I've had this a few times too. I assume it's a driver trick to drive in the wrong direction so the rider has to cancel, pay the cancellation fee, and you don't even get to rate the driver in that case so it doesn't affect their score.

I'm not sure why they don't just decline the fare, but maybe they don't see the destination until they accept and they don't want to go there, or maybe Uber penalizes them for declining too many fares and this is a hack around that.

In my experience Uber is quite good at refunding the cancellation fee when you tell them what happened.

I live in NYC. That used to be a frequent problem, but I haven't had that happen to me recently. Whenever it did happen, I would cancel, contact support, and get my $5 back. It only takes a few minutes to contact support from within the app.

I was able contest the fee each time (with an extra step to get it actually refunded rather than a credit for future rides), but the reason I started using Uber to begin with was largely about accountability and convenience, both of which seemed to be on the decline when this was happening. Plus there's something especially insulting about being charged a fee for the privilege of being stood up.

Maybe things have improved recently but their corporate behavior hasn't given me much reason to start using the app again.

Having lived (and survived!) the NYC dating scene it took me until the "I would cancel, contact support..." part of your post to realize you were talking about Uber and not the lunatics you encounter during the NYC dating experience.

That is not going to win the driver a good rating - or do you not get to rate the driver in that case? Either way, a pattern of such events (with the same bogus reason given) would suggest that someone - the drivers, Uber itself, or both - has found a way to screw customers.

It's the drivers. If you read /r/uberdrivers one discovers that there are a host of tricks designed to game the system.

Uber presents itself as the alternative to customer-unfriendly taxis and cab companies. So much for that.

Maybe its worth having a cup of coffee in hand to drop on the upholstery if the driver tries that trick.

Seems only fair if the system is rigged against you.

But the drivers' beef is with Uber, not the customer.

Right. Regardless of if their sentiment is justified or not generally what you see from the drivers on that sub is a sentiment of "damn the man" against uber itself.

Occasionally this behavior will be described as linked to riders in annoying locations or with low ratings but usually it's uber they're targeting

This seems like something that could kill Uber eventually. Their whole setup is pathological, most of the drivers and riders I know have an array of tricks to use or watch out for, and the results are deeply unpleasant.

I suppose the bar set by cabs is really low, since I've never worried about an Uber driver mugging me or kicking me out in an empty industrial park, but it's still ugly. I'd pay more for something that was just "cabs, but we actually don't scam you".

Since you cancel, you don't get to rate them, which is why the trick works.

You can contact support for a refund, but I don't know if that data is connected back to the drivers doing it - I doubt it if the trick is still popular.

Complain to Corp

On the other hand, I haven't had good experiences with other services. Coming home from my last trip to Texas I landed at LaGuardia and there was a guy there asking if I needed a car. I was super tired, so I just said, yeah, how much to get to <my address>. He says 60 bucks, and I can smoke in the car.

Okay fine. Whatever. Get to my place, and oh, it's 80 bucks. Seriously?! Okay fine. I tipped him anyway because that's what you do. Threw 20 bucks down for an even 100. Not the worst I've been screwed. And getting to smoke in the car on the way home was kind of nice.

Fucker charged me $140.