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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

#101

Post by jandrese »

gamblor956 wrote: post #65
matthewowen wrote: post #55

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, which I have only ever gotten when I specifically requested one for expense purposes.

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

#102

Post by skinnymuch »

samstave wrote: post #90
zer00eyz wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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.

Does seem bizarre. Do other companies provide this information? I can't imagine Amazon or Facebook not telling you. But I've never tried. Facebook and Google have their data take our services (I know neither provide everything especially FB), but maybe that includes the info. Amazon at least shows you your entire purchase history, equivalent to ride history.

--

The party stuff just seems funny in a sad way. I never heard of it before.

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

#103

Post by MichaelGG »

spike021 wrote: post #69
zer00eyz wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Did you report the driver? The one time that happened to me, I asked the driver and showed me that he had both cars registered in Uber and had selected the wrong one.

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

#104

Post by politician »

gamblor956 wrote: post #65
matthewowen wrote: post #55

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…

I've recovered a lost phone by providing a taxi cab number to the dispatcher who sent the cab back out to my location. I was ready to compensate them for the extra trip, but they didn't accept payment. That's something that simply isn't possible with Uber or Lyft.

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

#105

Post by smsm42 »

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…

Giving out detailed info just because somebody calls and says "he stole from me" would be a violation of privacy and if Uber acted this way it would be vulnerable to basic social engineering. Involvement of the police makes it more substantial, but not enough alone - you can just tell the police "he stole from me", get the info, and then tell them "oh, it was a misunderstanding, never mind" and the police would never bother to verify what happened. OTOH, if there's a warrant, that means you testified under the penalty of perjury it happened, and then if you lied, you can be prosecuted, so it is a barrier most social engineers won't want to clear.

However, if Uber claimed they can not do the lookup, that would be a lie. They definitely can, they may not want to do it for some reasons (e.g. that may be sued by the driver if it turns out it was a scam on the part of the passenger, and maybe even in case it's even a simple misunderstanding - people have been suing for less), but no question they can. If they lied to the police and the court, that would be a huge mistake.

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

#107

Post by iplaw »

Ultimately, Uber did not want to establish a precedent for liability. What they should have done is settled for $4,000 and forced the victim to sign an NDA, ensuring that this little conflict remained private.

Instead, in usual Uber fashion, the legal and HR team worked their magic and created a lose-lose-lose situation for themselves:

1. They established precedent for liability;

2. They obstructed justice, which could be used as fodder in subsequent lawsuits; and

3. They did nothing to prevent this story from being broadcasted far and wide.

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

#108

Post by schwap »

jessriedel wrote: post #99
ivraatiems wrote: post #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 potentiall…

I get that big companies are not your friend, but is it really necessary to wage total war by using all possible legal advantages and issuing ultimatums? "Here is the evidence I have that you're in the wrong" can sometimes hurt you later in court, but it can avoid the entire mess by convincing the party that they will likely lose, or yield a compromise.

> I get that big companies are not your friend, but is it really necessary to wage total war by using all possible legal advantages and issuing ultimatums?

I think when you're facing a large entity and their thousands of dollars per billable hour legal team, it makes sense to leverage any advantage you can.

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

#109

Post by gravypod »

daveguy wrote: post #77
gravypod wrote: post #76

"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?

No, but you could if their delivery driver robbed you.

GrubHub doesn't provide the drivers. They facilitate orders. They don't have anything to do with who delivers.

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

#110

Post by spike021 »

MichaelGG wrote: post #103
spike021 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"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…

Did you report the driver? The one time that happened to me, I asked the driver and showed me that he had both cars registered in Uber and had selected the wrong one.

Honestly no because I wasn't sure what the process is for that.
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