“Uber driver suing Restaurant Manager and her employer, Logan Tavern, for defamation over a perceived bad review.”

“Dear PoPville,

A DC Restaurant Manager shared an Uber pool with two others and left NO review but that didn’t deter the Uber driver from suing her and her employer, Logan Tavern, for defamation over a perceived bad review.

I’ve sent three unanswered emails to UBER, left two phone messages unanswered and sent Twitter DM’s and FB DM’s.

They responded to FB DM by telling me they couldn’t help and the Twitter DM evoked a response of concern and twice a promise to get back though they never did.

I am somewhat surprised and at the same time not surprised at all that no one from Uber would even get back to me re the emails nor the two different phone messages I left Monday, one in Chicago and one in in San Fran.

I would suppose it’s indicative of larger structural issues or just plain apathy.

I am an Uber and Uber Eats customer.

I also own 5 restaurants that are all Uber Eats partners in Washington DC.

One of my Managers shared an Uber pool with two other people on Jan 30th from her home in DC, on Rhode Island Ave NE.

The driver dropped her at her place of employment, my restaurant, Logan Tavern in Washington DC at about 8:30 AM.

The driver then apparently received a bad review and assumed it was my manager. He came back to where he dropped her off 30 minutes later, Logan Tavern, and verbally assaulted her demanding she retract the the review. She tried to explain to him it was not her, that she had not left any review but he continued and stated he would sue her if she didn’t retract. We had this on video.

She then contacted Uber directly, through their app, to complain of the abuse and the invasion of her privacy and was given some legal advice to contact the police if he returned or she felt unsafe, a refund of $5.21 and the promise to investigate, which to our knowledge never happened.

The driver then went on and filed suit in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia against her, myself, her employer, and the restaurant, Logan Tavern, for defamation and false claims causing injury and seeking $1200. We received notice from the Superior court of our required appearance Feb 23, 2018.

My employee did not leave a review, that’s on record with UBER.

Our attorney counsels if we, my employee and myself, do not show up for the court date, there will be a summary judgment against us for $1200.

My attorney advises that if he needs to show up for us it will be an all day affair costing me and Logan Tavern $2000 or more.

We have already incurred costs for legal counsel.

If we do appear, I’ve no doubt we will prevail but it wastes my and my employee’s entire day adding further injury and expense to this already egregious situation.

This whole situation is obviously just plain wrong and Uber easily could have stepped in and made this right in a heartbeat but chose to ignore the multiple requests we made for help and relief from their driver’s actions.

David Winer
EatWell DC LLC”