
Before you call an Uber or a Lyft, you'll want to know about 'Vomit Fraud' - philip1209
https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/investigations/before-you-call-an-uber-or-a-lyft-youll-want-to-know-about-vomit-fraud
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SirensOfTitan
Generally, I feel as though Uber and Lyft improved the taxi landscape most
places; however, it’s really easy to see degradation in service as they’re
trying to become profitable.

The other day I canceled a Lyft because the driver was taking too long. He
came up and started screaming at us, swearing at us for canceling. I reported
the issue to Lyft as a safety issue: they gave no indication they dealt with
the driver: just a $5 coupon and an apology.

I recently wrote on here about the terribly unaccountable process of reporting
cabs via TLC in New York. Uber and Lyft are quickly realizing that same level
of unaccountability as they realize the reality of scaling such a business. I
wonder within this frame whether the improvements to taxi service we’ve seen
with Uber were just temporary: disappearing as they scale and become
profitable.

~~~
apta
How did the driver know where to find you after you cancelled, or what you
looked like?

~~~
SirensOfTitan
We were standing by the curb waiting for another car, he just continued to our
location after I canceled.

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jameskraus
I had a similar experience with a rideshare service. My driver drove near me,
but then pulled into a nearby neighborhood to pick me up. In retrospect, he
was probably trying to get me to cancel the ride for the fee. After the ride,
he claimed I damaged in internals of his door(?). They slapped me with a $100
charge and refused to dispute it. It took a lot of escalation with Lyft in
order to get the $100 charge refunded. The experience has definitely made me
more weary of using rideshare services.

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neom
This is totally unsurprising given an uber driver in manhattan told me he does
a clean up charge at the end of every shift, because... he basically feels
like with "pool", it's victimless.

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airstrike
This is just fearmongering, seeing as these occurrences are pretty rare.

In fact, Uber is aware of the fee being potentially unfair / a scam so they
already expect you to contest it.

The last sentence of [https://help.uber.com/riders/article/i-was-charged-a-
cleanin...](https://help.uber.com/riders/article/i-was-charged-a-cleaning-
fee?nodeId=bac13fdc-f4a3-4780-9955-4f32f076a81a) reads

"If you were charged a cleaning fee you feel is inaccurate or unfair, please
let us know here."

The title of this article is very sensationalized. What does the author want?
Removing the driver's ability to charge for cleanup fees is not reasonable.
Sounds like letting them charge but allowing the rider to contest it is the
right compromise. Perhaps asking drivers to upload a photo evidence of the
incident would be a nice extra, but it's not like we're going to stop using
ridesharing apps because this weird edge case might potentially hypothetically
happen to us one day

~~~
Operyl
Good luck disputing such a thing, having been a victim of the scam it is
_really_ difficult. On the flip side, with my short stint as a driver for Lyft
(6 months ish) you wouldn’t believe the attitude that a lot of drivers have,
and this is a common thing around my parts (Broward, FL). Drivers literally
brag to each other about it, it’s kind of sickening.

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wfleming
I guess it's not surprising that at some point less ethical drivers would
start to do this. (And of course the rideshare services very poor rates for
their drivers probably pushes more people to behave unethically to make
working for Uber, Lyft, etc. more economically sustainable for them).

I guess the logical response is for Uber & Lyft to lean towards believing the
customer in these situations, not the driver. Which is going to understandably
anger a bunch of drivers who are left holding the bag when passengers
legitimately make a mess of their vehicles. And the logical response to _that_
is for all these drivers to get cameras in their cars filming the interiors so
they can prove it. I guess outward facing dash cams are already pretty common
in areas where accident fraud is common, so maybe that's (unfortunately) the
likely end-state here.

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27182818284
I've made it a point to ask my drivers (usually Lyft) in every ride, "How's
driving going?" and "Been driving for long?"

As a result, I've heard drivers lament about actual vomit and other weird
problems. From my (much) experience as a rider, all of the vomit stories have
been very legit sounding. (Of course, if there were fraud they probably
wouldn't mention it)

Surprisingly, one of the things mentioned most often is passengers still
trying to _drink_ in the car. Like they will open new containers discreetly or
conspicuously, at times even against warnings from the driver.

In one story, they charged the passenger for cleaning not because they threw
up, but instead because the opened beer cases they brought in to the car had
leaking beer cans so now the whole car smells like beer.

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jmpman
I always wanted to drive a Honda Element for Uber... one with hydraulics...
pick up people from the bars, and “expedite” their vomiting. The element is
designed to be hosed out, so 5 min of cleaning, and you’re back on the road.

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wilt
Had more trouble with their food delivery service where the driver marks the
food as delivered when its not.

