File photo - The logo of car-sharing service app Uber on a smartphone over a reserved lane for taxis in a street is seen in this photo illustration taken in Madrid on Dec. 10, 2014. (REUTERS/Sergio Perez)
Ahhh, Summerfest. Milwaukee’s finest. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Luke Bryan, Paul Simon, Pink, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, 860 percent Uber surge pricing …
Whoa. Stop the cab. Eight hundred and sixty percent?!?!
That’s what Keith and Audra Tubin were told when they questioned the $898 — that’s right, eight hundred and ninety-eight dollars! — that Uber, the official ride share company of Milwaukee’s 50th annual summer concert series, charged them for a ride on Wednesday night.
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"Two hundred dollars to get to the first stop," Keith Tubin told WISN. "We asked if he could take us a couple more places, he said no problem. He put it in the computer.
“I wake up the next morning with a fraud alert on the credit card, $898."
Tubin emailed Uber to question the bill, and Uber replied that it had jacked up its surge price to 8.6 times the usual cost because of Summerfest. What’s more, the upfront price of $214 to an address in Milwaukee wasn’t relevant because the Tubins added a stop on the city’s east side and two more in Brookfield, 13 miles away, to their ride.
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"We could have rented a limo for the night, and had room for other people and probably saved money," Keith Tubin said.
Uber says that it is refunding much of the cost of the trip. The couple will be charged just the initial price of $214, it says.
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