Uber Shut Down Spree – Accounts Locked For Gift Card Loads
There is an Uber shut down spree going on for accounts that have loaded discounted Uber gift cards in the past. Many of these accounts have substantial balances in their accounts, some over $1000. If you have loaded discounted Uber gift cards to your account it is worth checking. My account seems to be intact for now and I have a $100 balance that I was planning on using this weekend so fingers crossed that it stays that way.
There are a ton of data points on Doctor of Credit’s post about it in the comments. Many of these gift cards were purchased from Amazon and Walmart when they offer 10%-15% off. I am not sure what Uber is thinking here unless they are looking for a class action lawsuit. How can you mass lock down accounts just because they used gift cards that you offer up for sale everywhere?
Hopefully it is just a glitch or something that will be fixed quickly. It doesn’t appear from the comments that anyone has been able to get a definitive answer from Uber what is going on. Some have been asked to provide them the full gift card code from their last few loads etc.
This sounds very similar to American Airlines shutting down accounts without notice or any explanation. Hopefully this is not a trend we continue to see in 2020. Let us know in the comments if you were shut down and what balance you had. Also how many recent loads you had. Hopefully someone gets an explanation out of Uber soon.
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For 2 years,
Every month 150-200 usd gift card. Stores allow only cash or debit card.
Left balance was around 300usd when i was banned. Now reactivated again.
Who does crime when they must shout what time exactly and where(detailed address) they depart and arrive leaving real name, phone number and card infos..??
Whether i spend debit card or cash, i can not remember exactly. I buy 30-50 usd a week. Cvs or walmart. Maybe post office? Not sure.
Shut down my teenage son’s account, leaving him stranded!
The gift card I purchased for him through the APP itself!!
This is BS.
That is really messed up. Has to be a glitch of some kind otherwise this makes no sense.
Oh my god. It sounds like horror movie. I am an adult at age 40 and carries other cards to suddenly make lyft account.
But your son as teen could not have such access. Many kids don’t have cards in wallet i know. Uber really need to know they could have ruined innocent people’s life itself.
Locked out of my account. $75 in UberCash frozen. Always add gcs when needed – except last week I thought I would need UberCash for two rides but Lyft was way cheaper. Lyft is always cheaper here in NYC so I mainly use the credits for UberEats. All cards bought from BBY and BJ’s deals. This is more egregious than the AA shutdown. Daylight robbery.
Hopefully they release everyone’s funds
I use uber to and from work so I buy the gift cards at a grocery store without any discount and still had my account shut down. I didnt have a large amount either. I only loaded about 75 every 7-10 days…
I guess all gift cards are triggering it – weird
I do not think that AA made a mistake by shutting down accounts that defrauded them. It’s even crazier to assume that somehow AA was in the wrong.
I can’t stand AA, and limit my flights to only if I absolutely must. But it truly boggles the mind that you seem to feel that being able to get away with fraud is ok.
Sure, no doubt some who have done nothing but got swept into this wave of shut downs, but that’s normal, there are always innocent victims who are collateral damage so to speak.
The majority of those who got shut down are the ones who abused the system. Just because there is a loophole does not mean that you should behave unethically and take advantage knowing fully that you are wrong.
If I were AA, and had concrete proof, I’d go after the heavier abusers with a lawsuit and make them pay back every copper penny. Use this as a teachable moment.
The issue I have with AA is more of how they are handling it. No notice, no communication and leaving people in limbo with upcoming travel or cancelling during the middle of their travel leaving them stranded without a word.
Now I will say there are people that used mailers sent specifically to them and still got caught up in this…that should not happen. The truth is they don’t know for sure who did what and shut everyone down.
You also forget that these mailers did not have no transfer info on them or terms like that of any kind so most of these are not “mail fraud”. The only people that really should have been shut down in my opinion is people that made multiple accounts to get the mailers. The number of shut downs and the number of the people with multiple accounts (the only ones that fall even near mail fraud) are quite different numbers.
But as I said my bigger issue is them not letting anyone know what is going on the same thing Uber did here. No notice, no reasoning just a account freeze and nothing further.
Shut down with around $350 Uber cash balance…all from GCs bought on Amazon, BJ’s and a few on Raise.
That is terrible – hopefully it gets straightened out soon.
This is not the same as American Airlines. There, the accounts that got shut down were abusing the system.
And there were accounts shut down that were not abusing the system too – that got mailers sent to them. Also I was talking more about them having no communication, no dialogue on why the account was shut down. You don’t think AA made mistakes with their wide brush?
I have many discounted gift cards but since I only use uber 2 or 3 times a year I only load them when needed.
I am always worried about losing them so I load them as soon as I get them. Same with Amazon