The customer was given a full refund, the company said (representational)
We've all booked cabs on surge pricing when in a hurry, but what a man in Canada had to shell out for a 20-minute ride was no surge but any rider's nightmare.
The customer booked an Uber from Widmer Street to The Queensway in Toronto on Friday evening, as seen in a screenshot of the trip. That's precisely just 7.7 kilometres. When he reached his destination after about 20 minutes, he was shocked to see a bill of 18,518 Canadian dollars (about 14,400 US dollars). It should have cost him between $12-16. He posted the screenshot of the trip on his private Instagram account which was reshared on Twitter by a woman claiming to be his friend.
"My friend was charged 18K for a 20 Min ride (!), and they are sticking to it. What in the world??? This is insane!" she tweeted.
The cab company, in a statement to Slate, said that the customer had been given a full refund.
"There was an error here and it has been resolved. We have provided a full refund to this rider and apologized to him for this experience. We have safeguards in place to help prevent something like this from happening, and we are working to understand how this occurred," an Uber spokeswoman told Slate.
This isn't the first time a cab company charged a rider an exorbitant amount for a trip. A Mumbai man was charged Rs 149 crore by Ola for a 300-metre ride owing to a technical glitch. Ironically, it happened on April Fools' Day.
The customer booked an Uber from Widmer Street to The Queensway in Toronto on Friday evening, as seen in a screenshot of the trip. That's precisely just 7.7 kilometres. When he reached his destination after about 20 minutes, he was shocked to see a bill of 18,518 Canadian dollars (about 14,400 US dollars). It should have cost him between $12-16. He posted the screenshot of the trip on his private Instagram account which was reshared on Twitter by a woman claiming to be his friend.
"My friend was charged 18K for a 20 Min ride (!), and they are sticking to it. What in the world??? This is insane!" she tweeted.
My friend was charged 18K for a 20 Min ride (!), and they are sticking to it. What in the world??? This is insane! @Uber_Support @badassboz @Uber pic.twitter.com/RjFihVLKIC
— Emily Kennard (@emilykennard) December 9, 2017
The cab company, in a statement to Slate, said that the customer had been given a full refund.
"There was an error here and it has been resolved. We have provided a full refund to this rider and apologized to him for this experience. We have safeguards in place to help prevent something like this from happening, and we are working to understand how this occurred," an Uber spokeswoman told Slate.
This isn't the first time a cab company charged a rider an exorbitant amount for a trip. A Mumbai man was charged Rs 149 crore by Ola for a 300-metre ride owing to a technical glitch. Ironically, it happened on April Fools' Day.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
