https://www.facebook.com/Austin.TX.ADAPT/photos/pcb.1380370475480996/1380369972147713/?type=3&__tn__=HH-R&eid=ARCRr48IXboNltCHzKxO75zQcxfuLnpJRoVHTvo6OB7TVyo-EBwyGRj6x4F-Jm6dxVNgEOS-HPZqNn9Z&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARA7suRj2UL5jjnh4QMWdpg92o8l82Mwh8FrOuUuMgMGWLX2uwv9CWzB7SkcpulwpfMOXkjV1nKGH_hi952Dx6yVUl-RrJ2wonhV66IZWlGjp3oBfTsYeU3i6TRZSbVSRCNQ0TcnNQivjaZZ93yVd5EJLW0eHQIG0Q1F_9Cgj92ikroeaZLmLvDsH2ou5iOC3r3CtDKgpTRd3pYcWZCfeaaor_4PBx5DXQuIffuxZwIF5CVZHgZP6JPLXWz37AITMoPwfaXFa6PYFoiyEvkTBIpDCF1kSr0dkA1Kj6ACezgpoAGT6G8FJK2RYzIU2v1RJ7mkBrQNn8UWLKooYb90-mKXBg
The day Coronavirus shutdown SXSW, ADAPT of Texas shutdown Uber in Austin!
In the last several months, since ADAPT of Texas settled their lawsuit against Uber, the WAV (Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle) service has gone down the toilet. People wait for hours while non-wheelchair using passengers are picked up within minutes. Sometimes no one EVER comes to pick our folks up. The App is giving folks issues too. Basically a pretty good service has been trashed.
Austin ADAPT folks were sick and tired of this treatment. So last Friday a delegation of our peeps went down to their offices to ask them what was up and let them know their lousy service was not OK with us.
We rolled in to a very modern, lobby with video screen telling who was being picked up where (at least non-disabled folks) and exposed pipes in the ceiling and folks on laptops perched on barstool seats and helping callers. But for all their support and monitoring they were clueless as to the problems our folks had been trying to report for weeks. So we hung out while some mid-level manager took our demands and tried to get us an answer from above. But Uber is apparently as unresponsive to their local management as they are to their customers who use wheelchairs. The powers that be remained hidden in their corporate cloud, apparently too afraid to face the situation. No phone numbers, no names, no contact was given. As 5 pm eastern time approached, we starting chanting and blowing our wheelchair horns — which sounded oddly appropriate in this loft type setting. All the support staff left (no loss there, since they gave us no support) and the security guard began trying to control us. No luck with that. So eventually, while they couldn’t get through to the powers that be in Uber universe, they could get through to the police. After a while two policemen showed up and we were escorted from the building.
But we are not done yet…