WATCH ABOVE: Car service Uber charging customers more during busy periods, a common practice called surge pricing. But as Peter Kim reports it’s making customers feel like they’ve been taken for a ride.
TORONTO – The ride down to the party cost Connor Schaufler $17.00; the ride back, $227.00.
“We were kind of shocked. We woke up in the morning and felt blindsided,” said Schaufler, who was attending a Halloween party at the Thompson Hotel.
He used Uber, a location-based car service connecting willing drivers with people who need a ride within a reasonable proximity.
The trip from near Bayview Avenue and Davisville Avenue to the Thompson Hotel is around 14 km and takes approximately 20 minutes. On Halloween night the rates were increased, a practice known as surge pricing, to meet increased demand. Although unpopular it’s a commonly used practice in the retail and service sectors.
Schaufler says there was no indication he would be saddled with a $227 bill: “That night we had nothing on the app that popped up that indicated the surge pricing, the driver had no indication of how much the surge pricing was going to be.”
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Online there were others who seemed spooked by Uber’s Halloween rates.
In the U.S. one woman had to crowd source her Uber fare after it topped $300 dollars on her birthday.
After raising the issue with the company Schaufler receive a 25% discount, and now has second thoughts about using the popular location-based car service.
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