Using Uber’s ride-hailing service to get home after a long night of drinking is definitely the responsible thing to do. Everyone on the road is at risk when people who have had too much to drink get behind the wheel and drive. But there are also potential negative consequences if you Uber when you’re too drunk. And that goes double if you’re not in your hometown. Before you go out to party with your friends, make sure you have a local place to stay. The alternative is running the risk of ending up like Philadelphia resident Kenny Bachman, who’s stuck with a $1,635.93 Uber bill for a 300+ mile ride home. It was a ride to the wrong home, but a ride home nevertheless.
Bachman ordered himself an Uber after a night of drinking. As we said, this is definitely the way to go. He instructed the app to take him to his home in Philadelphia, but that’s not actually where he wanted to go. He was in Morgantown, West Virginia at the time, more than 300 miles away from his house. The Uber driver, meanwhile, did what he thought he was supposed to.
“I just woke up,” Bachman told NJ. com. “And I’m thinking, ‘Why the f— am I in the car next to some random-ass dude I don’t even know?”
He woke up about two hours into the trip, and the driver told him they were on their way to New Jersey. Rather than get out of the car or turn around, he just went with it. “What am I, just going to get dropped off on the side of the road?” Bachman said.
As for the fare, it quickly added up to more than $1,600. “Afterwards I had it fully sink in,” Bachman said. “Once the ride ended and I saw how much it was when I was like ‘Alright, this is insane, that’s just crazy.'”
On top of that, the Uber driver didn’t have money for tolls and was fined at every toll booth. But Bachman went to a CVS and got cash to pay the driver for all the missed tolls. He also gave the driver a five-star review, but he did end up challenging the charge. He says he did not put in his home address for the ride, and that the driver had his phone, and even answered a FaceTime call from a friend while he was sleeping.
“Obviously I sent the Uber, I don’t know where to, I know I wouldn’t send it to my house, I knew where I was,” Bachman said. “He was on my phone, without me allowing it.”
That part sounds a bit unlikely, though only the driver knows for sure. Bachman admits to have been quite drunk, so his memory of the evening’s events might not be entirely accurate. Also, his name could not be better. It sure sounds like something Silicon Valley’s Bachman might do.
The real Bachman, meanwhile, went back and forth with but ultimately agreed to pay the fare. Next time, he and his friends should probably agree on a designated Uber caller before the shots start pouring.
