Uber Deactivated Jay for No Reason

Jay Cradeur, a contributor over at The Ridshare Guy, was recently deactivated for no reason. Sudden deactivations are a big issue for drivers, so I think it’s important to listen to stories like Jay’s so you can figure out what you can do if you get deactivated too.

Take a look at Jay’s video, then check out the transcript of the video below.

This is Jay Cradeur with the Rideshare Guy and let’s talk about the dirty little word, a miserable little word deactivation, which basically means Uber or Lyft have determined that you are unfit to drive and they just cut you off.

Deactivations come suddenly, with no announcement

This is what happened last week. It’s been one week now that I’ve been deactivated by Uber. I woke up at five in the morning and I check my phone, and I’m gonna show you right now exactly what I saw. In the morning, I checked my phone, I wanted to see what the surge was like in the area, and it said, “Your account needs attention. Contact support.” I know my documents are up to date so I thought, “What’s up with this?”

Then I checked my emails, it said I’ve been deactivated because of something from California DMV’s EPN system. Reason for deactivation is blank, and it says, “If you think there’s an error, respond to this email.” So, then I got curious and I went online to see if I could access my account. I could and there it said, “Your account has been deactivated due to too many canceled trips.” Well, that doesn’t make any sense because my acceptance rate is always well above 90%. So, I found this whole experience frustrating.

You can get immediate answers from Uber support, but not immediate results

First thing I did is I called Uber support. I spoke to a woman and she said that it has something to do with my background check and it would take 24 to 48 hours to get it resolved. Sit tight. I thought, okay. Then I looked at the email again and I saw that I could respond to the email. I did respond to the email and let me show you exactly what I said, and let me show you a response that I got back.

I wrote them a pleasant enough email stating that they didn’t give me any reason why I was deactivated. I’m a good driver with a high rating. Please, tell me why I was deactivated. Remember they asked us to respond to that email, but now it says that the email doesn’t accept messages. As you can imagine, that was a pretty frustrating experience. I just said I’m gonna chill out. I’m gonna go drive for a while. I drove, came back after my morning shift, and I called Uber again, and I said, “Hey, what if I go to the Uber hub here in Daly City, I may be able to get some answers.” He said, “No, that wouldn’t speed anything up.” He then told me that it had to do with my DMV background check and it would take from five to 10 business days. So we’ve now gone from two days to a full two weeks that I could possibly be deactivated.

You might get confusing, mixed info from Uber

As you can imagine, I found this to be pretty frustrating, but I said, “Okay, I’m just gonna go out and drive some more and drive for Lyft. No problem.” Then later that day, I got an email. Let me show you what that email was. It’s pretty interesting, an update on your deactivation. It says, “We’ve been investigating recent account deactivations that may have occurred in error.” Now they’re admitting that some deactivations occurred and it was due to some kind of an error.

That still didn’t help me, so I decided to just keep driving, let Uber sort it out. On Sunday, I called to get an update. This is where it got really strange because the guy then told me, he said, “Oh, I’m looking at the information. It says as of an hour ago, your driver’s license was suspended.” I was like, “That doesn’t even make any sense.” He said again it would take one to two weeks to get it sorted out.

Even when Uber is wrong, you may face big challenges

What I then did is I went online and I found out a place where I could get my own DMV report. I pulled my DMV report, let’s look at that right now.

As you can see in the middle on the left it says, “Violations/Convictions, None to Report, and Under Suspensions, No Activity.” So my driver’s license is valid. Everything looks really good. Here’s what I did next. I contacted Uber and I said, “You know, I’ve got my DMV report. I’d like to upload it to you so that we can get this cleared up.” I did, I uploaded it, they sent me an email, I responded back and I added the attachments. Then I got another email back and it said, “We’ve escalated your case. It can still take one to two weeks. Just sit tight.”

I just raised my arms up and said, “Uber, you’re gonna have to do whatever you’re gonna do because obviously there’s nothing that I can do to speed this process up.” The bottom line here is if you’re driving for Uber or for Lyft, you need to realize that our spot on the totem pole’s pretty low. They’re gonna do with you whatever they want to do. In the previous videos and on my blogs I’ve talked about having a plan B. Boy, does that sure ring true for me now.

Always have a backup: Sign up for both Uber and Lyft

This is why Uber’s value is going down and Lyft’s value is going up because Lyft is doing the little things much better like customer service, treating their drivers like human beings, and just being straight with them instead of giving them a whole bunch of stories. Where is my status right now? I’m in a wait and see, wait and see. I’m just building more allegiance towards Lyft while Uber is jerking me around. That’s my story on deactivation. Avoid it at all costs, but as you can tell, no matter how well you drive and how many trips you’ve driven, how much great feedback you’ve gotten from customers, if they’re gonna cut you off, they’re gonna cut you off.

Have you had any experiences like this? Frustration with these robo emails that we get? Or have you been deactivated for what seems like no good reason at all? Or have you had a challenge with customer service? Share it in the comments. I’d love to hear that. All right, everybody. Have a great day and be safe.