A man was left horrified after being charged more than £35,000 for a 15-minute Uber journey - after the destination was accidentally set to AUSTRALIA. Oliver Kaplan, 22, had finished work and decided to order an Uber so he could meet friends for drinks.
He entered his details, stating that he wanted to travel from the Buxton Inn, outside Hyde in Greater Manchester, to the Witchwood, a pub in Ashton-under-Lyne. The app informed Oliver that the four-mile journey would cost around £10, but after the journey Oliver had an alert saying he had insufficient funds as Uber had tried to charge him £35,427.97.
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Oliver said: "I ordered an Uber like I do most nights on the way home from work and everything seemed normal. The driver arrived, I got in the Uber and he took me exactly where I was meant to be going.
"It was a 15-minute journey - tops - and the bill was said to be between £10 and £11, charged to my debit card. But when I woke up hungover the next morning, the last thing I expected was a charge of over £35,000!"
Oliver, from Hyde, quickly contacted Uber's customer services department through the app to find out about the ludicrous charge.
He says they were initially stumped but, after doing a little digging, the worker said they had found the reason.
They said the bill was so high because somehow the drop-off location for the trip had been set to Australia.
Uber then adjusted Oliver's fare to the real amount of £10.73 before the money came out of his bank account.
"It said the amount couldn't be taken because I had insufficient funds," said Oliver.
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"If I had that sort of money, I would have had to chase them for a refund - it could have landed me in all sorts of financial trouble.
"I'm still wondering how the location was even set to Australia in the first place, seeing as it is the other side of the globe.
"Thankfully they were really good about it, and made it right straight away - but it was a stressful half an hour to say the least."
Uber said: "As soon as this issue was raised on Oliver's account we immediately corrected the fare. We're very sorry for any inconvenience caused."
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