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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

#271

Post by genewitch »

kayodelycaon wrote: post #15
Loughla wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have an issue with my business listing on Google. They say I need to contact support. There is no support. It does not exist. Why do they do these things?

> Why do they do these things? Because they can get away with it. Nestle has gotten away with killing nearly ten million children since 1960. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Nestlé_boycott Companies have no morality. Unless someone holds them accountable they're going optimize for making money.

I actively boycott nestle and I didn't know about that 1977 thing. The don't believe water is a fundamental human right. They make so much stuff, it is tiring having to flip all new products over and look for that damn bird.

Also nearly every dog/cat food is nestle as well. Only the livestock feed Purina makes isn't tainted by nestle.

Thank goodness for Smucker.

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

#272

Post by genewitch »

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.

You go to the phone booth and underneath there'll be a book in a plastic case. Inside that book you go to the part that's yellow and you look under T for taxi.

In lieu of that, you can just look at the back of any taxi. They'll have the number on it. It's usually like 8888888, because the personal injury lawyers always have 7777777.

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

#273

Post by genewitch »

olyjohn wrote: post #124
0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many years ago, I had an XBox 360 with a valid credit card attached. With a ten year+ gap of service, I then connected my account to a new Xbox. Somehow Microsoft was able to still use and charge a ten year old credit card account even though I have had many replacement cards in the intervening years.

I've had new credit / debit cards show up in the mail... and then vendors tell me they automatically updated my card info! What's the point in expiring a card if they can just get the new info automatically anyways?

They make money. Under the guise of providing continous service.

If my bank did this to me I'd tell them I'm just going to charge back everything they automate.

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

#274

Post by stevedodge1 »

Not only. Does Uber charge customers unfairly? When you use their g, p, s, they take you the long way to get them to their destination. For Insta. Nce I picked up a person and they told me take a break. I thought to myself. 1 2 49 is to my left, but it took me 2 miles to the right out of the way. And backtrack me back to 249. Not only did that put more gas and mileage on my car. It took more time to get my customer there. This has happened to me on many occasions. That's why I quit them in just 1 week. I've got a lot of complaints but I won't bore you with the details. My suggestion stay away from

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

#275

Post by steveBK123 »

frollogaston wrote: post #268
steveBK123 wrote: post #171

Uber is an interesting company in that they were always shady, but initially in ways that customers liked (somewhat illegal taxis ripping off their drivers, for below cost, subsidized lifestyle by VC). They then flipped the "make a profit" switch and are now shady in ways customers dislike (ripping you the customer off).

I've been saying this about Google since the 2000s. The "don't be evil" slogan meant "prioritize growth over profit for now." And if anything, I find profit-taking more honest than loss-leading.

This is why I found GOOG engineers I’ve met the most insufferable. Note I’m east coast so sample size is under 10…

But they all universally had a rather smug attitude that what THEY were working on was morally above what the rest of us were because they were just doing non-commercial r&d loss making stuff.

They didn’t sully themselves with anything to do with the core business!

Of course this steps over the darker aspects of the core business which funds their generous “non commercial” fun jobs…

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

#276

Post by rs186 »

woodruffw wrote: post #130
rd wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be intentionally obtuse - even for people living in a place with public transport as encompassing as say NYC, you _need_ some form of ride-sharing service eventually in day-to-day life. Being banned from the duopoly of ride-share services is a life-altering thing to happen.

> even for people living in a place with public transport as encompassing as say NYC, you _need_ some form of ride-sharing service eventually in day-to-day life Not really. You can say this about smaller US cities, but NYC is absolutely a city where the >90% percentile of people can live without the daily use of a car. (The simplest reason for this has nothing do to with car ownership or desirability per se : it's be…

Not true.

Many times, if I want to go from arbitrary point A to point B in NYC within 30 minutes due to time constraints, the only choice is taxi/Lyft/Uber. Subway/bus combined with walking easily take 1 hour.

Or when it's very late in the evening.

Of course, we are talking about NYC, which means that you can arrive at your destination, eventually. That doesn't mean you want to do that in many situations.

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

#277

Post by frollogaston »

steveBK123 wrote: post #275
frollogaston wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been saying this about Google since the 2000s. The "don't be evil" slogan meant "prioritize growth over profit for now." And if anything, I find profit-taking more honest than loss-leading.

This is why I found GOOG engineers I’ve met the most insufferable. Note I’m east coast so sample size is under 10… But they all universally had a rather smug attitude that what THEY were working on was morally above what the rest of us were because they were just doing non-commercial r&d loss making stuff. They didn’t sully themselves with anything to do with the core business! Of course this steps over the darker as…

It can happen. I thought the Internship movie was just a movie and Google engineers don't really say things like "I'm busy trying to make the world a better place," but turns out that's sometimes what they say. At least before layoffs started.

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

#278

Post by dkrich »

frollogaston wrote: post #266
dkrich wrote: post #129

I’m bearish on uber because despite all of these shady tactics they are still barely profitable at the current scale and with enormous tailwinds. Last quarter they made $770 million on $12 billion of revenue. It’s just a lousy business model and they are desperate to beat Wall Street’s ever inflated expectations each quarter.

Yeah I wouldn't consider it a growth stock either. But 16.24 P/E isn't that high. There are blue chips higher than that.

That pe is nonsense imo. It’s based on a one time $6 billion tax credit that they included last quarter because they assume they will be profitable enough in the future to use it so are adding it into the balance sheet now.

I believe their comps are getting tougher and tougher every quarter as they aggressively drive to turn the profit spigot and squeeze more and more profit out of an inherently unprofitable business model. This is a single dimension stock that is 100% reliant on growing its user base.

They’ve been able to do that because users are aging into the platform faster than they’re aging out but eventually the well will run dry.

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

#279

Post by socalgal2 »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #259
socalgal2 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visa / MC are also under monpoloy FTC scrutiny. They've kept out all competitors in he usa, supposedly by threating not letting you accept Visa / MC if you accept anyone else. In places like Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Mayalsia there are tons of competitors. And because of the competition the fees are much lower to try to lure merchants as well bonuses for consumers.

Almost all places accept AMEX too, and many accept UnionPay and Discover. So not sure about the monopoly bit.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/sep/24/visa-doj-an...

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

#280

Post by tristor »

darkwizard42 wrote: post #91
tristor wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not see this, it always direct-charges my Amex. The only credits I get auto-spent are my $15/monthly Amex credits. Definitely will reach out to Support at some point (whenever I get fed up and have time to burn, probably while sitting waiting to board a flight).

Okay, are you able to at least see your vouchers and other credits? I currently have a $5 credit applied from a cancellation dispute so I think it should be working for all credits.

Just figured I should reply here as a follow-up. I had a friend see my comment on HN and reach out to me directly. I found out I had enabled some option somehow that disabled the use of credits. I fixed it, and now everything is working correctly.
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