RIDEGURU
Is this a possible scam where a rider would cancel mid-ride? Would the whole trip be cancelled and passenger not have to pay anything? I assume that is what would happen.
What happens if a passenger cancels an Uber ride in the middle of a trip? (mid-ride, mid-trip)
Posted 6 years, 6 months ago
Posted In
Rideshare Scams
Discuss known or suspected scams in the rideshare industry. Share your experience here.
Posted By
J Green (jcgreen79)
174
Rider
Ride Apprentice
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The Guru Take
The ride ends. Driver gets paid up to that point. Yes, it is a common scam.
If a passenger cancels the Uber ride in middle of a trip, the ride is considered completed at that exact point the cancellation was requested. The passenger will still have to pay to that point and the driver will be compensated. No, the whole trip is NOT cancelled.
From the driver's perspective, Uber Driver's GPS automatically terminates and the driver is taken back to the home screen. Then a banner will display the message, "Rider has canceled the trip."
Yes, this is actually a known rider scam, where the rider would discretely cancel the trip before reaching the destination. If the driver does NOT notice the cancellation, the scam is successful. He would drive you all the way to the original destination, and the crook would only be charged up tot he point of cancellation.
Why does this cam work? Sometimes, drivers prefer to use other GPS apps besides the one included in Uber Driver App or simply may not be paying attention.
Caution to drivers. Make sure to keep your eyes on the Uber the whole time. If you notice the passenger cancel, calmly pull over and let the passenger out in a safe location.
If you didn't notice and mistakenly drove the rider all the way to the destination, you can dispute this with Uber customer support. Instructions here:
ippei
1202
Uber Driver, CEO of TaxiFareFinder and Unleashed, LLC
Comments
Ooooh, the old trick. I've had passengers try to pull this on me multiple times. Such weak attempts to avoid paying the whole fare. I have had one who cancelled immediately after I started the ride.
I don't know how this word got out among the passengers that they can get away with this. Perhaps it can work in some situations, but I keep my app open and in front of my face the whole time, so if anything happens, I would know immediately.
I've been driving for a long time, so I don't get mad at this stype of stuff. Sort of find it cute. I just pull over to the side, and ask if they cancelled. (to which most claim they don't know what happened) Then regardless of the answer, I ask if they want to get out or continue. They usually say, "continue", so I have them re-request. 100% of the time, so far, I received their request back. (closest drier, and I have good ratings)
The sweet thing? I end up making more money because they have to pay the initial flagdrop again.
So that "sweet thing" you mention... See, that is a double-edged sword because of the surge. If there is a new surge at the location of the cancellation, you make out. but what if the trip already had one, and there was no longer one? The rider just got away from paying the surge for the whole trip.
It's possible that the minimum fare may cover the difference, I guess.
But it's well within the rider's right to do that, right? Take a trip to get out of the surge area, and call another Uber. Sure, it's a bit of a hassel and you have to weigh the cost of a new initial rate and booking fee, but I think some riders already do that. It's smart.
As a driver, if you don't like the non-surge, then just ignore the request. That'd be awkward if the person is already in the car though.
For a high surge trip, I may actually pretend that I didn't notice they cancelled, drive them to the final destination, and then later ask Uber for a fare adjustment.
I would also spray them with LIQUID ASS as he or she or them are just about 75 % out of the car . After all you should smell like ASS for being a asshole.
So true. They always say, "huh? i don't know what happened. Are you sure I cancelled it?" Every time.
I've had one tell me her iPhone battery died. No, that doesn't cancel the ride, honey.
Another line is ,"I must have tapped the wrong buttons. Sorry."
This is old? jeesh. This crap moves too fast. I jsut completed my fifth uber ride and ..seriously.
Everyone keeps calling it a scam, but this happens a lot when one person is trying to call multilpe Uber rides. Say one person calls an Uber for half of his friends, and then attempts to call another. He realizes that he cannot request another car as he sees the map screen with moving car icon, so he thinks he can just cancel the ride. (and I can see people doing that innocently if they are thinking traditional cabs)
I too first thought it was a scam at first, but when multiple passengers told me it was a ride ordered by someone else, I had an a-ha moment.
I don't know, man. I think these people are fully aware that they shouldn't be cancelling a ride they already called. Why would anyone think, "I am going to CANCEL this ride, but I am sure my friends will get to the destination and the driver will charge accordingly." That just doesn't fly.
you must be one of the scammers.
Darn it. I am a driver and being called out as a rider scammer. Where did my life go wrong.
I am driver in Boston, and this is definitely a lot more common than most realize. What I do? One of three things:;
1) I would check with passenger if it was a mistake. This has happened and I'd like to give them a benefit of the doubt. You can usually tell anyways by their responses. I ask them to re-request a ride.
2) If I suspect they are trying to scam e, then I pull over, ask them to re-request, turn my phone off or go off-line, so they get matched up with a different driver. Then I ask them to exit the car.
3) If there is a surge, I pretend I didn't notice the cancellation, and I just drive them to the destination. Then I ask Uber for a fare adjustment later. (Remember, if you do the above, which is to ask them to re-request, your may be outside the surge area and can get majorly screwed.)
Thanks for laying this out. and what a great call on the surge.
Does Uber give you the adjustment? I feel like it may be hard to argue that as the log will show the ride ended and it'll be hard to prove you actually carried the passenger all the way.
Yes, every time they adjusted the fare, and it's supposed to go to the rider. (good)
You'd think it's their word against yours, but you have one fact on your side. The passenger CANCELLED the ride. That is not a natural or a common behavior, so Uber leans towards helping the driver.
Also, it's not like you went over a super long drive. You just completed the original trip.
I experienced this myself when I had to cancel a ride. No, not for scamming the driver, but because my driver was not listening to me whatsoever.
My driver was this 50-something female. She did seem grumpy a little and said very few words even when I got in the car. The ride was off from the start, she immediately started driving in the wrong direction. Since I hate confrontation, I mean who does, I actually believed that she knew a better route. Afterall, she has a GPS, right? The thing is...I couldn't see her phone from where I was sitting. She had it on her lap. (I actually don't think it was even on.)
After a few minutes when I KNEW she wasn't going the right diriection, I started to yell at her to stop. She never did. I was ready to call Uber, but at that point I was pretty scared and decided to call the police. Then as I picked up my phone, I realized that I can cancel the ride, which I did.
That's when the b*tch pulled over. I guess she did have the phone on, because she knew within 10 seconds I had done that.
To avoid this clever passengers move, always connect Bluetooth and play music. Usually Uber app will loudly announce the cancellation of the ride to everyone in the car. My experience with this issue happened in a pool ride where I had other passengers and my first passenger cancels and became the joke😭😭😭. The other passengers jumped in the humiliation. In this case Uber will still charge the passenger but make sure you to call support and report their ass.
Cheers guys
Great tip. Not only does this alert the driver but it also announces to the riders in question.
I have done this before as a rider. But it was only so I could request the ride immediatly again and use another promotion code.Driver didn't care cause he was getting the base fare twice :) win-win
Since you have to pay the base fare and Uber safe rides fee twice, doesn't this really defeat hte purpose of using another $5 coupon?
This was back in the day when Uber was giving out $20 off for every referral. Oh how the times have changed
Wait, this happens for real? The driver must notice. Why bother even trying. You basically get kicked out of the trip right there and then.
Worse case, you have to request another trip which incur you another flag drop. Worst case you have no ride half way to your home.
I've had a driver voluntarily tell me he cancelled the ride by mistake. Is it so easy to cancel a ride? We were just chatting along, and the guy was like, "Oh, man. I think I just cancelled the ride. What happens now?"
Oh really? I thought it would kill the entire ride and not have to pay for it.
I sound like I was reay to commit this scam. hahaha.
Drivers going to pull over and dump your ass out of their car.
Can the passenger be rated when this happens? When a customer maliciously cancels a trip, can the driver leave a negative rating?
Yes. Yes, they can. As they should be able to.
So if you do this too often your ratings will gone down and risk waiting longer for your future trips. One example where the rating system works well.
First of all, always make sure to launch a GPS app from within Uber's app. Second, turn the notification on so it displays these messages at the top of the screen or right in the center. I know you can do that with an iPhone.
I think it's more likely that the driver is the one to scam, not the rider. They'll try to say you're late or change the destination, take a longer route, say you smelled bad.... the possibilities are endless.