Disappointed with Uber Service

On 26 April 2025 at 7:02 PM I requested transport with Uber Go online. The price for the 1.62 kilometers trip which lasted for 4 minutes was R48.00 at the time of checking.

To my surprise, the receipt sent to my email shortly after the trip showed that the fare was R126.00, already deducted from my bank account. I requested through the Uber Help Center that the fare be reviewed since it was much higher (more than two and half times the quoted fare).

I got this response from Uber Support "After reviewing the details, we can confirm that the charge of ZAR126.00 aligns with the estimated price range provided before the trip was requested."

I responded by explaining that the price was R48.00 at the time of checking and the trip was so short that there was no way the fare would be that high. This time I got responses from Bilal Ali and later rghani, both from Uber, insisting that the fare was correct. I noticed that the responses seemed to be AI generated.

There is no breakdown on the receipt to account for the high fare. Uber has been my first choice of the available e-hailing services since I started using it years ago and this is the first time having bad experience of this nature with the service. If the fare of a short trip like this can multiply so significantly, what if a longer trip was requested? Uber should explain to me how it was possible for a fare of R48.00 to end up being R126.00. I am considering discontinuing using Uber services altogether given this experience.