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My Uber driver robbed me, so I took Uber to court and won

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Re: My Uber driver robbed me, so I took Uber to court and won

#61

Post by danielvinson »

startupdiscuss wrote: post #8

For me, the most heartbreaking aspect of this story is the sheer amount of time and effort that had to be squandered. You could probably have designed an app, coded a site, or written a small novel with that time.

IANAL, but he should have revised his damages for the second case to account for his expenses, including time. He probably could have won closer to $6000 without a problem.

The author comes off as deeply uninformed about how legal proceedings in the U.S. work, for example talking about how he had to refute arguments in court and such, which is just not how things work at all at that level. Some basic Googleing would have taught him all he needed to know about defending himself in small claims court without stress.

Re: My Uber driver robbed me, so I took Uber to court and won

#62

Post by skinnymuch »

BoorishBears wrote: post #3
skinnymuch wrote: post #2

Wow what a crazy story. The twist half way through after the first court case was cool. Trying not to spoil anything for someone who hasn't read or finished reading the article. But first it sucks how much time was spent by everyone in the story especially the victim. It also sucks that if you have to go to court again because something comes up that shows the defense, Uber, in this case, did something clearly wrong…

... my bi-monthly reminder not to say anything tounge-in-cheek on HN, lest people trip overthemselves to remind you how you said something tounge-in-cheek and downvote you

Yeah I wasn't going to include it until I verified the title and URL both include that. I'll clarify in my post.

Re: My Uber driver robbed me, so I took Uber to court and won

#63

Post by PhasmaFelis »

hsod wrote: post #25

Interesting story, but I think it was a bit unfair to Uber. I'm glad this guy was made whole, but I'm not sure Uber's reluctance to paying you 4000 dollars because a driver stole your backpack qualifies as corruption. From what I can tell, the worst thing Uber did was not be sufficiently cooperative with the police investigation. This part of the narrative is extremely muddled and unclear, so it's hard to take a stro…

> I'm not sure Uber's reluctance to paying you 4000 dollars because a driver stole your backpack qualifies as corruption.

I honestly can't imagine what else you would call it, except maybe "belligerent incompetence".

Re: My Uber driver robbed me, so I took Uber to court and won

#65

Post by gamblor956 »

matthewowen wrote: post #55
devoply wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what recourse you have with a real taxi. I am sure the company contracting a taxi driver would consider firing a driver that steals your stuff. Especially after a few complaints. The main problem seems to be Uber's unresponsiveness to the whole issue. It would not be hard for them to set up some sort of system to prevent fraud and theft and to punish drivers accused of that sort of thing, and to kick them ou…

This is a tired argument. Yes, it's harder with a taxi. Less proof / information about exactly which taxi you were in. But Uber doesn't get to simultaneously claim to be safer than taxis because of the data being tracked whilst also not using that data to help prevent and prosecute crimes.

It's much easier with a taxi. Taxi receipts helpfully include the taxi cab number, as required by law in most big cities. Taxi drivers usually have more downtime between rides, especially in hotel/airport queues, so they are more likely to discover left-behind items that would otherwise be found and taken by the next Uber/lyft passenger. And finally, taxi companies also have centralized locations for storing lost items.

Re: My Uber driver robbed me, so I took Uber to court and won

#66

Post by PhasmaFelis »

strathmeyer wrote: post #60
hsod wrote: post #25

Interesting story, but I think it was a bit unfair to Uber. I'm glad this guy was made whole, but I'm not sure Uber's reluctance to paying you 4000 dollars because a driver stole your backpack qualifies as corruption. From what I can tell, the worst thing Uber did was not be sufficiently cooperative with the police investigation. This part of the narrative is extremely muddled and unclear, so it's hard to take a stro…

What's funny is the poster is upset Uber wouldn't give up the information when simply asked for when that is just how the world works, you can't get a judge to look at your evidence unless you hire an expensive lawyer. It was an ok guide on what to do but the blame game is just strange.

Can we please stop excusing corruption and incompetence with "that's how the world works"? It only works that way because we let people get away with it. Giving the runaround to a paying customer who was robbed by one of your employees is not any kind of good business practice.

Re: My Uber driver robbed me, so I took Uber to court and won

#67

Post by nv-vn »

nowarninglabel wrote: post #51
Yhippa wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happened to me. The driver decided to drop me off in the bus lane (instead of the normal taxi/car lane) at an airport and encouraged me to get out quickly and drove off just as fast because we were in violation of airport policy. Very shortly after I noticed my phone was gone and was in his car. I was able to contact him since I luckily had a tablet with data and I was using Project Fi but there was absolutely n…

> I only use Uber as a last resort now. I really don't get this. You are livid with the company and yet you will still continue to pay them. Why would they do anything different then? Why are there situations where you absolutely have to use Uber as a last resort? What did you do in those situations previously before Uber came about?

At the very least Lyft seems like an option

Re: My Uber driver robbed me, so I took Uber to court and won

#68

Post by rodgerd »

devoply wrote: post #21
baby wrote: post #18

Damn, one of my driver drove with my girlfriend's phone, we were waving to him but he didn't stop. We managed to call him via the app and he said he would send it back to us but never did. After that it was impossible to do anything/contact him via Uber :/

I wonder what recourse you have with a real taxi. I am sure the company contracting a taxi driver would consider firing a driver that steals your stuff. Especially after a few complaints. The main problem seems to be Uber's unresponsiveness to the whole issue. It would not be hard for them to set up some sort of system to prevent fraud and theft and to punish drivers accused of that sort of thing, and to kick them ou…

I left a DSLR in a taxi in Ballarat.

I live in New Zealand.

They couriered to me for free.

(I sent the driver a box of wine to say thanks).

Re: My Uber driver robbed me, so I took Uber to court and won

#69

Post by spike021 »

zer00eyz wrote: post #48
hsod wrote: post #25

Interesting story, but I think it was a bit unfair to Uber. I'm glad this guy was made whole, but I'm not sure Uber's reluctance to paying you 4000 dollars because a driver stole your backpack qualifies as corruption. From what I can tell, the worst thing Uber did was not be sufficiently cooperative with the police investigation. This part of the narrative is extremely muddled and unclear, so it's hard to take a stro…

FTA: What Uber told the police. "The Uber department responded that they had no record of a trip from the vehicle with that license plate on December 5th, 2016, just after 11 PM, and the driver had not driven with them for 2 years." "Sufficiently cooperative" (per you) and outright lying are two very different things. FTA: "Why would Uber not have the information on the driver for the police? Uber asserted that they…

>"The Uber department responded that they had no record of a trip from the vehicle with that license plate [...]"

This kind of thing worries me a bit.

This past week I've taken two Lyfts where the license plate provided in the app didn't match what the driver was actually using. One of my drivers claimed they had just gotten a new car, but that's a bit odd to me since when I bought a new car it took several weeks to get my license plate.

So there should be ample time for a good driver to ensure their record is up to date.

Re: My Uber driver robbed me, so I took Uber to court and won

#70

Post by theprop »

Awesome work!! Great story about how awful the legal system is given the amount of effort and work you had to go through. You deserved a lot more than just that $4k.

I personally feel bad that it's only after reading this that I'm going to stop using Uber as well...despite all of the terrible stuff that's going on over there, I was willing to strike up to "growing pains" or "bad apples", since I wrongly believed they were 100% committed to their users. That's clearly not the case so there's no more Uber for me.

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