Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

FTC takes action against Uber for deceptive billing and cancellation practices

ftc.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 281 posts

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

#41

Post by cogman10 »

gruez wrote: post #39
scoofy wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve literally experienced (not with Uber, probably around 2010): 1: Account 2: Cancel 3: Call this number. 4: Call number. 5: Welcome to Customer Service press… … …press 9 to cancel. 6: We need to confirm who you are. Give birth date, etc. 7: Are you sure? 8: Agent gets on the line. 9: Why do you want to cancel? 10: We are offering you a discount to continue and not cancel, how about that? 11: Cancel 12: Are you sur…

>3: Call this number. For Uber? In the handful of times I've canceled uber one trials I've never seen this. It's always through the app. Not even the FTC complaint alleges this.

Are you in Cali? They have a state law that says "if you can sign up online you have to be able to cancel online".

I ran into this with a NYTimes subscription I tried to cancel. They detected I wasn't in a state with such protections and removed the cancellation options while not providing a way to cancel. Made things real hard to shutdown.

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

#42

Post by reverendsteveii »

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

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

#43

Post by thatcat »

gruez wrote: post #21
ivape wrote: post #14

Anecdote: Uber Eats markets a 2 for 1 deal that I would have only ordered due to the deal. They always add both items when you take the deal to the cart, but they suddenly changed it. I didn't realize I had to manually add both, and only had one delivered. I called them up and they only refunded a portion, and not the whole thing without accounting for the fact that it was an opportunity cost for me. I would have jus…

>It's tin-foil hatting, but they coerced a purchase imho. That's not what "coerced" means. "Deceived", maybe.

Finessed a sale through intentional misunderstandings

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

#44

Post by [deleted] »

JohnMakin wrote: post #29

I’m disabled and rely heavily on food delivery apps and stopped using uber/postmates about a year ago. I somehow got tricked into paying $40 on a $6 order. I went back through the flow to see where I messed up, the screen did show my order amount that I expected, but after many many emails and messages with support, this discount didnt apply because I didn’t hit some “minimum” on the order, so they went ahead and cha…

[deleted]

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

#45

Post by paxys »

gkapur wrote: post #3

I’m convinced I get more “deals” (temporary discounts) from Uber without Uber One/after canceling it, which offsets the benefits from Uber One. I don’t see those deals on Uber Eats so it feels like the real value of Uber One is for heavy Uber Eats users. PS. Worth going through the cancellation flow when you are up for renewal as they will probably offer you 50% off Uber One.

Uber's sales reps convinced my company to sign up for a business account for employee travel. Soon we started noticing that advertised fares for the exact same ride were 20-40% higher when the business profile was activated. Now the guidance for employees is to always book rides using the personal profile and file for reimbursement. I'm convinced that Uber is only able to survive by scamming customers.

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

#47

Post by jonathanlydall »

UberOne is why I almost never use UberEats any more and instead use a local competitor.

Shortly after it was introduced it seemed every order of mine would get surprise delayed after pick up as the driver would have to first drop off a different order at >90° different direction from me, no doubt for the user who would get priority for being on UberOne.

I don’t order food often enough to justify a subscription, so I just switched to Mr D(elivery), a local South African company where the delivery time is at least almost always consistent. I also feel a bit better about less of the money leaving the country.

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

#48

Post by m463 »

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #16

Similar to CA's requirement for online cancellations if a subscription is purchased online, there should be a rule that requires the same amount of steps to cancel as it takes to subscribe . Yes it could still be gamed, but anyone who's worked on user funnels knows that every added step reduces conversion, so it would be self-balancing.

"same amount of steps to cancel as it takes to subscribe"

I wonder... what if you artificially padded the signup process with feel-good stuff?

- screen: Did you know, Scarlett also uses this service?

- screen: Since you are signing up, we are adding a Free 10% off voucher for

- screen: Our customer Service Representative (attactive person) is always standing by!

etc...

- screen : click [Yes] to sign up!

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

#49

Post by gruez »

paxys wrote: post #45
gkapur wrote: post #3

I’m convinced I get more “deals” (temporary discounts) from Uber without Uber One/after canceling it, which offsets the benefits from Uber One. I don’t see those deals on Uber Eats so it feels like the real value of Uber One is for heavy Uber Eats users. PS. Worth going through the cancellation flow when you are up for renewal as they will probably offer you 50% off Uber One.

Uber's sales reps convinced my company to sign up for a business account for employee travel. Soon we started noticing that advertised fares for the exact same ride were 20-40% higher when the business profile was activated. Now the guidance for employees is to always book rides using the personal profile and file for reimbursement. I'm convinced that Uber is only able to survive by scamming customers.

FWIW I used a business profile a few years ago because that's the only way to not use your uber gift balance (we couldn't expense gift balances), and didn't notice any discrepancy between personal and business rates for the base fare. Selecting "business" disables any promos, which is likely where the discrepancy is coming from.
Post reply on HN