[NAGDU] The worst Uber experience ever, but I stood my ground

[Leslie Hamric]

hi all. Yesterday I had the worst Uber experience ever. I had ordered a comfort ride to go from my pick up spot to the train station in downtown Chicago. It was only a two minute ride. The driver pulled up and started giving me a hard time about the dog. He kept saying no pet no pet no pet, comfort ride no no no pet please ma'am please ma'am! well, I tried to educate him about the service animal policy and it didn't work. Then I thought well I'm gonna get in. He didn't like it that I got in but he made no move toward me. That is, until I just sat there and I said no I'm not going anywhere she's a guide dog she's not a pet, yada yada yada. and the first thing he did was grab my sleeve of my jacket and tried to pull me out of the car. I jerked away from him and I told him no! And then after a couple more minutes of me not doing anything he tried again, this time, he went for my purse, I told him in a very firm voice, you do not touch me! And then after some more back-and-forth, he finally took me. I had pointed out to him that I'm sure you want to be on your way and I wanna be on my way too we could've been there already. He took me but boy was he mad! I gave him a one star rating and reported him to Uber and I have the whole thing on video to prove it. no I'm fully aware that I did put myself in a scary situation and I'm lucky that he didn't do anything worse to me or to my dog for that matter. I am also aware that just getting in the car and sitting there doesn't always get you the desired result either. This time it did. I stood my ground and I would not back down. I am going to file a complaint with the Department of justice in the Chicago commission of human relations. but I don't have much hope for the Chicago commission of human relations because according to them, the driver not picking me up because of my guy dog is not a criminal offense. We all know that's not true. Attorney is on the list, please correct me if I'm wrong. i'm just glad that I got to where I needed to go and then I'm safe and then I got the heck out of that car  as fast as I could. With these rideshare companies need to do, as we all know is have a zero tolerance policy for not only refusing to pick up someone with a service animal but for treating them with outright disrespect. So that was my adventure yesterday.
Leslie Hamric
Cello and Braille Music Teacher