I booked an Uber a few weeks back from airport to my home. The pick up was 8:34 pm. And drop off was 9:20 pm. I was returning from a work trip, so essentially, I was on the way to home since about 2 pm that day. This was my first time booking an Uber. I have used Uber before they were always essentially booked by a companion and that too for a few minutes ride in a busy downtown. So as soon as the Uber stopped the driver got out and helped with putting my luggage in the trunk, which was a standard check in bag and a laptop backpack. As we hit the road the driver asked me if I can hear any noise from the car. I couldn’t hear anything and told him so. He asked again, and I was like, “like a static noise?” He said yes. I told him may be it is coming from the radio. He was like it’s coming from the back. I told him maybe it’s radio and because we are near the airport may be the radio isn’t working properly. I was tired didn’t pay much attention to it. I also called my wife as soon as I got in the uber telling her that I’ve got the ride and told her the eta. So some this conversation with the driver happened like when I was on call. He was interrupting me during the call. He also mentioned his car is new and was worried where the noise was coming from.Again, I didn’t hear anything. I was on call with my wife again for a few minutes during that 50 minute ride.
As we got off the freeway we entered a rotary. And he took the wrong exit. That is when I heard the sound he was talking about. In retrospect I should have heard it before but probably I was tired to pay attention or maybe the car was on the freeway the whole time that I couldn’t hear the noise. The sound was coming from my trimmer in my laptop bag (it triggers easily). It must have switched on when I put the bag in the trunk. At this time we were inly about 7 minutes away from home. I told the driver that the sound is coming from my trimmer in the bag thinking that he would be relieved that the sound is not coming from his car.
And he was like, “why didn’t you tell me before? We could’ve pulled over and switched it off”
I told him “I didn’t hear the noise before and wasn’t sure what it was”
He questioned me again, and I was like “are you concerned about anything?”
He said sorry, and said everything is good. But his demeanor changed. He was speeding and swerving around the turns. He was following his gps and took another wrong turn and ended up in a dead end street. He was irate and asked me “why didn’t you tell me I took a wrong turn?” very rudely. And I was like “you are driving, You are following your gps, why are you being rude to me?”.
He followed up with “don’t you know the way to your home? Ever since you got in the car you are on phone.”
I said , “So what if I was on the phone. You are being very rude”.
He said, “I’ve been telling you about the sound, and you didn’t know where it was coming from. I was worried about my car. I’ve been driving since morning. This is my last ride of the day. I’m gotta get home”
I told him, “You shouldn’t have accepted the ride if you were going to be rude. I’m paying for the ride it’s not that you are driving me for free.”
In the end he said, “how old are you?”
By that time we had reached home and I told him that’s not relevant, and got out. Slammed his door. Took my luggage and slammed his trunk too. Gave him 1 star and no tip.
Did I overreact? Or was he an asshole? Or was I being an asshole to him? Like I said it was my first time booking an Uber myself, and I was a bit anxious because of that and because of air travel too. Air travel makes me anxious every-time.
Edit: fixed typos
Edit2: When near my home, his gps directed him down a street which I usually don’t take to get home. In my three years living here I maybe drove down that street twice or thrice. I was sitting in the back seat, it was dark outside so I didn’t realize he took the wrong turn until he ended up at the dead end.
