Taxi Driver In China Hunts Down American Tourist Who Accidentally Paid $960 For $10 Fare, Returns The Money

An American tourist accidentally paid 100 times the normal fare for a taxi ride using a mobile payment app, but the taxi driver found him and returned almost $960 to the tourist.

Zhang Peng, a taxi driver in the Shaanxi province’s capital of Xian, noticed the tourist’s error in payment when opening the wallet of an app used to pay driver’s fares called WeChat, a Chinese social media, messaging, and transnational app. Once opening, the driver found an “abnormally large” deposit of 6,500 yuan, which is $960, in his account according to South China Morning Post on Wednesday.

Looking at the timestamp on the app, Zhang realized the payment was more than likely made by a party of four American tourists he drove from a local train station to their hotel, whose fare was only 65 yuan. Asking the taxi company’s dispatchers for help tracking down the group with no avail, Zhang drove back to the hotel to drop them off, the report said.

The taxi driver declined a reward for his honesty. https://t.co/CwF9nl1hBy

— The Drive (@thedrive) July 25, 2018

After explaining the situation to the hotel receptionists, the customer who overpaid the fare was found only by his surname, a Mr. Liu. Being called down to the front desk, the report said Zhang explained what happened. Liu said he was making his first trip to the city and was confused by the layout of the payment app, which was different than apps used in the U.S. such as Uber and Lyft.

“These systems like WeChat Pay and Alipay are all new to me,” Liu said. “I don’t really know how to use them. In the U.S. when I pay, there is usually a space for decimal points, so I thought I had to do the same here.”

Liu was reportedly grateful for the driver’s honesty and offered to let Zhang keep 3,200 yuan, $420, as a reward. However, the driver refunded the full 6,500 yuan, plus the 65 yuan he was owed for the ride. Although Zhang would not take the reward, Liu tried to return the kindness by leaving a highly positive review for the driver online.

“I can’t believe it,” Liu wrote in the online review. “For some people, money is there only goal, and 6,500 yuan is a lot of money. I felt so excited yesterday because you returned it. I really appreciate it.”

With the recent stories surfacing about “Uber nightmares,” Zhang chose to go “above and beyond” extending customer service, leaving one American tourist extremely grateful and ready to visit China again.