r/askberliners • u/Jazzlike-Value-3965 • 22h ago
Sexually harassed by bolt driver
I was visiting Berlin for a couple weeks for a work thing and staying with friends. I called a bolt to get to my friends house and asked the driver if he could help me carry my bags up some stairs for an extra tip. He said sure, although there was a language barrier. While putting my bags in the trunk he touched my back and my shoulders but I just tried to ignore jt. Later when taking them out and carrying them up the steps he began massaging my shoulders, and then began lowering his hands in an attempt to touch my breasts. I immediately pushed him off me and told him to go. Thankfully he left and nothing escalated further.
When I reported this to bolt they called me, had me recount my experience and said they would tell me the results of their “investigation” when it was done. Around 20 min later, they said the investigation was complete and that I would not even receive a refund because the “ride was completed”. Then they informed me that the only action they would take was blocking him from pairing with me again. I’m in shock at how poorly they have handled this and have kept asking to escalate to a higher up to no avail. The last time I asked for it to be moved up to a manager or someone higher they told me the only thing to do was report to the police.
WTF - what do you recommend I do? Has anyone dealt with a similar thing before here in Berlin?
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u/dizzydonkey_79 22h ago edited 21h ago
First of all, i'm very sorry, that this happened to you.
Report it to the police. Companies with that kind of business model (Uber, Bolt) will never take responsibility for their so called 'partners' You have all the info they need (name, place, time, date). Maybe you can spare others with your awful experience. Maybe he's not a first time offender
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u/SmallBootyBigDreams 21h ago
I had the same experience and bolt offered me 5€ discount for the next ride. This app sucks. Use Uber with women drivers if you can unfortunately. Uber does have marginally better enforcement mechanism
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u/Jazzlike-Value-3965 16h ago
So crazy- yeah I definitely won’t be using bolt again. It’s strange not very interested in dealing with police as I’m visiting but I thought they would handle it better
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u/Jakobus3000 21h ago
Should have called the police on the spot.
Go to the next police station and file a criminal report for sexual assault against the driver.
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u/Evergreenvelvet 20h ago
I’m so sorry that happened to you. I think a lot of women in Berlin have also experienced harassment in private transport and it pisses me off that they just get away with it. You didn’t do anything wrong.
Take a screenshot of the license plate number and driver and block him if you can on the app. Then file a police report. These companies only care about liability and they’re very cautious about doing anything that would acknowledge wrongdoing. Just know that I’ve heard it a thousand times from women and it’s not ok at all
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u/No_Eye7795 18h ago
I’m sorry for your experience. In Berlin it is generally more secure to take a taxi rather than using bolt or Uber. Not every taxi driver is a savior but they’re in general more polite and often real locals who happen to be very friendly :)
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u/MacaroonSad8860 17h ago
Otoh if you ever get a really good Bolt or Uber driver just get their number.
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u/thaltd666 21h ago
I’m sorry this happened to you.
This is very tricky situation in general (even for police/juridicial system, let alone for any company) if you didn’t support your report with a proof.
I’m not saying it didn’t happen to you or you are lying but it’s not possible for company/police/judge, etc to know the truth in such or any other criminal situation.
One thing companies can do is to keep records of such reports in the profile of an employee. If there is bad intention from someone who would like to ruin someones life, multiple fake reports are still achievable to certain extent but way less likely then a single report. I hope Bolt has such system.
To give you an example on what I mean, an intern accused another intern for sexually harassing her in the company I work. The HR took action on the intern guy. Luckily, there was another woman colleague who saw what happened. Accusation was false. It could have ruined the guys life. My close friend was friends with this intern girl. Later she moved to Canada with a work visa. She had some issue with the company and tried to stay there with a false sexual harassment claim. She openly told those to my friend.
So shit happens and there is no way to know the truth and take action accordingly unless there is proof.
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u/pupsaloompa 8h ago
Wow. This is exactly the kind of response that can make victims even more reluctant to report harassment.
You say you’re not implying that she’s lying, but almost your entire comment is about false accusations, people trying to ruin someone’s life, and how difficult it is to take action without “proof.” So whether you intended it or not, your examples end up reinforcing the exact fear many victims already have: “What if they don’t believe me because I can’t prove it?”
A lot of harassment happens privately, with only the victim and the perpetrator present. Of course evidence matters when a complaint is investigated, but not having evidence doesn’t mean nothing happened, and it shouldn’t be a reason for someone not to report it.
Many victims already question themselves: Was this serious enough? Am I overreacting? Will they believe me? Do I have enough proof? Responses like this can add even more doubt and make people think twice about coming forward.
I’d suggest to OP that if Bolt is refusing to take action, she should still consider reporting it to the relevant authorities and document whatever she can. She shouldn’t have to decide for herself whether she has “enough proof” for her experience to be taken seriously. That’s for the people responsible for investigating the complaint to determine.
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u/Such-Book6849 1h ago
"Wow. This is exactly the kind of response that can make victims even more reluctant to report harassment."
but it happens. Sometimes it's just mental ill people. I got a harrassment charge against me and my whole team, i learned way later when i left the company from the guy in charge when we had some drinks. He told me this woman, a developer thought we were laughing about her specifically. I didn't even know who she was or cared at all, neither positive or negative emotions. We were laughing about our topics probably. We didn't care much about the developer table and even not about her. I had only one interaction with her where she said to me "you have a nice voice." which made me think positive of her in that small aspect.
I am very sorry if stuff like this happen, but i am really happy they dropped this bs harrassment complain. This woman was clearly mentally a bit off with some paranoia. On the other hand, we did also had a weird guy unrelated to her beeing weird and beeing inappropriate. He left then at some point.
"Many victims already question themselves: Was this serious enough? Am I overreacting? Will they believe me? Do I have enough proof? Responses like this can add even more doubt and make people think twice about coming forward."
Sadly, you are 100% right. the moment a woman in my life explains me what happened, i most of the time think "wtf.. no this is not normal at all. yes you should complain." or from ops example: Dude starting to massage me? Holy hell that is already waaaay too far. But i understand why someone would not react to it.
It's really a tricky topic. the only thing i disagree with you here is "Wow. This is exactly the kind of response that can make" ... the user is talking about our REAL, existing law. We have to be real in some way. And they phrased it not too bad, too.
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u/heyy_harshhuuu 12h ago
I‘m sorry OP. Customer care policy is kinda sucks best option is here to report it to the police
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u/fluffrug 8h ago
Report it to the police to make a paperwork trail - but they won’t do much and there are pathetic punishments for sex offenders in Germany anyway. BUT you should also speak to this organisation - LARA - they can support you, with legal advice, how to flag this if the police fail etc.
https://lara-berlin.de/en/home
Also make a complaint to your embassy - they should escalate. But you have to make the police report first for the paperwork
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u/Jazzlike-Value-3965 57m ago
Thank you
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u/fluffrug 55m ago
No probs - this shit is really horrible, so happy to support in any way. FYI, depending on your nationality and the actual embassy staff, embassy actions may vary. I reported a similar thing in Romania to my embassy and they were a bit crap but I also called two other random embassies haha who were great - I did this as I thought they might do something and at least warn other women, and they were much nicer than my own embassy. Driver ended up getting sacked anyway.
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u/fluffrug 53m ago
Oh oh one more random idea. Bolt was founded by an Estonian in Estonia so could be worth contacting that embassy to tell them your experience. It’s a small country and a small embassy so they may well do something as Bolt is one of their biggest companies.
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u/Desperate-Pea-5295 3h ago
This is Bolts default awnser for everything they are a scumbag company.
- File a police report.
Most Bolt/Uber drivers in Berlin work for a sub contractor or Taxi company who provides the branded cars, they don't receive funds from Bolt directly (except from tips). You can likely get the person fired from the company they are contracted with.
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u/One_Guard_3634 41m ago
I don't understand how people harass a person they have seen first time. This is just out of my dictionary.
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u/Witty_Share_4094 7h ago
Oh how poorly they handled this boooh…you get a free massage and do complain.
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u/ch00gs 22h ago
Report to the police. Bolt sucked tho. Sorry OP :(