A general manager at Uber NYC hopped into a Twitter spat Monday evening with a taxi rider who was ditched by a driver using the e-hail service app.
Erin McCann, an editor at the Guardian in New York, complained on Twitter that the driver of a green outerborough taxi she hailed in Williamsburg had wanted her out in order to pick up the likely more lucrative Uber fare.
When she wrote that she took down the hack’s information to complain, Josh Mohrer of Uber defended the driver as “likely just trying to feed his family and you threatened to put his livelihood in jeopardy.”
During a lengthy back-and-forth between McCann and other Twitter users, Mohrer also wrote to McCann, “how many shifts have you done driving a boro-taxi?”
Taxi drivers cannot reject a passenger after accepting a hail to pick up another fare, according to Taxi and Limousine spokesman Allan Fromberg.
“The hail takes priority if the cab was on-duty at the time of the hail,” he said.
McCann declined additional comment and an Uber rep did not immediately respond to a request for a statement.
Ultimately, Mohrer conceded he “misspoke” and “inappropriately overreached in my explanation.”
