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I wonder what recourse you have with a real taxi. I am sure the company contracting a taxi driver would consider firing a driver that steals your stuff. Especia

I wonder what recourse you have with a real taxi. I am sure the company contracting a taxi driver would consider firing a driver that steals your stuff. Especially after a few complaints. The main problem seems to be Uber's unresponsiveness to the whole issue. It would not be hard for them to set up some sort of system to prevent fraud and theft and to punish drivers accused of that sort of thing, and to kick them out of the system after a certain number of complaints.

gsnedders 9y ago
It depends a lot on where you are, and whether you knew the identity of the car. I once lost my phone in a private hire in the UK (these are essentially less tightly regulated taxis that cannot pick people up off the street, they must be pre-booked only, and are what Uber operates as), and having emailed the office kept getting told that he was going to hand it in to the police as lost property "tomorrow" for a number of days. In the end, I told them that unless he handed it in within a further three days I would go to the police and make a complaint of theft against the driver, with all the emails between me and their office as evidence that a) they knew who the driver was even though they wouldn't tell me, and that b) he had it. Surprisingly enough, it got handed in within a couple of hours after that.
tacon 9y ago
I'm displaying my single use of Uber to date, but if the driver steals your phone, can you ever give him a one star review? I thought a couple of one stars and he never drives for Uber again. But if he inoculates himself from reviews, that is quite a hack of the system.
matthewowen 9y ago
This is a tired argument. Yes, it's harder with a taxi. Less proof / information about exactly which taxi you were in. But Uber doesn't get to simultaneously claim to be safer than taxis because of the data being tracked whilst also not using that data to help prevent and prosecute crimes.
- gamblor956 9y ago
  It's much easier with a taxi. Taxi receipts helpfully include the taxi cab number, as required by law in most big cities. Taxi drivers usually have more downtime between rides, especially in hotel/airport queues, so they are more likely to discover left-behind items that would otherwise be found and taken by the next Uber/lyft passenger. And finally, taxi companies also have centralized locations for storing lost items.
  - koolba 9y ago
    Assuming you get a receipt, remember the car number, or otherwise can identify the driver. I've taken many a taxi ride and can count on one hand the number of times I've gotten a receipt (which was only because it for expense reimbursement). Having a digital record in a receipt emailed to you or live in the app is a entirely different league of convenience.
  - jandrese 9y ago
    Assuming you get a receipt, which I have only ever gotten when I specifically requested one for expense purposes.
    - jghn 9y ago
      and even then, in many cities i get some hand scrawled thing with an amount written in.
  - politician 9y ago
    I've recovered a lost phone by providing a taxi cab number to the dispatcher who sent the cab back out to my location. I was ready to compensate them for the extra trip, but they didn't accept payment. That's something that simply isn't possible with Uber or Lyft.
    - dnautics 9y ago
      During the 1.5 year time I was a lyft and uber driver I returned no less than 5 cellphones to their owners. There's even a url in your reciept email that will place a phone call to the driver for this exact situation.
rodgerd 9y ago
I left a DSLR in a taxi in Ballarat. I live in New Zealand. They couriered to me for free. (I sent the driver a box of wine to say thanks).
- foobarbazetc 9y ago
  Yeah but that's Australia... ;)
- linkmotif 9y ago
  I've had all kinds of positive similar experiences with people all over the world. Most people aren't out to rob you.
saghm 9y ago
There was no stealing involved, but I had a somewhat relevant experience a few months back. My grandmother was visiting me (in New York City) and accidentally left her pocketbook in a taxi that we took. After a long time of googling to try to figure out how to contact the cab company, I found out from a concierge at her hotel that there was a specific number you could dial to reach some sort of help line for the city (I think it was "311", but I'm not positive). I called the number and after listening to a recording for several minutes, I reached a point where I could speak a term and have it give me info on it. After saying "New York City cab company" or something like that, it gave me the option to give them a tax number so and they'd give me the number of the company. Luckily, I had paid for the cab with my credit card, and my bank app had the cab number in the transaction, so I was able to get the number for the company. After calling them, I got the number of the garage, who then gave me the cell number of the driver. I called him, and it turned out that he had heard us try to call the phone earlier (but couldn't get to the phone in time and couldn't unlock the phone to find the number to call us back at), so he went back to the spot where he had dropped us off to try and find us. He came back to meet us at the hotel, and we got the pocketbook back (and gave him a nice tip for his trouble). From what I understand, cab companies acknowledge liability for their drivers, so they'd be much more inclined to take action against unscrupulous drivers. It seems plausible that people who want to use the pretense of driving others around to steal things from their passengers would be much less likely to want to driver for such a company, so I wouldn't be surprised if my experience with a driver willing to go out of their way to return items is much more common with taxis than Uber.
nmstoker 9y ago
This isn't relevant. You might as well say it would be really difficult with a donkey ride, as they have no registration numbers

gsnedders 9y ago

It depends a lot on where you are, and whether you knew the identity of the car. I once lost my phone in a private hire in the UK (these are essentially less tightly regulated taxis that cannot pick people up off the street, they must be pre-booked only, and are what Uber operates as), and having emailed the office kept getting told that he was going to hand it in to the police as lost property "tomorrow" for a number of days. In the end, I told them that unless he handed it in within a further three days I would go to the police and make a complaint of theft against the driver, with all the emails between me and their office as evidence that a) they knew who the driver was even though they wouldn't tell me, and that b) he had it. Surprisingly enough, it got handed in within a couple of hours after that.

tacon 9y ago

I'm displaying my single use of Uber to date, but if the driver steals your phone, can you ever give him a one star review? I thought a couple of one stars and he never drives for Uber again. But if he inoculates himself from reviews, that is quite a hack of the system.

matthewowen 9y ago

This is a tired argument. Yes, it's harder with a taxi. Less proof / information about exactly which taxi you were in. But Uber doesn't get to simultaneously claim to be safer than taxis because of the data being tracked whilst also not using that data to help prevent and prosecute crimes.

gamblor956 9y ago
It's much easier with a taxi. Taxi receipts helpfully include the taxi cab number, as required by law in most big cities. Taxi drivers usually have more downtime between rides, especially in hotel/airport queues, so they are more likely to discover left-behind items that would otherwise be found and taken by the next Uber/lyft passenger. And finally, taxi companies also have centralized locations for storing lost items.
- koolba 9y ago
  Assuming you get a receipt, remember the car number, or otherwise can identify the driver. I've taken many a taxi ride and can count on one hand the number of times I've gotten a receipt (which was only because it for expense reimbursement). Having a digital record in a receipt emailed to you or live in the app is a entirely different league of convenience.
- jandrese 9y ago
  Assuming you get a receipt, which I have only ever gotten when I specifically requested one for expense purposes.
  - jghn 9y ago
    and even then, in many cities i get some hand scrawled thing with an amount written in.
- politician 9y ago
  I've recovered a lost phone by providing a taxi cab number to the dispatcher who sent the cab back out to my location. I was ready to compensate them for the extra trip, but they didn't accept payment. That's something that simply isn't possible with Uber or Lyft.
  - dnautics 9y ago
    During the 1.5 year time I was a lyft and uber driver I returned no less than 5 cellphones to their owners. There's even a url in your reciept email that will place a phone call to the driver for this exact situation.

rodgerd 9y ago

I left a DSLR in a taxi in Ballarat. I live in New Zealand. They couriered to me for free. (I sent the driver a box of wine to say thanks).

foobarbazetc 9y ago
Yeah but that's Australia... ;)
linkmotif 9y ago
I've had all kinds of positive similar experiences with people all over the world. Most people aren't out to rob you.

saghm 9y ago

There was no stealing involved, but I had a somewhat relevant experience a few months back. My grandmother was visiting me (in New York City) and accidentally left her pocketbook in a taxi that we took. After a long time of googling to try to figure out how to contact the cab company, I found out from a concierge at her hotel that there was a specific number you could dial to reach some sort of help line for the city (I think it was "311", but I'm not positive). I called the number and after listening to a recording for several minutes, I reached a point where I could speak a term and have it give me info on it. After saying "New York City cab company" or something like that, it gave me the option to give them a tax number so and they'd give me the number of the company. Luckily, I had paid for the cab with my credit card, and my bank app had the cab number in the transaction, so I was able to get the number for the company. After calling them, I got the number of the garage, who then gave me the cell number of the driver. I called him, and it turned out that he had heard us try to call the phone earlier (but couldn't get to the phone in time and couldn't unlock the phone to find the number to call us back at), so he went back to the spot where he had dropped us off to try and find us. He came back to meet us at the hotel, and we got the pocketbook back (and gave him a nice tip for his trouble). From what I understand, cab companies acknowledge liability for their drivers, so they'd be much more inclined to take action against unscrupulous drivers. It seems plausible that people who want to use the pretense of driving others around to steal things from their passengers would be much less likely to want to driver for such a company, so I wouldn't be surprised if my experience with a driver willing to go out of their way to return items is much more common with taxis than Uber.

nmstoker 9y ago

This isn't relevant. You might as well say it would be really difficult with a donkey ride, as they have no registration numbers