Guys.
GUYS!
Boy do I have a story for you! I already told some people about my recent Uber experience but, I still thought it would be interesting enough to put on my blog. It could also be helpful for other solo travelers to use as references when dealing with transportation mishaps.
I was recently in Massachusetts for 3 days (blog and pictures on that here) and I had been taking Ubers quite a lot during this time. They were all fine and I never felt awkward or uncomfortable in any of them UNTIL I got to my last day. I was in Bedford, at a local Starbucks that was about 5 minutes away from the airport I was supposed to be leaving from.
My plane was set to leave at 1 p.m. so I called an Uber at 12:30 (side note: this was a private plane so I didn’t have to go through security). I could see my driver getting lost and all sorts of turned around on the little Uber map. At 12:40 he finally arrived. I thought, “oh well, you know I’ll still get there at 12:45 which is plenty of time…”
WRONG.
The Uber driver then tried to take me though an Air Force base that required security clearance to pass through. After explaining to the guard that I was going to the airport he mentioned that our GPS probably just tried to take us through the area as a shortcut. We had to turn around.
But then my Uber driver suddenly stopped about half a block from the base. He said I needed another address. After 5 minutes of me explaining to him that my needed location hadn’t changed, and that all he needed to do was go a different route, I realized that was pointless. He refused to listen to me.
I then called my uncle (whose plane I was supposed to be getting on) and explained the situation and he said he would send a car for me. My Uber driver than told me I needed to get out. Yup, you read that right. “You want me to stand on the side of the road by myself,” I asked, clearly upset. Yup.
roadkill
So, there I sat on the side of the road in Bedford, Massachusetts for 15 minutes before I got a call from the lady my uncle had sent to rescue me. But my story doesn’t quite end there. This lady had a hard time finding me. I told her numerous times over the phone that I was LITERALLY standing on the side of the road just down from the base but she still couldn’t see me.
She then asked me if there were more than one Air Force bases in the area. I was pretty much over the whole situation at this point as it was my first time in Massachusetts and had absolutely no idea about how many bases there were in the Bedford area.
Turns out there was more than one. And the lady did eventually find me, but not before I sat on the side of the road with my Nine West luggage for 20 minutes.
To wrap things up, I want to say that this was my first bad experience with Uber but that it left such a bad taste in my mouth that I don’t even know if I’m going to be using them anytime soon. The next time I travel solo, I will definitely look into more local transportation options first.
**Have you had any bad travel transportation stories?
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Gosh that’s awful! I’ve had a few bad taxi experiences and it does leave you truly shaken up, especially if you’re somewhere new. At least you can look back on that experience as proof you can deal with anything!
Sounds unpleasant. I recently got screwed over by an uber driver too. Same situation – wanted a second address when the first one hadn’t changed. The bill was huge. When I called to complain, they said sorry and then charged my card $10 more. When I called to tell them they screwed up, the said they couldn’t reduce my bill more – they just wouldn’t listen that they actually charged me more not credited me!
thats so stupid 🙁 sorry you had to go through that!
Sounds pretty crazy, I have never used Uber before as in the country that I am living in is Uber illegal, so I get quite scared when I hear story like this
yeah usually everything is fine, as i’ve used them before, but this experience definitely shook me up
sounds like a terrible experience. Never had a bad experience like this with uber before