Uber Driver Extortion And Kidnapping

I posted my story in r/uber after making a report against my uber driver and I decided to post here because I am starting to think I should be making a bigger deal about this than just making a report. If anyone has advice on what kind of legal action I can take, please share because I haven’t gotten anything back from Uber and I am uncertain if they will actually remove the driver from their platform. I don’t live in Portugal, but the incident took place there and I am now back at my residence in the US.

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I had an incident in Lisbon, Portugal. It was probably one of the scariest moments of my life and I’m wondering if anyone can give me insight on what to expect after I submitted a report against the driver.

I saw Taylor Swift on Friday and that night my mother and I requested an uber comfort driver, which is already costs more than the other options but since so many people were requesting Ubers, we didn’t really have a choice.

As soon as he arrives we get into the car and this guy is like “just so you know I charge 15 euros more because of the concert” and basically said he doesn’t get paid enough to just be getting the flat fee in the app. I was confused and I was like “15 more? Than the 18 I’m paying for in the app?” And he’s like yeah and I’m like no that’s not right, uber doesn’t condone drivers asking for more money on top of the charge. He tries to backtrack, saying it’s a tip and it would really help him. I’m like alright and he seems to drop it and starts taking us to the hotel.

He speeds like crazy, and the whole time all I want is to go back to the hotel. At this point I’m already thinking about reporting him because I know he was acting scammy.

Suddenly as we are about maybe like a mile away from the hotel, on a roundabout, he starts speaking aggressively. I swear he sounded so unhinged. He’s like “well since you’re not going to pay me the extra fee I’m going to drop you off here instead” and I’m like “are you serious?” And he’s yelling and going on about how we aren’t paying him. I’m like “ok you know what fine, we will get out here!” But he keeps driving!!! And he just keeps yelling about how we aren’t paying him so I start getting really scared because he’s not letting us out so I tell him “I will pay you after the ride, we don’t have cash on us!” and then he just keeps yelling “I don’t believe you! I don’t believe you!” He then tells us he’s going to take us farther than the hotel and gets off the roundabout.

As he started driving away from the hotel he’s saying “do it now, send it now through the app, 10 euros” and I’m like “fine, fine” and I tell him I sent 10 euros (which I did, because I was terrified and hoping that when I report him Uber will give it back ????????) .

He pulls over to the side of the road to check his phone. He’s like “I don’t see it!” And my mom is like “well she sent it! She sent it!” And then this asshole has the audacity to say “oh! Uber took all of it! Uber took it!” I knew this guy was going to ask for even more so I unlocked the door grabbed my things and pulled my mom out and basically told him to go fuck himself.

Funnily enough, me and my mom are Americans but we are Portuguese. I understand it only but she speaks it too and we spoke English the whole time with him. She uses this moment outside of the car to curse him out in portuguese and tell him we know what he’s doing is wrong and we will report him. I think he was startled when she spoke in portuguese to him, and I wonder if he like ripping off tourists lmao.

So here we are, about 12 minutes away from the hotel by walking, at 1:30 am. We even had to pull up the directions to know how to get back. My hearts racing, I’m shaking, and I can’t believe this happened to us.

I already did what I was supposed to do. I reported him. But I’m worried nothing will happen. I want him fired. Maybe that sounds harsh, but kidnapping two women over 10 euros screams unstable to me and I never want this to happen to anyone else.

I’m so angry because I know tipping isn’t expected in Europe, yet I was tipping every driver while I was in Portugal since I WAS having a great experience with Uber. Ubers in Lisbon are pretty cheap, usually running around 4-7 euros so 18 was already a lot!