Uber Fired a Driver Over a "Hateful" Tweet About the Company
Earlier this afternoon, Uber driver Christopher J. Ortiz posted the email above informing him that he would be "permanently deactivated" because of a single tweet. "I think that's pretty much fired—for a 'independent contractor,'" Ortiz told Valleywag.
Ortiz, a journalist and startup founder, had driven for Uber in May and June as research for his startup, Newscastic, "which is also in the marketplace space," he said. He was considering starting up again and asked how he could get his account reactivated, which is when he received the email from John Hamby, an Uber operations manager.
If you want to be an Uber driver, don’t say mean things about them on Twitter cc @mcarney @nathanielmott pic.twitter.com/A4GVa75A9u
— Christopher J. Ortiz (@ChrisJOrtiz) October 16, 2014
The odd thing, given prevailing public sentiment about Uber, is that the tweet wasn't hateful, much less mean.
Driving for Uber, not much safer than driving a taxi http://t.co/rEJhvYlK4G
— Christopher J. Ortiz (@ChrisJOrtiz) August 25, 2014
After getting the letter, Ortiz pulled his archive of tweets and found dozens of references to Uber. "90 percent of them are headlines of stories, not my opinions," he said. "I have a bunch of friends who drive and whenever I read a story about Uber, good or bad, I tweet them about it."
Ortiz says he communicated with Hamby before. "Near the end of June, a drunk passenger attacked my car and smashed my rear view mirrors so he knows me from that experience. I had to fight with Uber to pay for the damage and pay me for the days I was unable to drive because of the damage."
Ortiz said Uber ended up paying him about $180 for damges and $250 for time off the road after initially declining. "They made 'an exception' for me."
@mcarney what’s funny is I was an early supporter and advocate for Uber when they first moved to ABQ.
— Christopher J. Ortiz (@ChrisJOrtiz) October 16, 2014
He supported Uber when they launched in Albuquerque and even now doesn't seem banged up about how they treated him. "It's more funny than anything. And I'm sure they are regretting sending that email now," he said. You can read his write-up about the incident on NewsCastic. All's well that ends startup?
I contacted Uber to verify the information and will update the post if I hear back. To contact the author of this post, please email nitasha@gawker.com.