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

fymhotsauce.rocks

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

#81

"I just didn’t buy that a company could just get away with that business model. Hire anyone with a car, facilitate everything, and have no responsibility for what happens in the cars." If I got food sick from something I ordered off GrubHub could I sue them?

If the food poisoning was due to negligence, I don't see why not.

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

#82
I'm glad this worked out for the OP. However, I think he may have made a couple mistakes that could have been avoided for a smoother process.

The big one is not retaining an attorney. No, he doesn't have to for small claims court, but Uber clearly had its legal team looking at this. Now, I understand that lawyers are expensive and carry their own issues - but if he'd won the case with an attorney, he could potentially have secured attorney's fees as well. Plus, a good way to make a company cave on an issue like this is to say "direct all requests to my attorney; I'm not speaking to you on this matter."

I realize getting a lawyer isn't always feasible, though, especially in small claims, so I'll assume it just wasn't possible for this case (also, I'm not a lawyer, this is just based on my understanding of the small claims process). Still, giving Uber all the evidence in the case after a suit had been filed but before any discovery had been ordered was a misstep. Small claims court rarely has formal discovery - the process by which each side finds and turns over evidence to the other side. The OP was - as far as I can tell - under no obligation to give evidence to the Uber rep of any kind. He should not have; they used it against him. What he should have done was say "we can discuss this in court, or you can make me whole now and avoid that," and NOTHING else.

Edit: A line I really enjoyed from the piece: "They were a company that shows blatant disrespect to authority, operating illegally in cities and using technology to intentionally avoid law enforcement." Yep. That's Uber in a nutshell. Well played.

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

#83
I don't fault the driver. He's just following the normal standards of conduct for business transactions in Massachusetts.

I say this as someone who had the misfortune of growing up there.

I'm only being sarcastic about not faulting the driver. Unless you're trying to grow your customer base or know the person you screw them. It's just how things are done.

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

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ite…

Assuming you get a receipt, remember the car number, or otherwise can identify the driver.

I've taken many a taxi ride and can count on one hand the number of times I've gotten a receipt (which was only because it for expense reimbursement).

Having a digital record in a receipt emailed to you or live in the app is a entirely different league of convenience.

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

#85
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…

They were found 100% liable only after they were discovered obstructing the police investigation.

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

#86
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 dont think its unfair at all. If uber profits from the trip, they should be ensuring the safety of the trip and passengers, end of story. If uber were a non-profit that simply matched drivers to riders, it would be different, but they are making profit... that makes it a little more on them to handle stuff like this.

If a contractor for a public utility like a phone company comes in your house on a repair call for said phone company and pisses all over your couch and takes a dump in your fish tank, do you think that the phone company has no liability for setting up the whole thing and sending someone like that into your house?

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

#87

"I just didn’t buy that a company could just get away with that business model. Hire anyone with a car, facilitate everything, and have no responsibility for what happens in the cars." If I got food sick from something I ordered off GrubHub could I sue them?

It's an interesting thought exercise, but I don't think GrubHub is really the same situation. The restaurants that you order from on GrubHub exist as businesses and serve food regardless if GrubHub is facilitating delivery or not. If the GrubHub driver robbed you when they showed up at your house, then yes, I would think you might be able to sue them.

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

#88

"I just didn’t buy that a company could just get away with that business model. Hire anyone with a car, facilitate everything, and have no responsibility for what happens in the cars." If I got food sick from something I ordered off GrubHub could I sue them?

I'm curious how far this line goes, too. If I go to Subway and a worker stabs me, does Subway owe me millions? I'm really confused how Uber is responsible here.. it just seems, odd, to me.

Now, if Uber as a company promoted (in one way or another) reckless speeding for the sake of fast drop-offs, and I get hit by an Uber driver, yes I think Uber is at fault (and the driver). However, why does it sound like Uber is responsible for everything "during work hours"?

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

#90
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…

I was looking for my ride history from Uber a while back, as I have been a rider since pretty close to their inception date in SF.

I sent an email to support asking for my full ride history, and I asked what was the date which I created my account as I wanted to know how close to the birth of Uber I signed up...

I was told that I couldn't have any of that info as it was a violation of privacy.

I found this bizarre as it was my account info I was seeking.

---

When Uber had the "party" thing happen, I thought it was going to be an interesting lottery to attend an Uber corporate as a user.

Turned out it was simply a ploy to measure how many people they could get to tap on the lottery button, then deliver them to Harlot, a club in SF which typically charges a cover to enter, but there was no cover - the bar was still full price and at the end of the lame party, everyone was just standing on the corner like any other schlepp.

I was amazed that Uber had arranged this "secret party lottery" where the driver only knew the location and would pick you up and drop you at the party... but they didn't arrange for any pickups from the party to take you back home.

I had asked some Uber party planners that were there at the time if they intended on sharing any of the user behavior data gathered from this experiment, they laughed and said "not a chance"

It was the lamest secret party ever - and given that they didn't even cover Uber rides home after taking people free to a bar, I thought it was very poor on their part.

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