Gig workers are regularly kicked off on-demand apps, hindering their ability to earn money, in what seems like an unending cycle caused by the prevalence of fraud on the platforms and the nature of the relationship between gig companies and workers.
Recently, a Massachusetts-based driver suspected of fraud had his account deactivated by Uber Technologies Inc.
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then reactivated after MarketWatch contacted the company and asked questions about his case. MarketWatch’s story about that driver prompted more than 30 other workers, most of them gig workers, to share their complaints. Because 26 of them said they worked for Uber, MarketWatch focused on the ride-hailing and delivery giant for this story.
After MarketWatch asked Uber questions about nine of those cases, the company said it took another look and reactivated two drivers. Uber also asked another driver to upload documents in order to be reactivated, and resolved a case in which a driver’s ability to access instant payments was suspended because of suspected fraud.
The drivers who contacted MarketWatch — many of whom had been working for Uber for several years and were from seven different states — said they were dissatisfied with the company’s explanations, which they said were vague, confusing or both.
Based on the drivers’ stories and the company’s response, what’s clear is that the problem is widespread and ongoing. Drivers are constantly being deactivated — with some of them telling MarketWatch that they had been deactivated multiple times — while Uber says it is scrambling to deal with fraud as bad actors adjust to the many different safeguards the company has put in place.
Though Uber has said most of its drivers work part time, many of the drivers who contacted MarketWatch said they were “desperate” to get their primary source of income back.
Christian Shibeshi is a Seattle-based driver who had been driving for Uber for about eight years, mostly full time, before he was deactivated in November on suspicion of fraud. He said he had two phones, a practice common among ride-hailing drivers who work for both Uber and Lyft Inc.
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or who want to make sure that if one phone loses its signal or connection, they have a backup where they can continue to receive ride requests.
After logging into the app on a second phone, he said, he was asked to take a photo of himself, and was deactivated after the company said the photo didn’t look like him. But footage from his dashcam helped show the company he was where he said he was at the time of his deactivation.
“I would never risk my income this way,” Shibeshi said he told the company. “My life is totally dependent on Uber.”
After MarketWatch asked the company about Shibeshi’s case, he was allowed back on the app earlier this month.
But for the almost six months he was deactivated, he said, he relied on food stamps, credit cards and the kindness of others to support his family, which includes his wife and now 15-month-old son.
“I didn’t have any income, and I was really struggling,” Shibeshi said.
The issue was made worse by the fact that his deactivation came just two months after he’d bought a 2020 Cadillac Escalade for about $65,000 for the purpose of driving it for the company’s premium service, Uber Black, which at the time required that vehicles be no older than five years old. He went a few times to an Uber Hub, where drivers can speak to support agents in person, he said, and also called support 10 to 20 times.
“I would call daily, weekly, then once a month,” Shibeshi said. He would speak to somebody different each time, he said, and sometimes the agent would simply read back the same information Uber had already sent him in the app.
A spokesperson for Uber said the company has “processes and policies in place to ensure that the actions we take in response are proportionate and fair” when it receives reports of fraud or behavior that violates its guidelines.
“We understand that deactivating a driver’s account is a very serious decision,” said Uber spokesperson Austen Radcliff.
When a driver is deactivated and appeals the decision, the appeals process is human-led, the company has said. Drivers who are not automatically deactivated receive in-app warnings beforehand telling them why, according to the company.
Yet the company has said it can deactivate a driver without warning in cases where it has determined that a driver has engaged in unlawful or fraudulent behavior, or when it receives reports that need immediate review for legal or safety reasons.
“Fraud is an incredibly complex, ever-changing issue that affects many industries,” Radcliff added. “Over the years, we’ve implemented many checks to detect fraudulent activity on the platform, and are constantly evaluating our detection methods and triggers as techniques evolve.”
The company said it uses more than 100 fraud-detection checks, and that it reminds drivers, by email and in their earnings statements, to watch out for scams.
See: ‘I don’t know how I fell for this’: How scammers target vulnerable gig workers, and why it may never end
Other drivers who maintained they were wrongly deactivated and whose cases Uber said it re-reviewed did not get reactivated. Among the reasons Uber cited: multiple safety reports, valid fraud flags, multiple fraud triggers, and a pattern of submitting fraudulent documents. The company said it “carefully considers” when a driver says he or she has been a victim of fraud or a compromised account.
Several states and at least one city are trying to address the deactivation issue, which can also stem from other reasons, such as excessive rider complaints that may or may not be justified.
In New York and New Jersey, there’s an appeals process through the Independent Drivers Guild. A law in Washington state that took effect this year includes a provision for a resource center that’s supposed to represent workers in deactivation cases. A proposed ordinance in Chicago would give gig workers 14 days’ notice, and establish an appeals process, for deactivations. And under Massachusetts law, that state’s department of public utilities’ TNC (transportation network companies) division can play a role in deactivations.
See: Uber and Lyft drivers are facing discrimination from customers — and getting banned from the apps, report finds
Jim Bannister of the Raleigh, N.C., area, had been driving for Uber for more than six years before he was kicked off the app in February. His situation had similarities to that of Shibeshi: Bannister had just finished a ride when the company asked him to take a photo of himself, he told MarketWatch, and he was “deactivated at that moment.”
He then contacted support and was told two different things: first, that someone had tried to access his account and that he should change his password, and second, that the photo he uploaded did not look like him, he said.
“I have always gone by Uber rules and never violated any of them,” he said.
Bannister, who said driving for Uber is his full-time job, said he tried contacting support by email and phone maybe 100 times to try to appeal his deactivation. He was told over and over again that the decision was final. But after MarketWatch asked Uber about his case, he was allowed back on the app in early April. The company said he was reactivated with “a final warning about possible fraud.”
Before he was reactivated, Bannister said, he was considering selling the new Toyota RAV4 Hybrid he bought last year to do Uber Comfort rides. Uber Comfort provides passengers with rides in newer and more spacious cars.
“This has kind of left me scared and unsure what the future holds as to purchasing a more expensive car to offer better service,” he said. “I don’t know if or when they might decide to deactivate me again.”
Shibeshi, meanwhile, said he is grateful to be back on the Uber app, but is attending a coding bootcamp and making plans for a future that doesn’t involve the risk of losing his only source of income at any given moment.
“I want to build a career,” he said. He was only 21 when he started driving for Uber, he added, and “while the money was good at the time … I definitely see that I can’t build a future with this.”
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