Man charged more than $14K for 20-minute Uber ride: 'I'm no longer laughing'

On the evening of December 8, Hisham Salama took a 20-minute Uber ride to visit a friend at St. Joseph's Hospital in Toronto.

The trip, he thought, which was a metered taxi fare rather than the Uber X option, would cost him around $20. However, when he arrived to his destination, he at first laughed at the bill. Reading that the trip clocked in at $18,518.50 CAD — $14,376.47 in USD — he was sure it was a glitch.

"Then about 20 minutes (later), when I was with my friend, I thought I should probably check my credit card to make sure everything was OK," he told VICE. It wasn't — the charge was pending.

A working paper from the University of California-Davis compiled data on who is using ride-hailing services like Uber and lyft, how they're using them and what impact that use is having on transit and traffic. The data came from more than 4,000 surveys submitted between 2014 and 2016. As such, it may not account for changes in the last year or more, including growth in use of Uber in suburban areas (according to an Uber spokesperson) and use of UberPOOL and Lyft Line, two carpooling variations of the ride-hailing services. Click on to see a breakdown of some of the numbers. less A working paper from the University of California-Davis compiled data on who is using ride-hailing services like Uber and lyft, how they're using them and what impact that use is having on transit and traffic. ... more Photo: Getty Images Photo: Getty Images Image 1 of / 13 Caption Close Man charged more than $14K for 20-minute Uber ride: 'I'm no longer laughing' 1 / 13 Back to Gallery

He says he unsuccessfully tried to contact Uber, but received a call the next day, wherein an Uber rep informed him that the charge was right. He also received a message from a support rep telling him that "based on the pickup and drop off locations of the trip you took, this fare is correct."

@Uber @Uber_Support what turned out to be an honest mistake is now turning into the biggest blunder of 2017. I’m no longer laughing at wondering when #uber will get their act together. Can anyone help? Obviously, no 20 min fare is $18,500. pic.twitter.com/zBhtMSBy67 — Hisham Salama (@The_Hish) December 9, 2017

Salama, as well as his friends, then took to social media. After some tweets at the company, Salama was given a $150 refund — a minuscule amount compared to the giant sum he was charged.

It wasn't until Saturday that Salama's issue was resolved and the charge was removed. By then, he and multiple people had reached out to Uber on his behalf — something he says is a huge problem.

"If it takes an army of people to tweet and post online to interest you and for you to respond," he said, "that is a serious issue."

Uber says it has apologized to Salama and that the issue "has been resolved."

"We sincerely apologize to this rider for his experience," a spokesperson for the company told SFGATE. "We have safeguards in place to help prevent something like this from happening, and we are working to understand how this occurred."

It's not the first time Uber has come under fire for surprising riders with huge bills, though it may be the first time that the receipt has clocked in at such a massive amount. In 2014, Uber charged some San Franciscans up to $500 to leave the Outside Lands music festival. More recently, a couple in Milwaukee was charged $898 on a route that was initially quoted to cost $214.

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.