A dad was shocked after being handed a bill of almost £600 for an Uber trip from London to Nuneaton, despite being quoted less than £200.
Daniel Watts relocated his family from Nuneaton to Singapore in December 2021.
But they all returned back to the UK in July to attend their daughter's primary school graduation, so she could celebrate with friends for the last time.
They arrived at London Euston Station on July 19, but all the trains to the Midlands were cancelled at the time due to the heatwave, 42-year-old Daniel said.
Daniel said he managed to get an Uber - but claimed he was left shocked at receiving a £590 bill for the trip, despite agreeing beforehand to pay £190.
Uber have since refunded £400 but Daniel said the incident left a 'dark cloud' over their trip.
The family made the 16 hour journey from Singapore to the UK so they could attend their daughter's graduation.
And with no trains running, they worried they might miss the ceremony.
So, Daniel decided to find alternative transportation to Nuneaton.
He claimed he booked an Uber for £190 that would take them from London Euston station straight to Hurley Primary School.
After the 3 hour journey, the family arrived at the primary school and made it in time for the graduation ceremony.
But, Daniel said he was horrified to receive a staggering £600 bill from Uber the next morning.
Daniel told Coventry Live : "You can imagine the tears we had at the station. Fortunately I managed to find an Uber, and a figure of £190 was quoted for the trip, but I agreed to do it to ensure my daughter didn’t miss her special event.
"This is the amount that Uber initially blocked on my card, and I have all the screenshots to show this is the case."
Daniel said he filed a complaint to Uber about the charge, but they told him there were 'multi-drops' along the route causing the spike in charge.
However, Daniel denied there were any stops along the way and said he had booked a journey straight to Nuneaton.
He added: "The journey was completed without incident, so imagine my shock when Uber billed me £590.68.
"They claim there was a change in the destination or possible change to route or multi-drops. But I can confirm it was booked as Nuneaton and the final destination was Nuneaton.
"There were no stops en-route, and I was not advised at any point of any change to the fare until the following morning when they sent an email with the final bill which was over £400 more expensive!"
Daniel said: "I just can’t believe they can get away with such behaviour and it’s basically ruined our trip back home.
"It’s also left a rather large and unexpected hole in our finances which we can ill afford at this moment in time."
Uber agreed to refund Daniel back the £400 incurred charge.
However, Daniel said the situation had caused the family immense stress and they couldn't fully enjoy their trip because of it.
Daniel said: "We have now returned to Singapore, and though the memories of the assembly itself somewhat make up for this, it has left a horrible taste.
"Were it £40 extra I’d have let it go and put it down to experience, but £400!
"After a lot of back-and-forth with Uber they finally agreed that we were in the right on this and have now refunded us the £400 difference, but the stress caused – as you can imagine – was pretty intense, and in reality it cast a really dark cloud over the final 5 days of our trip to Europe.
"Up until last week they were insisting the higher amount was correct until, unexpectedly, we had an e-mail on Friday confirming we’d be getting £400 back.
"Out of the blue we received an email on the weekend saying the refund was being processed. It was a nice surprise, at the same time I wanted to know why we had to go through this over a two week period.
"No explanation, no apology, nothing."
The Uber spokesman told the Mirror: “We are always happy to review a trip and provide a fare adjustment where appropriate.
"In this case the final price was charged in error and we have refunded the rider concerned.
"We apologise that we did not meet our usual high standards of customer care on this occasion.”
