A woman has shared her outrage after being sent an £80 cleaning bill for dropping 20 Skittles in the back of a car
After a night out on the town, you might start feeling a bit peckish on your way home.
But before you reach for some snacks while sitting in the back of an Uber, you might want to heed this cautionary tale.
A young woman has been left stunned after claiming Uber sent her an £80 cleaning bill for spilling some Skittles in the back of a car.
Lydia Williams says she “can’t believe” the cost of the fine, which is a result of her boyfriend knocking the packet of colourful sweets out of her hand.
About 20 Skittles ended up on the floor of the car – so the charge works out at a whipping £4 per Skittle.
The 24-year-old took to Twitter to share a screenshot of an email from the ride-hailing app.
She wrote: “Can’t believe I’ve had an £80 charge from Uber for ‘the severity’ of some spilt Skittles.”
The email she attached read: “Sorry to hear about what happened Lydia.
“A mess that resulted from your trip required professional cleaning. When a cleaning fee request is submitted by your partner-driver, we assess and charge the cleaning fee in accordance with the extent of the mess and the reasonable cost of cleaning.
“Due to the severity of the incident on this trip, a cleaning fee of £80 was applied. We’ve attached a photo from the incident to the message.”
The attached photo shows a handful of the offending sweets in the footwell of the car.
Lydia added that she had bought the driver a meal deal and a drink during the drive home and had she known how much the Skittles would cost her, she would have picked them up instantly.
People on Twitter were equally as appalled by the high cost.
One person replied: “That’s an expensive Hoover.”
Another said: “£80 to pick up less than 20 Skittles. Wow! In that case my Mrs owes me about 2 billion quid for all the s*** she leaves around for me to pick up.”
But others blasted the passenger and her boyfriend for not cleaning up their own mess.
Someone else commented: “The charge is ridiculous but why didn’t you pick them up?”A fourth posted: “You think throwing food around a vehicle is polite? Why didn’t you just pick them up?”
Speaking about the incident, an Uber spokeswoman added: “The Uber app is based on mutual respect for both riders and drivers. For licensed drivers who use the app, their vehicles are their place of work and any damage or mess can mean they are unable to continue working.
“When a driver claims a cleaning fee, they are required to provide us with the details of the trip and the incident as well as photographic evidence and a validated cleaning receipt.”
