I was charged $39,000 for 15-minute Uber ride after drunken night
This passenger was nearly taken for a ride.
A British ride-share customer was stunned after waking up with a hangover and a $39,317 Uber charge on his debit card.
Oliver Kaplan, 22, recently ordered a car on the ride-share app after finishing a shift at the Buxton Inn in Manchester, England. The chef planned to meet friends at Witchwood — a pub located just four miles away.
“I ordered an Uber like I do most nights on the way home from work and everything seemed normal,” Kaplan told South West News Service about his horrifying bill.
He claims the price quoted on the app was between $11 and $12, which he happily accepted.
“The driver arrived, I got in the Uber and he took me exactly where I was meant to be going,” Kaplan said. “It was a 15-minute journey — tops.”
Kaplan thought no more of the experience until he received a message from Uber the following morning.
“When I woke up hungover the next morning, the last thing I expected was a charge of over £35,000 [$39,317]!” he exclaimed.
The total amount billed to Kaplan’s card was a whopping £35,427 — or $39,317.
The Kaplan quickly contacted Uber’s customer service department through the app to find out about the eye-watering charge.
“It said the amount couldn’t be taken because I had insufficient funds,” Kaplan claimed, saying Uber employees were initially stumped by the sum.
Eventually, engineers at the company determined that the drop-off location had somehow changed to Australia.
It’s unclear how the mix-up occurred, but it’s possible that a glitch could have caused the location to switch from Witchwood, the pub the in Manchester, to Witchwood, a park in Victoria, Australia.
Kaplan didn’t have the $39,317 in his bank account, so Uber was unable to remove the funds.
“If I had that sort of money, I would have had to chase them for a refund,” he explained. “It could have landed me in all sorts of financial trouble.
“Thankfully they [Uber] were really good about it, and made it right straight away — but it was a stressful half an hour to say the least,” Kaplan added.
In a statement, Uber told SWNS, “As soon as this issue was raised on Oliver’s account we immediately corrected the fare. We’re very sorry for any inconvenience caused.”
Kaplan isn’t the first Uber passenger to wake up with a hangover and a very pricey bill from the ride-share app.
Back in March 2020, a drunk British college student accidentally entered the wrong destination while ordering an Uber. The sloshed scholar put in an address 250 miles away, before falling asleep for the entirety of the five-hour ride.
He was horrified when he woke at the wrong destination and was hit with a $1,700 bill.
