Uber accused of unfair price gouging on Halloween

Anyone else miss Hailo already? Uber, now the reigning taxi-hailing app in Toronto, celebrated its victory over the competition on Halloween night by breaking out everyone's least favourite par of their business model: surge pricing. When demand goes way up for cabs - like on holidays, say, or during acts of God - Uber multiplies the fare (Uber users in New York have seen rates go as high as 800%), and pockets the extra.

This weekend, we received a tip from an irate reader who was asked to pay $71.75 for a ride from the CityPlace area to King and Bathurst. The driver started the meter before the cab even arrived, which kept her from agreeing to the surge pricing, which was set at five times the normal fare. "The driver and I both weren't aware of the price peak until the end of the ride," she adds. It's not the $362 Halloween ride that one New York woman decided to crowdfund, but that's still some nasty sticker shock. (Our question: Why did the cabbie go all the way up to Dundas?)

Did you encounter Uber's surge pricing on Halloween? Tell us about it in the comments.

Photo via sarahholdy on Instagram.

by Natalia Manzocco via blogTO