In recent news from Shenzhen, a man hitchhiked to Shanwei and ended up paying a whopping 3600 yuan for the ride due to selecting the wrong destination address, only to later request a refund from the driver. The driver explained that once he received the order, the money had already been transferred to the platform account, and he was fined over 2500 yuan for the incident. However, the passenger has not yet received a refund.
On January 10, a Ms. Zeng from Shenzhen told Huashang News that on December 25 last year, her younger brother urgently took a Hello ride from Shenzhen, Guangdong, to his hometown in Shangou (Village), Lufeng, in Shanwei. However, when her brother mistakenly input the destination address as Shangou Village, Rizhao City, Shandong, while sending the address to the driver via WeChat.
Ms. Zeng indicated that the normal taxi fare from Shenzhen to Lufeng would range from 150 to 300 yuan. However, for this trip, her brother was charged a staggering 3642.5 yuan.
The order shown by Ms. Zeng’s brother on the Hello App indicated that the departure point was Shenzhen City – Nanchalice Goose, and the destination was Rizhao City – Shangou Village, with the payment already made on December 25, 2024, at 8:20 AM, totaling 3642.5 yuan.
Based on the map, the distance from Shangou (Village) in Lufeng, Shanwei, to Shenzhen is 194 kilometers; while from Shangou Village in Rizhao, Shandong, to Shenzhen is 1846 kilometers.
Ms. Zeng mentioned that her brother was not attentive to the high price when paying the fare and now wishes to recover the overcharged amount. However, the driver involved has deleted her brother from his contacts and cannot be reached now.
In response to this, Hello Ride told Huashang News that once the driver accepts an order, the money is transferred to the driver’s platform account. They are currently urgently contacting the car owner for verification and will assist the passenger in refunding the excess payment.
On the afternoon of January 13, the reporter managed to reach the involved driver, who stated that some netizens accused him of profiteering, causing him to feel unjust. He clarified that this order was prepaid, and the money had transferred to his platform account upon accepting the order, not upon reaching the destination.
The driver further stated that the Hello platform had fined him over 2500 yuan a few days ago for violation and frozen the remaining amount in his platform account.
Regarding why Ms. Zeng had not received the refund yet, the driver mentioned, “The platform deducted the money from me, so Ms. Zeng should request the refund from the platform instead of me.”
He added that upon receiving the order, he drove over 200 kilometers to pick up little Zeng. Since he accepted this erroneous order on the platform, the platform should bear the fuel and time costs for the empty trip. “I am not at fault here. I am just a driver following the platform’s assignments. Why should I bear the loss because of their mistake?”
As for why he added and later deleted Little Zeng on WeChat, the driver explained, “After the trip’s end, the platform did not refund me as promised, which affected my normal life, so I deleted her.”
Around 1 pm on January 13, Ms. Zeng stated that she finally received a call from Hello Ride’s customer service representative, informing her that they were verifying the actual kilometers driven by the driver and would refund the excess money once everything was calculated.
Ms. Zeng couldn’t help but question, “Why is it taking them so long to verify the situation when so much time has already passed? I’ve made numerous calls but still don’t understand why they are moving so slowly.”