UK Uber Rider Falls Asleep, Gets $111 Bill For Short Trip

Falling asleep on public transportation can be dangerous. Falling asleep in an Uber car can be very costly. At least, that’s the experience of one Uber rider in the U.K. who got hit with a more than $100 bill for a short trip — all because she fell asleep.

According to a report by Mashable, Hannah Warman, a London-based comedian, opted to take an Uber car home on Sunday (Aug. 28) night instead of making the short walk home. But the exhausted comedian fell asleep on the seemingly short ride and woke up an hour-and-a-half later only to find the next day she had been taxied around London for 35 miles, getting hit with a $111 bill.

“First of all, I was shocked and upset about how expensive it was because I thought the driver must’ve got lost, and I shouldn’t have been charged for his mistake,” she explained to Mashable in the report. “Then, I realized he couldn’t have got that lost because they have sat navs, and the map with the start and end point would’ve been in front of him. It looks like he went the longest way around possible. Then, I started to worry why I’d been driven around and felt a bit shaken and unsafe.”

Warman turned to Twitter to share her experience, and her musing was quickly retweeted by more than 1,000 people who shared similar experiences. Warman eventually got a full refund from Uber but told Mashable she wasn’t happy with the company’s initial response. “I had to email a few times to get a reply, then got a partial refund, but I wasn’t given an explanation or the reassurance I felt was needed,” she explained. “Since I tweeted about it, however, I have been fully refunded, but they said they can’t tell me anything about the driver or the action that was taken due to confidentiality.”

In a statement to Mashable, Uber said it gave the rider a full refund and is speaking to the licensed driver to determine what happened. The company noted its systems show the requested destination changed three times during the trip. “Unlike other transport options, Uber’s technology records every trip and sends riders a receipt with a map of the route taken. This transparency and accountability means, if there is an issue, it can be quickly resolved.”