Uber’s Response

[This is a follow up to my earlier post about this issue.]

Over the weekend, Uber’s escalations team replied to the ongoing email thread, though the reply was basically the same as all their others. At least this one did not try to say that it was because I had explicitly opted not to use the credit, but their position is still “tough luck – we changed it, didn’t tell you and we don’t care.” Not a great bit of customer service.

Here’s the latest response:

This is Manuel from Uber Escalations Team. Allow me to assist you with this matter.

I apologize for the back and forth regarding the issue with the unused $15 Amex credits on your account to be applied to your trip last October 8, 2018 at 7:06pm PDT. We want to assure you this is not the experience we want for you to have.

I also understand that you would like this matter to be handled over the phone. Though we don’t currently provide phone support for these issues right now, but we’ll work with you via email to resolve your issue as quickly as possible.

Please note that Uber cash is replacing Uber credits in the Uber app. Uber cash can be used to pay for Uber rides and Eats orders, just like Uber credits.

The value of any credits you have from redeeming gift cards, promotional credits, or credit given through Uber Support will show as one balance of Uber cash in your app.

To use your Uber cash balance toward your rides you will need to set Uber cash as your payment method. To select Uber cash as your payment method:

1. Enter your destination
2. Tap your payment method
3. Tap “Change” under “Profile” if you’ve setup a profile
4. Tap “Uber Cash”

Once you’ve done that, your Uber cash will automatically be used on your rides. If you don’t have enough Uber cash to cover your ride, you’ll be given the option to buy enough to cover your ride, or buy a set amount of Uber Cash and receive a discount on the purchase.

Going back to your trip last October 8, 2018 at 7:06pm PDT, it appear that the Uber cash was not selected as payment method that is why the $15 Amex credits didn’t automatically applied.

At this time, we’re unable to switch the payment method used for a trip to Uber cash if the credit balance is not enough to cover the full fare.

But rest assured, your $15 Uber cash is available for your next trip and will automatically apply once selected as payment method for the trip.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please let us know if you have further questions or issues.

Sent by Manuel S. on Sunday, October 14, 2018 at 1:06:36 AM

Of course Uber Cash was not selected as the default payment for my trip – I knew nothing about it and the instructions Amex had given me (which had worked just 9 days previously) was to charge to their card in order to use the credit.

Since this new scheme was secretly deployed by Uber (there was no communication in the app whatsoever about it), and since the payment for the ride was set to the card that I had been told was the way to use the credit, why would I click into the payment selection area to change it, let alone to choose a scheme I had never even heard of and was contrary to the instructions supplied for using the credit? In the previous version of the app, I only had two payment schemes set up: the Amex card & ApplePay.

Poor Customer Service

The continued claim that they cannot simply credit me because the ride was more than the balance is incredible. No other vendor I have ever dealt with would claim that they cannot apply a credit to a credit card in cases where they overcharged. No other vendor would spend this long trying to push the blame for the overcharging back onto the customer. 

If this is how Uber thinks customer service should be handled, I feel extremely sorry for any of their drivers facing an issue with them. I can only imagine how bad that support is. I was skeptical that Uber was a good match for American Express when I saw the benefit (Lyft would, in my opinion, have been a much better fit). I was hopeful that Dara Khosrowshahi might be able to change things, and as a result gave them a chance, but it appears that is not the case. Clearly, their culture is still one that puts Uber first and customers, partners and anybody else be damned. 

Instructions

I would also note that the Uber site still has no mention of selecting Uber Cash as the way to use these Amex credits. On the page dedicated to the Amex partnership it says:

Notice, there is no mention of Uber Cash on there. I had the credits turned on, and they were automatically applied on September 29. Without any communication at all, why would anybody think that would change in the space of 9 days?

Furthermore, how many other Amex customers are now finding that the credits they are meant to receive are not being applied because Uber decided to silently change the rules.

PS

I sent a response to Manuel explaining that no matter how many times they tell me the credit is still available, and what I should have apparently known to do differently to use it, that was not good enough. Just now I receive the same canned response from yet another customer support person telling me the credits are still on my account. Seriously. I assume all these communications are somehow linked to a ticket in a tracking system, so (a) why do I get the same responses over and over again from different people, and (b) do none of them read the previous communications?

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