What a great day! You just got a new job opportunity, have finished your first day and you’re ready to head home and get some homework done. What’s the quickest way to get back to campus? Driving of course! But lo and behold, this new entrepreneur does not have access to a car. So the next best option would be to pay someone to drive you instead, right? Wrong.
(Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash)
As any person who is familiar with a rideshare app, I requested my ride and my driver was coming to pick me up. I got in my driver’s car and saw there was someone in the car already. This was normal as there is a feature in the program that gives you a cheaper ride if you’re okay with sharing a ride with someone.
As he was pulling out of the area, he tried telling me that he did not have my drop off address. He was not very familiar with the app and had only been driving with the company for 2 months, which I found out after looking at his profile after my ride, so he had not yet confirmed my pickup. Once he did, he also accidentally ended my ride right near my pick up location, so I had been charged even though the ride was not yet over and he no longer had my drop off address.
He first dropped off the person that was in the car before I was, and the man had to give him directions to his apartment complex. Once he had gotten out of the car, I began to give him directions back to my dorm since I knew he no longer had access to my drop off address.
At first, he was following my directions. Then, at one point while we were driving, he asked me if I could request another ride. I could not understand what he was saying since he did not speak much English and he pulled over in a dark parking lot in an area I did not recognize.
(Photo by Gus Moretta on Unsplash)
He then tried to explain to me that he had not yet been paid for the ride even though he had already ended the trip and asked me to request another one. I told him that I had been charged for the trip and showed him my receipt that had been emailed to me after he ended the ride. He kept trying to convince me to request a new ride and get a refund for the other one. He then made me get out of the car since I would not request a new ride.
As soon as I stepped out of the car, I was on the phone with my friend who has a car. I explained to her what had happened, sent her my location, and she came to pick me up. At the end of the night, I decided I will never use a rideshare company ever again.