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Comment by SllX | Hacker News Reader

Risk being banned from a service that stole your money and refused to give it back? You chargeback and move on with your life.

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Yeah, this is a slam-dunk chargeback; the user has documented the disparity and documented their attempt at going through the businesses’ preferred channel. Assuming that what’s presented is true, of course.

I guess chargebacks are less of a thing in the UK?

Chargebacks are a thing in the UK, and the only time I've ever gone to my credit card company with one they resolved the issue properly.

Chargeback is exactly what I'm going for, but need to wait until the payment settles (couple of days) and then I can start the dispute process (called my credit card provider right after I realised UberEats is not willing to refund), which with my credit card provider is the following: - Hold the phone for 40 minutes - Explain the situation - Wait for a paper letter on the post that includes an empty printed form with a return envelope - Fill out the form with the exact information I provided on the phone - Post the return envelope - Wait

Fortunately I don't mind playing along and I'm pretty sure having this deliberately crazy process (instead of an online form) is a much bigger pain for my credit card provider (who are hoping for churn and people abandoning the process) than myself. Well, not me. It's not the £4, it's the principal.

Good on you, mate! :)

I thought chargebacks also result in bans typically? If anything, I'd expect CFPB arbitration to be less likely to result in a megacorp ban than a chargeback. But I don't have any first or second-hand experience.

Even if it did, why would you want to continue a relationship with a company that has taken your money and won’t return it? Especially if they banned me from their service for getting my money back.

This isn’t a complex calculus. Don’t do business with companies that steal from you, especially when they get upset that you took your money back.

This is a bit simplistic and dismissive. If Uber and Lyft both mischarge me once, I may still find myself needing at least one of them while in a potentially tight spot.

And that’s a bit hypothetical, but who you choose to do business with is your choice.

Lyft in my experience has been pretty happy to give me my money back whenever I’ve had a problem. That’s the problem the OP ran into: Uber Eats didn’t just “mischarge” him, they refused to remedy the situation claiming impotence on their part. That’s what turns it from a “mischarge” into theft, and something a chargeback is both justified for and the correct remedy to resolve the situation.

Is there a place on Earth where there are Ubers but no local taxis?

Tons. One of the main problems that Uber solved was taxis who would pick you up but then refuse to take you where you wanted to go because it wasn't in a high-volume tourist area.

My friends and I played outside in the front lawn of a house in "Mid-City" district of New Orleans and called taxi cabs all day as an experiment. Every 30 minutes we'd call another taxi to come pick us up. Not one taxi arrived all day. All of them claimed they came, honked in the driveway, but no one came out. Again -- we were outside the whole day, with full view of the street and driveway.

Also, a month earlier, the only taxi driver who once did drop me off there tried to illegally charge double until I called the police, who arrived after he left.

Uber/Lyft we had no trouble with at all!

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