Stamford, CT — Whitney, a 27-year-old African-American single mom, goes to Target to do some shopping and as she’s often done in the past, used her Uber mobile app to hail a cab back home. A dark Ford Escape pulls up and before she can load her bags and baby in the vehicle, Adil the driver rolled down the window and yelled, “I don’t take kids” and drives off, leaving the single mom and her 18-month-old baby girl in the snow, Monday afternoon.
Whitney reported Adil to Uber and requested another driver. Her and her daughter, had to wait awhile because there were no cars available, so she had to wait for more cars to become available on the app.
Uber who says they ‘connect you with a reliable ride in minutes,’ was anything but reliable or respectful for that matter, when the driver arrived to pick up Whitney and her child. BW could not find any process to communicate with Uber to get their side of the story from their website. We asked Whitney to look up other reviews on the driver to see if he had a history of encounters like this, but she told us, “No you can’t see other reviews.”
Upon scrolling through the Uber site and app, we could not find any trip limitations or restrictions preventing drivers from taking fares that include small children.
After approximately 50 Uber rides she tells BW, she has only had a few bad experiences and recalls one of those incidents that took place on January 20, 2016 on Martin Luther King Jr Birthday.
“A driver was supposed to drive me round-trip. He gave me a hard time and told me I have to be fast or he’s leaving,” Whitney, informed BW. “He tried to tell me I had to close out the trip which would have meant I would be charged double fees. I told him that he isn’t supposed to do that. Up until I got to the destination he kept telling me how its better for him money wise to do two separate trips. I informed him that it isn’t about him, if I request a round-trip he is supposed to do that. When I got to the destination, I was out of the car the most 3 minutes. It was freezing cold [29 degrees] that morning which is why I took the Uber. When I got back in the car, he tells me he closed my trip and accepted another one from someone else. I was forced to get out of the car and request for someone else to pick me up.”
When asked for any other negative experiences, she informed BW, “Other than that, I have no complaints. If there is an issue with the fare or something they respond promptly and most of the time they fix the issue with crediting my account for future rides. Most of the drivers come in the amount of time that the app states they will arrive. I’ve been using them for over a year now.”
We asked the young woman if she would ever consider using Uber for future rides and she responded, “Yes because it’s been only two bad drivers out of approx 50
I’ve experienced more bad drivers with the local taxi drivers.”
Shame on you Uber driver Adil, leaving a young woman and her child in the snow, you might want to think about getting into a new line of business if you are not going to take fares with young children. If anyone else has had a bad experience with Adil or any other Uber driver, contact us at BlackWestchester@gmail.com and tell us your story!
