Uber customer charged Rs 1,334 for 8.8km ride approaches consumer court, wins Rs 10,000

Uber said it had refunded credits worth Rs 975 to the complainant’s Uber account after the incident.

An Uber customer from Chandigarh was recently granted a compensation of Rs 10,000 after he was charged Rs 1,334 for 8.83 km for a ride on August 6, 2021. The Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission of Chandigarh also ordered Uber to pay an additional Rs 10,000 for legal expenses, The Indian Express reported.

The complainant, Ashwani Prashar of Chandigarh, stated that the duration of the ride was just 15 minutes -- from 10.40 pm to 10.57 pm -- on August 6, 2021. He claimed he had sent various customer chats and emails through the Uber app and Gmail the next day regarding his grievance but in vain, the publication reported.

For its part, Uber India stated that the upfront fare shown to the rider was Rs 359, but the final trip fare was Rs 1334 due to multiple route deviations during the journey. It added that Uber India has been unable to determine if the driver deviated from the path mapped by Uber or if the customer requested the deviations.

Moreover, as a gesture of goodwill and to maintain the user's faith in the reliability of the platform, the company refunded Uber Credits worth Rs 975 to the complainant’s Uber account as he had paid in cash.

Meanwhile, the consumer disputes forum stated that, “practice of charging excess fare than that of the actual contracted fare at the time of advance booking, is unfair trade practice, which needs be deprecated and as such complainant is entitled for compensation for mental agony and harassment and also to litigation expenses. In order to keep a check on such unruly service providers, who commit a breach of assurances, promises, and commitments at the nick of time, they are required to be dealt with heavy hands, and as such OPs must be made to deposit at least Rs 10,000 as compensation in Consumer Welfare Fund of this Forum, in addition to the amounts payable to the complainant as compensation and litigation expenses.”

It added that the complainant or anybody else (layman) does not know the intricacies of a contract between Uber and its drivers, and expects to have the contract with this branded concern and not with the hidden partner of the branded service provider. Therefore, Uber cannot escape from the liability under the garb of hidden contracts between them and the driver partners.

Read more: Man books Uber in Bengaluru, gets waiting time of 50 minutes: 'Most corrupt city in India'