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So uh, I'm an Uber Driver and last night I had a rider call me a f** because I asked them to put on their mask appropriately.
- Thread starter TheAbsolution
- Start date
OP
OP
She escalated it by not wearing her mask properly and calling me a faggot and I gave her every reasonable opportunity to apologize and calm down so I have no idea why you're blaming me for escalating. She disrespected me in my car and I was calm as a cucumber and you're coming for me? What?
Yeah. There was no sort of recourse that would've been had that didn't involve cops. She doubled down on not giving a flying fuck about her face covering and proceeded to call OP slurs. What's next? You just suck it up and deal with the fact some person isn't covering their mouth and disrespecting you all the way to her destination possibly risking his own health? Fuck that. Lmao. OP didn't put hands on the lady which would've been the worse case scenario. Respect goes both ways and the passenger was lacking any moral fiber. Quit being an asshole to people working to serve you and don't be surprised when they stand up for themselves.
Look, I'm really glad you're okay. I personally don't feel like this is an acceptable situation for the involvement of the cops, especially when one of the people is black (and I'm trans which is probably part of it). I also think it's pretty egregious to slam on the brakes and try to kick someone out on the side of the interstate instead of taking the next exit. I would have let it go once she pulled her mask up to avoid the rest of the nightmare you described. But again, I'm glad that it didn't escalate to violence and you got home safely.
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OP
OP
OK, I'm black for starters.
2, I know about cops and I don't like them either. Hence why I gave her several opportunities to charge her phone so long as she calmed down and apologized.
3, What the hell would you have me do? I have to go home at some point. It's 4 am in the morning and I'm dead tired. Am I supposed to just take it and let her sit there? The fuck?
4, I'm not even going to comment on the slamming of the brakes thing. Like, she wasn't hurt and it would've been the same deal had someone cut me off and I had to do an emergency stop. So like, why even bring this up?
Lastly, I'm not going to have someone disrespect me as a human being and potentially expose me to COVID and just take it. So I don't know what the fuck you're going on about when clearly you have no idea what it's like to be in my shoes.
I feel you—I had the same thoughts. But what could he have done if she wouldn't leave the vehicle short of yanking her out himself?
Discomfort at the involvement of the cops is totally reasonable. I share it. At the same time, I'm at a loss as to what other reasonable option he had. It's not his responsibility to finish the drive while being harassed and endangered, and short of removing her physically from the car himself, it sounds like the only thing he could've done is literally abandon it to her and call a cab to go home himself.
But it is not beholden unto OP to take the higher road when he already put himself at risk driving around a person who blatantly doesn't wear her mask. It's weird how you seem to have no gripes with how she carried herself. OP just said she wasn't leaving the car in the first place and that's why he called the cops.
And he's not gonna put hands on her so what your comment reads like is that you expect him to put up with this passenger all the way to her destination. A passenger who refuses to leave a car which doesn't even belong to her. At that point it just seems she's trespassing, it sounds like.
Imagine having a person coughing in the backseat and calling you a slur for another 20 minutes. Yeah, no. I hate cops too, but there is absolutely no reason you should put up with individuals who disregard others people's health.
OP
OP
To put a finer point on this, I knew it would take at least 30+ minutes for the cops to show up. I wanted to get home and for her to get home safely too. I offered several fucking times to have her charge her phone so long as she apologized so that we could both go home quicker. She shouted at me like I was crazy for even trying to be an adult.
Yeah. I never wanna call the cops on anyone, because I don't trust em one bit, but we sadly have to work with what's currently available to us in society. OP sounds like he did all he could to avoid the cops. It's a societal issue that we don't have better options.
You're good. I don't think most people take issue with what you did. You're putting your life on the line every day, and seeing you criticized is upsetting. I'm sorry that you went through it last night. Sounds to me like you did your very best to be helpful and respectful, but you do not deserve to put your life in danger over some fool.
I'm sorry that shit happened to you man. Nobody should have to put up with that. I'm gonna echo your own and that other poster's thoughts about the benefit of having audio and video recording in the car for your own safety if it's possible and if you're going to keep driving.
Definitely agree with investing with an interior camera. There's no law in any state where passengers aren't allowed to be recorded. Uber/Lyft do crack down on shitty passengers, but almost always requires video evidence.
Yeah you gotta have that dashcam. Same thing when you're a POC and someone starts some shit with you
You didn't do anything wrong and handled it better than most people would. Like others have said, either you bite your tongue and deal with a passenger not covering her face (which is ridiculous to put up with) while harassing you, or you had to get authority involved. Fuck this higher road shit with people keeping us in this damn pandemic anyway.
Edit: well there you go OP. Look into getting a dashcam. Hopefully jerks will think twice before spouting some homophobic bullshit when they know they're being recorded.
OP
OP
Agreed. I just wanted to put out there that at every opportunity, I emphasized de-escalation because understandably, even on just a base level, making things worse keeps me out there longer and potentially puts my life at risk. Like I am well aware of the dynamics of police as a black man and so avoiding that as much as possible was of the upmost priority for me. Thankfully, the cop that stopped was extremely nice and professional and the rider didn't have to be drug out or anything so it's good on that note.
You should have drove her home, gave her a good passenger rating and a check for $2,000 apparently.
Right, I don't know what I'd do in a standoff like that other than call the cops, which is why I would have deescalated as much as possible to avoid it. I'd have focused on getting through with the ride ASAP once she pulled up her mask. But this did wind up ending safely, so thank goodness for that.
We have to stop capitulating to these dickheads.
Next time this happens. Deny service and stand your ground.
Next time this happens. Deny service and stand your ground.
OP
OP
I deny service to people who don't have masks on all the time, they usually get them. Unfortunately, there's not much I can do once we get going other than to remind them every couple of minutes to put it back on properly like a child other than to kick them out.
OP
OP
There's few things that I will not stand for in my car and that's disrespect. Ain't nobody going to call me a faggot in my own car. Period. Like, that's end the ride territory. And had she gotten out, that would've been the end of the situation.
It's incumbent upon the rider to be reasonable here, end of story. It's not my job to be a doormat.
Early 20s sounds about right for clownass behavior. Though I guess age isn't much of a factor when it comes to people not taking taking the pandemic seriously. Just wear a mask you snowflake. What pisses me off the most is that it's your damn car. Pandemic or not, if I'm getting into someone else's car and I'm doing something they don't like, I'm not gonna bitch about it. It's not my car.
That's the thing, you shouldn't have to be reminding them. And the fact that you kept getting verbal abuse is trash on that dumbass's part.
Imagine if the roles were reversed and you as a driver, decided to say fuck it to safety protocols and drive like a maniac. Suddenly it's zero tolerance for you so there should be a zero tolerance approach for asshole customers.
Nobody needs to sit there and accept being called slurs while having the rules of their ride disrespected. Fuck that. The rider needs to get in the car, put their mask on and shut the fuck up, that's their part in this. Well deserved ban for even suggesting the OP did anything wrong.
OP
OP
yeah, I feel you on that. I wish that every one of my riders followed basic rules and that I could enforce it strictly. But on a certain level, if I did that on my end, I would make like $3.50 lol. In the end, there's always a balance to be struck to where unfortunately I have to lecture folks who should know better, it sucks.
OP I'm glad you're ok. But hopefully you now realized how important a camera is on your job. Make sure you have one on the dashboard facing the passengers. You simply could have told her "you know the camera is recording right? Tomorrow your face is gonna be all over social media and you might have trouble in employment opportunities"
I wasn't sure of the legality regarding this, but if it's allowed to record on the job, then yeah. I'll reiterate for the umpteenth time, maybe you'll find a good one for cheap during Black Friday. Best Buy is doing theirs right now lol.
I'm shocked that all drivers don't just record everything by default. I'm actually surprised that it isn't mandatory.
Yeah OP I think you handled it well from everything I'm seeing. I honestly don't see what you could have done differently that didn't directly result in further empowering her to act like a shitheel and face no consequences. Good for you. And nobody got hurt and everyone went home. I'd say that's a win.
Sorry for your experience OP, I always keep to myself and let the drivers do their thing. There's always so many self-centered people who don't realize how they're having an effect on others, let alone some selfish person distracting their Uber driver or berating them with insults.
Now I'm worried she's the type who's good at getting people fired. Hopefully she comes across just as aggressive to whoever she complains to.
Yeah, don't do this. All this does is make the other person double down and potentially escalate the situation further. And cameras sometimes help with the blatant stuff for press/social media, but not everything since Uber/Lyft may not take it. Uber does have a record option in-app though, so that would help too.
Depending on if your state is one or two party consent, though, you may have to put up a notice of being recorded once you get the camera.
OP
OP
Correct. That's what I realized early on having a dash cam wasn't all it was cracked up to be. It's only really good in the rare incidents that get blown up on social media, for everything else, the companies just don't really care all that much. So it's always a risk of whether or not it's worth me shelling out the bucks for a job that ultimately is not something that it would be worth it for in the rare incident it would come in handy for, yknow?
Completely. One thing I learned quick doing this (2 years, little over 10K rides) is that cameras don't deter people the way most think and they're gonna do what they do regardless of being recorded or not. The only real info we have to make a judgment call on someone is their rating and a quick read before they get in, and after that literally anything could happen.
Not weird when the 20 year old is a homophobe, which this woman clearly is.
Where did I say that? It's more common down there is what my comment is about.
The tone comes off ever so slightly as victim blaming I think.