Woman wakes up to $362 Uber receipt, tries to get Internet to help pay it
The only thing that scared Gabrielle Wathen on Halloween was her Uber ride. The 26-year-old woke up after a night out with friends to find a $362 Uber receipt!
Sounds like quite the night of bar hopping, but Gaby says it was just one ride that lasted about 20 min. She hitched a ride during 'prime time,' which is when the service is especially busy and rates increase by a ton.
To make matters worse, November 1st is her birthday, so the receipt was a pretty terrible surprise to wake up to on her big day.
Fortunately, she found a way to pay for the charge.
She set up a GoFundMe campaign and called it "Uber Stole My 26th Birthday." She included a picture of the charge and asked the Internet to help her pay for it. (She has since deleted her page.)
On her site she explained:
Last night was Halloween. Great time. Today is my 26th birthday. Not so great time. I live in Baltimore and went out with my friends to celebrate my birthday at midnight. When 3 AM rolled around, I suggested we take an Uber home to avoid drunk driving (#responsibility/#MADD). I live 22 minutes , tops, from the party I was leaving.
When I awoke this morning, I heard a friend talking about how outrageous Uber rates were the night before (9x original rate). I checked my bank account when, unbeknowst to me, I see a charge for $362. Not only is it my 26th birthday, it is rent day. My rent is $450 and I can no longer pay it today due to this completely outrageous charge.
I have had little to no luck in disputing this transaction.
I waitress at two restaurants and freelance for a City Paper. I worked incredibly hard this week to be able to enjoy my birthday this weekend. This misunderstanding has cost me 80% of the funds I have to my name (embarrassingly so) and I spent a good two hours of my birthday crying over it.
I feel taken advantage of and cheated by the Uber name. $367 for a 20 minute ride should never be justified, even on Halloween. Please donate even just $1 if you think this is utter and complete bullshit and also hilarious and very, very depressing at the same time.Thanks for the ride, Muhammed.
Within 12 hours, she managed to raise more than $500 from sympathetic Internet users.
Still, not everyone was willing to help her out. One commenter wrote, "If you're already having trouble paying rent, drinking to the point of not remembering on your birthday/rent day, doesn't seem like the best idea."
Well, lesson learned.
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