So after I replied to their support email, they denied my claim because they said I didn’t send them a picture, even though I did send them a picture. Their ticketing support system is having a technical software issue so the images don’t load correctly.
I sent them a video proving that I did in fact send them a photo, so we’ll see what happens.
Uber Car Cleaning Fee Reimbursement Process
Here’s the official link to Uber’s car cleaning fee reimbursement process
At this point, dealing with this is more headache than it’s worth. I already got my seats professionally cleaned and disinfected this morning at Red Carpet Car Wash in Manhattan Beach and they did an incredible job with zero wait time. Red Carpet, by far, exceeded my expectations in terms of price, speed, and quality of their work. You can see in the video I shot below, my seats are literally cleaner than when I purchased the car.
Some people are telling me that my car cleaning fee reimbursement claim will probably get denied because the damage isn’t visible, even though we all know that feces doesn’t have to be visible in order to be present or have odor against a black cloth car seat.
If my claim gets denied due to the feces not being visible, I could tell them I accidentally sent them a photo of the wrong side of the seat and then send them a photo like this but without the wrapper, or smear chocolate on the seat etc. But I’m not a liar so I personally wouldn’t go that far.
In all fairness, this is a tough situation for Uber as well because without proof of the damage, anyone could fraudulently make car cleaning fee reimbursement requests by simply smearing some chocolate on their seats.
So even if my claim does get denied, I don’t blame Uber because if I were in their shoes, I would probably make the same exact decision.
And now that I think about it, I forgot to get a receipt for the cleaning fee anyway…
In any event, I’ve wasted way to much time on this shit…at least I got a blog post out of it.
Below are videos of the following:
- My car seats getting professionally cleaned at Red Carpet in Manhattan Beach
- Image uploading/loading technical problem with Uber’s helpdesk support ticketing system
And lastly, here’s a screenshot the Uber support ticket conversation as of right now. This will probably be my last post on this matter because again, I forgot to get a receipt from the car wash place so I probably can’t even get reimbursed…haha. oh well, shit happens.
Pro Tip – If you ever run into a situation where a passenger either poops or vomits in your car, the best thing to do is to clean up the visible stuff yourself first, spray it with Lysol disinfectant to mask the odor, and then take your car to get the seats shampooed. And when you talk to them, do not tell them your car was vomited in or has poop in it.
Here is why. Since the pandemic started, most professional car detailing places will not accept a vehicle that has any sort of biohazard in it including vomit or feces due to the health risks associated with handling this type of matter.
I discovered this today when I called around to get prices to get my seats shampooed. I called a bunch of professional car wash places and all of them told me that they won’t touch my car if it has poop or vomit in it.
I’m not sure if all car wash places have this rule. It might be because all the car washes I called were in upper income neighborhoods where they are somewhat selective of what they will and will not do. I’m thinking if you call a car wash in the ghetto, they would probably do it.
So yeah, it’s a little dishonest to do what I’m recommending so if you’re like me and don’t like to lie, then I would recommend trying to get your car cleaned in a lower income neighborhood.
I got lucky today at Red Carpet and even though I told them the truth about the feces, I was able to convince them to do my car with the following stipulations:
- I opened my doors and showed them my seats and they could see that were no visual signs of anything gross, which improved my odds of them doing the job.
- I told them that I don’t need any sort of guarantee that the odor will actually be gone after they do the work. I told them all I wanted them to do was a normal shampoo job and nothing extra or special and if it still smells afterwards, so be it.
- I’ll tip both the manager and the worker who cleans the car, before they start.
- I don’t care how long I have to wait and am happy for them to do it at their convenience because I could see they were really busy.
After I stated these points, I got my wallet out and shoved some cash in his hand before he even had a chance to respond. Then he nodded, whistled for one of his cleaning guys, explained what needed to be done to him, they took my keys, and immediately pulled my car into a bay and started cleaning the hell out of it….all within 5 minutes of me pulling up to a super busy place with lots of people waiting in line to get their cars serviced. This was basically the best case scenario that I could have ever hoped for. And get this, the manager I was dealing with only charged me $40 for the cleaning which is probably why I didn’t even bother asking for a damn receipt. So including the tips, I only spent a total of $60 for the cleaning with zero waiting. And you can see from the video, these guys don’t mess around and do a really professional job. Thank you Red Carpet dudes!