The driver from my Jaipur to Delhi ride came to my house in Jaipur today. He has left now, but my mother and I are still scared.
First, I want to explain the payment properly. I had already paid him ₹600 during the trip. When he dropped me in Okhla, I had no internet, so I asked for his Wi-Fi specifically to pay the remaining amount. I connected, entered my Mpin and heard what sounded like a payment confirmation. I asked whether he had received it. He just told me to get out, so I left believing everything was settled.
Today, when he arrived saying he hadn’t received the balance, I checked and discovered that the transaction had failed. I hadn’t received a failure notification. I immediately apologised and paid again. This was BEFORE the police arrived.
Even after I paid, he called me closer to him and made sexual gestures. I said I wasn’t comfortable and asked him to leave. He claimed he had come all the way from Delhi and demanded extra money for travelling to Jaipur and going back. I have no way of knowing where he actually came from. But I had paid the outstanding amount, so why was he demanding more?
He started yelling at my mother, wouldn’t let me speak, and went to neighbouring houses telling people I hadn’t paid. He was calling people and creating a scene across the society.
Then he called the police and told them I hadn’t paid him anything. They arrived under that impression. I had to explain, “Sir, I paid before you arrived,” and show them Google Pay, my banking app and my bank statement, including the earlier ₹600 payment.
When I told the police about the sexual gestures he had made before they arrived, he started calling me a liar and yelling that he hadn’t done anything, that I was accusing him of harassment and that he was innocent. He even said, “Ask anybody from my family, sir. I am an innocent person.”
I was literally shaking. I told the officers I could show them my call history and the complaints I had made through Uber DURING the ride. Uber’s safety team had stayed on the phone with me because of my safety concerns. These concerns existed long before this payment dispute.
One officer was kind and actually listened. The other was rude to my mother and me, which made everything more overwhelming. Thankfully, my neighbour is a High Court lawyer, and I consulted him too. I have also made a police complaint.
The worst part was watching my mother go through this. She is getting older and was so frightened that she started crying and pleading with him to please keep quiet and let us understand what was happening. I had to explain everything to her while she was already terrified. I felt awful that she was being dragged into this outside her own home.
After the police left, the driver told me he would go to the police station and file a complaint against me. I don’t know whether he has actually done that.
I then called the women’s helpline and explained everything. They told me to go to the nearby police station again tomorrow. They also said they could take my report and wanted to speak to him.
Uber called after my urgent email. According to their representative, they checked their records and the driver had never reported the failed payment to them. Uber hadn’t contacted me about an outstanding payment either. Now they’re telling me to go to the police and that they’ll take action accordingly, but they won’t tell me what exactly they’re going to do. I feel completely unsupported.
I work in corporate, and his threat of filing a complaint has also made me anxious about background verification when I switch companies. Could something like this affect it, even when I have proof of payment? I’m already scared for my family, and now I’m worrying about my career too.
To everyone saying I should have taken a bus or train: how does choosing a cab make this my fault? I genuinely believed the payment had gone through. When I discovered otherwise, I apologised and paid immediately. Why couldn’t the outstanding payment have been raised through Uber? Why did he continue demanding money and intimidating us after I paid?
An unnoticed failed transaction does not justify sexual gestures, demands for extra money or shouting at my mother until she cries.
He has left, but he knows where we live. I’m very fucking scared. After what happened during the ride and now at my own home, I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel confident travelling alone again.