Uber Driver Stole My QC35s

keithality on 07/07/2021 - 13:27
Last edited 09/07/2021 - 09:21 by 1 other user

Took an Uber home the other week and left my Bose QC35 headphones in the car. Luckily, or so I thought, Uber allows you to contact the driver for lost and found reasons. Made contact with the driver and he promised to drop it off next time he was in the CBD (which should have been 'the next day').

10 phone calls, 5 texts, 4 empty promises and 3 weeks later and the driver has disconnected his number and disappeared. I've lodged a police report and an Uber help ticket but don't expect either to go anywhere.

Any other options I should consider, O Wise OzBargain?

Update: I tried calling again from a different number and he picked up! We have agreed a cash incentive for him to drop it off, outside of the uber $20 reward in the system. Stay tuned.

Final update: Thanks for all your suggestions. Uber driver asked for $60 to drop the headphones off and I agreed. He promptly showed up at the agreed time and I got my headphones back. Case closed.

Travel Rideshare

Comments

  • CyberMurning on 07/07/2021 - 13:29
    +6

    bikies

  • djkelly69 on 07/07/2021 - 13:35
    +5

    Order an uber under a new account and look for your good friend?

    • keithality on 08/07/2021 - 11:46

      Lol I've imagined what I would say if I ever got into the same uber again by chance

  • Quantumcat on 07/07/2021 - 13:35
    +14

    Be more careful with your stuff next time is all you can do. I would say it is sold to someone on ebay by now.

    • SF3 on 07/07/2021 - 15:19

      ebay gumtree by now.

      FTFY :)

  • 87percent on 07/07/2021 - 13:38

    Bet Uber will offer you a $20 gift card

  • Gervais fanboy on 07/07/2021 - 13:44
    +8

    Uber’s customer service is useless, I doubt they’ll ever help anyone…

    Your Best bet is to keep pestering the police.
    As Long as you have the driver’s rego and text messages of your back back and forth as evidence… surely thats enough for them to help you out.

    Also I am surprised that the driver went to the length of changing his number to steal headphones worth just $300, considering their entire Uber driver account is linked to that one phone number.

    Surely there’s more to this story..

    • Meconium on 07/07/2021 - 14:04
      +6

      Surely there’s more to this story

      Yep, always is. Easy to point the finger at the vulnerable workers, given they’re largely poor immigrants or people with no other options. It’s possible that they simply stole it and completely changed their professional identity over a secondhand pair of headphones, but it’s unlikely and we only have one side of the story.

      Good luck getting your headphones back OP.

      • pharkurnell on 07/07/2021 - 14:53
        +2

        Better involve Interpol

    • pharkurnell on 07/07/2021 - 14:52

      Your Best bet is to keep pestering the police.

      For the hard crime of headphones left in the car ??
      The driver if the cops ever do anything will say "nope, they were never left in the car, I know nothing about them.

      Game over man… game over.

      • Quantumcat on 07/07/2021 - 15:32
        +3

        Not that I think police will do much, but there are text messages where the driver might have acknowledged that he had the headphones

        • pharkurnell on 07/07/2021 - 16:08

          They have better things to do.. ;)

          YMMV

          • Gervais fanboy on 07/07/2021 - 16:13
            +2

            @pharkurnell: Well, i have had similar interactions with the police where they have helped me out in the recent past…
            Only took them 5 minutes to lookup the perpetrator’s current contact details and give them a call…
            As smooth as that and only took them minutes..

            Doesn’t matter what the value of the lost item is, its their job to help us.

            And what are they so busy with anyways, issuing speeding tickets and fining 80 year olds for not wearing a darn mask ?

            • pharkurnell on 07/07/2021 - 16:15
              -1

              @Gervais fanboy:

              issuing speeding tickets and fining 80 year olds for not wearing a darn mask

              Funny or sad you think thats all they have to contend with daily… IM not sure.

              • Gervais fanboy on 07/07/2021 - 16:27
                +1

                @pharkurnell: Well Ofcos there’s more to their job
                I merely used satire to highlight the gross misuse of our tax-funded police resources..
                To make the point that it isn’t valid for you to suggest that the op shouldn’t contact the police or that they won’t even bother helping him because they might have ‘better things to do’…

                ‘YMMV’ indeed
                Coz I have had police officers bother to help me out over some minor issues that I have had in the past.

    • keithality on 08/07/2021 - 11:48
      +1

      I am also surprised they went to such lengths. What is also strange is if he was going to steal them from the beginning why answer my first call and say he had them in the first place? He could have said nothing here, and I would be none the wiser.

      Very strange, but there's nothing else on my side of the story to add.

  • brendanm on 07/07/2021 - 13:50
    +14

    Any other options I should consider

    Look after your belongings?

  • Drakesy on 07/07/2021 - 14:56
    +1

    I had a friend leave their handbag in one of the ubers, the driver said he could return it but we'd have to pay for his time.
    I just politely asked him to drop it off at the nearest police station.

    After a week of no reply and countless emails to Uber it mysteriously popped up on my doorstep one day.

    I was one of the lucky ones i guess

    Keep hitting up Uber though

    • cloudy on 07/07/2021 - 15:24
      +11

      the driver said he could return it but we'd have to pay for his time

      Sounds fair

    • Ryanek on 07/07/2021 - 15:38
      +8

      I feel your friend should have made the effort to retrieve the handbag. Not the driver.

    • Pelicannn on 07/07/2021 - 16:05
      +3

      Same thing, mate left his wallet in the car from an uber to the airport. Driver dropped it to me so I could mail it to him and asked for $$ - Seemed fair to me as he has a business to run.

    • keithality on 08/07/2021 - 11:50

      Thanks for sharing, gives me hope yet!

  • cnmarine on 07/07/2021 - 15:03
    +7

    Lol, is there bags of cocaine in your QC35s? I highly doubt the driver would disappear for your QC35s…..

    • Nilfunds on 07/07/2021 - 15:32

      well. obviously he did

    • usbc activist on 07/07/2021 - 16:14

      A seller on ebay sold fake brand new marshall headphones to me. I found they are fake. Contacted the seller and Ebay. The seller closed the ebay store and left. All for headphones.

  • Big Lenny on 07/07/2021 - 15:06
    +2

    he dindu nuffin

    • Yummy on 07/07/2021 - 15:12
      +1

      Punjabi uber?

      • Gervais fanboy on 07/07/2021 - 16:18

        How is that question at all relevant to this particular situation ?

        • Yummy on 07/07/2021 - 19:36
          +2

          Pun intended?

  • [Deactivated] on 07/07/2021 - 15:48

    Social media. Contact Uber and don't give up till you have your headphones back, and they turf that drive to Ola.

  • JimmyF on 07/07/2021 - 15:48
    +7

    Uber allows you to contact the driver for lost and found reasons. Made contact with the driver and he promised to drop it off next time he was in the CBD (which should have been 'the next day').

    Did you offer a 'reward' for the driver return them?

    You left the item in their car, why are you not going to them to get it? Put it this way if you left them on a bus, would you expect the bus driver to drive over to your house or work to drop them off?

    The driver doesn't get paid to return them to you. They are doing this all unpaid etc, so offer a reward next time or you know, don't leave your stuff laying around.

    • keithality on 08/07/2021 - 11:50

      Hey, they get paid $20 from uber to return it. I also offered to meet him at a convenient location and any time of the day and night that worked for him. I guess I could have offered more on top of the $20, maybe doubled it.

  • tallkid123 on 07/07/2021 - 20:39
    +1

    Uber customer service is a bunch of bots with automated responses.
    If you keep spamming, you'll eventually get a real person but it's still awful to deal with.

    Also, your headphones are long gone so I'd just buy another pair and be more careful next time.

  • Ehty on 07/07/2021 - 20:47
    +2

    I would say start with editing the question as “ Uber driver doesn’t return the Q35’s I forgot in his car”.

  • atifurgreat on 08/07/2021 - 10:32
    +2

    Not sure if the Uber driver changes his number just because of second-hand headphones. I used to do uber for a while, once a person forgot his wallet in my car. The next day he contacted me through Uber, and I found his wallet on the back seat. I drop it at his home and he pays for my time, end of the story.

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