Scariest Uber ride ever 😫

Very scary indeed! I once had a taxi journey from hell; with hindsight he was probably high or even drunk! Also, I have been spoken to in a very suggestive manner by a driver & I felt so angry & vulnerable. Give me the bus anyday. 😶

Esmay

I'm so sorry that this happened to you .
I would have been scared out of my wits as well .
In taking you on a magical mystery tour -was he he trying to bump up the fare ?

Please report him before some other lady has the same experience.

I only use a local taxi firm and I've come unstuck a couple of times .
The manager has apologised to me and asked me to give them feed back on nice helpful taxi drivers which I do .

Some years ago I took one of their taxis to the airport to pick up a relative .
It was broad daylight and he began to turn the journey into a tour .
I told him which roads to take and he took them .
Unable to get another ride home and both of us feeling really ill with flu we were obliged to use him to go home.
He drove up and down all sorts of streets on a massive detour .
I frankly thought that he was on drugs .
Since then I've reported one of their drivers for rudeness and aggression. I won't get into the car with him .
I always have my phone charged and at hand .

Can I ask you whether you'd report a taxi-driver that was recently taken on by the firm I use here?

He's very pushy in attitude and tries (and usually succeeds by the sound of it) in getting the passengers he carries to give him their phone number ("Just in case he's late for some reason in picking them up"). I mentally groaned when I got him a second time recently - again for a pretty long journey and sure enough he was asking for my mobile number again (I'm still not fixed-up with it being usable yet and that's something that's up to me - not him obviously). He was throwing in some smarm on the one point and telling me off !!!!!!! (errr hello him taxi-driver/me passenger!!!!!!) about it and he obviously gives passengers his own personal business card. He is an employed taxi-driver from this firm - as they all are. I've got a nagging feeling he's trying to grab what business he wants from that firm for himself personally and he's certainly someone who thinks he should have more than he's got in life (he's late middle age and a posh accent - but he has nothing if he's to be believed). My suspicions are he's out to grab all that firms customers he can for himself and homeless him (ie in rented accommodation) is taking a particular interest in people who are women with their own house).

He just doesnt "feel right" to me...

All round - I bristle at the thought of him personally - whereas I'm okay with the other drivers the firm employs. Wondering if I should warn the boss of the firm about him...as there's something "not quite" about him....

A woman’s intuition is always her best friend

Would never use uber.
Heard too many negative stories.

My daughter uses Uber a lot. One piece of information she passed on was: if they are offered a better ride than yours they will let you down.

I have never used Uber, it's not something I would be comfortable with at all. I'm glad you are safe even though scared.

Your journey did sound worrying crazyH
However using Uber isn’t all bad
When you set up an account there are several safety features you can add.
Whenever I use them my husband will get a notification of all the details.
Another advantage is that you know the cost upfront so they can’t take a longer route to make it more expensive

I'm so sorry that this happened to you .
I would have been scared out of my wits as well .
In taking you on a magical mystery tour -was he he trying to bump up the fare ?

Please report him before some other lady has the same experience.

I only use a local taxi firm and I've come unstuck a couple of times .
The manager has apologised to me and asked me to give them feed back on nice helpful taxi drivers which I do .

Some years ago I took one of their taxis to the airport to pick up a relative .
It was broad daylight and he began to turn the journey into a tour .
I told him which roads to take and he took them .
Unable to get another ride home and both of us feeling really ill with flu we were obliged to use him to go home.
He drove up and down all sorts of streets on a massive detour .
I frankly thought that he was on drugs .
Since then I've reported one of their drivers for rudeness and aggression. I won't get into the car with him .
I always have my phone charged and at hand .

It sounds really scary CrazyH I d have been terrified too but just to equalise it my grandaughter lost her purse, she’d no idea where she’d lost it or left it ….a couple of days later the uber driver arrived at her address with her completely intact purse he had found it down the back seat of his car
He was a young driver and was not English
Good and bad in all walks of life but yes yours was a horrible experience and I feel for you

My local authority is very particular about issuing licences. All drivers have full background checks etc and until recently only they were allowed to operate here. Some time ago the council voted to allow Uber to operate here - they had been around for some time thanks to a loophole in the regulations. They are all licensed elsewhere. Some are labelled Uber but have other names on them as well. Most drivers seem to be foreign and quite honestly to me they all look alike so their identification badges would be no help to me. Periodically the council checks taxis for faults and I think only once was a fault found on a locally licensed taxi. Faults seem to be found on those registered elsewhere. I always use the same local firm.

Mae13. You're right, my local council won't allow licenses for Uber so we see many licensed from Wolverhampton or Knowsley. I wouldn't risk it.

Lahlah65. To be clear, I was just stating a fact when I said the Uber drivers operating in this town all seem to come from Manchester. I was certainly not judging them on ‘where they can afford to live.’ Why would you assume that?

I always talk to someone on my phone when I get in a cab late at night, it’s usually one of the people I’ve just left that I chat to.
And I always say “ I should be home soon around another 10 mins” just so the driver can hear. I’d say always be on phone to someone in future. Ubers are probably safer than normal cabs as everything can be tracked.

I think it must have felt wonderful to get a chance to wear your lovely jewellery but maybe it's a good idea to remove it before you leave the venue if you're going to be travelling home alone. On other hand, I have a friend who has - and nearly always wears - diamonds worth hundreds of thousands. Her argument for wearing it constantly is that she reckons nobody would believe it was real!

Momac55

Don’t be ridiculous. He went down dark country lanes instead of the A road and took nearly 3 times longer than needed. Would you not have been scared, a woman on her own fgs !!!!

My own sat nav often seems to think that the winding country lanes are better than an A-road. Maybe he'd opted for the most direct route which can actually be miles longer!

14:57Nannan2

How/why do Lancashire taxi drivers get a wolverhampton license? I just googled that its just over 2 hours from me (NorthWest) and mostly Lancashire taxis are licensed by Lancashire County Council, or Greater Manchester.

I had a taxi pickup in the midlands and the driver said he was from Lincolnshire. He explained that his taxi licence or whatever it was they apply for, is dearer in Lincolnshire and it makes more sense financially to do taxi runs in the Midlands even allowing for his petrol from his home town. He said it's a common thing that taxi drivers do.

CrazyH - I can fully understand your fear. I was solo in a taxi late one night about 20yrs ago and the driver was going a very long way round so I challenged him and said I know the route and this isn't it. After a heated discussion where neither of us would back down, he stopped the cab and told me to either get out or shut up! Needless to say, I got out after giving him some of the fare that was on his meter and brisk walked the opposite way from where he stopped. Luckily I knew a bit of a short cut to get on a main road and then called a friend who picked me up. This was a black cab. I've had a nasty incident with Uber recently so won't touch them either. I avoid taxis as much as possible.

Maybe next time be the first to be dropped off?

I only use known taxi firms.

Mainly because I don’t know how to order an Uber.
You can’t just ring up, can you?

Anyway, I’m sticking to what I’m used to and I’m comfortable with.

You need to write a review on the Uber site saying what happened. It will warn others and stop women booking him

How scary for you OP. Glad you got home safe in the end.

DD travels a lot for work in this country and abroad and Now Always takes a photo of any Taxi/Uber the car reg, other information and the driver and then tells the driver she has sent a Whatsapp to her parents, and she does send us a message.

I thought if I had to use a Taxi/Uber I'd follow her lead and do the same saying I've sent it message to DD.

She has said in the past that she felt safer in Taxis in China than in London and she is in London most weeks.

Thankyou all for your replies.
My family knows, as soon as I return home, my first move is to the loo, then the kettle. My d.i.l. probably thought that I was enjoying my cuppa and forgot to call her. I always ring them when I get back home. I did call her once I settled down.
Yes Lahlah it isn’t right to judge people on where they live …my apologies.
I don’t often go to fancy places, so, this was a chance for me to dress up and wear my beautiful Indian gold jewellery 😂

I’m sorry you had such a scary ride. I would have been nervous, especially when I noticed we were going the wrong way. I try to only use local taxi firms

Just to make you smile (because it amused us), my husband and I and our youngest daughter were in Poland last week, somewhere we’d never been before. We had to queue for 3 hours to get through passport control so were tired and decided to get a taxi to our hotel. Our taxi driver was very chatty and friendly and told us it would cost 120 zloty, which is around £25. When we were leaving we got the hotel to book a taxi to the airport. It cost 45 zloty 😂 We think the first driver was so chatty in the hopes that we would ring him for our next journey and not notice the cost.

Or West Lancashire borough council or individual city councils for new licenses

How/why do Lancashire taxi drivers get a wolverhampton license? I just googled that its just over 2 hours from me (NorthWest) and mostly Lancashire taxis are licensed by Lancashire County Council, or Greater Manchester.

If i'd been out with my sons and D.I.L one of my sons at least would have made sure that THEY were last dropped off,not me, just to make sure i was home safe, even if they went a bit out of their way, or made me sleep at their house.