Travel Missteps: Grand Theft Uber

I did what I’ve never done before. Not plan. And apparently not planning for me is doomed to failure. I had 2 days off in Miami after a work trip. I really wanted to go out on a boat, visit sandbars, and snorkel. Unfortunately the only boating companies that did that either were booked…or didn’t allow single tourists. (The 2nd time Viator has let me down in that regard.) So with my dreams dashed, I ended up not planning anything.

This ended up being slightly in my favor, as the weekend before this trip, I decided to go shopping for clothes for Egypt. And I found that ever local Denver store had already switched to Fall clothing. So on my first free day to Miami, I took a shuttle to the Dolphin Mall in an effort to find appropriate “warm weather” clothing for my trip. Dolphin Mall is an outlet mall, and it let me down. Most of the stores didn’t stock clothing larger that medium, so I found nothing I could wear. And most of the stores also were following the back to school/fall looks. I knew there was a normal mall across the street, Miami International Mall, and so hailed an Uber to their Kohl’s.

After a lot of searching I found a handful of items that might work for my trip to Egypt, so at least that part was a slight success. But my $10 shuttle back to downtown Miami only picks up at Dolphin Mall, so I had to hail an Uber to get back there so I’d be in time to catch the last shuttle back. I went outside and hailed the Uber. Soon the app said the driver was right nearby. I looked around, no cars were nearby. I waited and waited…and then looked down to see the app said I was “on my way” and “on trip”. Frustratingly Uber offers no way to call your driver. I watched in horror as my “trip destination” was inputted and the fare of $40 was displayed. I quickly cancelled it, having no idea what was going on.

I waited a minute and then hailed another Uber…as I had less than 10 minutes to catch my shuttle. The same Uber driver picked up my fare…and again showed the in-correct trip destination. Again I cancelled. Again I called another Uber, and the same driver yet again picked up my fare. I looked around and saw a white car half a block away. I walked towards it, hoping it was my driver. But I got confused….there was someone else in the car! Then it dawned on me. Someone stole my Uber! And was pretending to be me to get a free ride. I walked up to the window, and the woman was like “Oh….I had no idea this wasn’t mine!” (The tip off should have been you didn’t have your phone out lady…) and so she hopped out and I hopped in.

I soon figured out the 2nd issue with this driver…he didn’t speak English. I kept asking to go to the Dolphin Mall, he kept pointing to the Miami International Mall right next to it. “No….not this one…the other one.” He then had trouble picking up my fare for the 4th time…because at this point other drivers were converging on the area since it was a “hot spot” for pickups (only due to me requesting 4 different Ubers within 10 minutes of each other.) Eventually the driver just took my phone and started calling ubers and cancelling them, until he could get my fare. I punched in the location I wanted to go to, and urged him to hurry up. I had now less than 5 minutes to get there. As we drove I explained I needed to go to “Entrance 8, the food court”. The driver kept saying “5? 5?” And then admitted he didn’t speak English, only Spanish. I counted on my fingers, “Ocho! Ocho!” I shouted, and he understanding that sped off to the right entrance, where I was just able to hop on my shuttle.

I was frustrated to find many Uber charges and cancellation fees due to the “stolen Uber” incident. It took many emails to get the charged reduced to the $4.66 ride it should have been.