echo… i particularly love the feature where i get out of the car, have no ability to mark the ride over, and the driver continues to let the meter run. i then get an email 30 minutes later saying “new total - your route changed”. NO… czark from uzbekistan kept charging me for an extra $1.78. pikers.
Sad, but true. I was in South America for Christmas vising Mrs. American Psycho's family (in Paraguay). Uber is newish there and we used it several times (begrugendly). One of the features when you request a car is to select one with air conditioning (developing country stuff) which is more expensive. My wife requested a car which was allegedly 5 mins away (to be fair, five mins away in a developing country could translate to 20 - 30 mins away). After waiting 15 mins the guy sent her a message that he was one minute away, but like magic, his air conditioning just went out and wanted to know if we still wanted the car (and of course pay the higher rate). As I told my wife, "This country is full of people that go to church on Sunday, then lie abuot their air conditioning on Monday." Happy New Year, Raven.
I relocated to a new city unexpectedly (for an unrelated financial windfall) in 2019 and drove Uber full-time for seven months while I looked for a more career-ish job. Being a data nerd, I collected copious stats on the experience.
- Uber changed the driver compensation structure twice while I was driving (meaning I drove under three different compensation models in seven months).
- No matter how much or when I drove, the algorithm seemed to force me into an hourly rate of $27-28. If I made a ton of money one day with advantageous rides, it gave me shitty, cheap rides the next to even me out. And you were penalized with worse for not accepting.
- I gave 900+ rides with a 4.97 rating; only 13% of my drivers tipped. Over time, the tips are the only thing that kept me net positive because the base pay was so low vs. the total operational cost per mile (I drove a 35 MPG car). This is just a data point, not getting into the tipping debate -- people can do what they want. This is a main driver of the "freezing" scam, tho -- they get paid if you cancel; used to be $5, not sure what it is now. But someone who gets four people to cancel in an hour makes $20 with zero operational cost. Not defending it, just talking about incentives. If you DON'T cancel and they do, they have to pay YOU. Send them a chat and say, "I have all the time in the world, will wait all day," and 4/5 of the time the car will immediately start to move towards you, hahaha.
- I had two attempted / failed carjackings, one at 6:30 AM, one at 4:30 PM. I didn't drive late nights because I wanted to avoid trouble. #fail
- Anybody could claim anything happened during a ride to get out of paying. You often found out when the ride payment was deducted from your account, and then you had to fight on your personal time to get it reinstated. Only happened a few times to me, but it was insane.
When I talk to Uber drivers while taking rides these days, it sounds like a lot of this still applies. The year I drove in 2019, driver turnover was >100%, not sure what it is now. I share all of this to say that I think Uber's management of the driver side is historically pretty bad, and it definitely crosses over into the customer experience.
Also, if you believe in bell curves, 60% of your interactions with people (regardless of whether they are a driver or customer) are going to be so-so *at best*, so I just have low expectations anymore, hahaha.
It's a scumbag company run by scumbags. Garbage in, garbage out. Call a real taxi. These "disruptors" only disrupt if they avoid having employees or skirt the laws. Screw Uber and Lyft.
This just started happening to me with UberEats too. It shows them on the way to get the food, then some time passes, you check it, and someone else is assigned to it now. I also started having restaurants accept the order and then cancel(?) Then you go to complain to support and there’s literally no option for that unless problem with actual delivery. It’s so weird because I have a 4.95 Uber passenger rating and I tip well in UberEats so I know it’s not me being singled out by some algo….I switched to DoorDash but they’re literally experimenting with how much they can gouge you…Anyway, glad to hear it’s not just me but also sorry to hear it’s not just me.
That sucks but good to hear a perspective from the bigger cities. If my Uber is a problem it’s because I didn’t get my ass (app) out to the truck and leave quick enough. Small town living
I never understood taking an Uber in NYC. The taxi hailing experience there is unmatched. However, as it relates to, “The cheapest tier (whatever the fuck it’s called) has now very obviously been made intentionally slow and miserable, while the app gently threatens you with even longer waits unless you pay extra for what used to be the default experience. This is not pricing. This is hostage negotiation.”, that’s becoming the norm in so many industries. I wanna say airlines started this abuse and since people kept traveling, everyone seems to think it’s OK. Car rental companies and now every other industry hits you up with everything being at your own risk unless you pay the insurance bribe, or the “we’ll guarantee it gets to you fee”. Heck, some e-commerce merchants are throwing on an extra $1 or $2 fee for package delivery insurance. WTF is that?! Don’t even get me started on everyone and everything asking for a tip for doing their f-en jobs. Apparently, service has gotten so bad that doing it right earns one a tip. Just nuts.
Glad you're saying this. I have been noticing a significant deterioration in Uber's service quality lately. Their rise is starting to feel like a long game bait and switch.
I'll get out at various airports and go stand in the Soviet breadline style Uber waiting area. I'll be standing there for 10 minutes without any driver accepting my ride and I think "this is stupid" so I walk all the way back to the taxi line where there are 20 cars waiting and just get in. Of course the taxis are more expensive than Uber but I'd rather get going than stand around all day waiting for a pick up. Or the driver accepts then after 10 minutes cancels and I just wasted half an hour on this "innovative disruption".
Funny I just saw an absurd email ad from Uber that brags about "New payment available! Now accepting CASH!" WTF. This is like when Lyft innovated this wild thing where you stand in a predefined place and wait for a large vehicle to pick you up on a schedule. Nice! Take that BOOMER!
Off and on I've also done some Uber driving and the algorithm is definitely setup to mess with you and waste your time. You only get paid for when someone is in the car, not the 20 minutes it takes to commute to pick them up, so there is only so much "hustling" you can physically do. Wages are very low. Gas, wear and tear on car probably isn't worth it.
Funny thing is I actually enjoyed being an Uber driver. Having conversations with random people from all walks of life, seeing all parts of the city I would never go to. It was actually kind of fun. Problem is the money sucks and it's a waste of time and energy. If it paid a VP salary, I'd do it full time!
Uber Eats is just as bad, if not worse. They quote times like 15-30 minutes, but then stack multiple orders with the driver. So the driver picks up my food and drives all over creation before getting to me in 45 minutes, but Uber gives itself 60 minutes before it’s “late” - so reaching out to support is worthless. Food is cold, experience is crap, drivers are good - but they have gone downhill at an alarming rate.
@QTR you should dig deeper here dude-youre likening this to Soviet era Russia, but this is America now, capitalism's doing. There's no rules or laws that are making Uber do this. I think an argument can be made that this is the unadulterated free market, drivers are selling their labor for what they gauge it's worth, users are paying what they think it's worth, the prices are going up and down to maximize profit, and by using the app you are acknowledging that yes, in fact, even with the deteriorating services it is still worth it to you. I think your subs here appreciate your insight, and I would request you dig a little deeper and contextualize this thought within your overall ethos, especially how this does or does not represent ideal capitalistic values to you, where they went wrong, parallels in other industries, remedies,etc.... whatever you're willing share here would be appreciated, because this story seems like a perfect microcosm for what consumers are experiencing right now
Don't use them for food either, I made that mistake and started being charged something like $9.99 a month and the only way I could get rid of it was to cancel the account, hello Lyft, which is also a small mortgage for a ride
My experience was as follows after an interstate highway breakdown w no roadside assistance and subsequent survival of the fittest, get home w my car challenge.
1st uber driver straight out of central casting. Drakar cologne. Oddly clean yet slightly pungent car odor. Black comb in back pocket kinda guy driving. No clue where on this planet dude hailed from. Almost killed me in a crash.
2nd driver. Decent Kid looking for his way in life full of good spirits and positivity. Taught him my crispy saving method. Every time you have a crispy hundo...throw that shit in a safe. Never break it. Its like a fractional gold nugget. But once you break it...poof...gone. ive saved a bunch of cash w this method. Left dude a hundred. To get him started. Hope he does well in life.
Ended up towing my car home from PA w a uhaul Van/Trailer combo. Great hack if u ever break down w no coverage. Happy new year.
That sucks to hear. I used to use Uber/Lyft and others all the time when I lived in the city and drank more. The service was great 99% of the time.
Uber’s not the only company that’s gone to shit over the past few years. My recent experiences with Amazon are horrific and I will be cancelling my Prime after 15 years. They used to have the best customer service, but not anymore.
Are these once great companies going to shit a consequence of inflation? Or maybe the AI revolution? Or both?
This is what happens to all companies as soon as they have a big, locked-in user base and/or have driven competitors out of business — the users aren’t going anywhere, so the business pivots from making customers happy (which no longer matters as again they’re not going anywhere) to maximizing profits and serving other constituencies (investors, advertisers, employees, etc.). Ma Bell and Microsoft were the same thing.
echo… i particularly love the feature where i get out of the car, have no ability to mark the ride over, and the driver continues to let the meter run. i then get an email 30 minutes later saying “new total - your route changed”. NO… czark from uzbekistan kept charging me for an extra $1.78. pikers.
so true, just had that frozen Uber ride at the Nashville airport. didn't know that was the grift.
Sad, but true. I was in South America for Christmas vising Mrs. American Psycho's family (in Paraguay). Uber is newish there and we used it several times (begrugendly). One of the features when you request a car is to select one with air conditioning (developing country stuff) which is more expensive. My wife requested a car which was allegedly 5 mins away (to be fair, five mins away in a developing country could translate to 20 - 30 mins away). After waiting 15 mins the guy sent her a message that he was one minute away, but like magic, his air conditioning just went out and wanted to know if we still wanted the car (and of course pay the higher rate). As I told my wife, "This country is full of people that go to church on Sunday, then lie abuot their air conditioning on Monday." Happy New Year, Raven.
I relocated to a new city unexpectedly (for an unrelated financial windfall) in 2019 and drove Uber full-time for seven months while I looked for a more career-ish job. Being a data nerd, I collected copious stats on the experience.
- Uber changed the driver compensation structure twice while I was driving (meaning I drove under three different compensation models in seven months).
- No matter how much or when I drove, the algorithm seemed to force me into an hourly rate of $27-28. If I made a ton of money one day with advantageous rides, it gave me shitty, cheap rides the next to even me out. And you were penalized with worse for not accepting.
- I gave 900+ rides with a 4.97 rating; only 13% of my drivers tipped. Over time, the tips are the only thing that kept me net positive because the base pay was so low vs. the total operational cost per mile (I drove a 35 MPG car). This is just a data point, not getting into the tipping debate -- people can do what they want. This is a main driver of the "freezing" scam, tho -- they get paid if you cancel; used to be $5, not sure what it is now. But someone who gets four people to cancel in an hour makes $20 with zero operational cost. Not defending it, just talking about incentives. If you DON'T cancel and they do, they have to pay YOU. Send them a chat and say, "I have all the time in the world, will wait all day," and 4/5 of the time the car will immediately start to move towards you, hahaha.
- I had two attempted / failed carjackings, one at 6:30 AM, one at 4:30 PM. I didn't drive late nights because I wanted to avoid trouble. #fail
- Anybody could claim anything happened during a ride to get out of paying. You often found out when the ride payment was deducted from your account, and then you had to fight on your personal time to get it reinstated. Only happened a few times to me, but it was insane.
When I talk to Uber drivers while taking rides these days, it sounds like a lot of this still applies. The year I drove in 2019, driver turnover was >100%, not sure what it is now. I share all of this to say that I think Uber's management of the driver side is historically pretty bad, and it definitely crosses over into the customer experience.
Also, if you believe in bell curves, 60% of your interactions with people (regardless of whether they are a driver or customer) are going to be so-so *at best*, so I just have low expectations anymore, hahaha.
Welcome to the age of the Earth known as the Enshittocene period.
the ongoing enshittification of all services in plain sight. and they haven't even been bought by a PE firm yet. just think how bad it will be then!!
It's a scumbag company run by scumbags. Garbage in, garbage out. Call a real taxi. These "disruptors" only disrupt if they avoid having employees or skirt the laws. Screw Uber and Lyft.
This just started happening to me with UberEats too. It shows them on the way to get the food, then some time passes, you check it, and someone else is assigned to it now. I also started having restaurants accept the order and then cancel(?) Then you go to complain to support and there’s literally no option for that unless problem with actual delivery. It’s so weird because I have a 4.95 Uber passenger rating and I tip well in UberEats so I know it’s not me being singled out by some algo….I switched to DoorDash but they’re literally experimenting with how much they can gouge you…Anyway, glad to hear it’s not just me but also sorry to hear it’s not just me.
That sucks but good to hear a perspective from the bigger cities. If my Uber is a problem it’s because I didn’t get my ass (app) out to the truck and leave quick enough. Small town living
I never understood taking an Uber in NYC. The taxi hailing experience there is unmatched. However, as it relates to, “The cheapest tier (whatever the fuck it’s called) has now very obviously been made intentionally slow and miserable, while the app gently threatens you with even longer waits unless you pay extra for what used to be the default experience. This is not pricing. This is hostage negotiation.”, that’s becoming the norm in so many industries. I wanna say airlines started this abuse and since people kept traveling, everyone seems to think it’s OK. Car rental companies and now every other industry hits you up with everything being at your own risk unless you pay the insurance bribe, or the “we’ll guarantee it gets to you fee”. Heck, some e-commerce merchants are throwing on an extra $1 or $2 fee for package delivery insurance. WTF is that?! Don’t even get me started on everyone and everything asking for a tip for doing their f-en jobs. Apparently, service has gotten so bad that doing it right earns one a tip. Just nuts.
Glad you're saying this. I have been noticing a significant deterioration in Uber's service quality lately. Their rise is starting to feel like a long game bait and switch.
I'll get out at various airports and go stand in the Soviet breadline style Uber waiting area. I'll be standing there for 10 minutes without any driver accepting my ride and I think "this is stupid" so I walk all the way back to the taxi line where there are 20 cars waiting and just get in. Of course the taxis are more expensive than Uber but I'd rather get going than stand around all day waiting for a pick up. Or the driver accepts then after 10 minutes cancels and I just wasted half an hour on this "innovative disruption".
Funny I just saw an absurd email ad from Uber that brags about "New payment available! Now accepting CASH!" WTF. This is like when Lyft innovated this wild thing where you stand in a predefined place and wait for a large vehicle to pick you up on a schedule. Nice! Take that BOOMER!
Off and on I've also done some Uber driving and the algorithm is definitely setup to mess with you and waste your time. You only get paid for when someone is in the car, not the 20 minutes it takes to commute to pick them up, so there is only so much "hustling" you can physically do. Wages are very low. Gas, wear and tear on car probably isn't worth it.
Funny thing is I actually enjoyed being an Uber driver. Having conversations with random people from all walks of life, seeing all parts of the city I would never go to. It was actually kind of fun. Problem is the money sucks and it's a waste of time and energy. If it paid a VP salary, I'd do it full time!
Uber Eats is just as bad, if not worse. They quote times like 15-30 minutes, but then stack multiple orders with the driver. So the driver picks up my food and drives all over creation before getting to me in 45 minutes, but Uber gives itself 60 minutes before it’s “late” - so reaching out to support is worthless. Food is cold, experience is crap, drivers are good - but they have gone downhill at an alarming rate.
@QTR you should dig deeper here dude-youre likening this to Soviet era Russia, but this is America now, capitalism's doing. There's no rules or laws that are making Uber do this. I think an argument can be made that this is the unadulterated free market, drivers are selling their labor for what they gauge it's worth, users are paying what they think it's worth, the prices are going up and down to maximize profit, and by using the app you are acknowledging that yes, in fact, even with the deteriorating services it is still worth it to you. I think your subs here appreciate your insight, and I would request you dig a little deeper and contextualize this thought within your overall ethos, especially how this does or does not represent ideal capitalistic values to you, where they went wrong, parallels in other industries, remedies,etc.... whatever you're willing share here would be appreciated, because this story seems like a perfect microcosm for what consumers are experiencing right now
Don't use them for food either, I made that mistake and started being charged something like $9.99 a month and the only way I could get rid of it was to cancel the account, hello Lyft, which is also a small mortgage for a ride
My experience was as follows after an interstate highway breakdown w no roadside assistance and subsequent survival of the fittest, get home w my car challenge.
1st uber driver straight out of central casting. Drakar cologne. Oddly clean yet slightly pungent car odor. Black comb in back pocket kinda guy driving. No clue where on this planet dude hailed from. Almost killed me in a crash.
2nd driver. Decent Kid looking for his way in life full of good spirits and positivity. Taught him my crispy saving method. Every time you have a crispy hundo...throw that shit in a safe. Never break it. Its like a fractional gold nugget. But once you break it...poof...gone. ive saved a bunch of cash w this method. Left dude a hundred. To get him started. Hope he does well in life.
Ended up towing my car home from PA w a uhaul Van/Trailer combo. Great hack if u ever break down w no coverage. Happy new year.
That sucks to hear. I used to use Uber/Lyft and others all the time when I lived in the city and drank more. The service was great 99% of the time.
Uber’s not the only company that’s gone to shit over the past few years. My recent experiences with Amazon are horrific and I will be cancelling my Prime after 15 years. They used to have the best customer service, but not anymore.
Are these once great companies going to shit a consequence of inflation? Or maybe the AI revolution? Or both?
Either way, it sucks to see.
This is what happens to all companies as soon as they have a big, locked-in user base and/or have driven competitors out of business — the users aren’t going anywhere, so the business pivots from making customers happy (which no longer matters as again they’re not going anywhere) to maximizing profits and serving other constituencies (investors, advertisers, employees, etc.). Ma Bell and Microsoft were the same thing.
Well....that explains why so may people I know keep asking me to pick them up /drop them off at the airports.