Here is the email I've been TRYING to send to Uber, but they don't really provide an email so I only hope they'll get it. Real, sincere, feedback.
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Hello.
I want to provide feedback to your customer service staff, but your organization has purposefully made this difficult. As a professional courtesy, please forward this to the appropriate person.
On March 22, my wife and I took our first Uber. Our first Uber ever. You failed. Miserably.
We were at the Miami Int'l Airport outside the rental car area, and we needed a ride to the Miami Cruise Terminal. There were many other people there waiting for their Uber rides, and another couple explained to us "newbies" this was where they always meet their Uber drivers. They instructed us to stand by a kiosk, all of which were numbered, and share the kiosk number with the driver. That's what we did. All the other Uber drivers clearly knew about this pickup place; we watched as many came and picked up their passengers.
Our first driver, Pablo, was 12 minutes away according to your app. We waited. He apparently didn't know where he was going, though, because we could see him on your app driving in circles around the parking garage. He messaged me, asking where we were and I told him. Precisely. Lots of other Uber drivers came and picked people up, but Pablo was clearly confused and lost. Then, after a time, he "went away." Poof. He just disappeared from your app. He ditched us.
What a great first experience, right? But wait. It gets better.
Your app then assigned someone else to come pick us up. So we waited. Eventually, Gustavo arrived. A very nice guy who didn't speak a word of English. We told him precisely where we were going, the Port of Miami, NCL terminal B. Traffic was awful, as we knew it would be, so we were patient. But then Gustavo made a mistake; he didn't follow the GPS directions and went the wrong way. We watched helplessly as we passed our cruise ship docked on the other side of the port.
Gustavo didn't speak English, but it was clear he felt bad, and we felt for him. We all make mistakes, right? He then followed the GPS to get us back where we were supposed to be and we joined our group. We gave him a big tip because he cared, and even though he made a mistake, he felt bad about it and worked hard to make it right. At least he didn't abandon us like Pablo did.
Then, I got a receipt for the ride: $49. The estimate I got was $28 (which included a $10 credit since we were first timers). We gave Gustavo a $9 tip because we thought he really did care and really did feel bad for his mistake. I couldn't have conceived at the time that you would charge us for his mistake, which you did.
I followed your customer support prompts and your staff refunded us $10 and change from the original receipt. But this isn't about money, is it? This is about a really horrible first experience. You need to hear that. Uber is ubiquitous today. But based on this experience, I'd never use Uber again. You need to hear that, too.
Thanks for listening,
Dave read more