My first ride with Uber was a love at first sight – the amount of friction they managed to remove from using-a-taxi process is unbelievable.

However, every love story eventually faces real-life issues, and what really matters is how you handle them at that point.

The Story

A while ago I wanted to use Uber for my whole family (including young kids). It turned out a child seat was mandatory for my youngest (and no, I couldn’t indicate I need it when ordering the car – I looked really hard), and the driver just happened to have one. He also told me he’d charge me extra (which makes perfect sense).

At the end of the ride, the child seat charge turned out to be 1/3 of a not-so-short ride, the driver wanted to have cash, and gave me no receipt for the extra charge.

I didn’t want to spoil the family outing with a heated discussion, but when Uber asked me how satisfied I was with the ride, I used the opportunity to ask them whether what happened to me was business-as-usual.

I was pleasantly surprised when I got a polite reply from them a few days later, and totally shocked at what they decided to do – they reduced my fare to refund the difference (even though I couldn’t possibly prove I paid extra). Needless to say, I’ll use Uber whenever possible for my future taxi rides.

Lessons Learned

• It makes no sense to haggle over small amounts – everyone involved would have lost way more time (and consequently money) than what they refunded me.
• Acknowledging customer issues and fixing them takes precedence over being right.
• Great customer support turns not-so-unhappy customer into an evangelist (this blog post probably proves the point).

Thanks again, Uber – I can only hope I will be able to make one of my customers this happy ;)