In seconds, Julia says she faced the worst nightmare of a father.
She, her boyfriend and the four children among them, took Uber to her place from a Toronto Raptors game during the March holidays due to a punctured tire.
Julia’s five -year -old daughter fell asleep in the back row during the trip. Once they arrived, and before leaving the vehicle, the couple argued aloud their plan on how to download everyone.
Julia would grab the garage door of her car garage so that everyone could enter the house, while her boyfriend began to download the other three children, her car seats and winter coats of the Uber. Julia would then take her daughter asleep outside the vehicle once the road to the rear seat was clear.
“I am returning to the road and I realized the car, it has gone,” he said.
“I remember looking up and down the street. I don’t see a moving vehicle. The three children are already in Hysterical. ‘Why did he go with her? Where did he?’ I am trying to keep it together for my son. “
After a terrifying incident that involved an Uber trip and his little daughter, a woman from GTA says that Uber customer service refused to contact the driver involved. Police told CBC Toronto that they traced the driver without the help of the shared travel company.
Julia was surprised and her disbelief only grew when she says that Uber representatives refused to help them or Toronto police to contact the driver. CBC Toronto is only using his first name to protect the identity of his daughter.
“All we wanted was to contact the driver, that’s all, and they refused.
This “was not time for bureaucratic bureaucracy,” said Julia. “This was not a bag or a phone left behind. He was a five -year -old boy on a winter night.”
Julia called 911 and the police arrived in a few minutes. An officer called Uber to obtain contact information for the driver, but Julia says that a representative of the shared travel company refused to provide it, stating that the police needed to complete a form.
Uber guidelines for the application of the law say that emergency dissemination requests must be submitted through the company’s public security response portal or by email using its emergency dissemination form.
Found without the help of Uber
Toronto Police confirmed that they did not receive help from Uber. Instead, spokeswoman Stephanie Sayer says the officers could reach the driver.
“The driver did not know that the child was still in the vehicle,” Sayer said in an email. “When the officers arrived, the child was found in good health. The paramedics were called by caution.”
Julia says the police took about an hour and a half to find her five -year -old son. The officers then took Julia to her daughter who was “unharmed but hysterical.” The police found the girl and the driver about 20 kilometers from her boyfriend’s house at the north of the city.
Julia’s boyfriend then received a credit of $ 10 from Uber, who considers “a mass slap on his face.”
Uber says that security is the highest priority
An Uber spokesman said in a statement that the safety of all those who use the platform is the company’s main priority.
“We recognize how distressing this situation was for the family involved and we are grateful for the child to meet their parents for sure,” says the statement.
“We immediately begin to review the details of this incident internally to identify opportunities to improve our support processes and systems.”
The company says that its support team followed Uber’s standard protocols, which are designed to protect the privacy and safety of all users.
Uber says that his team advised the pilot to contact the police and, when the police contacted, the company shared its protocol for an accelerated application. Once Uber received the application, the company says it supported the solution.
Carmi Levy technology analyst says that this is an example of how traditional customer service elements have been lost in the current concert economy.
“Uber can deliver, in theory, an experience of lower cost because it dispenses with many of the overloads of traditional transport services,” Levy said.
“There is a cost for its efficiency and profitability. And that cost is that if something goes wrong, it is not as easy as simply calling a phone number and getting help.”
Julia has since intensified his concerns with Uber.
She says she is looking for compensation for her emotional stress and for the shared travel company to commit to change her emergency response procedures so that others do not experience what she did if the minors remain in an UBER.
“I made it very clear, you can offer me $ 1 million. If there are no changes in politics, I will not accept that, I need to see the policy change here,” said Julia. “No one should have to go through what we were going through.”
