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Earlier this year, Uber release a list of the most common items people forget in their fleet’s cars— a list that featured a wide variety of items with one notable exception: puke. When you consider a significant chunk of Uber users rely on the app to get a ride home when they aren’t in a state to drive themselves it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that some people can’t wait until they get home to deposit the $50 they spent on booze into their toilet.
Some drivers do whatever they can to avoid ferrying drunk people— although it can occasionally work out in their favor— and the company is trying to help them out by working on a feature that can figure out how inebriated riders are when they hop into the car. However, you can only do so much to guarantee you won’t have to deal with cleaning vomit out of the backseat at some point.
If you’ve ever been on the receiving end of a cleaning surcharge then you already know how much it will run you, and if you haven’t, you should know that not being able to hold your liquor will result in you getting dinged $150. However, some drivers decide to do the dirty work on their own and pocket the difference— and it appears some of them are taking advantage of the system and screwing customers over in the process.
According to The Miami Herald, the hot new trend in scamming is “vomit fraud,” in which Uber drivers send fake pictures of soiled upholstery to the company in order to get reimbursed for a non-existent incident. The paper spoke to multiple people who’d been hit with fraudulent charges, including one who was told the company almost always sides with the driver and another who was able to get reimbursed before having her account disabled.
Law enforcement has so far neglected to get involved by claiming Uber is responsible for handling each case internally. It’s unclear how widespread the practice is but if you’re extra paranoid you might want to snap a quick picture once your trip has been completed. There’s a chance your passenger rating could get dinged a bit but I’ll gladly take that chance if it means I can avoid an even worse ding of $150.