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FTC takes action against Uber for deceptive billing and cancellation practices

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Re: FTC takes action against Uber for deceptive billing and cancellation practices

#161

Post by pests »

reverendsteveii wrote: post #42
janalsncm wrote: post #23

I use virtual credit cards for most of my subscriptions. If I can’t cancel via normal means, I cancel the card. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Can’t say whether this is the recommended method for all services but it works for me.

I tried that with my real card and it turns out that if you report a card lost/stolen and get a replacement behind the scenes your bank will still forward some transactions from the old card to the new one without having to update

When you request a new card you have to request that they don’t update merchants. Claim it was stolen or lost. Not all banks let you but most have this as an option when talking to a real person.

Re: FTC takes action against Uber for deceptive billing and cancellation practices

#162

Post by bdangubic »

Spooky23 wrote: post #155
HenryBemis wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, Rome!! The meter wrote €40, the taxi driver asked for €60. He tried verbal-aggression and threatened to call the police. I took a photo of the meter and asked him to please call the police, I will show them the photo and tell them that he threatened me. He took the €40 and went his merry way. Once upon a time (around 2005-2006) I had a colleague whose father was a taxi driver. He (the colleague) was openly telli…

Cabbies and barmen. My family owned bars, my grand uncle always said he would fire honest bartenders, because there’s no such thing, and he’s too smart to work for him. :)

geeeeez, you guys are making it sound like going to Rome is like going to ____ ( I don’t want to offend any City here… :) ).

Re: FTC takes action against Uber for deceptive billing and cancellation practices

#163

Post by steveBK123 »

radicaldreamer wrote: post #85
ceejayoz wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, in my case, I was literally forbidden from canceling. I got a screen saying I couldn’t cancel within 24 hours after the monthly renewal. Very clearly intended to combat “oh shit I need to cancel that one” when the charge shows up in hopes you forget again.

Pretty sure that’s straight up illegal in many jurisdictions

Uber is clever enough to know which jurisdictions and make it as annoying as as likely legally enforceable by state..

Re: FTC takes action against Uber for deceptive billing and cancellation practices

#164

Post by NoTeslaThrow »

vjvjvjvjghv wrote: post #72
NoTeslaThrow wrote: post #53

I can't express how angry it makes me that I only had access to taxis for a couple years in the city before they were all pushed out and rates were jacked, screwing both the customer and the driver providing the value. It will take decades to reverse this course even if everyone has decent intentions, and shareholders rarely do.

The taxi companies were dumb though. They should have embraced the internet and apps. I am still not sure how to even call a taxi in my town.

They did. But the model of uber was obviously designed to drive them out of business, damn legality and short term losses and devastation of the local community.

Well, now we're stuck at the airport waiting for a mob of cars to fight each other to transport us each as least efficiently as humans have figured out how to do. But at least we can stare at our phone while we wait to get fucked.

And this doesn't even touch the horror of the driving side

Meanwhile, my city is suing a local cooperative for "safety reasons" or some bullshit. I don't expect anything to ever improve at this point.

Re: FTC takes action against Uber for deceptive billing and cancellation practices

#165

Post by steveBK123 »

acid__ wrote: post #131
rideontime wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm trying to play Devil's Advocate, but I literally can't think of another reason they would do this.

I can, I’ve written a billing system before (unfortunately). There’s a lot of annoying math/edge cases and systems to sync between. While I never implemented a restriction like this, it would have prevented a lot of weird bugs/customer support issues and kept the underlying code much simpler. (Annoying math = time zones, prorations, discounts, billing cycle anchors, etc. see the “falsehoods programmers believe about…

I mean sure, I get it, but companies like Uber leave edge cases like that out when it hurts them (customers cancelling) but move heaven & earth to remove them when it helps them (I bet its easy to re-join within 24 hours of cancelling?).

Re: FTC takes action against Uber for deceptive billing and cancellation practices

#166

Post by paxys »

NoTeslaThrow wrote: post #156
csharpminor wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another sketchy practice: if you get Uber Cash through a card like Amex, when you go to use it the price for the ride is automatically $15-$20 more than someone who doesn’t have an Uber Cash balance. I’ve checked this side by side with colleagues at the airport getting ride quotes to the same hotel. When you have Uber Cash they will quote you more. You can find numerous Reddit threads on the topic as well. This feels…

I have heard a lot of people speak about dynamic pricing, but I have yet to hear any benefit to the consumer or society as a whole. Basically any possible pitch for it is worse in every way than simple downward wealth redistribution.

Going by pure economic theory "dynamic pricing" actually benefits both buyers and sellers in a marketplace. There are plenty of cases where it makes sense – lunch menus at restaurants, grocery store coupons, retail bargain bins, dollar menus, happy hour deals, senior/youth/student discounts, even surge pricing in Uber & Lyft. Of course like with every aspect of economics how something is implemented matters a lot more than how it sounds on paper. Especially in the case of rideshare/food delivery, where the middleman has all the data and makes all the decisions.

Re: FTC takes action against Uber for deceptive billing and cancellation practices

#167

Post by ryandrake »

teeray wrote: post #58
paxys wrote: post #40

The latest dark pattern in all these apps is that they will mess up your order/ride and then "refund" you in the form of account credit. There's no way to actually get your money back. Trying to contact support results in an endless loop of help screens and chatbots. If you are able to figure out the magic combination of options that will get you to a support agent they will say "sure we will refund your money" but t…

The worst thing is that you can't even do a chargeback, otherwise you get banned. There is no recourse for the consumer. If this is their solution for fighting chargebacks, they should get banned from accepting Visa / MC / AMEX.

If you are at the point where your only option left is a chargeback, that is a “burning the bridges” moment anyway. Why would you want to continue doing business with a company that treats you like that? I would be grateful to be banned: it means I don’t have to go to the trouble of canceling my account.

I’ve had to do a handful of chargebacks and I don’t know or care whether they banned me: I would never voluntarily do business with them again anyway.

Re: FTC takes action against Uber for deceptive billing and cancellation practices

#168

Post by papichulo4 »

rubiquity wrote: post #111

Uber is worth a case study in absolutely horrendous customer service and borderline theft. I haven't used them since they stole $150 from me for an UberEats order I was 10 minutes late to pickup in a one hour window, stating that the pickup windows are firm even for non-perishable goods and failure to show up during the window is a forfeit without refund. They even fought my credit card dispute on the matter. Vile co…

Similar. Charged $150 for 2 bottles of wine that never moved off their shelf. I cancelled within the minute.

You'd think that given no services were actually rendered and no perishable items, it'd be an easy open-shut support case.

But, no, you see: "that automatically accepted order itself was the service rendered"

Cool. I took the L because I order food all the time. Hate them for it. I don't know what our alternative is. We all laughed at this company as they burned through billions a year to acquire us, and now it's a monopoly robbing us all.

Re: FTC takes action against Uber for deceptive billing and cancellation practices

#169

Post by vkou »

paxys wrote: post #97
dghlsakjg wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it becomes a systemic problem, the CC companies will absolutely drop merchants or entire industries. CC companies, especially in the states, almost always favor the cardholder over the merchant.

For individual chargebacks and small scammy merchants, sure. Uber meanwhile processes $40 billion worth of transactions a year. There is zero chance they are facing any kind of "discipline" from credit card operators. At that volume they write their own terms.

What's Uber going to do to VISA if VISA honors the chargeback? Not accept VISA?

Your card provider needs to keep you happy far more than your card provider needs to keep Uber happy.

Re: FTC takes action against Uber for deceptive billing and cancellation practices

#170

Post by vkou »

alfalfasprout wrote: post #65
hammock wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Submit a credit card chargeback. They cannot charge you for a service not rendered

Then you can't use it anymore... that's kind of a problem when there's a duopoly in the rideshare space.

Why would you want to keep using a service that takes your money and doesn't provide you with the service?
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