Two different women's stories start like many others.
"It was a girls trip before the wedding," said fiance Erin Madden, who was in Nashville for her bachelorette party.
"Me and four other girls with us we were getting ready to go out to lunch," said Kristen Mangano, who was visiting New Orleans.
So they each called a driver through a ride share app. Erin took an Uber in Nashville. Kristen - a Lyft in New Orleans.
They were different drivers and different cities. But both rides quickly went south.
"We get in the car we notice the seat is wet that one of the girls was sitting in," Kristen said from New Orleans via Facetime, "and we told the driver the seat was wet and he just ignored everything we said to him."
"He eventually was cussing at us and kind of threatening," Erin said, also through Facetime from where she lives in Chicago. She said the women in her car were afraid of their driver who kept mentioning a gun and refused to roll down the windows or turn on the AC on a hot 97-degree Tennessee day.
Erin immediately reported that driver and got a $9 refund for the trip.
Kristen said she just shook off her driver's sullen demeanor until a $150 charge showed up on her card.
"That's when they sent me pictures of the same seat that was wet when we got into the car and at that point I was very upset," she said.
Erin said in Nashville a mysterious charge later showed up on her card too.
"They wouldn't tell me what was happening why I was being charged this 40 dollars," she said.
After multiple attempts to reach Uber, the company sent Erin pictures of a back seat covered with potato chips and an empty cup.
She thinks the driver retaliated after she reported him.
"Where he was saying there chips were was where three behinds would have been!" she said. Both groups of women were traveling during the day, were sober and had no food or drinks in the car.
Kristen said it took more than seven emails for Lyft to respond.
Neither company has a phone number to call and both girls eventually turned to social media to publicly call the companies out.
"The only response I've gotten from them is from Twitter," Kristen said.
"I felt like I got no response from Uber via the app because that's the only way to talk to them," said Erin.
After days of persistently reaching out to the companies without a response, both eventually were refunded. But they say it's a warning to be aware when getting into a stranger's car.
"That just makes me think that I have to document everything wherever I go," said Kristen.
It took a while for NewsChannel 5 to get ahold of the companies as well. Eventually they each responded. Lyft sent the following statement:
We expect everyone in the Lyft community to treat one another with respect, and these types of instances are very rare. When we receive a report that a driver's car has been damaged, our Trust & Safety team investigates the incident. Per our terms of service, passengers who damage a driver's car may be charged a cleaning fee of up to $250.
Though pressed for more direct answers, Lyft's representative did not respond.
Uber called NewsChannel 5's Rebecca Schleicher and discussed the matter in detail over the phone. A representative said the driver involved is currently suspended from driving for Uber until the investigation is complete. Uber uses a two-way communication system through the app to hear both the driver and the rider's side of the story, she said. And Uber is planning to test phone lines in certain cities in the future.
Uber says it's a problem for drivers, too. Sometimes unruly riders can damage the driver's property and it becomes a he said-she said scenario.
For more tips on how to stay safe while using ride sharing apps, click here.
