Working in the service industry always comes with certain dangers, not the least of which is irate or even hostile customers. Being an Uber driver is no exception, and one incident in Las Vegas, Nevada, has proven this yet again after the passenger got a little too heated and mad at the Uber driver for making them wait 10 minutes at their pickup spot. In the driver’s defence, however, the passenger was apparently in the wrong pickup spot.
This rather divisive altercation took place early in December in a Las Vegas establishment. A couple of women hired an Uber in the area, but according to the driver, the passengers kept waiting in the wrong pickup spot, which led to a 10-minute wait. The passengers supposedly caved in and walked toward the Uber driver, begrudgingly in the actual pickup spot, though it appears the ride didn’t last long as it was cancelled:
The video, which was captured by the Uber driver herself, shows one of two female passengers already complaining to her and even calling her expletives. “You’re so [expletive] unprofessional. You can video record me, it’s okay to do that. That’s fine, that’s your right. You cannot cancel ride after making us wait 10 minutes when you went to the wrong place!” argued the passenger.
The driver, defending herself, claimed she “was not at the wrong place,” and that it was the passengers who were at the wrong pickup spot. At that point, the woman called the driver a liar, and after another batch of heated words, the passenger slapped either the phone or the Uber driver, causing the video capture to abruptly stop.
People online were torn on the matter
It’s not immediately clear what became of the altercation, but there were some rather divisive arguments for both sides. On one hand, people online condemned the passenger for assaulting the Uber driver and being rather aggressive toward her. Some even wanted her banned, “Permanent ban from the app and an assault charge. These drivers are out here working and people think they can treat them like punching bags.”
On the other hand, there was no recording of the Uber transaction on the phone to prove who was actually waiting at the wrong spot. Certain commenters online believed that the driver should’ve cancelled at the 7-minute mark since from that point on, the Uber fare increases. Hence, they accused the Uber driver of grifting, “They do it so you’ll cancel and they get paid while you can’t get a refund” though these claims are unsubstantiated.
Regardless, the passenger’s reaction to what appears to be some kind of misunderstanding (assuming it’s not an Uber driver grift attempt) seemed rather harsh. “Wild how a 10 minute wait can escalate that hard. people losing it,” according to an X commenter, and it certainly ruined the Vegas trip for anyone involved in the video.
