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A Baltimore resident named Gabby Wathen was shocked when she woke up on her 26th Birthday and found an Uber receipt totaling $362.57 for a 20-minute ride from a party back to her apartment. Unfortunately for Ms. Wathen, her rent was due the exact same day, $450 a month, and the Uber bill prevented her ability from paying her rent.
She took to Instagram for some good old fashioned slacktivism. Look at all these hashtags:
So what’s a broke, twenty-something to do? Why, go on the internet and beg for money, of course!
Ms. Wathen started a GoFundMe campaign entitled “Uber Stole My 26th Birthday.” From the campaign text, which has since been deleted:
“Last night was Halloween. Great time. Today is my 26th birthday. Not so great time. I live in Baltimore and went out with my friends to celebrate my birthday at midnight. When 3 AM rolled around, I suggested we take an Uber hole to avoid drunk driving (#responsibility/#MADD). I live 22 minutes, tops, from the party I was leaving.
When I awoke this morning, I heard a friend talking about how outrageous Uber rates were the night before (9x original rate). I checked my bank account to, unbeknownst to me, I see a charge for $362. Not only is it my 26th birthday, it is rent day. My rent is $450 and I can no longer pay it today due to this completely outrageous charge.
I waitress at two restaurants and freelance for a City Paper. I worked incredibly hard this week to be able to enjoy my birthday this weekend. This misunderstanding has cost me 80% of the funds I have to my name (embarrassingly so) and I spent a good two hours of my birthday crying over it.
I feel taken advantage of and cheated by the Uber name. $367 for a 20 minute ride should never be justified, even on Halloween. Please donate even just $1 if you think this is utter and complete bullshit and also hilarious and very, very depressing at the same time.
Thanks for the ride, Muhammed.”
I hope the driver’s name was actually Muhammed.
I love how at the end, Ms. Wathen twists her story, which is essentially “I got blackout drunk and forgot I ordered an Uber,” to make it a cry for social justice against Uber. Boo for price surges! Boo for supply and demand! Boo for a basic economic principle! Boo for Uber giving you two different warnings whenever surge pricing is in effect!
Nobody likes Uber’s fare surges. I’ve experienced them twice. Once was in a massive snowstorm in NYC, where Uber received a big black eye in the press for price-gouging, and one, ironically, the same night as Ms. Wathen last week, but I had no choice due to a friend’s minor medical emergency and had to get them home quickly and safely. I was pissed off and was railing against Uber’s policies as well, until our very own Tech Guy set my dumb ass straight. It’s supply and demand in real time, nothing more. Nobody at Uber is sitting in an ivory tower stroking a cat and laughing maniacally as they push a button that, essentially, drains someone of their meager income.
Frankly, good for Ms. Wathen for raising the money, but, really, if you’re forced to beg from the internet because you can’t bail yourself out of an emergency that’s under $500, you might need to do some thinking about making adjustments to your lifestyle. And if you’re 26 years old and can’t afford $450 in rent, you REALLY need to get your shit together. I’m 24 and I’ve been paying double that for over a year now, and I have enough squirreled away that, God Forbid, I could use if an emergency ever came up.
I hate to judge someone else without knowing their full situation but, frankly, with the facts I have in front of me, I can’t help it. As of the GoFundMe Campaign’s deletion, last night, she raised $512, exceeding her goal of $362.
[via Business Insider]
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If $362.57 is 80% of the money she has to her name, then she would have $453.21, leaving her $3.21 after paying rent (because, you know, fuck food, gas, utilities…). Yet she still decided to go out and get blackout drunk presumably because “MY BIRTHDAAAYYYYY BETCHESSSS!!”
“#responsibility”
There’s little I wouldn’t do for $450 rent.
$450 wouldn’t even buy me a crack den in the hood
I live in DC – this statement is unjustifiably true for me as well. But this girl is also paying rent in Baltimore; there’s little I wouldn’t do to NOT live in that city.
you wouldn’t say that to Stringer Bell
She sounds like one of those girls in college that wore Uggs every day, had daddy’s credit card, and drove a range rover.
Also sounds like the kind of person who would challenge a $100+ bar tab even though she was black out drunk.
She needs to stfu. $450 rent?? Give me a break…
What a loser.
A guy I know went to high school with her (not lying) and said that she has always done things like this: spend way more than she has on dumb shit and just general bullshit.
Another thing, who uses a debit card for anything?
Her Facebook wall seems to confirm such tendencies. Just browsing quickly, I saw her trying to sell concert tickets, looking for a roommate, self-promotion of an important newspaper piece she did on PICKLEBALL, and a photo from great seats a pro sports game until the real ticket holders kicked her and her friends out. I am seriously considering sending this girl a link to Dave Ramsey.
While the person in this story sucks, surge pricing is not “basic supply and demand.” It’s price gouging. It’s the same principle as jacking up gas prices during an environmental disaster (which is illegal). There is no shortage of Uber drivers in big cities on the weekends, much less during a popular going out time like Halloween.
Something doesn’t add up. No way a 20 minute ride cost her that much.
Yeah Halloween in Manhattan had a 3.5x charge at one point… $30 for a normally $8 ride.
Halloween in Houston was up to 11.5%. Fuck that noise
I got lucky then with 2.0x in the city on October 30th. No surge on Saturday. Didn’t even attempt to leave my neighborhood on Friday.
That’s the action plan for next year.
Ride back from Alpharetta > Buckhead in Atlanta after a Widespread Panic show cost $320…surge pricing blows.
When Uber fare surges, that shit can add up quickly. Over the weekend I had a 2X surge and it took the ride from $40 to $85. Would’ve been about $360 with the same 9X surge.
Just did the rough math. Uber black charges 7 bucks base in Baltimore, 40 cents/min, 3.25/mi. All surged at 9x, that’s $63 base fee, (assuming 22 min she alleges) $79 for the minute rate, and 7.5 mi, based on the remaining charges. Should have maybe not tried to be a big shot and gotten the UberX.
I’ve had UberX/Taxi Uber both surge out of this world before – but the black car option was normal fare. Homeboy just rode home in a new Escalade that night.
Her response
http://touch.citypaper.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-81872282/
You can’t even rent a bachelor appartment in my reasonably sized Canadian city for less than 500$ a month. If it was a 400$ 20 minute ride, you should’ve walked your ass.