U.K. man charged $39,000 for 15-minute Uber ride  

A British man was surprised to wake up after a night out to see a $39,317 Uber charge on his credit card after his destination was changed to a location in Australia.

Oliver Kaplan, 22, ordered a car through the ride-sharing app after finishing his shit at work in Manchester to meet his friends at a pub located only four miles away. 

“I ordered an Uber like I do most nights on the way home from work and everything seemed normal,” Kaplan told South West News Service.

Kaplan said that at the time he ordered the car, the quoted price was between $11 and $12, a fee he was willing to pay. 

“The driver arrived, I got in the Uber and he took me exactly where I was meant to be going,” Kaplan said. “It was a 15-minute journey — tops.”

“When I woke up hungover the next morning, the last thing I expected was a charge of over £35,000 [$39,317]!” he exclaimed.

Uber had attempted to charge his card £35,427 — or $39,317. Kaplan quickly called Uber’s customer service department to find out more about this shockingly massive charge. 

After some back and forth with customer service, engineers at the company determined that the drop-off location had somehow changed to Australia. It is still unclear how the mix-up happened. 

Fortunately, Kaplan’s credit card could not be charged because he had insufficient funds in his account. 

“If I had that sort of money, I would have had to chase them for a refund,” he explained. “It could have landed me in all sorts of financial trouble.

“Thankfully they [Uber] were really good about it, and made it right straight away — but it was a stressful half an hour, to say the least,” Kaplan added.

“As soon as this issue was raised on Oliver’s account we immediately corrected the fare. We’re very sorry for any inconvenience caused,” Uber told SWNS in a statement.