A mum ordered a £4,500 Uber to Ukraine after "one too many drinks" and was only saved by having "insufficient funds" in her account.
Despite her order being declined, Uber tried to take payment from Leoni Fildes nine times. The mum-of-two had been out to celebrate her friend's birthday on Saturday, March 5, when the conversation turned to talk of the war in Ukraine.
Leoni said she had already downed a "few double pink gins and shots of Sambuca" when she drunkenly decided to go there in a taxi to "help" the cause. The dog grooming business owner claims she then attempted to order the cab, which was estimated to cost as much as £4,578.
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The 34-year-old said she only had "flashbacks" of her risky mistake when her bank called her the following morning thinking her card had been fraudulently used - letting her know Uber had reportedly tried to take the money nine times.
She now says she is glad she didn't have enough money in her account and has questioned what could have happened if she had embarked on the transcontinental trip. Uber said no trips were "successfully made in this instance" and said they were investigating further to establish what happened.
Leoni, from Worsley, Greater Manchester, said: "I'm 34 - I should know better. The next day I didn't remember doing it. I was like 'oh my god'.
"I woke up to my bank ringing me, thinking my card had been [used fraudulently]. Uber tried to take the payment nine times out of my account. They were pretty determined.
"I had a little flashback when the bank called and I said 'I think it was me - sorry'. Normally, Uber allow a trip in advance but they've recently stopped it so I was lucky. I remember when we were looking, we said 'oh, we'll get the comfort one'. That's dearer - the XL one."
Leoni had become involved in the political chat over a few drinks and was asked if her boyfriend, who is in the military, might be forced to fight if the UK entered the war. She claims the conversation soon spiralled out of control and she decided to order a taxi to the war-torn country.
If Leoni had ordered a regular UberX taxi, it would have cost her between £2,564 and £3,313, but if she had splurged out on an UberXL, it would have cost between £3,688 and £4,758. Leoni said she struggled to get a taxi home, but could get one to Ukraine more easily.
She said: "We were trying to get a taxi home. We said 'shall we get a taxi and go help them'. We'd been out for about four hours so I'd had a few double pink gins, and quite a lot of shots of Sambuca and a bottle of prosecco. I think that might have tipped me over the edge.
"I don't know what I'd do if Uber had let me order it. I don't think I'd have got in but you don't know after a drink. I might have piled into the taxi and realised when we got further out. It would have been coming out of my account and I don't know where I'd have woken up.
"After we'd done that, I couldn't get a taxi for about an hour and a half. They were allowing me to go to Ukraine but not 10 minutes up the road back home. It was only about 10.30 and I had to ring a few different taxi companies then to get a taxi. I got in at about 12."
An Uber spokesperson said: "We can confirm that no trip requests were successfully made in this instance. We are looking into this further to understand what happened."
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