Uber has so many little annoyances that make it a miserable experience. I generally don't engage in the "recreational corporate hate" thing but it's one of the few companies and products I actively dislike.
The app is misleading and insulting to users' intelligence. Multiple times, I've requested a ride, been connected with a driver, and it's completely obvious that the dude is still sitting in his house and hasn't gotten into his car yet. Yet the app will show A) The car moving around pointlessly on the map, B) The wait timer diminishing from 10 minutes, to 9 minutes, 8 minutes, etc.
It's so transparent that some asshole PM in San Francisco thinks he's really clever and that lying to users will improve retention or whatever. Which also means he thinks users are clueless rubes that can't tell he's fucking lying to them.
This might improve short-term metrics - perhaps I'm slightly less likely to cancel the ride on any particular trip - but in the long term it makes me hate this company and avoid using them unless I'm absolutely forced to. There's a million other things in the app and user experience that cause similar mental friction and stress.
The result is that these days I'd much rather drive my car to the airport and pay for parking than take an Uber.
Devil's advocate: the wait timer should diminish even if the driver hasn't left their house, assuming that you can statistically model the time it takes from a driver getting the notification to getting in their car. Also, while there are probably better solutions, it would be a privacy violation to reveal the location of the driver's home.
Also see:
"If you cut through this residential street with 4-way stop signs on every corner and make an impossible left hand turn across four lanes of moving traffic back onto the main road, you can shave 1min off your ETA."
- Sincerely, PM of driving directions in SF who takes a company shuttle into the office and doesn't own a car.
> - Sincerely, PM of driving directions in SF who takes a company shuttle into the office and doesn't own a car.
Silicon Valley PMs must drive a lot. My iPhone constantly nags me about "driving" when I'm riding the Subway reading a newspaper. Maybe when BART finally completes the ring around the bay we'll see products designed for people that use public transportation instead of driving alone.
Here's another one: driver accepts your ride, driver cancels, you get charged a $5 cancelation fee. There's no way in hell this is an accident they're unaware of, but it has happened to me several times the last few months, each time requiring both noticing and then dealing with customer support for them to send an identical copy-and-paste confirming that you were indeed charged a cancelation fee for the driver canceling and giving you your $5 back. In Uber credit. They have undoubtedly stolen tons of money like this from people not noticing or not caring enough. Fuck Uber.
I live downtown in a major city and use Uber + Ubereats a LOT. I used UE twice yesterday and if I go anywhere more than 10 blocks I uber which is a few times a week minimum.
I can't think of a single time I've had a problem like that. The only somewhat consistent thing that I encounter is GPS updating slower than the person actually is, but I'm in a pretty bad GPS/cell black hole.
You couldn't catch me ever driving my car and leaving it at the airport. That's going to cost you/ins $2k when someone chops out your catalytic converter. Don't ever leave your car in public parking anymore cat theft is so, so rampant.
I too live downtown in a major city but have never installed or used an app for rideshare, food delivery, dating or... In fact I pretty much don't use apps at all. Not a shut in, have a family, friend group, tech job etc.
Why did this all become so necessary in the past eight or so years? Aside from facilitating hyper-scheduled high-value per minute business trips, it seems like people efficiency LARPing or something.
In the greater NYC area, it's commonplace to have the ETA immediately increase by several minutes (not uncommonly by 50%+) as soon as you're matched with an actual driver.
Based on other comments, it seems this might be a somewhat location-dependent phenomenon.
> It's so transparent that some asshole PM in San Francisco thinks he's really clever and that lying to users will improve retention or whatever.
Couple this with the arse of a VC who's making the meta worse and you all you need is a self-proclaimed capital F Founder type to have the perfect triumvirate of modern digital malaise.
I've noticed they've started amending the quoted price (after the ride) in London as well. Albeit not to this level.
Completely anecdotally, Uber was great when the drivers didn't know where they were taking you. You booked, someone turned up, you got in and they drove you there. Now if it's 2am and you're going to a part of town that's in the slightest bit out of the way, good luck (and watch the price surge as you struggle to get someone to take you).
And don't get me started on the jobs that get accepted when the driver is "2 minutes away," but are clearly doing a job on another rideshare app and don't turn up for 15 minutes...
It may have been great for you, but I regularly had drivers refuse to take me or abandon the ride once they saw the destination. The worst part is that they report you as not showing up, and then uber/lyft both will add no show fees for the ride that you then have to fight over.
When Uber was a black car service it was great, although expensive. Now it's just expensive.
But at this point haven't they already accepted the journey / aren't you already in the car? As annoying as it is, seems like an easy case to argue/win - they have your GPS location, that of the driver and the fact you've got in the cab?
> Uber was great when the drivers didn't know where they were taking you.
I remember this era with absolute DISDAIN. I HATED getting drivers who didn't know the area at all vs one who grew up in Austin or something. That was the difference between getting stuck some parade/festival traffic for 25 minutes vs taking a couple of back blocks and getting their in 15. I wonder if they account for traffic like that nowadays, I'd imagine not since they want you in the car longer.
Not to mention having to constantly stare at gps, not knowing what lanes to be in, etc.
To clarify, I meant the drivers had no idea of the destination until you're in the car and they press the start journey button.
The drivers may or may not have local knowledge, I know a lot of drivers I chatted with used to drive minicabs before they did rideshare. That said, I mostly use public transport unless it's super late, and at 2am the city is usually quiet enough that the sat nav route works fine.
I've noticed this in other contexts as well (new cars, restaurant prices, tipping norms skyrocketing) - Americans don't seem to value frugality anymore. Despite all the complaining about these prices, people are obviously still paying them. Same goes for new cars - SUVs and Minivans are now upwards of $60k, yet there seems to be no pressure on the carmakers to lower the price. And why should there be if people are paying those prices?
Personally I have a hard time identifying with it.
Moreso, I am concerned that what appeared to be transitory inflation becomes permanent when consumers do not moderate purchasing in the face of prices rising at multiples of overall inflation levels.
> Despite all the complaining about these prices, people are obviously still paying them.
Because they have no other choice.
Reminds me of the bus strike when I was driving cabs in Phoenix, people paid the price but nobody was happy about it as the other option was not having a job.
Destroy the competition then charge whatever you want.
Someone needs to make a rideshare aggregator app that will compare local taxis, uber and lyft. I haven't used a taxi in maybe 15 years because the last experience I had in one was so bad. So I'm not familiar with how different the pricing is between them.
Two mile ride in Miami and we get to the destination and the guy tells me his card reader doesn't work. Not the first time I've had one pull that scam.
edit: I'm getting some responses that I should've just hopped out. I did. Copy pasting the story I just posted in another comment -
---
> I had him drop me off at the mall so that I could grab a belt for a wedding that was happening an hour or two later. He told me his reader wasn't working and I didn't have cash. I was literally wearing swimming trunks and looked like I'd just come out of a pool, because I had.
I said sorry mate you need to warn someone when they get in and not after the ride. I hopped out to go in the mall and grab a belt and he followed me screaming at me the entire time. This probably wasn't even a 2 mile ride. Hotel to Miami mall.
For some reason I can't remember the outcome. Maybe I got so sick of him I went to an atm. I hope I didn't. I don't know what other outcome would've happened. This was when I was young and hot headed and absolutely not afraid of this guy screaming at me.
That's the best scam. Just say "Oh, ok. Thanks for the ride then!" and get out. It's either a free ride, or the reader magically starts working. They legally have to tell you the reader is broken before the ride. Once I did have a driver try to run my card and it failed multiple times, so I called dispatch and gave them my payment info.
Same thing goes if they don't turn the meter on. Also a free ride. If they don't turn the meter on, ask them to right away. Or, wait until the destination and agree on a reasonable price or simply walk away.
If any cab driver tries to negotiate a flat rate ahead of time, it's usually a rip off. Though, I will do this after a busy event if we can agree on a price that's cheaper than ride share surge pricing and not outrageous. It's gotten so bad that if one does just turn the meter on at a busy event I give them a huge tip and say thank you for not pulling that crap.
> If any cab driver tries to negotiate a flat rate ahead of time, it's usually a rip off.
The only time I'd do that was if it was the difference between a round-trip and just dropping them off, usually I'd just shut off the time part of the meter and wait for free. Or if something went wrong I'd give them the benefit of the mistake like if I forget to change the meter off airport rate or something. Other times I'd just give someone a deal because they obviously could use the money more than me and I felt bad for them.
Though...flat rates did make for some better rides since you can take whatever route you want and not worry about people complaining you're taking the long way to run up the meter. A couple times I had people "hardball" me over a flat rate (like "I won't pay a penny over $80 you dirty peasant") and I'd always make sure the meter was well over whatever high price they randomly decided on to make them feel better about their negotiation skills.
Usually whenever someone would ask for "the best price" I'd just say "whatever the meter says when we get there" and leave it at that unless they were doing something unusual like multiple stops over a long time period or if they were super determined and I was in a good mood.
Amazing that cab riders still try this old trick, because sorry but I'm pretty sure most people nowadays just don't even carry cash anymore. I'm not playing that game. You picked me up without a functioning payment method used by 99% of the population with it advertised on your door. Not my problem. Either I pay with my card or I'm leaving.
I had him drop me off at the mall so that I could grab a belt for a wedding that was happening an hour or two later. He told me his reader wasn't working and I didn't have cash. I was literally wearing swimming trunks and looked like I'd just come out of a pool, because I had.
I said sorry mate you need to warn someone when they get in and not after the ride. I hopped out to go in the mall and grab a belt and he followed me screaming at me the entire time. This probably wasn't even a 2 mile ride. Hotel to Miami mall.
For some reason I can't remember the outcome. Maybe I got so sick of him I went to an atm. I hope I didn't.
Yeah, Taxis try the "card reader broken" scam more than 50% of the time IME. Fortunately, it always manages to magically fix itself when I make a show of pretending to not have cash.
aha when I was younger and they tried that shit I would just shrug and say I guess they were not getting paid then which as you say seems to be the magic incantation to fix these readers.
Not a lot of experience with taxis, but what's the scam here? Are they just trying to dodge taxes? Do they count on you to not have change and round up your fare to nearest $1/$5?
Yeah, what's actually happening here is that Uber fares are now climbing to what they "should be" in a functional market; the people accustomed to 15 years of artificially-low prices will need time to readjust.
(Edit: the people elsewhere in this thread saying things like "Uber used to work better than taxis, but lately drivers have started refusing to take me to out-of-the-way locations" are arguably seeing the exact same phenomenon. This is just what taxi drivers do in a normal market, because they're rational actors maximizing their hourly earnings. That was disrupted for a while by the entry of new players making the market topsy-turvy, but now that those distortions are smoothing out it's back to business as usual. You should get used to it.)
In NYC the Curb app is honestly way better. It pairs you up with a taxi (they could've killed uber years ago if they built this app in 2012) and you pay significantly less as there is no surge pricing, you are charged based on the yellow cab fare rules.
That caused Daniel Penny a lot of trouble. If the police won't keep the peace, and since we're not allowed to protect ourselves, then the next solution is paying for gated communities, private schools, Costcos, and private carriage.
I didn't know who Daniel Penny is, and, after looking him up, are you for fucking real? The subway caused him a lot of trouble because he murdered a homeless guy?
Yes, that's quite the inconvenience, I avoid the subway nowadays because all these life sentences add up. What am I going to do, not murder homeless people?
Unless I've read the article wrong, the $52 journey was "to travel a short distance through downtown Manhattan to Uber’s corporate offices to interview him back in May."
that was for a different ride. The comparison was with 113$.
>>> ”I got in the Uber to go to JFK. I was on my phone so I wasn’t paying attention. When I got to JFK, I looked to see what the price was to see what I’d tip. I saw $113. I was shocked. I was annoyed,” she told The Post Wednesday.
Also, PSA: Not sure it is still uptodate but years ago, official taxicab had set prices (~60$) to all NYC airports (JFK,LAG).
Yes I was going to bring this up. The NYC airport taxi fares are fixed price ($70). There are additional smaller fees applied based on time of day, tolls, etc, but a ride to/from Manhattan to JFK shouldn't be more than $85 or so inclusive of tip.
JFK/EWR have the flat rate, but LGA does not. However, it winds up costing about the same to get to any airport from midtown since LGA is closer but you don't get the flat rate.
It is just clickbait. Everyone knows that the time the driver has to spend has to be incorporated in the cost, so omitting the time it took for the trip is an overt attempt at making something out of nothing. There are also tolls.
And the fact that no one forced them to pay $52, they could have used a taxi in midtown Manhattan.
I am guessing traffic was particularly bad or something, or the supply of drivers was more constrained for whatever reason.
Readit News
The app is misleading and insulting to users' intelligence. Multiple times, I've requested a ride, been connected with a driver, and it's completely obvious that the dude is still sitting in his house and hasn't gotten into his car yet. Yet the app will show A) The car moving around pointlessly on the map, B) The wait timer diminishing from 10 minutes, to 9 minutes, 8 minutes, etc.
It's so transparent that some asshole PM in San Francisco thinks he's really clever and that lying to users will improve retention or whatever. Which also means he thinks users are clueless rubes that can't tell he's fucking lying to them.
This might improve short-term metrics - perhaps I'm slightly less likely to cancel the ride on any particular trip - but in the long term it makes me hate this company and avoid using them unless I'm absolutely forced to. There's a million other things in the app and user experience that cause similar mental friction and stress.
The result is that these days I'd much rather drive my car to the airport and pay for parking than take an Uber.
- Sincerely, PM of driving directions in SF who takes a company shuttle into the office and doesn't own a car.
Silicon Valley PMs must drive a lot. My iPhone constantly nags me about "driving" when I'm riding the Subway reading a newspaper. Maybe when BART finally completes the ring around the bay we'll see products designed for people that use public transportation instead of driving alone.
Deleted Comment
I can't think of a single time I've had a problem like that. The only somewhat consistent thing that I encounter is GPS updating slower than the person actually is, but I'm in a pretty bad GPS/cell black hole.
You couldn't catch me ever driving my car and leaving it at the airport. That's going to cost you/ins $2k when someone chops out your catalytic converter. Don't ever leave your car in public parking anymore cat theft is so, so rampant.
https://www.denver7.com/follow-up/a-target-rich-environment-...
"The area of DIA, however, has seen theft increase by 28 percent this year compared to last year."
Why did this all become so necessary in the past eight or so years? Aside from facilitating hyper-scheduled high-value per minute business trips, it seems like people efficiency LARPing or something.
Based on other comments, it seems this might be a somewhat location-dependent phenomenon.
Couple this with the arse of a VC who's making the meta worse and you all you need is a self-proclaimed capital F Founder type to have the perfect triumvirate of modern digital malaise.
Completely anecdotally, Uber was great when the drivers didn't know where they were taking you. You booked, someone turned up, you got in and they drove you there. Now if it's 2am and you're going to a part of town that's in the slightest bit out of the way, good luck (and watch the price surge as you struggle to get someone to take you).
And don't get me started on the jobs that get accepted when the driver is "2 minutes away," but are clearly doing a job on another rideshare app and don't turn up for 15 minutes...
When Uber was a black car service it was great, although expensive. Now it's just expensive.
I remember this era with absolute DISDAIN. I HATED getting drivers who didn't know the area at all vs one who grew up in Austin or something. That was the difference between getting stuck some parade/festival traffic for 25 minutes vs taking a couple of back blocks and getting their in 15. I wonder if they account for traffic like that nowadays, I'd imagine not since they want you in the car longer.
Not to mention having to constantly stare at gps, not knowing what lanes to be in, etc.
The drivers may or may not have local knowledge, I know a lot of drivers I chatted with used to drive minicabs before they did rideshare. That said, I mostly use public transport unless it's super late, and at 2am the city is usually quiet enough that the sat nav route works fine.
Personally I have a hard time identifying with it.
Moreso, I am concerned that what appeared to be transitory inflation becomes permanent when consumers do not moderate purchasing in the face of prices rising at multiples of overall inflation levels.
Because they have no other choice.
Reminds me of the bus strike when I was driving cabs in Phoenix, people paid the price but nobody was happy about it as the other option was not having a job.
Destroy the competition then charge whatever you want.
Two mile ride in Miami and we get to the destination and the guy tells me his card reader doesn't work. Not the first time I've had one pull that scam.
edit: I'm getting some responses that I should've just hopped out. I did. Copy pasting the story I just posted in another comment -
---
> I had him drop me off at the mall so that I could grab a belt for a wedding that was happening an hour or two later. He told me his reader wasn't working and I didn't have cash. I was literally wearing swimming trunks and looked like I'd just come out of a pool, because I had. I said sorry mate you need to warn someone when they get in and not after the ride. I hopped out to go in the mall and grab a belt and he followed me screaming at me the entire time. This probably wasn't even a 2 mile ride. Hotel to Miami mall.
For some reason I can't remember the outcome. Maybe I got so sick of him I went to an atm. I hope I didn't. I don't know what other outcome would've happened. This was when I was young and hot headed and absolutely not afraid of this guy screaming at me.
Same thing goes if they don't turn the meter on. Also a free ride. If they don't turn the meter on, ask them to right away. Or, wait until the destination and agree on a reasonable price or simply walk away.
If any cab driver tries to negotiate a flat rate ahead of time, it's usually a rip off. Though, I will do this after a busy event if we can agree on a price that's cheaper than ride share surge pricing and not outrageous. It's gotten so bad that if one does just turn the meter on at a busy event I give them a huge tip and say thank you for not pulling that crap.
The only time I'd do that was if it was the difference between a round-trip and just dropping them off, usually I'd just shut off the time part of the meter and wait for free. Or if something went wrong I'd give them the benefit of the mistake like if I forget to change the meter off airport rate or something. Other times I'd just give someone a deal because they obviously could use the money more than me and I felt bad for them.
Though...flat rates did make for some better rides since you can take whatever route you want and not worry about people complaining you're taking the long way to run up the meter. A couple times I had people "hardball" me over a flat rate (like "I won't pay a penny over $80 you dirty peasant") and I'd always make sure the meter was well over whatever high price they randomly decided on to make them feel better about their negotiation skills.
Usually whenever someone would ask for "the best price" I'd just say "whatever the meter says when we get there" and leave it at that unless they were doing something unusual like multiple stops over a long time period or if they were super determined and I was in a good mood.
I said sorry mate you need to warn someone when they get in and not after the ride. I hopped out to go in the mall and grab a belt and he followed me screaming at me the entire time. This probably wasn't even a 2 mile ride. Hotel to Miami mall.
For some reason I can't remember the outcome. Maybe I got so sick of him I went to an atm. I hope I didn't.
(Edit: the people elsewhere in this thread saying things like "Uber used to work better than taxis, but lately drivers have started refusing to take me to out-of-the-way locations" are arguably seeing the exact same phenomenon. This is just what taxi drivers do in a normal market, because they're rational actors maximizing their hourly earnings. That was disrupted for a while by the entry of new players making the market topsy-turvy, but now that those distortions are smoothing out it's back to business as usual. You should get used to it.)
The article is about a $52 fare for a 3-mile ride in NYC...
Yes, that's quite the inconvenience, I avoid the subway nowadays because all these life sentences add up. What am I going to do, not murder homeless people?
This makes $52 (which includes the driver tip) seem pretty reasonable. Am I missing something?
The airport stuff was a different trip/person.
>>> ”I got in the Uber to go to JFK. I was on my phone so I wasn’t paying attention. When I got to JFK, I looked to see what the price was to see what I’d tip. I saw $113. I was shocked. I was annoyed,” she told The Post Wednesday.
Also, PSA: Not sure it is still uptodate but years ago, official taxicab had set prices (~60$) to all NYC airports (JFK,LAG).
And the fact that no one forced them to pay $52, they could have used a taxi in midtown Manhattan.
I am guessing traffic was particularly bad or something, or the supply of drivers was more constrained for whatever reason.