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Beware: Uber Has No Customer Service and Still Has Bugs

arunhasablog.com

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Re: Beware: Uber Has No Customer Service and Still Has Bugs

#51

Post by chrishepner »

I am permanently banned from Uber.

About 6 months ago, I noticed I was unable to log in to my account. Resetting the password did nothing, so I sent an email to the local support address. Almost two weeks later, I finally get the following reply:

  I looked into this situation and it appears that this 
  device has been used on 25 different Uber accounts, which 
  is a major red flag for us. We will not be reactivating 
  your account.
  Uber Love,
  Sam
I have one of those "firewall" apps on my rooted Android phone that lets you restrict individual permissions for a given application. By default, I prevent applications from transmitting the IMEI. I assume at least 24 other people have done the same thing.

I sent an email explaining the issue, and they eventually emailed me back saying they would "check in with their engineering team and circle back soon." In May. My subsequent emails have been ignored. There is, as far as I can tell, no way to escalate the issue.

I used to really like Uber, but they sure did their best to keep me from using it.

Re: Beware: Uber Has No Customer Service and Still Has Bugs

#52

Post by Mithaldu »

pbreit wrote: post #46
Mithaldu wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a company decides to be faceless by not providing a phone number and not communicating on their support practices†, then being penalized by some faceless algorithm sounds like the kind of lesson they need. † It's not hard to send automatic emails if there are no supporters in the office for a few days or if the queue is too long.

Be careful, the lesson for the rider may end up being a ban from the service. All because he couldn't wait a business day for a response (the ride was Sunday around noon, Monday was a holiday, a Tweet reply came Tuesday).

What makes you think he'd ever even want to trust them again when they happily take 80$ of him, make no movements to return them and leave him with exactly zero communication as to why that is?

Re: Beware: Uber Has No Customer Service and Still Has Bugs

#53

Post by lnanek2 »

Ran into the same thing with AirBnb actually - really poor support and messed up rule based billing. A host agreed to pick me up then couldn't make it for hours after. She had a strict cancelation policy, but agreed to refund anyway since it was her fault. She and I both contacted AirBnb to issue the refund, but they never did anything, and later even sent an automated survey asking how their support was. So they ignored what both I and the host wanted and wasted 1k of my money.

They've probably still saved me money over the long run vs. hotels, but honestly, I prefer to just call up previous hosts and offer them money outside AirBnb now and other similar options since I know AirBnb won't back me up when they screw up. The same option is available with cars as well. You can take Uber or Super Shuttle or whatever the first few times, but the drivers will usually give you a card so you can just call them direct and get a better rate.

Re: Beware: Uber Has No Customer Service and Still Has Bugs

#54

Post by toomuchtodo »

soperj wrote: post #22
carbocation wrote: post #20

In Boston, I had an experience with a driver who took us to the right street in the wrong city, then drove the wrong way down a one way and was pulled over by the police. I gave a 1 star review and explained what happened. Without further action on my part, the local Uber rep refunded the difference between the actual care and what it should have been had there not been the whole detour. Very thoughtfully proactive.

I've experienced something similar in San Fran, where a driver took me on a really weird route, and I gave a 3 star review, and just said they could have picked a much better route and they agreed, and refunded the difference between the route taken, and the best route.

So why doesn't Uber calculate the route to take and display it to the driver? Every Uber car I've taken, the driver has both the Uber driver app running on their phone, and a separate GPS device.

Re: Beware: Uber Has No Customer Service and Still Has Bugs

#55

Post by jdminhbg »

mikeash wrote: post #48
jdminhbg wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> taxi pricing is transparent Hilarious.

Thank your for your informative and thought-out rebuttal. Every taxi I've ever ridden in clearly lays out the initial charge, how much distance is included, how much additional distance is charged, how much idle time is charged, and any additional fees.

That's really useful if you know what the distance is to your destination off the top of your head, or know that the driver is taking the shortest route to it. Also useful if the taxi driver actually engages the meter, or doesn't claim that the credit card reader is "broken." The idea that taxi regulations somehow make pricing transparent or predictable is completely divorced from reality.

Re: Beware: Uber Has No Customer Service and Still Has Bugs

#56

Post by nzk1 »

Mithaldu wrote: post #38
summraznboi wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do currently only do email support, but we respond to each email quickly and in a personable manner. We also have a process to check every single transaction that occurs to make sure that no extreme or inconsistent charges occur. And sorry about the captcha on the website; we are still growing rapidly better fulfill the transportation needs of New York!

Even if you don't do support via phone, you should have a phone number so one can get an actual human being in realtime interaction in case your system gets so fucked up that normal procedures break down. As far as i'm concerned you're not a company that takes business seriously if i can't call you. And this is echoed by many people i know, even though we prefer most of our communication to be online.

so according to you, GitHub isn't a serious business?

Re: Beware: Uber Has No Customer Service and Still Has Bugs

#57

Post by mikeash »

jdminhbg wrote: post #55
mikeash wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank your for your informative and thought-out rebuttal. Every taxi I've ever ridden in clearly lays out the initial charge, how much distance is included, how much additional distance is charged, how much idle time is charged, and any additional fees.

That's really useful if you know what the distance is to your destination off the top of your head, or know that the driver is taking the shortest route to it. Also useful if the taxi driver actually engages the meter, or doesn't claim that the credit card reader is "broken." The idea that taxi regulations somehow make pricing transparent or predictable is completely divorced from reality.

Failing to engage the meter is easily observed by the passenger. Credit card readers have nothing to do with this discussion, and are clearly just you being whiny. That price list I discussed is posted precisely because the law requires it.

Re: Beware: Uber Has No Customer Service and Still Has Bugs

#58

Post by ericd »

Mithaldu wrote: post #38
summraznboi wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do currently only do email support, but we respond to each email quickly and in a personable manner. We also have a process to check every single transaction that occurs to make sure that no extreme or inconsistent charges occur. And sorry about the captcha on the website; we are still growing rapidly better fulfill the transportation needs of New York!

Even if you don't do support via phone, you should have a phone number so one can get an actual human being in realtime interaction in case your system gets so fucked up that normal procedures break down. As far as i'm concerned you're not a company that takes business seriously if i can't call you. And this is echoed by many people i know, even though we prefer most of our communication to be online.

Come on with the phone number zealotry. It's very hard as a rapidly growing small-medium sized business to provide great phone service (on the level of being able to fix random problems on the spot), and if you can't provide great phone service, it's generally better to stick to asynchronous online methods where you can provide better service.

Re: Beware: Uber Has No Customer Service and Still Has Bugs

#59

Post by ddrmaxgt37 »

A Community Manager from LA got back to me via email. They refunded my trip and gave me a $50 credit. Transcript of his email:

Hi Arun,

Thanks for reaching out and so sorry for the delay here. We take customer support very seriously and the fact that it took a few days to get a response is definitely not cool or the standard. I'm working with my support team to make sure that emails like yours don't slip through the cracks again like this.

As for your trip and adjustment, the driver accidentally ended the trip prematurely and our operations team went in to adjust the fare to the amount that our estimator shows for this route (you can see a full breakdown for the charges below). However, it looks like there was a bug here that duplicated the adjustment (creating an additional $83 charge), which resulted in the $166 adjustment. Our engineers have already started looking into this to see exactly what went wrong.

I understand this is a big inconvenience and you shouldn't have to pay for this hassle, so I have refunded this trip in full (card receipt attached) -- you should see the refund back on your card in the next few business days. Additionally, for the delay in our response, I have added a $50 credit to your account. It looks like you ride in San Francisco most often, so this should get you a few rides on us. I promise this is not the norm and hope you can give us another shot!

Please reach out if there is anything else I can do.

==== Price Breakdown =====

Base Fare $3

Distance 32.5 miles x $2.55/mile $82.75

Time 4:30 minutes x $0.50/minute $2.50

Total $88

Best, James

Community Manager - LA Twitter - @Uber_LA

Re: Beware: Uber Has No Customer Service and Still Has Bugs

#60

Post by yannisp »

jordanthoms wrote: post #44
nostromo wrote: post #31

I'm long on Uber and Lyft but their approach to billing is lacking. Uber really should provide some sort of cost breakdown on your previous rides. (They provide quotes, but not itemized receipts.) But at least you can get a sense for how much they charge on their website. Lyft, hilariously, doesn't tell you how much they charge! At all! What on Earth is their thinking behind that? Is it miles? Minutes? Am I charged b…

Doesn't Uber do that? After each ride, I get an email with the breakdown of the costs of the ride, map of the route taken, average speed, time taken etc.

I think the point being made is that you find out after and there's a lack of upfront information. Personally I'm a huge fan of the map, time stamps, and oddly enough, the rounding down
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