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Uber rolls out in-app tipping

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Uber rolls out in-app tipping

#81

Post by briffle »

mabbo wrote: post #28

This is a really terrible idea. It's not that the drivers don't deserve money- far from it. It's that you now have a company that is desperate for cash, and it is the one who tells the drivers how much they made in tips. What's to stop them from skimming the tips? Oh, not too much, not enough that anyone can really point it out, but just a little bit, right? And let's not all pretend that a company as morally grey as…

They don't need to skim off the top of tips, just follow what restaurants do, and cut back on wages, since 'they get tips too'

Re: Uber rolls out in-app tipping

#82

Post by linkregister »

I used to abhor the in-app tipping option in Lyft. But increasingly I would be asked to tip cash by drivers when I used Uber. My rating started to get lower as the cultural expectation to tip cash took hold.

It turns out the Lyft model, where the driver doesn't know whether or not the rider tipped, is better for the rider. The rider doesn't have to carry cash in order to avoid getting extorted for a 5-star rating.

Tipping culture in restaurants is subsidizing substandard wages for servers. Tipping culture for taxis and the gypsy cab apps (Uber, Didi, Lyft, etc) doesn't have to take hold. Maybe now that the option is in-app, riders will eventually stop using it.

I hope, at least, that the tipping option is confined to U.S. rides. The rest of the world doesn't need to get infected with it.

Re: Uber rolls out in-app tipping

#83

Post by nym »

SamLevin88 wrote: post #55
vthallam wrote: post #8

The most important feature I liked in Uber relative to lyft was no tipping. Why not spike the price up a little and compensate them. When they have started, the motto was, "Uber - Your private driver" and it was truly like that until today I tip the driver like every other service you get.

Why are people up in arms over this? Being able to tip on Lyft is one of my favorite parts and from what I've read and understood, it generally favors the drivers. You don't need to tip immediately, a nice little dialog pops up with pre-configured amounts, and you can go above and beyond if you had good service

It adds friction to the process for getting from A to B.

Cabs

1. Find a cab

2. Hail the cab

3. Get in cab

4. Decide what to tip the cab

5. Pay the cab driver

6. Get out of cab

vs

Uber (without tipping)

1. Hail the uber from phone

2. Get in uber

3. Get out of uber

You could make the argument that tipping is optional, but deciding not to tip is still a decision making step.

Re: Uber rolls out in-app tipping

#84

Post by londons_explore »

djb_hackernews wrote: post #71
bpicolo wrote: post #2

Why not just raise the prices a bit again? Now I'm worried I'll get down-starred for not tipping on Uber, which is just kind of annoying. I feel like not requiring a tip is Uber's biggest differentiator

The way Uber works now is it incentivizes the driver to give you a poor rating if you don't tip. By including the tip functionality in the app, and preventing the driver from seeing the tip before you are rated, it will remove this incentive. I don't like tipping either but Uber had to do this and I'm confident the data showed it.

They will probably take some "handling fee" on the value of the tips.

It'll form an income stream.

Re: Uber rolls out in-app tipping

#85

Post by inverse_pi »

spaceflunky wrote: post #26
bpicolo wrote: post #2

Why not just raise the prices a bit again? Now I'm worried I'll get down-starred for not tipping on Uber, which is just kind of annoying. I feel like not requiring a tip is Uber's biggest differentiator

Uber is going to use tipping as excuse to lower payouts to drivers. If drivers get 80% of the fare now, they'll get 70% of the fare in a couple months because Uber will argue that drivers get tips now, which more than compensate for that loss.

fyi this is what Lyft is already doing

Re: Uber rolls out in-app tipping

#86

Post by savanaly »

londons_explore wrote: post #79
savanaly wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not like they're fooling anyone though...regular users of uber will know the average outlay from using an uber is $X, whether it's through the fares charged or a lower fare plus expected tip. I would much rather have a higher fare than the stress of figuring out how much to tip. I could just decide on a tip to always give, but what about those times when the service is really shitty? Do I "get back" at them by l…

I'm gonna guess they'll keep the tips secret until many hours after the journey (and when both driver and passenger have left star ratings). They might even aggregate tips for the week/month. That way, if you leave no tip, it can't come back and bite you.

But it will come back to bite me in a psychological way. I don't want to feel like the sort of person who doesn't tip when tipping is expected, I want to use a service where I don't have to think about tipping and can feel like a decent person. If that service has to cost more then so be it.

Re: Uber rolls out in-app tipping

#87

Post by TYPE_FASTER »

RunawayGalaxy wrote: post #10
bpicolo wrote: post #2

Why not just raise the prices a bit again? Now I'm worried I'll get down-starred for not tipping on Uber, which is just kind of annoying. I feel like not requiring a tip is Uber's biggest differentiator

You answered your own question. Why raise prices and risk losing customers when they can just use widely accepted social pressure to coerce you into subsidizing their cost of doing business for free?

Yeah, exactly. This doesn't cost them anything. If they add a button to add 10%/15%/20%, people will still just tap that instead of try to hail a cab.

Re: Uber rolls out in-app tipping

#88

Post by lhorie »

bpicolo wrote: post #2

Why not just raise the prices a bit again? Now I'm worried I'll get down-starred for not tipping on Uber, which is just kind of annoying. I feel like not requiring a tip is Uber's biggest differentiator

I think ultimately this is a good thing. If this gives drivers a bigger incentive to use Uber, that will translate to more drivers on the road, and lower surge pricing for riders.

Re: Uber rolls out in-app tipping

#89

Post by Kurtz79 »

objclxt wrote: post #56
Consultant32452 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think your lack of tip doesn't impact your rating now? The few Uber drivers I know expect a tip.

> The few Uber drivers I know expect a tip. I think this varies a lot by city. I don't know if you're in San Francisco, but it's never been my experience here that drivers expect a tip. But when I fly down to Las Vegas nearly all the Ubers I've taken have notes taped up in the back stating the driver expects to be tipped (in cash).

"all the Ubers I've taken have notes taped up in the back stating the driver expects to be tipped (in cash)."

It would annoy me to no end, and I would be surprised if Uber would have been cool with that before now.

Re: Uber rolls out in-app tipping

#90

Post by linkregister »

SilasX wrote: post #52

Well, there goes my last reason for using Uber. I had been really excited that they were the one oasis pushing back against the tipping culture[1]. Particularly troubling is the framing: >Uber is enabling passengers to tip its U.S. drivers with a tap on its ride-hailing app for the first time, part of a push to recast itself as a company with a conscience and a heart. What? As if anyone preferring that a service be u…

Yeah, all the tipping advocates are probably not aware that most countries don't have tipping. Restaurant staff are paid according to local wages. So a racial minority won't be paid less than someone from the majority race. European and Australian restaurant staff aren't depending on arbitrary tips. They know exactly what they are going to make at the beginning of their shift. They don't feel like they're working for peanuts for rolling napkins or putting chairs on tables.

It's probably not a bad idea to just select the $0 option when the tip screen shows up... until drivers start insisting on seeing you enter your tip before awarding your 5-star rating.

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