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Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

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Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#41

Post by TuringNYC »

While my story is anecdata I wonder if it speaks to a broader issue: I'm an Uber super-user. I used uber 400+ times per year in 2015, another 400 times 2016, and then again 400+ times in 2017. Then my rides per year went to 0 in 2018 and 0 in 2019 so far. It wasnt about price, the app just became too buggy to the point of being unusable. The customer service became unresponsive. I simply switched to Lyft/Careem/Via.

Certainly this didn't just happen to me. I wonder how many people are in my situation and how many users Uber has lost. It is nice they are devoting engineers to far-flung projects like food delivery, helicopter rides, ML-as-a-service projects (Michaelangelo), and GPU Databases (AresDB) but I honestly just wish they would fix their main money maker -- ride hailing.

I know this sounds like a sob story, but here are real points:

1. Cant add a credit card, just get a generic error. No error code that I can give customer service, just a generic error.

1b. For a while, didnt even get a credit card entry form, just the stupid green scanner box to photo-scan the card, which didnt work on any of my cards despite me having a top of the line iPhoneX camera

2. Cant add any credit cards no matter how many I try. Reach out to customer service and I get a generic response "I see you cant log into your app."...umm no. I'm already in the app adding a credit card obviously I can log in.

3. CAN add credit card, thanks for customer service, probably only because I started adding Dara Khosrowshahi @dkhos on my irate twitter messages....but when I try to hail a ride, "Payment Failure" regardless of how many cards I try. This is the worst error, because it is a silent runtime failure ...who wants to risk those when you're at the airport desperately needing a ride.

4. Pickup locations stale (SFO Airport changed ride hailing to the roof of the airport. Lyft immediately updated their app but Uber had stale pickup locations. Lyft had a service rep standing at the pickup location helping customers with the transition, Uber was nowhere on this -- in their own home city airport!)

5. Customer service provides useless generic responses and never closes a ticket. I understand customer service was outsourced to another company, which I wont name.

6. I'm a VIP customer in a sense. 2000 rides in a short period of time! Come on...if you are going to ignore people at least see if they are an early adopter / megauser and court your top customers!

7. Tried the pre-pay option using multiple cards...Bam! Payment Failure. Please take my money!

8. Within the span of a year in 2017, I used Uber multiple times at airports in SF, LA, NYC, Singapore, Taiwan. Given all the ML prowess at the firm, don't they realize I'm a price-insensitive business user? Come on...this is the cohort you want on your platform. Didn't all the ML segment me into the most valuable cohort?

Sometimes I feel like i'm trapped in some bad A/B test they are doing. I even tried to delete the entire account and start anew with a new email and new credit card, but it almost seems like my name itself has been blacklisted. No response from customer service.

If Uber/Lyft were public companies, i'd be shorting Uber and go long on Lyft. I love both, but I can already see the disarray.

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#42

Post by treis »

joshe wrote: post #26

What is Uber's long term moat/pricing power? To compete in a local market you just need to sign up 5000 or so drivers. At a $5 signup bonus that costs like $25,000. You can just be the third app, most drivers already swap between Lyft/Uber. You could even form a drivers cooperative and just give all the charges to drivers (like farmers do). Regulatory capture seems like the only real route to sustainable profits with…

>At a $5 signup bonus that costs like $25,000. You can just be the third app,

Uber can offer those drivers $10 not to switch and their capital will last longer than yours.

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#43

Post by hcnews »

sjjshvuiajhz wrote: post #13
throwaway-1283 wrote: post #11

I don't think this is a reflection of Lyft taking market share...more likely that the ridesharing industry has just matured. I remember getting so much joy out of requesting an Uber back in the earlier days. Nowadays I get about as much joy out of Uber(pool) as using the bus, sometimes less because the wait time has increased so much.

UberPool Express has some things in common with the bus, although I’ve still never been slapped in the face by a homeless man in an Uber.

Ouch and sorry.

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#44

Post by GCA10 »

i_am_nomad wrote: post #33
lozaning wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wont switch. 80% of my ubers get expensed. Keep me fat and happy with rewards, and I'll keep expensing it regardless of the cost, which doesnt really effect me, only our controller.

So now Uber's competitors just have to market to your controller, which is in fact easier than marketing to everyone at your company.

Harder than it seems. AmericanExpress had outsized market share in the corporate travel market for about 30 years, even though it never struck me as a superior product to Visa-based cards.

Not sure who they hypnotized to establish that edge, but it became strangely durable.

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#45

Post by sjjshvuiajhz »

clairity wrote: post #39
sjjshvuiajhz wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UberPool Express has some things in common with the bus, although I’ve still never been slapped in the face by a homeless man in an Uber.

have you ever seen your neighbor get dragged running and hanging out of the passenger side window by an angry uber driver? have you had someone slap you who is not homeless? i have. i get that you want to equate homeless folks on transit with violence but you did a really bad job of it.

I’m just describing an event that happened to me.

There are a lot of problems with Uber, but one thing it’s not is the cheapest and most convenient climate-controlled shelter for the city’s destitute mentally ill.

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#46

Post by hcnews »

crispyporkbites wrote: post #36
sjjshvuiajhz wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UberPool Express has some things in common with the bus, although I’ve still never been slapped in the face by a homeless man in an Uber.

I get a bus twice a day in London and not once has this or even the thought of this come into my head.

I can totally anticipate this happening in SF.

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#47

Post by cycrutchfield »

exabrial wrote: post #20

This last Sunday morning, Uber made 3 charges to my checking account totaling over $1.1k total, for three rides at 6:59am, 7:00am, and 7:01am. I haven't used them in about 2 years (they put me in a car with a guy that admitted to sexually assaulting his drunk female passengers). It was a nightmare trying to get ahold of their customer service to return my money. They have no phone numbers, it's all bots that answer t…

It's Uber's fault that you couldn't secure your own debit card?

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#48

Post by clairity »

joshe wrote: post #26

What is Uber's long term moat/pricing power? To compete in a local market you just need to sign up 5000 or so drivers. At a $5 signup bonus that costs like $25,000. You can just be the third app, most drivers already swap between Lyft/Uber. You could even form a drivers cooperative and just give all the charges to drivers (like farmers do). Regulatory capture seems like the only real route to sustainable profits with…

> "...you just need to sign up 5000 or so drivers. At a $5 signup bonus that costs like $25,000."

that's nowhere near the cost of acquisition for a driver. having worked on driver acquisition, i can tell you it's hundreds of dollars, not $5.

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#49

Post by [deleted] »

treis wrote: post #42
joshe wrote: post #26

What is Uber's long term moat/pricing power? To compete in a local market you just need to sign up 5000 or so drivers. At a $5 signup bonus that costs like $25,000. You can just be the third app, most drivers already swap between Lyft/Uber. You could even form a drivers cooperative and just give all the charges to drivers (like farmers do). Regulatory capture seems like the only real route to sustainable profits with…

>At a $5 signup bonus that costs like $25,000. You can just be the third app, Uber can offer those drivers $10 not to switch and their capital will last longer than yours.

[deleted]

Re: Uber Revenue Growth Slows, Losses Persist as 2019 IPO Draws Near

#50

Post by jakear »

treis wrote: post #42
joshe wrote: post #26

What is Uber's long term moat/pricing power? To compete in a local market you just need to sign up 5000 or so drivers. At a $5 signup bonus that costs like $25,000. You can just be the third app, most drivers already swap between Lyft/Uber. You could even form a drivers cooperative and just give all the charges to drivers (like farmers do). Regulatory capture seems like the only real route to sustainable profits with…

>At a $5 signup bonus that costs like $25,000. You can just be the third app, Uber can offer those drivers $10 not to switch and their capital will last longer than yours.

Not really. Driver are already nonexclusive, this is just adding one more entity.
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