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Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels

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Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels

#51

Post by Arizhel »

chii wrote: post #16
elahd wrote: post #15

I'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…

This is what happens when things are unregulated. But oh, regulation causes high fees/cost, and so it's ok to ignore! Until of course, when it isn't.

Regulation causes high costs when it artificially constrains a market to a small number of cronies. That's the problem with regulation.

Regulation is great when it's unbiased and not just a way to enrich cronies, and does what it's designed to do. It just seems that it's extremely rare to see such effective regulation in the US. In European countries, it seems to be far more common.

Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels

#52

Post by malandrew »

elahd wrote: post #44
koolba wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Sounds like an incompetent regulator is what we should be complaining about and I'd put having an incompetent regulator at being strictly worse than no regulator because our taxes are wasted paying for that regulator. Our time is wasted dealing with it. And we deprive the free market of coming up with a solution.

Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels

#53

Post by qeternity »

elahd wrote: post #25
qeternity wrote: post #23

Earlier 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…

You're pretty naive to think that the regulators or taxi companies care about you or the drivers anymore than Uber does.

Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels

#54

Post by Arizhel »

kbart wrote: post #43
endisukaj wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, the fundamental truth is that taxi service varies wildly depending on location, due to many factors including differing regulation and geography. You just can't compare taxis in Manhattan NYC with taxis in Houston TX.

I used to live in northern NJ, within commutable distance of Manhattan. Manhattan cabs, for me as a white person, were pretty easy: just stand on the corner and hail one. There wasn't any point in using Uber/Lyft because it would have taken more time to get out my phone and mess with the app! However, back at home in NJ the taxis were ridiculously bad: I had to call ahead and hope they would show up within an hour. Then they'd drive me in some weird long route to get a higher fare. Uber/Lyft were so much easier (aside from being cheaper).

Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels

#55

Post by waqf »

qeternity wrote: post #50
waqf wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Yes, but I don't think they're competing on refund policy. It sure isn't what's in large print in the ads, and besides, the policy is mostly dictated to them by the credit card network (which isn't so competitive, it's largely a Visa/MC duopoly) and by legislation (which isn't at all competitive).

Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels

#56

Post by [deleted] »

Arizhel wrote: post #51
chii wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what happens when things are unregulated. But oh, regulation causes high fees/cost, and so it's ok to ignore! Until of course, when it isn't.

Regulation causes high costs when it artificially constrains a market to a small number of cronies. That's the problem with regulation. Regulation is great when it's unbiased and not just a way to enrich cronies, and does what it's designed to do. It just seems that it's extremely rare to see such effective regulation in the US. In European countries, it seems to be far more common.

[deleted]

Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels

#57

Post by wbl »

waqf wrote: post #55
qeternity wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The credit card market is a huge money maker and incredibly competitive. Have you seen the bonuses that US banks offer?

Yes, but I don't think they're competing on refund policy. It sure isn't what's in large print in the ads, and besides, the policy is mostly dictated to them by the credit card network (which isn't so competitive, it's largely a Visa/MC duopoly) and by legislation (which isn't at all competitive).

AmeRican Express certainly is.

Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels

#58

Post by valuearb »

marcosdumay wrote: post #27
chii wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what happens when things are unregulated. But oh, regulation causes high fees/cost, and so it's ok to ignore! Until of course, when it isn't.

Regulating behavior is completely different from regulating entry on market. Besides, I fail to see how the GP wasn't victim of fraud. He may have better luck if he went to the police instead of a commercial regulator.

Not really. Let's say Taxi authority requires $20,000 bond from every driver to cover potential fines. Now you have drivers who can't afford to post the bond, you've reduced supply and increased prices.

Most any regulation is going to have some effect on supply, it's why they should always pass a cost/benefit analysis before implementation.

Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels

#59

Post by AndrewKemendo »

elahd wrote: post #15

I'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…

This is happening nite and more and in fact happened to me last night at SFO, except instead of the driver just telling me to cancel, he made up a story about being in an accident. So I took a taxi, waited him out and he finally cancelled.

These services are turning into gypsy cab, where the full time people are as bad as the worst scammy taxi guys, new people don't know what they are doing and every once in a while you have someone who knows their area and isn't trying to scam but they seem to be doing it just for fun.

I'm back in regular taxis more often than not anymore

Re: Uber is charging passengers a $10 cancellation fee even when the driver cancels

#60

Post by marcosdumay »

valuearb wrote: post #58
marcosdumay wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regulating behavior is completely different from regulating entry on market. Besides, I fail to see how the GP wasn't victim of fraud. He may have better luck if he went to the police instead of a commercial regulator.

Not really. Let's say Taxi authority requires $20,000 bond from every driver to cover potential fines. Now you have drivers who can't afford to post the bond, you've reduced supply and increased prices. Most any regulation is going to have some effect on supply, it's why they should always pass a cost/benefit analysis before implementation.

I meant directly regulating the supply. Some regulations are good, others are clearly bad. And telling "therefore shall only exist 2k taxis on this city" is clearly on the bad category.
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