“For a week, I had nothing”: Fighting for insurance coverage

I had an accident, somebody backed up and hit my car, and when I called Uber, it was an argument. They told me, “Go and call your personal insurance.” I said, “Personal insurance has nothing to do with this, because I had just dropped somebody off and had received another call I was going to.” Uber said, "Oh, your personal insurance will do it." I said "No, it's not on my insurance, I was working." It became an argument.

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“It was like a trick”: Uber’s bait & switch

I was a cab driver. I used to drive my for-hire vehicle, and I picked up one of the Uber employees, and we sat in the car. He said it was good. He kept calling me, we started texting one another. I talked to the drivers who drive for Uber and they said, “Yeah, we're doing good.” I knew a guy who had King County & City of Seattle for-hire licenses—he went and turned in his licenses and went to work for Uber. I went in and they told me, “If you want to work for us, you can no longer be a for-hire driver. If you want to join, change the color of your car and come join.” I said okay. I went and turned my for-hire license back in, I painted my car, and I went to work for Uber.

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“When the day comes to replace this car, the money won't be there.”

I’m single, I don’t have any other debts, I do alright. But if I have a bad day or a couple bad days, I don’t do okay. And when the day comes to replace this car, the money won't be there. That’s something we kinda push to the back of our minds because I think a lot of drivers have cars that we just got recently, they’re still under warranty, so we just kinda don’t think about that reality: that two or three years from now, repairs are gonna start happening, we’ll be wanting to replace them, and we won’t be able to do it. There won’t be money for a down payment.

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