When you’ve got a problem that needs fixing and it’s not getting fixed fast enough, what’s an intrepid consumer to do? One woman who had an issue with her family’s Uber account was tired of waiting for customer service to email her back, so she hopped in her car and took a trip — actually, two trips — to visit Uber in person.

A Bay Area woman said her son was stranded in September as the result of an account issue where all payment methods they tried kept getting declined, SF Gate reports. Because of a traumatic brain injury he suffered at 16, her adult son can’t drive, and thus relies on Uber for much of his transportation needs, including getting to work.

She told her son to stay put while she called Uber, and then realized there’s no phone number to call the company. She could only contact support through the app.

“I waited, waited, waited — in the meantime, my son’s still stuck,” she told SFGate. Her husband was finally able to pick up the son after two hours, but the issue with Uber not working remained unresolved. That was a big problem, as she estimates her son uses the service anywhere from four to six times per day.

“The email replies were generic, it wasn’t prompt, there was no sense of, ‘Oh my gosh, let’s figure this out,'” she said of her customer service experience. “Every place has live chat and they don’t even have that. You have to actually email them, wait for someone to read it and then email you back.”

Instead of waiting for emailed responses, she decided to drive from Marin to Uber headquarters in San Francisco to get her answers. She hadn’t realized, however, that there were no customer service representatives at HQ, and said she was told to go to the company’s Daly City office. She eventually drove to that location, where she was told that the office was only for drivers.

She says at that point she “just kinda lost it,” and finally found a sympathetic employee who asked for her phone to see if he could fix the issue. He found that the account problem had been fixed, but no one had notified her.

Uber issued a statement saying it’s always looking to improve its customer service methods.

“Customer service is very important to us. There are a variety of ways we reach our riders, including phone support, and we’re always looking at new ways and innovations to improve customer service.”

The company says there is a phone number, but the only way to reach a person over the phone is after a customer requests help within the app or via Uber’s website. If a customer service rep thinks the situation merits phone support they’ll then contact the customer.

“If there was a way to contact Uber, nobody on email enlightened me to that,” the woman said. “They never said, ‘Oh, for this issue contact this specific department or call this specific number. They said, no, we don’t have phone availability.”

Uber says it’s disappointed that its standard for quality service wasn’t met in this situation.

“Feedback from customers help us improve the Uber experience for everyone, and we’re grateful this rider chooses to use Uber today.”

The woman says she and her family will continue to use Uber, mostly because there are no other options.

“I used to feel like Uber was such a godsend, and now I just feel like, ‘god, I wish there was an alternative,'” she says. “I’m just so resentful of the absolute dismissiveness as a customer who has spent thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on Uber with my son. And I just feel like if there was any alternative, I would never ever take an Uber if I could help it.”

Bay Area mom describes days-long Uber customer service nightmare [SFGate.com]

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