Rideshare drivers really have to be able to do it all. They have to be not only punctual but courteous on top of operating a vehicle in busy cities. But despite all that on their plate people still manage to be rude and entitled to them. These Uber and Lyft drivers share their worst and most entitled passengers.
This Guy Had To Be On Something!
“This is an easy one as I have told this one hundreds of times as it seems everybody asks. Been driving for over a year and a half now, close to 7,000 rides between Uber and Lyft. Taken celebrities, pro athletes, politicians you name it. I can’t tell you my most interesting ride because I am a ‘fan’ (maybe in my book), but I can tell the one about the young guy I picked up one night, a local college student I presume from his sweatshirt. Very clean cut, nice looking seemed very normal… until… he gets in my car–front seat–and as he had not entered an address yet, I asked him where he’s going. Well, this guy is totally awake, looks me directly in the eyes, and literally cannot speak. He tries to tell me where he wants to go, but he is so tense that when he tries to say anything the words will not come out of his mouth.
So I am a pretty calm guy, very calm as a matter of fact, so I just ask him again if he has a place in mind. Same response, except this time he starts getting very agitated apparently because he cannot speak, so he just starts screaming very loudly in frustration! OKAY, now I am a little worried, just driving around looking at this guy, and I figured that he was probably on some kind of uppers and probably first time for him.
Again I think I may have asked him if he was okay, and again the same response with an even louder scream. So now I am getting very worried, as much for him as possibly for me. So out of the blue I pulled over and said to him, ‘Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I am going to roll up my windows, and you are going to scream as loud as you can, get it out of you, sound good?’
I think he may have nodded so I did and he did scream, really really loud and I am sure everyone around the street heard him. The good news is that it worked, and this guy seemed to calm down and could now speak to me. About this time his girlfriend called him and I could hear that she was worried for him, but he blew her off and turned his focus towards me. I don’t know, but I think he started to trust me more so he starts asking me if I could take him to an ATM. He was still very shaky and I tried to get it out of him which one he wanted to go to, and I think I finally convinced him to go to a certain one that was close.
So then he starts on me about what I was doing the rest of the night, he wanted me to stay with him and follow him around. I politely declined because well, I’m on the clock working right now. So we get to the ATM and I wait as he fumbles around and finally is able to work the machine, and he gets out a huge wad of money, probably a couple of grand at least, and then gets back in the car and starts on me again about following him around.
I keep denying him and ask him where he would like to go and he suggests that he should probably go home or to the person that called him. But then after he gets the cash he finally tells me that he wants to go to the casino and he wants me to follow him in there because he ‘doesn’t want to lose this money.’ Okay whatever you say, dude.
He is very persistent so I have to keep refusing more and more forcefully until finally he starts offering me money, $50 an hour, to follow him in the casino because he can’t lose the money. Tempting but I keep refusing thinking they’re going to kick him out anyway I finally convinced him that I wasn’t going to follow him, but he had one last request. Just wait for me here for 10 minutes and I will be right back. I waited 15 minutes, closed him out with 1 star (one of the only ones I have ever given) so I would not get him again and high tailed it outta there.”
This Guy Has An Addiction Alright
“I used to live in Las Vegas and drive for Uber there. One evening, I picked up a passenger at the Caesar’s Palace who had a really large bag with him. I put in the trunk, and he proceeds to tell me that he’s going to his house in the suburbs. It’s about 2:30 am and a 30 minute drive.
We were almost to his house having casual conversation when he asked me, ‘Hey, do you mind if we go by the store really quick? I need to pick up some milk.’ I told him, ‘Sure, no problem.’ The guy thanks me, and heads inside a grocery store.
It’s been about 15 minutes and I start to get curious about where the guy has gone. I can’t just end the trip because I have his suitcase, and he put his destination as his apartment complex, so I have no place to even drop it off.
I decided to go inside the grocery store to go look around for him. I first look in the bathroom. He wasn’t there, so I searched around the entire store. He was nowhere to be found. I go back out to my car to see if maybe he has returned there. Nope, not there. At this point it’s been about 30 minutes and I’m thinking, ‘What the heck? Where did this guy go?’ I run inside again and do another run around the store. Still nowhere to be seen.
As I’m standing by the door to the store, wondering whether the guy was even there anymore, I hear a noise in the background, this ‘ding ding ding ding’. It’s a familiar sound to anyone who grew up in Las Vegas. In Las Vegas there are slot machines everywhere. They are in gas stations, they’re in the airport, they are in grocery stores.
I kid you not, this guy went in, bought milk, and then proceeded to play slots for a hour. When I got there, I looked at the guy and I was pretty mad. But then when I really thought about it, I was actually kind of sad for the guy. The guy was obviously super addicted to gambling, to the point where he couldn’t handle going to the grocery store without throwing in some money.
So, I go over to him, tap on the shoulder, and he looks at me. The look that he gave me was like the look little puppies give when they know they’ve done something wrong, with their tail between their legs.
He looks at me, and he says, ‘Oh no, not again!’ At this point I’m thinking ‘Wait, this guy is done this to other people too?’ Apparently so. I started to give the guy the dad talk. I got my nice voice on and said to him, ‘Hey buddy, we’ve got to go. It’s pretty late.’ He rapidly embarrassingly grabs his now luke-warm milk and proceeds to leave. I then brought him home amid awkward profuse apologies and that was the end of it.
He did give me a pretty nice tip and left me a nice review, but it was definitely one of the weirdest rides that I’ve ever had.”
Drove For Uber Once And Never Again
“My first and last night driving for Uber.
My first night as a driver was New Years’ in LA. I dropped off a passenger at a corner by a ton of bars downtown. As I drive off I randomly look to my left and see this kid sitting down on the curb zoning in and out of coherent consciousness trying to request a ride, surrounded by multiple bouncers outside of this club. I think to myself, ‘That kid is going to puke.’
Nevertheless, my naive nature allowed me to quickly shrug off the thought of the likelihood of a reality I would soon face. Oh, the foreshadowing! I continued to drive for a few blocks when I received my next request. Noticing the abnormally close proximity between my last fair and my next, I became a bit anxious. Low and behold, that wasted kid was my next fair. I almost canceled the trip, but greed beat logic and common sense, and fairs were surging.
As we begin the trip only a few blocks up and around the street, he begins to dry heave and I pull over. Thankfully that was only the case. We arrive at the destination where he proceeds to tell me, ‘Hey! This isn’t Bel Air.’ I tell him I only dropped him off at the address he imputed. He then offers me $200 cash if I took him home. Only a few minutes into our trip traveling 75 mph on the 10 from DT to BA, the kid rolls the window down and sticks his head out of the window and pukes all over the entire passenger side of the car and a little on the inside of the door (not that bad).
The kid lived all the way in the back end of Bel-Air, closer to the Vally than Sunset Boulevard. He opens his wallet to pay me. If you guessed that this kid didn’t have the money, then you are correct. He slurs to me that his mom will pay me and to hold on. I grab his phone to make sure he comes back. Before he makes it out of the car, his mom comes out and starts shouting his name, which just so happened to be my name too. Instinctively I answer ‘Yes!?’
Still not sure why. She tells him to get inside and then asked me to tell her everything that happened as if this isn’t her first rodeo. I tell her what our deal was and that he got sick everywhere. She sighs, rolls her eyes, and nods her head as if this is nothing new. She goes inside and comes back out handing me $300 and apologizing profusely to me for her son’s actions.
I was quickly able to clean everything off thanks to a windshield brush at the gas station. I hit the road again, made a few more stops, then decided to accept one more passenger thinking I would stay local. I get to this house in Beverly Hills and pick up this couple at 8.9 surge. Until I started the trip, I had no idea their destination was Santa Ana, about 50 miles away. Their bill was $639. All in all, I made $870 after Uber’s cut from 8 pm-4 am. Uber keeps lowering their fairs and giving promos that aren’t worth it even if only driving a few hours a week. That’s how I popped my cherry.”
Police vs. Entitled Uber Passenger
“Former Uber driver here. One night I decided to try my luck with Hollywood one night after the clubs closed. When I pulled up to the pickup location a stream of people started poking their heads into my car to ask if this car was theirs.
After some waiting, I finally found the girl I was supposed to pick up. She opened the passenger door and told me to wait because now she needed to find the rest of her friends. I mean, who calls an Uber without getting your folks ready? It was super annoying.
By now I was just blocking traffic while she is calling for her friend’s loudly on the phone. She dragged some girl into my backseat and returned to the open front door to tell me that more are on the way. Just great. I secretly hoped they weren’t like her.
At this point, the police pulled up behind me and used their loudspeaker to tell me to keep moving. I told the girl that we had to move around the corner and the woman refused and resorted to just randomly yelling for her friends from the curb. Jesus.
The cop got out of his car and demanded I move or face a stiff ticket or arrest. My hands were tied and I told the cop this crazy girl won’t close the door or get in the car! To make it even better the lady and the cop got into a yelling match. The officer walked over, closed the door, and pushed the girl aside. I finally pulled away with the girl’s random friend who didn’t even call for the ride in the first place. She had no idea where to go either.
I circled the block a few times looking for the original lady but I can’t find her. Ugh. By now the girl in the backseat had passed out. She slept like a rock because I spent so much time trying to wake her up and get some kind of address. She finally gave me a rough idea of where she lives so I drive there and find the rest of her crew standing outside. I don’t bother asking what happen, I just dump her off to her friends and go home. I am never accepting rides from Hollywood ever again.”
She Was A Trainwreck!
“Here’s my worst rider so far…
I drive in Dallas usually on Friday and Saturday nights. About 1:00 am I get pinged for a pickup on McKinney Ave downtown. I was going to just shut down and go home, but surge was three so I figure maybe I’d get lucky with a long trip to Plano or someplace.
I fight through the traffic (which is always terrible) and pull up to the bar. Put my flashers on but no one comes over. Text the rider and look to see someone pulling out their phone. I see an early 20 something blonde girl pulls out her phone–she’s is absolutely wasted.
I get out and call her name. She looks at me and promptly falls down. A guy helps her up and he’s feeling her up while he’s at it. I walk over, tell him to take a hike, and help her to my car. I get her in the back seat and it’s clear that she’s is beyond wasted. She’s also wearing a little jumper and falling out of it. I put the seat belt on her and ask her for the address. She’s practically incoherent but gives me her address. At this point, I am wondering if she’s been slipped something.
I drive her to the address which is uptown (about five minutes away) and stops. She is passed out in the back seat and wreaks so badly of spirits it is nauseating. I help her out and she falls into the street. I pick her up and walk her to the door of her apartment building. She is struggling to get her keys out of her bag and she kind of leans back into me with her butt on my thigh to keep her balance. She can’t make her key work so she buzzes her roommate.
We are waiting for her roommate to come down and open the door, and it was then that the leg of my jeans began to feel wet. Yep, she peed all over my leg down into my sock and shoe. I help her roommate get her to the elevator, say goodbye, and head back out to my car.
When I get to the car, I say ‘eff it’ and take off my shoes, socks, and pants. I ball them up into a plastic bag I had in the car and put them in the back. I drove home in my boxers.”
This Guy Should Not Be Using Uber With That Attitude
“This happened to me back in August…
At like 7:45 in the evening, (the first trip of the night) I pick up this heavyset guy (probably like 250 pounds or more) wearing a motorcycle vest for some reason. He wants to go to LAX. So, I do the usual thing and turn on the GPS to set the course. Now I know how to get to LAX, but I just wanted to be sure I’m taking the quickest route. Right after I start driving towards the freeway onramp, this guy starts yelling and cursing, believing I’m taking him the wrong way intentionally to try and overcharge. I said multiple times I was trying to take the quickest route based on what the GPS told me, but he still wouldn’t listen.
Due to his language and tone, I then asked him multiple times to leave my car and he still wouldn’t cooperate. I tried to call the police and he was yelling over the phone that I was trying to kidnap him and drove ‘5 miles out of the way’ which is completely false. The whole time, he had an aggressive and belligerent demeanor and I was concerned for my safety. He had probably like 100 lbs on me. I eventually took him back to his pickup point, which is how I got him to leave my car. As he got out, he threatened to complain and insulted me again, this time using the N-word (I’m not even black).
I will admit, I did at one point call him a ‘piece of sh*’ during the ride and flip him the bird after he left my car, but honestly, that was so deserved. Not the best course of action, but definitely deserved. I was trying to drive this guy 30 miles, through all that traffic and he’s peeing his pants over what onramp I use. Anyway, I didn’t file a police report cause they wouldn’t do anything in this scenario. I did however report him to Uber and they told me they’ll take ‘appropriate action’ against the passenger, which will probably be nothing. The guy sure was an entitled and bigoted d-bag though.”
My Car, My Rules!
“So this has happened more than a few times with me, but it’s rare that a pax pulls this so blatantly. I’m in my hot zone, plenty of surge on most of the city, short pickup distances, and the night is still young. I see a quick five-minute run with a pickup two blocks down. Cool. I get there and it’s a small local bar I’m very familiar with.
Two passengers, a normal guy and the girl that ordered the ride, both from Chicago apparently. They’re in the car and I’ve started the ride. The guy is asking her something I didn’t catch and she says “don’t worry baby I got this.”
Ding! The second stop in the boonies was nearly 45 minutes out into the cold and away from anything like good business. Never mind the destination filter, I’m not going to get a ride back in from out there without divine intervention. That’s 30+ dead miles and the end of my night.
I look at her in the rearview and she’s sitting with a satisfied smug look like she just won a prize.
I tell her that the first leg of the trip was fine but I can’t go making that second run to the middle of nowhere right now. I stay in town so I can pick my wife up from work so we can both go home together.
Her exact words were, ‘That doesn’t matter, now you have to accept it.’
No. No, I do not. Not for someone like that. Last straw. Canceled the ride there and then, even as her man was trying to explain her mistake. She was speechless.
‘Get out of my car,’ I tell them. Their expressions when it dawned on them that they weren’t getting a ride anywhere at all . . . I’m not usually spiteful or vindictive but yeah. That felt kinda good. They were so shocked they even forgot to slam my doors.
Very next ride I made $10 and barely went three miles total with a lovely older couple that really liked the Miles Davis album I was playing.”
Entitled Adult Children
“After five years of driving, I got my first group of rude passengers. These were self-entitled Millennials. Or kids that were disappointed they weren’t going to get their Kratom fix.
The pickup location was at the hotel. I pull up and message that I’ve arrived. Get a message back asking where I am, then they say they are at the restaurant. Okay, not far, buildings are attached. Common mistake. When I pull around to them I apologize and point out the difference for future reference. she rambles on about the GPS. No, wasn’t a GPS issue, but whatever.
They don’t have masks so I give them each one. They accept cordially and even compliment the fact that they are the cool black ones. Turns out this fare has two stops. Oy, whatever, I usually don’t have too big of an issue, especially with the hotel peeps.
The first stop is a smoke and Kratom shop. I’m pretty sure it’s closed for the day considering it’s Sunday in a sleepy town and after 6. As I’m pulling into the parking lot and going down the lanes so I pull up to the curb with the flow of traffic, he starts telling me where to go. I told him that’s where I was going and was trying to line myself up to pull up safely. As I did this I looked at him through the rearview and his mask was down so asked him to please pull it up properly. He does. We pull up to the store and it is closed. Confirm stop and the next stop pops up.
Super! It’s Aldi, a grocery store. So, I start asking what the deal was. If they needed to grab one item, that would be fine. Stops are meant to be five minutes or so, but if they were planning on doing the serious grocery shopping… He cuts me off and asks if he could end the ride now because I’m being rude apparently. Uhm sure. so, they can’t seem to get out of the car fast enough but I need to be in the park for the rear doors to open (minivan) So the cursing continues till the doors open. Finished the stops, gave them a one-star and no mask, collected my quest, then reported them for behavior on top of it all.
The kicker – on the way to the smoke shop, I heard them discussing the fact that both their phone batteries were low. Like really low. Wonder if they ever got another ride.
FYI I am in FL. Just yesterday we had our highest new case numbers and death numbers since this mess started. No mask, no ride. I’m giving them out free, pax have no excuses.”