3 Ways You Could be Unfairly Deactivated from Uber or Lyft

An unfair and random deactivation. This happened to Jay a few months back, our very own Senior Rideshare Guy contributor. At the time that he was deactivated, he had 7,000 trips and a 4.92 star rating on Uber. All of his documents were current and he had no recent accidents or tickets. The moral of the story is, if this can happen to him, it can happen to anyone.

This video is sponsored by the consumer law firm of Francis & Mailman. We have been proud to partner with them for nearly a year now. They’re helping a lot of drivers fight unfair deactivation’s and get lost wages and settlements. You can learn more about them by visiting the video description on Youtube.

Since these unfair deactivation’s can happen to anyone at any time, you need to have a backup plan. Make sure you’re signed up to drive for both Uber and Lyft. When this happened to Jay, he was deactivated from Uber for six weeks, so during that time Jay just drove for Lyft, he had a backup plan. Whether it’s rideshare, delivery or something else, have a backup plan, don’t think that these unfair deactivation’s can’t happen to you.

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Issues With Your Background Check

There are three main situations where you may be unfairly deactivated. The first situation is, issues with your background check. Uber and Lyft’s background checks are pretty straight forward. You need to meet the minimum age requirements and driving experience requirements.

You’ll need to pass a criminal background check and a driving record check. Driving record checks are conducted annually for all drivers and criminal background checks are actually continuous, meaning, daily monitoring of all criminal convictions. Most drivers will pass these with flying colors, but others may run into random issues that could cause an unfair deactivation.

An unfair reason that we have heard many times over is a driver’s information being switched with someone else’s. You could have a similar name as someone else, a similar birthday or address, or also a similar social security number, which may have gotten miskeyed when they entered it into the system. Several instances of this have happened to clients of Francis & Mailman, and drivers were able to earn back lost wages and have their account reactivated.

Another issue that you may run into is something as vague as your driver’s license could not be verified. Uber and Lyft are conducting these checks on millions of drivers every single day, so issues are going to pop up from time to time. If this does ever happen to you, the first thing that you’re going to want to do is go to your local hub.

Visit a Hub For Faster Results

You’re going to want to bring all the necessary information, all communication from Uber or Lyft, bring it to your hub. The hub seems to be the best place to go in order to get fast results, which is what you want when you’re facing a possible deactivation. But if you can’t get it figured out and you do require litigation, seek legal help. Francis & Mailman have helped many drivers in this situation, and they can help you too.

Passenger Complaints

Unfair deactivation issue number two is passenger complaints or scams. It goes without saying, you want to drive safely and be courteous to all your passengers. That is paramount in order to avoiding these scams in the first place. But you could be the most safe and courteous driver, and passengers may still try to scam you. And here are a few examples of the scams.

One is canceling a ride while it’s in progress. Another is requesting Uber X, but getting an XL, and filling it with more passengers. Another one is trying to fit more people than seat belts in the car. And another one is the airport scam, where a passenger drops a pin outside of the airport and then they call the driver to let them know that they’re at the terminal. This is to try and avoid airport fees.

Drivers are well within their rights to stop these scams when they see them happening, right away. But this in turn may trigger the passenger to file a complaint with Uber or Lyft, which is ridiculous. They have no complaint, they’re trying to scam a driver and the driver’s catching it right away.

Document Texts, Contact Uber/Lyft ASAP

Drivers want to make sure to protect themselves, so you want to try and document any texts from passengers. Another great thing that you want to do is have a dash cam. Have a rear facing and forward facing dash cam so you can document all goings on in your vehicle.

Most of the time you will be exonerated, especially if you have a good history with Uber or Lyft. You have a lot of trips, you have a high star rating, you have a pattern of good behavior, they will trust you. But it could take some time, so you want to try and be proactive. Drivers shouldn’t have to face these scams, but they are out there, so be aware, protect yourself, document things, have a dash cam.

Issues With Documents

Onto the third and final unfair deactivation issue, and that is: issues with your driver’s license, your photo, other information. Every year you need to resubmit required documents in order to continue driving for Uber and Lyft. These documents include your vehicle registration, vehicle inspection, proof of insurance, and in some years you’re going to need to provide your driver’s license. The main thing you want to do with all these documents, and especially your driver’s license, is to take care of it far enough ahead of time.

I recently had to renew my driver’s license. I knew it was going to take some time. It’s always difficult waiting at the DMV to try and get your license renewed. It takes them a few weeks to get it to you. So I went in about a month ahead of time and ended up getting my license in a couple of weeks. So just remember, be proactive, stay out ahead of it. Take care of these documents long before the expiration so that you don’t lose any time on the road.

Takeaways

Those are the three primary unfair deactivation situations. And remember, this can happen to anyone at any time so have a backup plan. Be signed up for both Uber and Lyft. Sign up for delivery services, package delivery, food delivery. Have a backup plan. Jay had a backup plan when this happened to him. Again, he was out, he was deactivated from Uber for six weeks, and during that time he was able to drive for Lyft, so it was pretty seamless.

Francis & Mailman can provide a free case review. And if they do take your case, you pay nothing out of pocket. And we’ll provide a link, again, in the Youtube video description for Francis & Mailman.

Do any of you have unfair deactivation stories? How did you handle it? Leave a comment below and let us know. Thanks again for watching!

 

 

 

 

 

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