ATLANTA — Ride-share services can be a convenient and oftentimes cheap way to get around, but it’s important to keep tabs on what the actual cost of a ride is.
On a night out in Nashville, Paul Bolender thought the charge for his five-minute Lyft ride was $8. When he returned to Atlanta he saw an email from Lyft informing him the actual cost would be much more.
“I received an email from Lyft saying that we were going to be charged $150 for damages that they said we had caused.” Bolender explained. “There was accompanying (it) two photos of just vomit in the backseat and (a) cupholder of a car.”
Bolender immediately contacted Lyft to dispute the charges and was frustrated he could not speak directly with someone.
“They were like, 'Well, we have to reserve our phone lines for emergencies and for Lyft drivers,' which is to say there is no way to contact Lyft.,” he said
WSB consumer adviser Clark Howard said Bolender was persistent.
“He filed a police report, filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (and) canceled his debtdebit card,” Howard said
Bolender also continued to contact Lyft via email and social media.
Eventually he received an email telling him that his account would not be charged.
“Literally all they said was, 'Upon further review, we are reopening the investigation and will not be assessing damages to your account,'" he said
While Bolender is happy to have the charge removed he believes the company needs to do better.
“That’s what they want is for you to simply say OK I will pay this. But if you did that every single time, just think of how that accumulates. I don’t have enough money for that to accumulate,” Bolender said
WSB contacted Lyft, which told us there is a 24/7 critical response line available by selecting help from the menu on the company's app. The company also sent the statement below.
"Per Lyft's terms of service, if a driver reports that a passenger has materially damaged the vehicle, passengers may pay a fee of up to $250 depending on the extent of the damage. Our support team investigates these types of incidents and makes a determination based on the evidence available. These are often difficult situations with conflicting information from the parties involved. In this case, the determination was made to refund the passenger."