A man was left stunned after checking his bank and discovering Uber had attempted to charge him over £35,000 for a 15-minute journey - after his destination stop was incorrectly set to Australia.
Oliver Kaplan, 22 had made plans to catch up with some pals for drinks after his work and arranged an Uber ride to meet with them, the Mirror reports. He entered his details and selected his desired pick up spot from the Buxton Inn in Greater Manchester to his required destination, the Witchwood pub in Ashton-under-Lyne.
The Uber app confirmed his ride and the price of the four mile long journey which would roughly cost around £10. However, the following morning Oliver was horrified to discover Uber had attempted to charge £35,427,97 to his debit card.
He said: "I ordered an Uber like I do most nights on the way home from work and everything seemed normal. The driver arrived, I got in the Uber and he took me exactly where I was meant to be going.
"It was a 15-minute journey - tops - and the bill was said to be between £10 and £11, charged to my debit card. 'But when I woke up hungover the next morning, the last thing I expected was a charge of over £35,000!"
Oliver, from Hyde, quickly contacted Uber's customer services department through the app to find out about the ludicrous charge. He says they were initially stumped but, after doing a little digging, the worker said they had found the reason.
They said the bill was so high because somehow the drop-off location for the trip had been set to Australia. Uber then adjusted Oliver's fare to the real amount of £10.73 before the money came out of his bank account.
"It said the amount couldn't be taken because I had insufficient funds," said Oliver. He added: "If I had that sort of money, I would have had to chase them for a refund - it could have landed me in all sorts of financial trouble.
I'm still wondering how the location was even set to Australia in the first place, seeing as it is the other side of the globe. 'Thankfully they were really good about it, and made it right straight away - but it was a stressful half an hour to say the least."
A spokesperson for Uber said: "As soon as this issue was raised on Oliver's account we immediately corrected the fare. We're very sorry for any inconvenience caused."
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