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Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

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Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#321

Post by wutbrodo »

Steeeve wrote: post #248
brandonbloom wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> your cancel reflects poorly on you in Uber's rating system This is simply not true. I just checked: My rating is 4.73. I've probably taken a few hundred rides with Uber. I assume they adjust ratings for bad experiences, especially if you're a regular rider. By the way: It's not that hard to get consistent 5 stars as a passenger. Be respectful of the driver and follow these steps: 1) Say something like "Hi, are you…

4.7 is low. 4.6 is where drivers get fired. At 4.5 a lot of drivers won't pick you up.

Passenger and driver ratings having the same distribution is an extraordinarily bizarre assumption.

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#322

Post by wirelessest »

kelnos wrote: post #303
mirkules wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the back seat the de facto protocol? I always sat in the front. It somehow feels more friendly and personal. But in a taxi, I'll usually sit in the back.

Lyft started out with sitting in the front as the standard protocol (which is no longer the case), but AFAIK UberX has always been back-seat & taxi-like.

I moved coasts and city sizes, riding uberX a lot in both. East coast big city was strictly back seat. Continued the practice west coast smaller town and had a couple drivers mention it was unusual when I asked.

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#323

Post by kelnos »

hahajk wrote: post #314
fletchowns wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still tip the normal amount when I get takeout from a restaurant that has tables.

I was in a situation where I was getting takeout from Applebees's several times a week for a few months. I didn't tip in those situations, since I walked directly to the door, grabbed a box, and left. After 2 weeks, as the door closed, I heard the waitress complain "that guy never tips." I was mortified; I hate having that sort of bad reputation, deserved or not. No one likes tipping, but it's become a moral issue. S…

In that situation I still tip, just less, since my "load" on the restaurant staff is much less, no one had to take me to a table, take my order, bring my order, and clean my table. The tip is for the kitchen and for boxing/bagging up my order in that case, essentially.

I hate that even that is required, though. I would gladly pay an extra 15-20% for the food itself if I didn't have to leave a tip & the staff was paid the "normal" minimum wage, or more.

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#324

Post by developer2 »

wpietri wrote: post #280
developer2 wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxi drivers in my city are notorious for, at least in my experience, attempting to swipe your credit card with Stripe on their personal cell phones. Not just for the tip, but for the entire fare. They openly commit fraud against their company by trying to steal the fare for themselves without reporting it to their company. I've refused to pay for, and reported to their company, 4 separate drivers in the past 2 years…

Why do you think this is fraud? At least in SF, I'm pretty sure the standard deal is that the drivers pay for the cab regardless of what they get in fares. Cabs were a cash business for a hundred years, after all. I think the deal with credit card machines in the cabs is that the cab companies see it as a revenue source. I know cab drivers grumble about the cost of using them. It makes sense to me that Stripe is chea…

Here, it is legally mandated that cab drivers use the company-provided credit card machine to process all credit card transactions. The company takes 7% of all such transactions. Yes that percentage is ridiculously high, but it is mandatory per regulation. It is unacceptable for drivers to personally process credit card transactions, whereby they retain access to the credit card number. Forget the underhanded fraud to the taxi company for a moment - the driver personally has your credit card number. The risk of unauthorized credit card charges shoots through the roof.

Yes, this is racist: I don't trust an immigrant of a third-world country, whose primary interest is apparently to earn as much money as possible through illegal means, to retain my credit card information on their personal Stripe account. It doesn't just scream "shady", it is shady - and no native citizen would get away with this kind of crap.

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#325

Post by chx »

untog wrote: post #228
chx wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lately? Have you read what I linked? From day 1, Uber has been of utmost evil. This is not new. Even if you somehow manage to convince yourself that weakening the rule of law by deliberately ignoring taxi legislation which has been their business model since they started with UberX is somehow not a big deal, the first time that subprime shit was reported was more than two years ago. Most of the time when I post that…

> Lately? Have you read what I linked? From day 1, Uber has been of utmost evil. This is not new. My point is that the average user of the Uber app is not aware of any of this. They were likely recommended the app by a friend or read a vaguely fawning article in a magazine, or saw an ad online. So it's not fair to say every Uber user endorses their behaviour. They don't know about it.

You can't be unaware that Uber is flaunting taxi legislation. That's impossible to miss.

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#326

Post by wutbrodo »

hahajk wrote: post #314
fletchowns wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still tip the normal amount when I get takeout from a restaurant that has tables.

I was in a situation where I was getting takeout from Applebees's several times a week for a few months. I didn't tip in those situations, since I walked directly to the door, grabbed a box, and left. After 2 weeks, as the door closed, I heard the waitress complain "that guy never tips." I was mortified; I hate having that sort of bad reputation, deserved or not. No one likes tipping, but it's become a moral issue. S…

Yea, I always figured tipping was paying for table service, but who knows. Ambiguity around what it's for and how much is "normal" is just one of the many, many reasons tipping is so idiotic.

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#327

Post by imh »

blahedo wrote: post #283
iLoch wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is universal agreement about tipping at restaurants. Tips of 15% (or 20%?) are definitely customary, expected, priced-in. People who don't leave tips after experiencing decent service are definitely not paying their fair share. Is this a joke? Not only is it not universal, it's not even customary. The agreement you have with the restaurant is this: you sit down, are served, eat food, and pay. Baseline service…

> it's not even customary This is thoroughly false. It is so customary in the US that it has been baked into the minimum wage laws: in general, the federal minimum wage is $7.25, but for waitstaff and some other "tipped" jobs, the minimum wage is less than a third of that, at $2.13. The whole system is completely appalling, but that doesn't change the fact that in a lot of places the waitstaff is effectively subcontr…

The minimum wage stuff is not true in California, at least.

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#328

Post by resonanttoe »

throw_away_777 wrote: post #210
imartin2k wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tipping culture is actually one factor which makes it unattractive for me to travel in the US. Too much mental costs.

It really isn't that hard, pretty much you always just tip a standard amount (average tip is 15-20%).

This is an over-simplification. It is actually hard for a foreigner who has no tipping experience coming in. It's not what to tip, It's when/where that is the problem.

So sure the general rule is this percentage is for service, but what constitutes service as opposed to the job I'm paying for in the given price?

Full table service restaurant, ok I can handle that.

Taxis... apparently, sure... but again why is there a service component separate to the fare?

Fast food joint. No they don't really do much that constitutes service. Ok fine

Restaurant where you order and pay at the counter but they deliver to table... umm I'm not sure now, plus if its service shouldn't that be judged after, not before?

Bellhops/Luggage people at Hotels.. Apparently yes, but I've had many just out right refuse to take it. Or better yet, I don't have a huge amount of bags, I don't actually want your service of bag carrying (separate from the money thing), but you're insisting and now I'm in the corner on this one.

Massages or beauty therapies.. Fuck knows. Apparently yes. but if I'm tipping you for a fantastic massage service, what I'm I paying for strictly speaking?

YumCha places (Many servers) Hah... good luck working that one out.

There's more I've encountered in my time where I just didn't know and it wasn't readily apparent how/if it worked that way.

It isn't clear cut and definitely for foreigners coming in, its completely impenetrable whether you should or shouldn't.

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#329

Post by wutbrodo »

throw_away_777 wrote: post #210
imartin2k wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tipping culture is actually one factor which makes it unattractive for me to travel in the US. Too much mental costs.

It really isn't that hard, pretty much you always just tip a standard amount (average tip is 15-20%).

I've lived here my entire life and I can tell you it's definitely not this simple. I can think of a dozen examples where it was ambiguous what to do: the first taxi I took, the guy who came to repair our washing machine when I was home alone as a kid, the guy upthread here claiming that 20% is the "widely-accepted minimum", someone else on this thread talking about how a waitress complained that he never tipped on his takeout orders (you're supposed to tip on takeout orders??). It's a fundamentally idiotic system and I don't have trouble understanding at all why people like GP would find it unpleasant as a traveler.

Re: Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes

#330

Post by wirelessest »

eagsalazar2 wrote: post #292
packetized wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're definitely an outlier. In San Francisco, tips are sought more than 10% of my trips.

Sorry but your 10% number is just impossible to believe in San Francisco. I've ridden Uber multiple times weekly for years and managed a couple sales people who also used Uber under our business account (in aggregate several hundred rides) and I've never once heard of such a thing until just now reading this article.

Gender may play a role here. I (male), too, have never been solicited. My girlfriend uses uber much less frequently, but has had it happen a few times.
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