Ottawa woman feels misled by Uber Eats driver

Customer: Man uses fake Uber Eats profile An Ottawa woman refuses to use Uber Eats after the company failed to address her concerns over a driver allegedly using a fake profile.

An Ottawa woman says she has serious safety concerns about Uber Eats, after twice being assigned a driver who wasn't who they said they were going to be.

Typically, when a client places a food delivery order through Uber Eats, they receive a message telling them the name of their driver, along with their photograph.

On its website, Uber advises all drivers to upload clear and well-lit photos of themselves, so that customers can know who is coming to the door.

But Brittney Palmer says not all drivers are following those rules.

Two months ago, the Ottawa resident placed an order with Uber Eats and was told her driver would be a young woman named Rana. But when her driver arrived, “Rana” turned out to be an older man.

She asked the driver why he didn’t match his own profile photo.

“And he goes, ‘Oh, this is just my profile’,” Palmer told CTV Ottawa.

“And I was like, ‘But this isn’t you. You are an elderly man who’s here to deliver my food, when your profile photo is clearly of a young female.’ And he was like, ‘It’s okay’ and he left.”

The encounter left Palmer wondering what would make drivers use deceptive photos of themselves.

“What's wrong with your record that you need someone else's photo to get hired? That’s a huge concern especially if I was to let them into my apartment,” she said.

Palmer said she used to choose Uber Eats precisely because the service allows her to have a photo of the driver who will come to door. She lives in a secure apartment building and doesn’t like to open the main door for anyone she isn’t expecting.

Stunned that her delivery man was using a misleading profile, Palmer left her delivery a negative review and sent the company a message to complain about what happened.

The company responded by acknowledging her concerns, and promising to take “appropriate actions.“

"We understand that you would have safety concerns when this information does not match who delivers your food,” a company representative told her. “I have taken note of your feedback regarding the delivery partner for our team to be aware of the issue and rest assured that appropriate actions will be made."

But when Palmer ordered from Uber Eats again last week, she was assigned the same driver, who was still using the same fake profile photo and name.

Palmer says Uber Eats clearly didn’t deal with the problem the first time. Now, she’s questioning Uber's screening systems and wonders how many other deceptive profiles exist. She also wonders whether her experience means she can’t trust all of Uber’s services.

Palmer says she will no longer use Uber Eats, or Uber’s ride-sharing service again.

With a report from CTV Ottawa’s Annie Bergeron-Oliver