A $150 “cleaning fee” appeared for a mess you didn’t make. The driver took the long way and the fare doubled. Your suitcase came out of the boot with a broken wheel. You left your phone in the car and the driver wants $80 to return it. And the app’s “help” section is a maze of pre-written answers with no human at the end.
Rideshare companies are built to make disputes exhausting. But they operate in Australia, under Australian law, and the fact that you clicked “agree” on their terms doesn’t take away your rights.
Your rights
- Consumer guarantees (ss 60–62 ACL). A ride is a service. It must be provided with due care and skill (safe driving, reasonable route) and fit for purpose. Damage to your property in the vehicle, or a route that inflates the fare, breaches these.
- The platform is a supplier. Uber, DiDi, Ola and others have argued they’re just “technology platforms”. Australian courts and regulators treat them as suppliers of the service to consumers, and the ACL applies. The ACCC fined Uber $21 million in 2022 for misleading cancellation and fare messaging.
- Misleading conduct and false pricing (ss 18, 29 ACL). Upfront fares that change without a legitimate reason, fees you weren’t warned about, and bogus “cleaning fees” are misleading representations about price.
- Unauthorised charges. A cleaning fee or damage fee added after the ride is a charge you didn’t authorise. You can dispute it with the platform and, if they refuse, via chargeback with your bank.
- State point-to-point transport laws. Every state regulates rideshare (e.g. New South Wales Point to Point Transport (Taxis and Hire Vehicles) Act 2016, Victoria’s Commercial Passenger Vehicle Industry Act 2017). Drivers must be accredited and there’s a regulator you can complain to about driver conduct.
- Lost property. A driver can’t hold your property hostage for a fee. Platforms typically allow a modest return fee, but demanding more, or refusing to return it, may be conversion (a civil wrong) or theft.
What to do right now
- Screenshot everything in the app. Trip details, map/route, upfront fare vs. charged fare, receipt, any fee notification, and any photos the driver submitted for a cleaning fee claim. Do this before the trip drops off your history.
- Dispute in-app first, in writing. Use the “get help” flow on the specific trip, state the facts clearly, and ask for a refund. Keep the ticket number and every reply. This creates the record you need.
- If they refuse or stall, escalate within the company. Ask for the complaint to be escalated to a supervisor or the Australian complaints team. Email their Australian support address rather than the app.
- Chargeback for unauthorised fees. For a cleaning or damage fee you dispute, call your bank and request a chargeback as an unauthorised or “not as described” charge. Provide your screenshots.
- Send a Letter of Demand for property damage or larger amounts. For a broken suitcase, damaged goods, or repeated overcharging, a formal letter to the platform’s Australian entity (e.g. Uber Australia Pty Ltd) citing the ACL, quantifying the loss, and setting a deadline before a fair trading complaint and tribunal claim gets a different level of response than the app chat.
- Report the driver. To the platform and, for safety or conduct issues, to your state point-to-point transport regulator.
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The cleaning fee scam, specifically
The pattern: a driver submits photos of vomit or a spill (often from a different trip, or staged), the platform charges $80–$150 to the last passenger’s card, and the passenger finds out from their bank statement.
How to fight it:
- Ask for the photos and the timestamp. The platform must provide the evidence they relied on. Check the photos for the car interior (does it match?), lighting (day vs. night), and metadata if available.
- Prove your trip was clean. If you had a companion, get their statement. If you took a photo in the car, or have a message sent from the car around that time, it helps.
- Check the driver’s pattern. You can’t see it, but the platform can. Ask them in writing whether the driver has submitted other cleaning fee claims. Serial claimers get caught when passengers push.
- Chargeback. If the platform won’t reverse it, your bank will. A post-trip fee you didn’t agree to and dispute is a textbook unauthorised charge.
Route and fare inflation. Compare the route on your receipt with the direct route on a map. If the driver detoured significantly, the platform’s fare review usually refunds the difference when you show the map. If the “upfront” fare changed after the trip, ask for the specific reason: platforms are only allowed to vary it for genuine route changes you requested or stops you added.
Lost items. Platforms typically cap the return fee at a modest amount (around $15–$20). If a driver is demanding more, or refusing to return your property, report to the platform and, if it’s valuable, to police as a stolen/retained property matter. A Letter of Demand for the item’s value also works: drivers are identifiable through the platform.
Who to complain to
ACCC (misleading fares and fees), state fair trading, and the state transport regulator: New South Wales Point to Point Transport Commissioner, Safe Transport Victoria, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, Western Australia Department of Transport (On-demand Transport), South Australia Department for Infrastructure and Transport. For a card dispute your bank refuses to handle, AFCA. Money claims: your state civil tribunal, naming the platform’s Australian company.
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What happens when you send a Letter of Demand
Same problem. What a prepared case looks like.