Posted November 12, 2018 05:03:22What happens when you hire an Uber or Lyft driver, and the company charges you a flat rate for the ride?
This is the story of the one and only Bill William lawyer who tried to make a quick buck by charging his former clients to take him around the city.
William is now facing a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York.
Willingham told the New York Times that he used a $1,000 Uber fare as a pretext to get around New York City.
He says that when he contacted Uber in March to discuss a potential gig, the company was “completely upfront” and told him the fee would be $500.
“The whole thing was a scam,” William told the Times.
As we previously reported, the attorney, who previously worked for the New Jersey Department of Transportation, has been on a crusade against Uber and Lyft.
Willliam said that he has used the service for work and personal travel, and he also told a friend that he wanted to start his own Uber-like service.
Willliam says that he was hired by his former client, William William, a lawyer who works at a law firm in Manhattan.
Willoughly was charged $1 to ride Willliam around the country and back.
Willhiam says that Willliam’s $500 fee was not disclosed to him.
In May, Willliam filed a lawsuit against Uber, Lyft, and New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
The suit alleges that Uber violated his civil rights and was defrauding New York consumers by charging him and his former customers a flat fee.
According to Willliam, the Uber drivers were charging him an average of $800 per trip, which amounted to more than $7,500 a year.
The lawsuit also alleges that Lyft and Uber have violated New York’s Consumer Protection Act and that the company did not properly disclose the flat fee it charged Willliam.
I spoke with Willliam on Monday and asked him about his lawsuit against Lyft and the flat rate Uber charges, and I also asked him why he didn’t tell Uber that he needed a New York driver license.
We were also able to speak with a New Jersey taxi driver who has been using Uber for two years, and we spoke to a New Yorker who had been using Lyft for a year, and a woman who had used Uber for a month, all of whom told me that the flat fare was not advertised at all.
I asked Willliam why he was charging so much.
Will told me, “We don’t advertise anything.”
He said, “I am a lawyer, and that is my job.”
I told him that Uber, and its drivers, had the right to charge whatever fee they wanted to.
Will asked if I was a lawyer.
I told Willliam that I am a legal scholar.
He asked me, What do you want me to do?
I said, Get in a lawsuit.
What happened next?
William filed the lawsuit in May against Uber in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Since then, he has been contacted by dozens of people who say that they have used Uber to get into the city, and Willliam has reached out to the New Yorker and Uber drivers to ask them if they have been charged the flat price.
If you want to learn more about the lawsuit, you can read it here.
Update: On November 12th, William sent a follow-up email to The New York Post with a list of Uber drivers and Uber’s drivers in New York and New Jersey.
Will said that the drivers had told him they have received “numerous” phone calls and emails from Willliam and that they would contact him if he received a response.