back to article Uber New York class action alleges passengers overcharged $7.43m per month

Uber's New York woes are piling up, as the dial-a-ride service has now been sued by riders who believe they were being overcharged. A class action suit filed in the New York US District Court claims the UberX service has been charging users a higher-than-advertised price for rides. The suit, led by named plaintiff Jacqueline …

  1. DNTP

    Money's for a good cause

    They are well known to be using that extra money to pay drivers fairly and make sure they are covered with employee benefits, as opposed to "stiffing" the "contractors".

    And protecting the safety of their passengers by paying for diligent background checks on their drivers and having dedicated staff investigating reports of malfeasance.

    And of course having a professional corporate culture.

    1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

      Re: Money's for a good cause

      Upvote for sarcasm :)

    2. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Money's for a good cause

      One of those rare posts where the /s tag is obviously not required.

      Have an up vote.

    3. Jonathan 27

      Re: Money's for a good cause

      Contractors are not employees, if you don't like it stop contracting yourself out. I mean that, as a former independent contractor, people need to stop accepting contracts unless the price is much higher than what you'd make otherwise to compensate for the lack of employment benefits. It's upsetting the work market.

      1. DNTP

        Re: Money's for a good cause

        Jonathan 27: I'm not against contractors and free agent contracting; I'm against companies that classify people performing employee duties as contractors. I'm against companies that insist that their workers are employees, up until the point they get their tax forms and its a 1099 instead of a W2. I'm against situations where companies give workers none of the legal protections of employees, while enforcing restrictions that no actual contractor would tolerate.

  2. Mephistro
    Flame

    Uber... again!

    What does it take for a company to be considered -and treated- as a criminal organization?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Uber... again!

      Doing the same, but not being based in the US?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Uber... again!

        not being the investment darling and money trough for West Coast social media barons and the politicians they own?

        too many of the "angel investors" are also part of the very same "tech" or "social"media who overtly and covertly promoted Uber beyond all reasonable means, in a perfect circle-jerk of profitability. Many of the same who also consistently pay lots of money for politicians for the Party that makes big noise about Unions and Fairness while helping promote even more companies that suppress Unions and Fairness but haven't imploded so spectacularly yet.

        Tech, politics, finance and social engineering are in quite an incestuous relationship here on the West Coast, with Innovation and *actual* societal benefit being (in)bred out awhile ago.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmmm

    Unconscionable

    Behaviour

    Emulating

    Robbers

    1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

      Re: Hmmm

      I'd make it "Exceeding", but otherwise, yes :)

  4. The Nazz

    A solution too simple?

    Don't use them, either as a taxi driver or a taxi passenger (f*ck this ride sharing nonsense).

    Sad, that the masses, or a large part thereof, will continue to use them.

    In answer to Memphisto above : good, honest, effective and non-corrupt officials/bodies.

    Corrupt in the sense of not necessarily being illegal themselves but acting in ways that are contradictory to their remit and their stated aims, often documented and against the better interests of the public/users.

    And that's before we get onto the politicians/lawyers.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A solution too simple?

      >Sad, that the masses, or a large part thereof, will continue to use them.

      This is because the alternative is poor. Does anyone miss the old days of calling a cab up or waving one down, being charged an arm and a leg while he took the longest possible way to your destination (or sometimes, just refusing to go there altogether) and then at the end, having no change and not accepting cards.

      I'm glad they exist because they finally destroyed a 100 year old business model, which was based on ... having no competition. Now cab companies (those that still exist) are 'trying' to create apps and generally become competitive but it's a bit too late... hell you can even call a taxi with your uberapp!!

      1. Phukov Andigh Bronze badge

        Re: A solution too simple?

        except once again we have proof that ride sharing STILL charges an "arm and a leg" AND then decides that depending on who or where the rider is, they STILL end up waiting and "waving down" a driver.

        So absolutely no benefit for many riders.

        Plus, when the hell was the last time you couldn't simply grab one of many taxi company apps and order a ride exactly the same way. or even *gasp* use your PHONE to call their dispatch?

        Never had a problem ordering a cab online in LA, SF, San Jose, Seattle or any of the other west coast markets I frequent enough to get a taxi. Will let you know in a few months how well this works in the Midwest too LOL

  5. VinceH

    "If this sounds familiar, it's because just days ago, Uber drivers in New York made a similar claim that they were getting underpaid because fare estimates were not accounting for taxes and fees."

    Umm... If this sounds familiar, look a bit further back than a few days:

    Overcharge customers, underpay the serfs. Who else but Uber (allegedly)

    1. gnasher729 Silver badge

      If you think things are repeating, it's because Uber finds more than one way of cheating. The way you referred to is buy showing different fares to drivers and passengers - and then take a higher price from the passenger, and handing a percentage of the lower price to the drivers. (Obviously they can display _any_ price to the passenger and the driver and you accept it or you don't - as long as it is the same price. When the prices are different, someone is being cheated. First the drivers claim they are cheated, now the passengers claim the same). What happened two days ago is that passengers pay a charge including tax, and Uber gave a percentage of the charge _without tax_ to the drivers who then had to pay the tax out of the lower amount.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        If you think things are repeating, it's because Uber finds more than one way deploys ALL ways of cheating

        FIFY. They even make Google and Facebook look benign in their efforts to really break ANY rule and law if it amps their profit. There appears literally no consideration off the books if it makes them a dime more, damn rules, laws, ethics - nothing matters. They're going so hard at it that I fully suspect some of them will be knighted soon.

      2. VinceH

        @gnasher729

        "If you think things are repeating"

        I don't. I must have been too subtle: My point was that the case reported on in this article is more closely related to the case reported on in the one I linked to, than the one linked in the article itself.

  6. anthonyhegedus Silver badge

    Do uber drivers go south of the river?

  7. Adam JC

    Re: The Need For Speed

    The mind boggles, it really does - I'm not sure what's more terrifying, the fact Uber are using all these sneaky tactics to subvert more money into their back pockets OR the fact they haven't turned a profit (Despite all these underhanded things we've read in the news).

  8. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    History repeating, in a way. At least as far as cheating in a rigged game:

    With the end of Prohibition, Dutch Schultz needed to find new sources of income. His answer came with Otto "Abbadabba" Berman and the Harlem numbers racket. The numbers racket, the forerunner of "Pick 3" lotteries, required players to choose three numbers, which were then derived from the last number before the decimal in the handle at the racetrack. Berman was a middle-aged accountant and math whiz who let Schultz fix this racket. In a matter of seconds, Berman could mentally calculate the minimum amount of money Schultz needed to bet at the track at the last minute in order to alter the odds. This strategy ensured that Schultz always controlled which numbers won, guaranteeing a larger number of losers in Harlem and a multimillion-dollar-a-month tax-free income for Schultz. Berman was reportedly paid $10,000 a week for his valued insight.

  9. Dieter Haussmann

    It was globalist UBER that announced free rides a few years ago to invading islamacists coming across Europe from the East to commit the numerous atrocities in Europe, the last being in Manchester at the weekend.

    1. Phukov Andigh Bronze badge

      germane to a discussion yesterday

      this right here, if "hate speech" censorship were enabled, we'd totally miss out on this brilliant sarcasm.

      right? right?

  10. PickledAardvark

    Stealing one penny on every transaction

    I dunno whether anyone has ever pulled off this crime on a bank.

    Somehow, "accidentally deducting" one penny at a time from taxi driver payments highlights the immorality of "victimless crime".

    I note, of course, that some taxi drivers, lost much more than a penny.

    1. User McUser

      Re: Stealing one penny on every transaction

      You mean the Superman III/Office Space scheme?

  11. JaitcH
    Unhappy

    If a company shafts employees - shafting customers will follow

    UBER recently admitted ripping off drivers, so much so it has embarked on an urgent repayment plan. So it comes as no surprise customers have been ripped, either.

    UBER even ripped city regulators using special software called Greyball.

    It's like Volkswagen and Fiat/Chrysler claiming surprise when they were accused of cheating climate control regulations.

    Airlines are a great example. Air Canada, BA, Delta and United are all notorious for harassing employees (BA uses two pay rates for different employees on the same flights) and EQUALLY Air Canada, BA, Delta and United have passenger relations problems.

    As a electronics road warrior back in the '70s, based in Canada, armed with passports from three countries (legally), I traveled widely all over the Western hemisphere. I found employee Notice Boards were equally revealing as to how companies treated employees. One notable one, I remember to this day, were signs dangling from the beams of the Spiegel Catalog warehouses that advised staff that NO SPITTING PERMITTED was an important rule to remember!

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So they screwed over the drivers & the passengers? This is why people should use the taxi app E-HAIL (www.goehail.com) same convenience but nobody is overcharged.

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