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

fymhotsauce.rocks

141–150 of 284 posts

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

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 in…

There is a tab in your Amazon account that lists every single thing you've bought from them on that account. I have purchases going back to 1998 in there. Uber is maybe in a little different position because they're in danger of outing a cheating spouse if they give up that info. Maybe a better option would be to let you access all of your trip info, but have an option to hide certain trips? Sort of like private brow…

Ah good points about Uber being in a different situation.

Yeah there should be some solution.

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

#142
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?

There are places where Uber is the only realistic choice apart from taxi companies who will try to scam you. Mexico City is an example.

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

#143
Not a single comment on here about using insurance. I know that a backpack with a laptop can be stolen out of someone else's car and cut-rate renters insurance will cover it. I don't really think Uber was the correct person to foot this bill, I think this is the same as someone grabbing your purse from you when walking down the street. You either have decent insurance or you're SOL

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

#146

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…

You can't usually get your own time costs back. Even suing for real actual legal fees (that you can document, such as payments to lawyers) is tricky and usually demands that an existing contract is in place to enforce this, or that the suit is frivolous, and a judge has to rule on the frivolity.

You can't just go to small claims court and say "I make $50/hr, and I've spent 20 hours on this, so I also demand an extra $1000"

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

#147
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm all for being cynical and weary of mob hating. However, the article shows many times Uber is not trying to do anything. The driver seemingly didn't get reprimanded or properly investigated by Uber. We don't know this for sure, but based on what went down, this seems to be the case. Uber lied to the police. Uber tried to turn it around against the victim for having so much evidence. When the victim was incredibly…

> The driver seemingly didn't get reprimanded or properly investigated by Uber. Sure he did. He got a 1-star rating - surely this will weed out the bad agents from the system.

Yeah the victim would surely give a 1 star. But I was basing what I said on when the article said:

> Uber said that the driver had a good standing

They could've been lying of course.

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

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Merriam-Webster also added a definition for "literally" that means "virtually." https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally So sure, you could cite a dictionary as license to use words in misleading ways because other (confused) people have made an unhelpful definition commonplace. But some people actually care about using words to convey meaning, and care about the difference between "robbery" and "theft."

Literally does mean virtually now. If you care about using words to convey meaning, you should care what other people think words mean. What you think is pretty much irrelevant if everyone else disagrees with you.

> Literally does mean virtually now.

: ( I don't disagree with you, and I get that prescriptivism is a losing battle (and the wrong battle, IMO), but this one bothers me, because we actually _lost_ expressive power.

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

#149
post #38

Note to self, "leave doors/trunks open UNTIL I am positive all my luggages are out of the car."

Given that the driver did this intentionally, is there anything preventing the driver from taking off with an open trunk? Hell, from the video footage in this article, even an open door wouldn't have done much. He could easily drive a block in a residential area with an open door and then pull over and quickly close the door.

Nope. Take off strong enough and the doors close shut, some trunks too.

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

#150
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…

When one of your customers accuses one of your agents of stealing > $1,000 of stuff from them you should get to the bottom of it. Anything else is poor customer service and apparently also enough to get a magistrate to rule them liable for the theft.

Oh no, that's not the Uber way. They're not agents, they're independent contractors and the Uber rep said in court "we have absolutely no control over what they do, and no responsibility for what they do"...
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