Pending amount [card] in a Foreign country - Argentina.

I’m not sure if this is the right channel to explain my situation. I would like to preface this block of text by saying that I’m in no way venting, I’m more trying to find a solution to a problem that at this moment seems impossible to resolve. I have been an uber user since 2013 , during this time I’ve visited many countries, in the world: China , Australia, US, Thailand, Brazil. I was always able to get an uber without any issue whatsoever, with almost 0 incidents. I’ve used other platforms but I feel like Uber is the most international in its niche. Last September I arrived to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and ordered one at the airport , the car came and transported me to my temporary apartment. The charge was 4200 Argentinian pesos / $4 USD

This is where the terror story begins…

I had a message stating that my payment method failed. OK, I thought , it might be issues with a specific card vendor , it was visa, I might use another card, master card. On the phone screen , again, same message, Payment Failed, please try another payment method. I tried 8 different cards from 8 different services. I tried paypal. Didn’t work.

I contacted customer service with this precise enquiry , and they replied that they didn’t understand, that it would help if I attached a graphical evidence of this. OK, I thought , I added a screenshot of the payment method failing. Customer service reply was : Sir, you have to change your payment method so that you can clear your outstanding balance (wow, such an insightful reply, I’ve done this like 28 times already)

I stopped using Uber, after several attempts trying to be as eloquent as possible, to make work easier for them, customer service will come back with a copy paste reply with some employee name attached. I forgot about it for two months. I forgot about the incident. Somehow I thought that when I moved country I would be able to clear the problem.

I kept on travelling and on arrival to Sao Paulo airport in Brazil , I was in dire need of an uber, since there was a problem with local taxis at the airport . It was 1am, I was tired , carrying suitcases etc… trying to change the card number again and again, it didn’t work. However , it let me add uber cash, I was so hopeful this would indeed clear my balance . The app let me buy 100 BRS, which is like $20 USD. I tried to use that balance to clear those $4 USD. I get an error screen, impossible , try another payment method.

I contacted customer service again, they told me that the information in my message is not clear. I feel almost gaslighted, dehumanized, I ended up spending 3 hours at the airport and found a normal local taxi that was 3 times the price of a normal uber.

My question is … in all honesty , have I lost access to uber forever? I feel like there is no way back. I can’t create another account with the same email/number, right?

Also customer service takes days to reply , that’s also normal, right?

Does anyone have any suggestions that are actually practical and functional? All I want is to have the account there and move on with my life. :)

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