It's been awhile since I've used either Lyft or Uber since I moved downtown and can walk everywhere but I distinctly remember an incident when I requested a Lyft and it said it was 10minutes out. 15 minutes later it was still 10 minutes out and the driver called and said they were on their way (I assume they were just sitting in their house in "Driving" mode and took that long to get moving) but it was going to take them almost 20 minutes to get to me and if that was unacceptable I should cancel. I canceled the ride and got a different driver. Lyft charged me $5 for the cancel but I was able to dispute the charge successfully. Overall it was a huge PITA and I felt/feel like Lyft should do more to prevent people from taking so long after accepting a rider to actually get moving.
Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels
41–50 of 105 posts
Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
>One reason that drivers can specify for a cancellation is that the rider wasn't at the pickup location I mean it's not that hard to check the location of rider when driver cancels the trip. If he isn't at the specified pick-up location, charge the rider or else charge the driver.
You have a really high belief in the ability of GPS to get things right. And probably of humans to work together when things aren't. If you ask to be picked up at MacArthur BART station in Oakland and you're not careful, your driver will get routed to pick you up in the middle of the freeway that happens to run overhead. Some locations are also GPS distorting due to tall buildings and you'll literally show up 1-2 blo…
But doesn't uber want to track you more to make sure you are picked on the correct and dropped on the correct side of road.
Look i'm not saying GPS is perfect, but having these checks might help prevent 10% of fraudulent cancellations.
Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels
#43What's wrong with taxis? I've taken plenty of cabs, but never an Uber or Lyft. In a city you can easily flag them down, or find a number and phone for one. Many cab companies have had phone apps for years, too. If you prefer Uber, can you explain why? Because there are tons of complaints here about the company.
Uber is sometimes cheaper and Uber drivers have an incentive to provide a better service because if they don't their rating goes down. Taxi drivers don't care because they don't have a rating and will be rude, overcharge or take longer routes than needed to make you pay more.
That totally depends on location. In my city, price of Uber and taxi is pretty much equal or some taxi operators are even cheaper. Furthermore, there's a centralized taxi app that connects most of operators and you can also rate driver after your journey is completed.
Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels
#44I've been in standoffs with Uber/Lyft drivers where the driver calls or texts me saying they don't want to pick me up for whatever reason and demand that I cancel the hail. Drivers don't want to be the ones who cancel because canceling reduces their rating. I don't want to cancel because I both don't want the hit to my rating and I don't want to have to follow up with Uber/Lyft to request a cancellation fee refund. L…
> I submitted the driver's text messages to the T&LC as evidence and eventually got a phone hearing -- Lyft and the driver were required to appear in person. Lyft failed to appear and got a $1,000 fine. The driver showed up but was found not responsible for lack of evidence. It was a complete waste of time. Any explanation for the "lack of evidence" piece? Seems like the record of text messages would cover that. Or i…
> Any explanation for the "lack of evidence" piece?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pasguqsrziz4uul/TLC%20Decision.pdf...
The hearing officer seemed totally unfamiliar with the mechanics of both of ride sharing and texting. He fundamentally misunderstood the nature of my complaint and the origin/context of the text message.
Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels
#45What's wrong with taxis? I've taken plenty of cabs, but never an Uber or Lyft. In a city you can easily flag them down, or find a number and phone for one. Many cab companies have had phone apps for years, too. If you prefer Uber, can you explain why? Because there are tons of complaints here about the company.
Depends on the location. NYC taxis are generally pretty good. In DC? No. Especially if you're handicapped, a person of color, or in an area they don't like. Blind wit a service animal? You are SOL. Taxi's will flat out ignore you. They will drive painfully slow and drive in circles to run up the fare. Back when DC required cabs to take credit cards, the taxis would fight and say the machine is broken, or just not fol…
DC cabs used to run on a zone system, rather than meters. Trips within the central zones were incredibly cheap, and there was no incentive to drive slowly or take a circuitous route, because there was no meter to run up. Meters are probably better for the drivers, though. Thanks for explaining.
Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels
#46I've had this happen a number of times but I always go in and report a issue with the ride and click my driver canceled and they credit my account with $5 right away. They don't even look into it they give it to me right away. It's not ideal but I think its their way of dealing with this easily.
Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels
#47What's wrong with taxis? I've taken plenty of cabs, but never an Uber or Lyft. In a city you can easily flag them down, or find a number and phone for one. Many cab companies have had phone apps for years, too. If you prefer Uber, can you explain why? Because there are tons of complaints here about the company.
>What's wrong with taxis?
Price.
Car services have existed forever. The point of Uber is making it affordable for everyone.
Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, exactly. Parent comment is just someone who wants to believe that regulation is inherently good and productive.
I do, up to a point. My experience with "sharing economy" taxi companies is that they really, truly, do not care about their drivers or their customers. It's a free for all where customers and drivers are basically left to sort things out themselves. IMO, this is where regulation comes in. In a city like New York, taxis are a part of our public infrastructure -- like buses, subways, etc. There should be baseline serv…
Day after day the people at these companies are working tirelessly to produce a system with as close to zero defects as possible. That's the only solution that cares about both riders and drivers in a two-sided market. Every conflict between those two sides can really only have solutions where one side wins and the other side loses.
Compare the number of defects per 100,000 rides in their solution to the one they replaced, and you'll quickly see that they care very much about both riders and drivers, because there isn't any revenue without both sides of the market.
Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, exactly. Parent comment is just someone who wants to believe that regulation is inherently good and productive.
I do, up to a point. My experience with "sharing economy" taxi companies is that they really, truly, do not care about their drivers or their customers. It's a free for all where customers and drivers are basically left to sort things out themselves. IMO, this is where regulation comes in. In a city like New York, taxis are a part of our public infrastructure -- like buses, subways, etc. There should be baseline serv…
Furthermore, we're all on a hedonic treadmill here. The better these services get, the more intolerable we find the most minor of inconveniences. In the long run, everyone is winning in the free market: riders drivers and TNSs, even as our perception changes to notice new details that can be better.
Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
No it's not. He stated that he went to the regulator and complained and they dismissed it. He actually received remedy from his credit card, which is not a regulatory requirement but rather the free market at work.
Is there really an effective market in credit cards' willingness to refund? Aren't credit cards preferred mostly because regulation require them to refund the user in a lot of cases? (Also, what's with that weird US regulation about a purchase having to be "within my home state or within 100 miles of my home" to be eligible for some credit card protections?)
The credit card market is a huge money maker and incredibly competitive. Have you seen the bonuses that US banks offer?