Stranded family stunned by £590 Uber bill after being quoted just £190

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Daniel Watts relocated his family to Singapore in December 2021. The family briefly returned to the UK in July, to attend their daughter’s primary school graduation in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, so she could celebrate with friends for the last time. However, upon arrival at London Euston Station, the family discovered that trains to the Midlands were cancelled at the time due to the heatwave.

As a result, Daniel said he was forced to organise another way of getting his family to their destination. Ordering an Uber, the father claims he was left shocked at receiving a £590 bill for the trip – despite agreeing beforehand to pay £190.

Uber has since refunded £400 but Daniel said the incident left a “dark cloud” over their trip.

According to CoventryLive, Daniel claims he booked an Uber for £190 that would take them from London Euston station straight to Hurley Primary School. Thankfully, after a 3-hour journey, the family arrived at the primary school – in time for the graduation ceremony. However, when Daniel checked the next morning, he was horrified to receive a staggering £600 bill from Uber.

“In a nutshell, my family and I relocated from Nuneaton to Singapore back in December 2021,” explained Daniel. “We had to remove my daughter from school at that time we felt it right that we should return to the UK in July for her final year graduation at the primary school she’d attended since reception in Hurley Primary.

“Unfortunately, as luck would have it, when we arrived at Euston station on Tuesday afternoon (19th July) all trains to the Midlands had been cancelled due to the heat and therefore I was left with a stark choice of either missing the leavers’ assembly, which is the main reason we’d come to the UK, or trying to find alternative transportation to Nuneaton.

“You can imagine the tears we had at the station. Fortunately, I managed to find an Uber, and a figure of £190 was quoted for the trip, but I agreed to do it to ensure my daughter didn’t miss her special event.

“This is the amount that Uber initially blocked on my card, and I have all the screenshots to show this is the case.”

Daniel said he filed a complaint to Uber about the charge, but they told him there were ‘multi-drops’ along the route causing the spike in charge. However, Daniel denied there were any stops along the way and said he had booked a journey straight to Nuneaton.

He added: “The journey was completed without incident, so imagine my shock when Uber billed me £590.68.

“They claim there was a change in the destination or possible change to route or multi-drops. But I can confirm it was booked as Nuneaton and the final destination was Nuneaton. There were no stops en-route, and I was not advised at any point of any change to the fare until the following morning when they sent an email with the final bill which was over £400 more expensive.”

Daniel said: “I just can’t believe they can get away with such behaviour and it’s basically ruined our trip back home. It’s also left a rather large and unexpected hole in our finances which we can ill afford at this moment in time.”

Uber agreed to refund Daniel back the £400 incurred charge. However, Daniel said the situation had caused the family immense stress and they couldn’t fully enjoy their trip because of it.

Daniel said: “We have now returned to Singapore, and though the memories of the assembly itself somewhat make up for this, it has left a horrible taste. Were it £40 extra I’d have let it go and put it down to experience, but £400! After a lot of back-and-forth with Uber, they finally agreed that we were in the right on this and have now refunded us the £400 difference, but the stress caused – as you can imagine – was pretty intense, and in reality, it cast a really dark cloud over the final 5 days of our trip to Europe.

“Up until last week they were insisting the higher amount was correct until, unexpectedly, we had an e-mail on Friday confirming we’d be getting £400 back. Out of the blue we received an email on the weekend saying the refund was being processed. It was a nice surprise, at the same time I wanted to know why we had to go through this over a two week period. No explanation, no apology, nothing.”

Commenting on the situation, an Uber spokesperson said: “We are always happy to review a trip and provide a fare adjustment where appropriate. In this case the final price was charged in error and we have refunded the rider concerned. We apologise that we did not meet our usual high standards of customer care on this occasion.”

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