[Oagdu] Almost denied service by an Uber driver!

[Deanna Lewis]

Hi all,

Yesterday, I was heading home and decided to take Uber. So far, all of my experiences have been pretty good. But, yesterday was a bit of a challenge. I was waiting in the parking lot, and sent the driver a message letting her know that is where I would be. The app notified me that the driver was arriving, but there were no cars nearby. She calls me a few minutes later and she had actually passed up the parking lot and was out on the street, near an intersection and blocking traffic. I'm surprised that no one beeped at her. So, I make my way to the car and she rolls down the window and here is a bit of our conversation:

Driver: I don't take dogs.

Me: He is a service dog and you have to take me, it's the law.

Driver: I can't take dogs, I'm allergic and scared of dogs.

Me: I understand that, but when you sign up to work for Uber you have to take passengers with service animals. And if you don't take us, I'll have to report you and you could lose your job.

She continued to argue with me a bit more, but finally she agreed to take us. I wasn't going to take "no" for an answer!

Once we were in the car, we started to talk. I was better able to explain to her what a service animal is and what he does. She told me that she is from Africa and they do not have service dogs there. She seemed fascinated by all of the tasks he does and how well behaved he was.

All in all, I think that in this case, education was key. It actually felt very invigorating to be so assertive. I fought for my rights, but did so in a friendly and professional manner.



I did however fill out the survey on the NFB website for the rideshare testing project. I also urge others to do so. Here is the info:

***

If you have a service animal and use Uber or Lyft to get around, be sure to fill out our

questionnaire: https://nfb.org/rideshare-test



Just wanted to share my experience with you all and hope that you will share yours as well.



Deanna and Mambo






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