Application offers riders who update their trip unreasonable rates

The Uber App / algorithm is setup to take advantage of riders who update their drop-off location while on a trip. I was on a trip recently which was going to cost me R126 (for an 8.5 kilometer distance).

Mid-trip I updated my drop-off location to a place that was less than 3km from my original drop-off location (making the total trip distance 11.4 kilometers). But instead of offering me a reasonable price for the update (R50/R60 extra), Uber changed my total trip cost to R298 (that’s R172 extra for a distance adjustment of less than 3km). How is that reasonable or fair?

I later contacted them to express that I felt the massive change in charge was excessive but received generic responses and they essentially said that because I updated the trip and accepted the fare they would not review it.

Of course offering someone a bad rate mid-trip puts them in a difficult position. I still needed to get to where I was going! It would be nice if the company offering the service did not completely take advantage of the rider in this manner.

My total fare literally jumped from R11 per kilometer to a whopping R26 per kilometer, all because I needed to be dropped-off a mere 3km further than initially requested.

I am very disappointed that Uber could care less about the fact that they overcharged me. They don’t seem interested in making a clearly unfair matter right or even in retaining clients. I have been using Uber and Ubereats for years but will be switching to Bolt out of principle.

Why should I give business to a company that has no interest in offering me an ethical service.