GetTaxi Claims Uber Employees Played Dirty By Ordering, Then Canceling A Bunch Of Cars

Let the games begin. Or continue.

Just as badly as you want a car to whisk you away through the snowy streets, so do the companies that run those car services want to be the ones to provide you with your ride. And it sounds like it’s getting dirty out there, with one rival of service Uber claiming company employees pulled the nasty trick of ordering up a hundred of its cars and then canceling.

GetTaxi (or Gett, as it’s also known) claims that Uber workers in New York called up a hundred or so cars over three days last week, only to call a kibosh on the cars once the workers were sent the Gett drivers’ phone numbers, reports CNNMoney.

With those numbers in hand, Gett says Uber works then texted the drivers to try and recruit them over to Uber. Sneaky, if true, and it appears it might be, if the screenshots of texts given to CNNMoney are the real thing.

Uber sounds like it knows about this employment of potentially questionable tactics, saying its workers maybe took things a little too far.

“Our local teams can be pretty determined when spreading the word about Uber and how our platform opens up new economic opportunities for drivers,” Uber said in a statement. “In this instance, the New York City team was a bit too ambitious and we’ll make sure they tone down their sales tactics.”

In other words: Kids will be kids, right?

But Gett’s CEO Jing Herman doesn’t sound like she’s ready to let this one slide, calling the incident something like a “denial of service attack,” as it mucked up the company’s business.

“During a very short period of time when we had a hundred cancellations that took up a hundred drivers, those hundred drivers could have served a hundred of our legitimate customers who weren’t able to get a car or had to wait much longer to get a car,” she told CNNMoney.

And while it appears more than a dozen Uber employees could’ve been involved in the alleged scheme, Gett employees can’t even retaliate — many of them are blocked from using Uber.

“Personally, I’ve been blocked for the last few months,” Herman explains.

It’s unclear whether Gett will pursue legal action against Uber, which it likely could do under a claim of unfair business practices, one attorney explains.

“If Uber employees intentionally diverted Gett drivers from legitimate business by making phony calls, that is an unfair business practice, illegal under California law,” he said. “It is also an intentional interference with Gett’s business which makes them liable for money damages.”

Uber rival accuses car service of dirty tactics [CNNMoney]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist