‘What’s Next? A $10 Fee’ for Headlights? Woman Stunned by Uber Driver Trying to Charge for Basic Amenity
A TikToker has gone viral for her experience with an Uber driver who tried to charge for a basic car amenity. The driver’s attempt to sneak an extra fee onto her bill shocked many viewers. Over a million views of her TikTok video occurred in less than a week. This, despite her only having around 450 followers. So it must have struck a nerve.
In the video, Perth resident Lexie Pickering wrote, “Just paid $50 for an Uber from the airport for the Uber driver to say, ‘$5 for the aircon.’ It’s 35 degrees in Perth rn.” (That’s 95 degrees to Americans unfamiliar with temperatures stated in Celsius.)
“And that’s how the scams begin,” one person commented after watching her video.
“What’s next? A $10 fee if you want him to drive with the headlights on at nighttime?” another commenter asked.
Several other people shared their poor experiences with Uber
“I had one in Brisbane refused [sic] to take me over the gateway even tho I’d paid the toll in the fee,” a viewer claimed.
“This happened to me once, the Uber driver STUNK, and it was like 38 degrees, no aircon, and just sweltering hot outside air and stench. I still cry thinking about it,” another Uber user recalled.
Someone else wrote that they “had one yesterday. Whole way from airport to Mundin, [windows] down ’cause he wouldn’t turn on the A/C ’cause it costs too much.”
“The last time I tried to get an Uber, I had 8 cancelled drivers and a show up no show – driver picked up someone else nearby (tracked them to my location) then cancelled me,” read another complaint. “I’d rather walk and earn blisters than book an Uber now.”
Can Uber drivers legally charge for air conditioning?
The TikTok video also sparked a rather heated debate about whether Uber drivers can legally charge extra for air conditioning.
After much back and forth, one person wrote, “It’s likely this would breach Australian Consumer Law as a misleading or unfair charge. Aircon is a standard part of the service reasonably expected under Uber’s terms, and drivers cannot add undisclosed fees outside the fare shown in the app. At that temp denying aircon could also reasonably be argued as a safety issue. For any such charge to be lawful, it would need to be explicitly disclosed and included in Uber’s terms of service and upfront pricing, which it isn’t.”
To which another person replied, “Read the T&C’s from Uber. All of them. Then come back.”
Which then led to someone else writing, “Breaking a terms of service isn’t illegal.”
That was followed by a comment that read, “Actually, in Australia it is… It’s a breach of consumer law.”
That comment was followed by a reply that simply read, “Nope.” And on and on it went like that.
Uber responds to the complaint made in the viral TikTok video
In response to the hubbub, a spokesperson for Uber responded to News.com.au.
“We are shocked by this and apologize to the rider for her experience. We are actively investigating the matter,” the company stated.
The company added, “Fraudulent activity such as driver-partners encouraging riders to pay for any part of their trip outside of the Uber platform is a breach of Uber’s Community Guidelines, and this kind of behavior can result in driver-partners permanently losing access to the app.”
Uber’s message must have reached the driver. Pickering later wrote in the comments, “I have been refunded.” She added in another comment that it was her “first-ever bad experience with Uber.”
