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The Price of Silence: Overcharges and Undercharges
It was just before 5 AM. He was a bit tipsy, holding a small black handbag that he placed on the ground. He stood unsteadily by the roadside, waiting for me. We were heading from Castle Hills to Little Bay, following the GPS instructions along the M4 and then the M8. On the way, he made several phone calls. I could hear the dial tone, but none of the calls connected, which seemed to frustrate him. As we neared the destination, I realized he hadn’t provided a specific address, only “Little Bay.”
“It seems like you didn’t provide a specific address?”
“Oh, sorry about that. I’ll tell you now, it’s…”
“Either you update the address or just guide me from here.”
“I’m not sure how to guide you. The address is…” He insisted on telling me the address.
I tried entering the number and a few letters at a red light, but couldn’t find Park Avenue. As the light turned green, I continued trying to input the address, which was risky, so I told him we should pull over to search slowly. After stopping and entering all the details, we still couldn’t find it, so he checked his phone. Finally, he realized it wasn’t Park Avenue, but Pine Avenue.
He probably wasn’t a local, maybe from another city, I thought after he got out. This was a long trip with toll routes, so I needed to double-check if the toll charges were correct, especially since Uber had messed up several times recently. I noticed this issue starting around May 2024, and in just three months, there had been seven instances where Uber undercharged my tolls: $5.41, $14.11, $2.25, $14.49, $8.14, $1.79, and $7.18. The total undercharged amount was $53.37. Uber has had a history of undercharging tolls, especially with the Cross City Tunnel and the M2 exit at Macquarie, which I noticed years ago but stopped paying attention to as the issue seemed to improve. However, the mistakes have become more blatant recently, making me more vigilant. Uber’s policy is that you can’t request reimbursement after 30 days.
After checking this trip’s toll, I noticed they overcharged the passenger! The toll should have been $11.78 for the M4-M8 route to the airport exit, but it showed $20.61, which is $8.83 more than it should be.
So now, an annoying question is in front of me: should I request a refund? This brought back memories of why I stopped checking tolls in the first place—errors were becoming less frequent, and I also realized that passengers were often overcharged, which I found unsettling. I comforted myself by thinking that if Uber’s mistake made me overcharge passengers, it was their responsibility to notice and correct it. Like a criminal with the right to remain silent, I could choose not to point out this error that benefited me. But deep down, I was still uneasy. After all, I requested a correction when I was undercharged, so shouldn’t I do the same when overcharging?
Morally, I was conflicted. Legally, I could stay silent, but morally felt wrong. Over time, I stopped checking tolls because the process was tedious—having to verify each toll route, remember toll fees, and manually check everything against Uber’s records was too much work, especially when it involved small amounts. Uber could easily track toll charges via GPS but later required drivers to provide E-Toll information as proof, which added more steps. Logging into EToll to retrieve information, taking screenshots, and uploading them for verification—it was all too much trouble for a few dollars. How many people in Sydney actually check these records? But as a driver, I had to, and it was incredibly frustrating. All these reasons made me give up checking tolls over time. My internal conflict faded as well, but Uber’s recent mistakes forced me to be more vigilant, bringing back that old feeling of conflict—should I request a refund?
This kind of conflict happens in my daily life too. The funniest instance was years ago when I went shopping and found an extra pack of noodles when I got home. I was certain I hadn’t bought it, and it likely belonged to the older man in line behind me. The cashier had mistakenly put it in my bag while ringing up his items. The noodles were only $1.59, but I didn’t want to go back. It would take half an hour, finding parking was difficult, and my child was about to nap. Couldn’t I just return it another day? No, I couldn’t stand having this unresolved matter on my mind, and I’d have to return it immediately. But returning it meant admitting the cashier’s mistake, and I felt embarrassed doing that. Eventually, I went back and explained, only to be told, “Didn’t I tell you? We’re giving away a free pack of noodles with every purchase over $15 today.” I was so embarrassed, that I quickly left.
That was my mistake, but there have also been times when I’ve been overcharged or undercharged. After going through this conflict many times, I started thinking it might all balance out in the end. Why waste time and energy on it? Eventually, I adopted a “playing dumb” attitude—don’t check tolls anymore, as long as the charges aren’t too outrageous. It was the easiest and happiest way to live. I applied this same attitude to toll issues.
I went years without checking tolls until this year when Sydney opened several new tunnels. Out of curiosity, I checked the tolls, only to find Uber still hadn’t resolved the issue! Why does this problem persist after so many years? Why am I, a minimum-wage driver, left to deal with it? Such dilemmas shouldn’t be something a minimum-wage worker has to worry about. But then again, moral dilemmas don’t care about one’s income. I thought I had resolved this by playing dumb, but now the problem was back.
I like the freedom and simplicity of working for Uber. That’s the beauty of it, but why can’t Uber fix such a small issue? It’s made me so conflicted that I have to complain. Don’t tell me there’s no solution. Didi has issues too, but at least in the three months I’ve been checking, Didi has handled tolls better than Uber. Why can’t Uber resolve such a simple problem? I can’t help but wonder, do these undercharged tolls benefit the passenger or does Uber pocket the difference? When the person in charge at Uber sees this unexpected little revenue, do they feel a small thrill of getting away with it, like I do? But after the thrill, do they not experience the same conflict I do? As an individual, I can choose to play dumb, but as a company, you shouldn’t. The extra tolls passengers are charged should go to the driver, but have you considered that not every driver wants to earn money this way? Yet it’s already in their pocket, and giving it back is a hassle, at least for a driver like me. If I don’t point out the error, I feel like I’m colluding with Uber to cheat passengers.
Whether the driver is underpaid or the passenger is overcharged, Uber doesn’t lose any money directly and doesn’t have to put much manpower into fixing the issue. It’s a kind of resource-saving, so of course, there’s no incentive to correct it. Let the problem linger for years, let drivers be frustrated, and let passengers lose money. If a complaint is filed and the proof is provided, they’ll apologize and refund immediately, but why can’t they fix the issue? Isn’t this deliberate negligence for some benefit? Should I report this to Fair Work? Do you have the right to set a one-month complaint period? Because of your mistake, I’ve wasted time and energy dealing with this. Where’s the self-punishment for that? If not, where’s your sincerity in fixing the problem? I once shopped at a supermarket where a checkout error occurred, and they corrected it by giving me the item for free—now that’s security.
When I complained about Uber, how self-righteous I was? But then didn’t I deliberately neglect to refund the extra fare to the passenger? In fact, it’s not just this one time I’ve seen it; I’ve seen many times when passengers have been overcharged for the fare. It seems like it’s mostly out-of-town passengers, but of course, this is just my impression, and I can’t confirm it. No, this time I don’t want to pretend not to see it, even though I know I’m not a morally upright person. Maybe I just discovered the unfairness and felt like I was losing out personally, so I would rather not accept the extra fare from passengers, or perhaps I just want to write about this incident as a story? Or maybe I thought of complaining to Fare work? Or maybe I just want to see how Uber will handle it? So I decided to apply for a refund for the passenger from Uber. I quickly received a reply, telling me that there was no mistake, the reason being: “The rider was charged the upfront fare that was quoted when they requested the trip.” Then they gave me a link to understand a bunch of content, the gist of which is that the fare was agreed upon by the passenger before the booking, but why was it included in the toll? This feels like when I returned a pack of noodles, then it turns out I was wrong again. But even if I was wrong, this fare should not appear in the toll at all. As for how it is calculated, I don’t want to bother my brain with it, these calculations are just too complicated. At least, I have requested a refund to the passenger, I have done what I should do, and I can now keep this money with a clear conscience. In the future, whenever there’s any extra toll for the passenger, I won’t have a guilty conscience anymore. But, from the passenger’s perspective, when he sees this kind of billing, would he be happy? I want to see, is the toll in his billing similar to mine? So, if it’s just an upfront fare, then my dissatisfaction with Uber is that it should be included in the regular fare, not in the toll. Ah, the kind of inner conflict I felt when I saw it before, pretending not to see it with my eyes closed, was all in vain! It’s my fault too, why didn’t I propose a refund to the passenger earlier?
I like this job with Uber because of its simplicity and flexibility, you don’t need to think too much, but, since I should be collecting this money from the passenger, from a financial point of view, if I don’t check it, then I’m completely at a loss! Haven’t checked carefully for these few years, probably lost quite a bit, right? For the sake of making this matter simple, I can only urge Uber to make improvements. I don’t know if writing a letter to Farework will help, but at least I did something about it. If it doesn’t work, then I can only continually pay attention to whether there is a toll, whether the toll is correct, and if it’s incorrect, then I have to go through a cumbersome proof process to claim these tolls. I know I’m forgetful, if I forget, then I can only accept it.anyway, I do like this job. I only want to keep it as simple as it can be.
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