“What the Hell happened,” she asks her viewers.
“I had problems with Uber in the past. Only use Lyft now,” one of her viewers commented. Richele replied, “Yeah, I’ll be using Lyft moving forward, this is nonsense.”
Benjamin (@binarypickle) suggested using an old-school option. “Depending on your area, cabs are back to being the better option a lot of the time. Their apps have gotten better than they were, so worth checking.”
Rishele replied, “As we were waiting to be picked up I said we should’ve just taken the bus—like I knew something bad was about to happen.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Richele via TikTok for further comment.