Wouldn’t it be nice if everything always went as planned?
Sadly, this isn’t the case.
There’s a good chance that you’ve arrived here because you encountered one problem or another regarding a recent Uber ride or you’re experiencing trouble with your Uber account.
There are plenty of articles and resources out there that give aid to drivers of Uber, but today we’re here to help you out, the Uber customer.
Whatever your issue may be, we want to help you solve it in a heartbeat and get you on your way.
We’ll go over some common problems and decide which avenue is most appropriate to solve your issue.
Jump To:
- Tips for Getting Your Questions Answered
- Contact Your Driver Directly
- In-App Customer Support
- Support Through Help.uber.com
- Social Media for Customer Service
- Contacting Uber Support by Phone
- How to Contact Uber In Person
- How to Contact Uber Headquarters
Contents
How to Contact Uber
If you have a problem with your ride, Uber Eats order, or package delivery, you will need to reach out to Uber customer support to get help.
Luckily, there are five different ways to get help, all of which serving their own purpose and utility.
But before we dive into the weeds with how to use each, read some of our tips for getting your questions answered.
Following these tips will help you make the most of your interaction with support and getting your issue solved as quickly as possible.
Tips for Getting Your Questions Answered
- Keep it simple: Make sure you only ask one question at a time. If you ask more than one question, you’ll likely only receive a response for one of the questions.
- Reply to the same customer service rep, or not: If you’re getting great results with the customer service rep you’re connected with, then keep going down that route. If you’re not receiving the outcome you were expecting, then start over and try to get paired up with a new customer service rep. Who knows, you may yield different results.
- Don’t repeat yourself: Make sure you don’t keep asking the same questions over and over. Make sure to word them differently to avoid being sent to the back of the line for being an annoying customer who’s trying to game the customer support queue.
Contact Your Driver Directly
Contacting your driver is a quick remedy to one of the most common problems distressed Uber riders come across — lost or missing items.
If you’re in this boat, first you must understand that to retrieve your lost item, you’ll need to dish out some cash.
The lost item return fee is $15 and goes directly to the Uber driver.
This fee is put in place to compensate drivers who are essentially going out of their way to return your item to you.
Keep in Mind…
The process is very straightforward for getting ahold of your driver, but you should keep a few things in mind throughout this process.
Stay Calm
Panic is the enemy of reason, and if you want to get ahold of your driver you’ll need to be reasonable.
So before you start stalking their car, make sure to calm down and take a few deep breaths.
Be Courteous
Uber drivers are independent contractors who don’t work 24/7.
So it is not going to be their full-time mission to help track down something you’ve lost.
According to a recent study, Uber drivers make an average of $19 an hour in the top 20 U.S. markets.
More than 80 percent of Uber drivers drive between one and 15 hours per week.
So be polite, because you’ll be asking them to use their precious driving time to help you.
Be Prepared
In order to successfully retrieve a lost item, you need to know what to expect.
By following the instructions in this guide, you’ll get your stuff back quickly but you will be expected to pay a small fee.
Here’s how Uber recommends you contact a driver step-by-step:
- Visit the Contact a Driver About a Lost Item help page
- Sign in to your Uber account
- Enter your phone number
- Select the trip or driver you’d like to contact
- Uber will automatically connect you with the driver
- Coordinate pickup at a convenient place and time
- If the driver is unavailable, leave a detailed voicemail
- Stay calm, and remember: You screwed up, not them
If you follow these steps, there’s a very good chance it will result in a returned item.
Now let’s take a more in-depth look on how to contact your Uber driver.
How to Contact Your Driver
In order to get your lost item back, you’ll need to contact your driver through the app or at help.uber.com.
The first step is to go to help.uber.com or open your Uber app.
Obviously, you won’t be able to access the app if the lost item at hand is your phone — which often seems to be the case — so heading to Uber’s site would be your best bet.
Since you may be phoneless, you’ll need to take the following steps once arriving at help.uber.com.
If you’re not already signed in, do so by tapping “Sign in” in the top right corner.
Once you’re signed in you’ll see your latest trip details and help options below, like “My driver wasn’t professional” or “I was involved in an accident.”
What we care about — at least for this example — is the “I lost an item” option. Tap this link which will lead you to the lost item page.
From here you’ll tap on “Contact driver about a lost item.”
The final step is providing a phone number for Uber to reach out to connect you with your driver via phone.
Before providing your phone number, double check at the top of the page to make sure you’re reaching out to the correct driver regarding the right ride receipt.
This page also contains all of the details surrounding the $15 lost item return fee.
If everything looks good, scroll to the bottom of the page to enter your phone number.
If your driver picks up and is in possession of your missing item, then you’ll move on and agree to a place and time to meet to exchange your missing item.
If the driver doesn’t pick up, then make sure to leave a detailed message that describes your item and the best way he or she can get in touch with you.
Another scenario, which is what we hope isn’t your case, is that the Uber driver doesn’t have your lost item. At this point, there isn’t much you can do.
Neither Uber nor its drivers are responsible for your lost item.
If you choose to contact your driver through the app, the steps taken above are nearly identical, except of course that you’ll be using your phone.
Here’s a quick rundown of the steps:
- Open your app and tap the menu icon in the top left
- Tap “Help”
- Tap “Report an issue with this trip”
- Tap “I lost an item”
- Tap “Contact driver about lost item”
- Scroll down and enter your phone number (this is the same page as described above)
Lastly, sometimes drivers may have found your item and returned it to a Greenlight Hub in your city.
Greenlight Hubs are offices that are primarily for drivers only, however, in this case, it can be a pickup spot for your lost item.
Greenlight Hubs are located in almost all big cities, like San Francisco, New York City, and Chicago.
If your driver has notified you that your item is there, then either ask him or her for the address or do a quick Google search to find the exact location.
In-App Customer Support
It’s safe to say that Uber will do anything in its power to avoid human-to-human intervention when it comes to solving issues with its service.
This isn’t to say that they don’t want to help, but just imagine all of the duplicate problems and complaints they receive on a daily basis.
To solve this issue, Uber created a comprehensive in-app support system.
There’s little that Uber doesn’t address across the extensive options it provides in its app.
The purpose of their in-app customer support is to guide you down a path that enables you to quickly solve your problems without having to call up or email Uber.
The types of problems you can resolve through the app are quite expansive.
Common problems that can be addressed through the app include fare adjustments, changing your payment method on a fare, or reporting any other Uber claim that came up during your ride.
Since there are many different issues you may be seeking answers for, we’ll show you generally how to navigate the in-app support.
First, you’ll need to tap the menu button at the top of your screen.
Then you’ll select “Help,” which will bring you to the “How can we help you” page.
Once you’re at this page, you’ll see a range of options for you to choose from.
There are many different types of issues you can report.
Some of those issues involve your previous ride, while other issues might pertain to overall account of payment details.
Whichever remedy you’re seeking, tap on the selection and proceed to fill in any additional details regarding your problem.
After you provided any additional details needed, you’ll tap the “Submit” button.
Once you submitted your request, Uber support will get ahold of you as soon as possible via email.
Support Through Help.uber.com
Help.uber.com is your go-to resource for nearly anything you’ll need regarding your Uber account.
This is Uber’s help section where you’ll find all things ride related, including reporting issues with rides, account and payment options, and guides to using the app and Uber service.
As mentioned above, this is where you would go if you lost an item and needed to contact your driver — but this is by far the only reason to visit Uber’s online help forum.
Some issues that may come up that you’d like to report could include being involved in an accident, being charged a cleaning fee when you shouldn’t have, or disputing a cancellation fee that you were charged.
Other times, you don’t necessarily have issues to report, you just need to solve general maintenance problems, like updating your account and payment options, receiving how-to guides to set up your business profile, or applying promo codes to your rides.
If you have a problem to report to Uber or just need to set something straight, then using the search function on the help page is a great place to start.
If and when you get to the point where you’re required to write a description of your problem to an Uber support representative, follow these rules of thumb to yield the best results.
Social media seems to be the last option that we’d go with to resolve any urgent issues, but if your issue doesn’t require immediate attention, then using Twitter or Facebook may be a helpful option.
Twitter is an excellent place to see any of the current happenings with the app.
Twitter addresses any of the day-to-day problems that may come up, like app outages or delays.
Uber also has a customer support specific handle (@Uber_Support) that provides riders a way to reach out to customer support and address issues.
Taking a look at the Twitter action that happens on a daily basis shows that Uber’s social support team is on their game, responding to complaints regardless of how ugly the exchanges seem to get!
Head to @Uber_Support to tweet customer support your problem, or cut to the chase and send them a direct message.
You’ll likely get passed along to another customer support member, but like we said, it’s not a bad place to start.
Facebook, like Twitter, serves a similar purpose for Uber. Once on Uber’s Facebook page, you can use Facebook Messenger to report any problems or ask any question you might have.
This is helpful for general support, though not necessarily effective if you want to solve your problem all at once.
Similar to Twitter, you’ll likely get passed along to another customer support member for more serious inquiries.
But if you just have a quick question that you need to be answered, we guess it doesn’t hurt to give it a shot.
Contacting Uber Support by Phone
Last but not least, we have the good old fashioned phone line to get ahold of Uber.
We’ll just briefly touch on this topic here, as we already have a Guide to the Uber Phone Number that expands on this contact method in much greater detail.
Believe it or not, Uber doesn’t provide its riders with a phone number to reach out with general inquiries and problems.
Drivers, on the other hand, have the means to get in touch with 24/7 driver phone support.
This isn’t the case for passengers.
Uber does, however, have an Uber phone number for riders and drivers to call in case of an emergency.
In Case of an Emergency
The Critical Safety Response Line is put in place for emergency phone calls only.
By no means should you try this number for anything less than an emergency.
If you’re ever put in this situation, first call 911 and make sure that all parties are safe and out of harm’s way.
Then proceed to call (800) 285-6172 to be put in touch with an Uber representative.
You can then describe your emergency and be directed with next steps after your conversation.
Again, this is for emergencies only and it’s frowned upon to try and push general inquiries through this phone line.
How to Contact Uber In Person
For the most part, Uber does a great job at providing resources to help drivers and riders alike find the answers they’re looking for.
In an effort to go one step further, Uber recently introduced Greenlight Hubs.
Greenlight Hubs
Greenlight Hubs are physical locations in big cities like Chicago that offer in-person help to Uber drivers. Most locations are open 9am to 5pm Monday through Friday.
Uber drivers are welcome to stop by without an appointment to get instant support from local experts.
If you’re wondering whether or not your city has a greenlight hub, visit the driver resources landing page for your city to find a Greenlight Hub and their hours of operation near you.
How to Contact Uber Headquarters
Uber is a massive company with thousands of employees and millions of independent contractors. If you’re having an issue, you’re likely not the only one.
As a result, the company tries to find scalable solutions to the most common problems.
Whenever a problem is documented and solved, It’s added to the Uber Help Center on www.uber.com.
If you’ve already searched the Help Center and still don’t have a solution, Uber recommends reaching out directly to Uber Support on Twitter where they offer fast and friendly solutions in real-time.
If you’ve tried all of the above steps and still don’t have an answer to your problem, maybe try a low-tech approach like writing a letter to Uber’s CEO.
Here’s the mailing address:
Dara Khosrowshahi
1455 Market Street, Suite #400
San Francisco, CA 94103
United States
As the head of one of the most valuable startups in the world, it’s unlikely he will respond in a timely manner.
Alternatively, you may have more success reaching him on Twitter.
Dara is known for being one of the most active CEOs on this social network.
Let’s Solve Your Issue
From a customer standpoint, it’s apparent that Uber wants you to either solve your issues on your own or guide you down a path that will get you in touch with the appropriate customer support team.
The way Uber sees it is that the least amount of intervention on their behalf, the better (and quicker) you’ll be helped.
Now that you’ve seen several ways for you to solve issues and problems through Uber customer service, it’s time to get the ball rolling.
Depending on your issue, some of these avenues may make more sense than others.
Use your discretion as to which one may work best for you.
We hope everything gets resolved in your favor!
I reformatted my cell phone. Installed Uber app. I now get a message when I enter my cell phone number or connect with social. The message is “check your connection and try again”. I’ve already cleared the cache and data and I am still getting the same message.