Some people are having issues deleting their Uber accounts

January 31, 2017

Some people are having issues deleting their Uber accounts — here's why

uber protest

Many #deleteUber protestors went beyond just uninstalling the app from their phones, opting to delete their account entirely. Now days after the movement went viral, people are complaining on Twitter that the company either hasn't deleted their accounts or is taking too long.

The fresh round of outrage comes on the heels of an email sent to those who had deleted their account, asking them to click an extra link to complete the process days after they thought they had deleted it.

The company will delete the accounts of anyone who requested, but it's taking longer than usual after Uber needed to build a system to catch up with the volume of requests from its riders outraged over the company's ties to Trump and its actions during a taxi strike at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

"Anyone who requested that their account be deleted will have their account deleted, and reports to the contrary are false," an Uber spokesperson told Business Insider. "Over the weekend we implemented a new automated process to handle an increased volume of requests and implemented a password check, a security best practice to avoid abuse and fraud."

Normally, Uber handles all deletion requests one-by-one manually through its support centers. Up until this last weekend, the manual system to close out each request has worked for the normal level of deletion request it sees. That changed with the #deleteUber movement.

As it started trending on Twitter, and downloads of Lyft spiked, the company's systems suddenly had an unprecedented number of requests at once. Uber, in response, quickly built a new system that would help it automatically respond to each request with a special link to delete a user's account. For account security, all that was needed was for users to re-enter their password, and the account would be deleted.

Yet the emails it sent out after it had the new system up and running— in some cases, over a day since the deletion request — made some users upset that it took Uber so long to even get around to it. In other cases, people were getting error messages, although this could be because they have both a rider and driver account or still have Uber credits in the system.

@Bro_Pair @Uber @Uber_Support @Uber_NY http://pic.twitter.com/yD7HiBX7Fc
— Knuck if u Bakunin (@caseyjwheldon) January 31, 2017

Beyond just adding the link to delete a user's account, Uber's new cancellation email also reiterates that the company "supports your views on the immigration ban: it's unjust, wrong and against everything we stand for as a company."

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