Uber Announces a New Way to Complain About Uber

Passengers who have had larger complaints with Uber’s ride-sharing service beyond just a nasty comment to leave for an unhappy driver know what a struggle it can be to email the company and get a timely and satisfying response.

Uber has finally figured this out and announced on Wednesday a new function that allows riders to message questions/concerns to the company directly from its mobile app interface. This means you can now get your gripes in quickly and get on to your next three-and-a-half-star Uber ride faster.

Before, when a customer left a phone or purse in a car, had to deal with an out-of-control driver, experienced a bug in the app, or was falsely charged, they had to email Uber’s customer service address. The company says that model, which is now being curtailed, “puts a lot of work” on the consumer.

Uber also explains the customer service email system has become “increasingly inefficient because the individual city teams could not learn from each other,” and in many cases it’s led to a lot of duplicate work.

All that is aside from the fact that email communication with customers is not a solution in countries such as China and India, where many riders don’t have email addresses, Uber points out.

See how the new app-based customer service feature works below:

With the new Uber app customer support feature, users simply select the Help tab from the left pull out menu, select a trip from their history, and pick from a list of complaints to expound upon: “I lost an item,” “I was charged a cancellation fee,” “I had an issue with my fare,” and “I was involved in an accident.”

The company says it will expand rollout of the feature to non-U.S. countries “over the next few months.”

“Ultimately, our goal is to create a product that’s so great you never need to contact customer service,” Uber writes on its blog. “In the meantime, we’re doubling down on our technology so that when you need to get in touch, it’s as quick and easy as getting a ride.”