Have you ever been frustrated by the amount of money Uber takes from your ride? It turns out, some drivers are doing something about it! Senior RSG contributor Christian Perea shares the tactic other drivers are using to get their fares adjusted – and keep more of their money.
Special thanks to Rich T in Charlotte for showing me that you can get your unfair fares adjusted by being persistent enough to ask Uber.
Between upfront pricing and Uber’s new surge, we’ve seen some pretty nasty fares over the past few months where Uber ends up taking anywhere between 50 to 80% of the whatever the passenger pays.
However, I recently ran into a driver in Charlotte NC who’s been fighting back…and winning.
Rich has given over 300 new surge rides and has been requesting fare adjustments when Uber takes more than they should. He has since gotten around 45 of those 300 fares adjusted and retrieved between $2 and $46 for each fare in the process. This has totalled up to an extra $980.81 recovered from Uber!
This seems to work best for him on new surge trips where Uber either collected more than 50% or more than $10 in service fees. Bad cases of upfront pricing without surge seem to be much more difficult to get adjusted, however. That being said, there are actually many reasons a driver might need to get a fare adjusted, which we’ll cover below.
Reasons To Have Your Uber Fare Adjusted
- If the driver forgot to start or stop the ride correctly.
- If the incorrect amount of surge was applied to a trip.
- If they experienced poor or bad cell service on a trip.
- Uber calculated their trip in a “straight line” as the crow flies (known problem with older phones).
- And more…
How To Get Your Fare Adjusted By Uber
There are two ways to request a fare review on Uber. You can manually request a fare review from within the Uber Driver app or you can call Uber’s 24/7 support line within the app to request a review over the phone.
Related: How to Contact Uber
Requesting a Fare Adjustment By Calling Uber Support
According to our driver’s experience, you’ll have more success by calling Uber’s 24/7 support line in the app and telling support that your surge applied was either incorrect (make sure you have the correct surge to be applied) or that surge was calculated incorrectly altogether
We also suggest keeping it limited to one trip per call and waiting until you see your trip adjusted before going for another trip. Otherwise support seems to get… confused.
If it doesn’t work the first time, then HUCA: Hang Up and Call Again!
Related article: Essential gear every rideshare driver should have
Step 1: From the home screen within the Uber Driver app, tap on the picture of your face.
Step 2: Tap on “HELP” in the top right corner of the profile screen.
Step 3: Tap “Call us” at the bottom of the HELP screen.
Step 4: Request your fare be reviewed because of the surge being incorrect, the surge being calculated incorrectly, or if you forgot to start or stop a trip.
Requesting A Fare Review Within The Driver App
Uber doesn’t offer an obvious direction to dispute a fare from within the app based on the amount they took. They only provide the option to select “Why was my fare adjusted?” and
Step 1: Go to your earnings screen in the Uber app.
Step 2: Tap on “Trips” from the earning screen.
Step 3: Select the individual trip that you want adjusted.
Step 4: Select “There was another issue with my fare”.
Step 5: Type your reason for the fare being incorrect.
Once you submit your request to Uber support you will receive an email confirming they received your request and should hear back from Uber within 72 hours.
Does This Mean Uber Is Stealing From Drivers?
No. At this point Uber has baked upfront pricing into our contracts and taken the stance that whatever Uber collects from passengers (via upfront pricing) has no bearing on what Uber pays its drivers (the fixed rate card). This allows them to control both sides of the “marketplace” between passengers and drivers.
Are they stealing in the sense that they’re taking WAY more than 25% of the fare? Yup.
Uber says it is currently working on ways to make long distance new surge trips more worthwhile for drivers, so perhaps we won’t have to request a lot of fare reviews in the future.
When Should You Request A Fare Review?
You should request a fare review whenever something is wrong with a fare. You can request the fare to be reviewed if you forgot to start or stop a trip, if you had bad service, if the wrong surge was applied to your fare, or for other reasons.
I plan to use this whenever Uber takes more than 50% of my fare on a surge ride or if I feel especially burned by upfront pricing. I’m sure Uber is planning to bring new surge to my market soon so it’s nice to know = I’ll have this tactic available if they take too much from any of my new surge trips.
Drivers, have you tried fare readjustments for any new surge or upfront pricing rides? Show us your screenshots in the comments!
-Christian @ RSG
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