You would probably remember taking a ride long enough to cost tens of thousands of dollars. So one Uber customer was more than a little surprised to find her bank flagging and blocking a $28,639.14 charge from the ride-hailing company.”
Uber is blaming a computer glitch after “a handful” of users were charged improperly, including the Philly woman who never took a $28K ride, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
The company told the paper that it usually puts an authorization hold on an account when a customer orders a ride as a method of confirming payment. A bug in the system caused the authorization amount to be a lot more than what is typically charged. Uber declined to say how many users were charged improperly.
The Philadelphia customer said she first received an email on Dec. 9 from Uber advising her that her account had been hacked, and that her sign-in information had apparently been phished and tested on its platform.
But then on Dec. 15, the company sent another email saying it had made a mistake, and her account “had not been compromised.”
“Your information is safe, and the charge that appeared on your credit card statement was an unusually large authorization hold,” Uber customer service wrote. “This was never processed as a payment, and our engineering team has been made aware of this error.”
Kudos to her bank in this case, for not allowing such an usual charge to go through. It’s wise to keep an eye on your account anyway and report any similar weirdness to your financial institution as soon as you spot it.
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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