Bicycle-hire customer in China charged US$60,000 for 20 minutes
Problem traced to system upgrade glitch of popular mainland bike-sharing app
A man who hired a bicycle in an eastern Chinese city for about 20 minutes was shocked to discover he was charged more than 410,000 yuan (US$60,000), a local newspaper reported.
The charge for the bicycle-sharing app Xiaoming Bike continued to soar even after the rider returned the bike, the City Express reported.
The rider, surnamed Shi, downloaded the App and registered an account when he went out for a walk on Tuesday night in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province. He also paid a 199-yuan security deposited and connected the App to his bank account.
He started cycling at 7.29 pm and returned the bike at 7.50pm but the App did not stop calculating the charge.
According to the report, the rider was appalled when he re-examined his bill to see it had risen to 414,588 yuan only five minutes after it showed only costing 1 yuan. The bill continued to rise later but did not deduct money from Shi’s bank account.