Questions and Answers

Hey Lucky,

Been a long time Uber user – 1000 plus trips in 20 cities and 5 countries – usually for work. Wanted to share an experience with Uber China that was truly awful and dangerous. The previous incidents were not as dangerous (unfortunately there were many), but wanted to share today’s, as I think your followers might be interested to avoid Uber in China.

Today I was attacked and physically injured by an Uber Black driver in Guangzhou. I am fine, the wound is minor. But the fact is that Uber China put me in an extremely dangerous situation with zero support.

Upon arriving at my destination, the driver refused to let me leave until I paid him additional in cash for tolls that were already added as a surcharge on the receipt. When I grabbed my bag to leave after pointing to this on the receipt, the driver physically grabbed and wrestled the bag from me to prevent me from leaving. The attached photo is a direct result of a physical assault by an Uber Black China driver. For fear of further harm, I was forced to pay extra in cash.

Uber China has not responded after multiple emails. And Uber Support, after responding to my tweet, said they would email and followup, to which they have not done. (Every other time there has been an issue, Uber responds within 24 hours.) Uber is supposed to be there to support us, and Uber China has done nothing to help or even respond. As an international traveler, this means Uber can no longer be considered a safe option in China. Nothing like this has ever happened in my thousands of Uber trips.

I wanted to share this story in the hopes that maybe others will avoid similar situations. And maybe Uber can step up there game in the Middle Kingdom.

Thanks for listening! And keep up the great writing.

Josh

Welcome Josh.

Sounds like a scary experience.

Did Uber get back to you on this issue in the end?

Hi Lucky. Thanks. Love your stuff!

They did, but extremely unprofessionally. One woman called indicating a director level to hear what happened. She was extremely concerned and apologetic. We thought we were getting somewhere.

Instead, they sent me an email:

[INDENT][INDENT]Dear Josh,

Thanks for reaching out !Your email has been checked fully and i am really appreciate your concern and support on Uber.I think you are an very reasonable and responsible person and you expect an safe and efficient ride on Uber.I reviewed you and your girl friend’s profiles that shows you 2 are our very loyal users and always experience Uber Black or other advanced products in different countries.The driver’s behavior you mentioned was quite far behind your expectation and our standard.

I checked all you emails and i thought all cases originated from cash exchange and Uber always intended a cashless experience .I reviewed our tolls fee regulation in different cities in China, i found it is truly that in some cities such as Guangzhou/Beijing etc. ,we charge passenger tolls fee by cash .While in Shenzhen/Shanghai the tolls fee will be automatically charged in you fare.I knew this would be confused and there is no any notice on Uber App to inform your riders ,we are working to improve this and you can check with your electronic
receipts that no tolls fee fare charged in Guangzhou.

I reviewed all the details about your 6 Jan and 15 Jan trip and the fare breakdown should be all right.And for 25DEC trip, the fare should be 223 CNY (exclude 84 CNY tolls fee in cash ).Since it was cancelled and no fee was charged.I applied to refund 100CNY to your account and made adjustment on your 15 Jan trip.An updated receipt has been sent via email. The adjustment may take up to 3-5 business days to reflect on your statement.

For your 15 Jan trip, i knew this was an extremely bad experience.I have block the future pairing with this driver and we aim to partner with top notch drivers who will get you to your destination safe and comfortable.This driver is not acceptable in Uber platform and I’ve personally notified our Driver Operations team all your details.I am immediately following up with your driver about this to take the appropriate next steps; we will always take whatever action necessary to ensure a negative experience is not repeated.The driver who totally break our platform service regulations and make terrible experience on rider ,we always intend to terminate agreement with him and we never indulge this kind of very unprofessional driver.

The Uber experience should feel like accurate, reliable transportation available at the push of a button. And, we want you to feel good about using our service again. In order to express our deeply apology , I applied for 50 CNY Ubercredits to your account. You can use these credits on your future trips.

We appreciate the feedback and are always looking to improve your experience. If you have any additional questions or concerns, feel free to reach out. We’re happy to help.

Regards,

[B]Qin Zen[/B]
[URL=’https://help.uber.com/’]help.uber.com[/URL][/INDENT][/INDENT]

As you can see, this was hardly the response from a professional company. And the 50 RMB ($9) hardly worth the time. It was a completely ridiculous response. I inquired again why they offered so little for something clearly their fault. And received the following:

[INDENT][INDENT][INDENT]Dear Josh,

Thank you for the email, we want to apologize for not getting this addressed earlier.

I knew that pay tolls fee in cash do make inconvenience for you , even that is according to our regulation in some China cities. We will keep working on improving our products and service to provide a more reliable and comfortable ride for customers.

About your 15 Jan trip, we talked to this driver several times and we felt so sorry that he denied fighting with you . We of course trust and respect your feedback, while due to driver’s attitude we can not make any judgement. As you mentioned, you report this to legal authorities already , if you need any support from Uber to fix this case we will definitely give you a hand.

Kindly Regards,

[B]Qin Zen[/B]
[URL=’https://help.uber.com/’]help.uber.com[/URL]
[/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT]
I hope you can warn your readers and others about this experience. It is clear that Uber China was at fault with no recourse. Use Lyft or Didi instead!