Earlier today we wrote about a woman who paid $357 for an Uber ride from the Westside to Hollywood, and since then we've been hearing a lot of not-so-pleasant stories about the ride-sharing service. One of those includes a woman who says that an Uber driver held her iPhone hostage when she left it in his car.Jennifer Gomez told LAist that she took a short Uber ride while barhopping on Thursday night, but afterward she realized that she had left her work cell phone in the car. Her friend who had requested the ride got in touch with the driver that same night and asked if he could bring it back to them. The driver named Emmanuel asked her friend how much he would be willing to pay, and then demanded $500.
Gomez got in touch with Uber. A representative for Uber wrote to Gomez, "Our driver operations team has deactivated his account until he returns your phone. I really hope this works."
But that didn't seem to help. Gomez continued calling Emmanuel and tried to negotiate with him. Eventually, she agreed to pay the money for the phone and meet up with him on Friday night, but he never showed. Emmanuel had two phone numbers, but he has since deactivated one of the numbers.
Gomez called the experience "upsetting" and said that she's working with Uber right now to see if they can reimburse her for a new phone.
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Woman Says Uber Charged $357 For Ride From West L.A. To Hollywood
