I've been mistaken as the driver instead of passenger when contacting support too, and that was ~2 years ago. Strange they haven't figured how to handle that yet.
I'm reading through the support messages that were posted. Where exactly did they say they wouldn't refund the customer? It was an assumption made by the author that since they didn't ask for the money back from the driver, the customer wouldn't get a refund. It is possible that Uber ate the difference, rather than ask for money back from the driver.
I had my first dispute very recently. I paid a 15$ fee for a $9 service. I now have to run small background checks on my US customers because apparently it is usually only them who dispuse before asking questions. This is how I went from 'I don't care who you are' to 'if you are from the US I need your real name'
So please don't make it sound so easy. It's a pain for the other side.
They have told me multiple times that they wont refund the money. 9 times to be exact :)