Source: Pexels / Reddit

Ride sharing has evolved from a convenient way to get around into a connected system driven by supply and demand. What started as instantaneous, on-demand transportation has now shifted into a whole micro-economy that’s not always the easiest to navigate.

What would you do if you made an all-too-common goof with your rideshare that the driver was entirely unforgiving of? One guy recently shared a crazy story about this with Reddit. Here’s what happened.

You won’t stop my ride, you don’t get paid.

I (M26) was on the way with my gf and roommate to a friend’s house a couple of towns over.

We decided to take a taxi instead of public transit since we were three people and wanted to get there a little faster.

In my country there’s a main taxi app that people use, but a lot of drivers also circle around in urban areas looking for people to pick up.

Seems to be an increasingly common practice in the Uber era.

I ordered a taxi from the app and we waited outside.

As it said our taxi was pulling up on the app, I see a taxi roll on to my street, hail him down thinking it’s ours and we get in and pull off.

Well that was not our taxi.

Classic mistake.

I get a call 2 minutes later from my actual driver saying he’s outside.

I tell him “hey I got in the wrong cab by accident but we’re already on the highway so I’ll cancel the ride”.

Canceling the ride last minute incrues a charge on my card, but I made a mistake so I didn’t feel bad paying it to make amends and that way the driver still gets a little money.

This is the ethical way to handle that problem.

This is the part where things take a turn.

In the time it took me to explain what happened and get back on the app, he had started our ride.

The issue with starting the ride is that once it starts, you can’t cancel.

Surely the driver can handle that on their end?

However, its also against the rules for a driver to mark that a customer is in the car when they aren’t.

So I call back and tell him he now needs to cancel since I’m technically in his car and the app won’t allow me to cancel the ride.

The entire time this is happening my phone is recording the conversation.

You have to be careful what you say over the horn these days.

He says no and that he’s gonna ride around racking up money on my account.

This is where I get my slight revenge.

I remember I had a card saved to the app years ago that was expired.

You never know when an expired card is going to come in handy down the line.

I quickly switched that to my primary card knowing it couldn’t be charged.

Payment not going through: check.

I also notice this guy is taking a longer route that we are also on the way to, so right when he turns on the highway, I change the address back to my home messing up his opportunity to pick up anyone else for the next ten minutes.

This is one petty cyber war…

Then as he gets back to my house I see the ride ends and the charge is two times higher than it would have been regularly even with his driving around.

There’s an option for drivers to change the final price in the case an agreement is made with the customer beforehand.

So what does he do?

One would hope the right thing, but…

It tries to charge and…nothing.

The app automatically locks my account as is the protocol for people not paying.

I start messaging their service team, send them the recording of him saying he’s gonna rack up charges on my account, and the screenshot of his route and the price he changed.

He came with receipts!

They instantly unblocked my account, gave me credit and I was still able to give him 1 star, significantly lowering his rating.

So in the end for his pettiness, I got credit and he no money going in to his account, his rating dropping, and his way of picking up anyone else essentially blocked for a good half hour of the day.

This guy has mastered the art of not only petty thinking, but quick thinking. Let’s see how the Reddit comments reacted to this one.

Most readers were surprisingly elated.

Some even warned about other scams like this.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a couple who is sick and tired of their neighbor’s kids dumping trash on their patio.

One person dropped some knowledge.

And others dragged the driver through the mud.

He bought the ticket, but he’s not taking the ride.