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As Uber Prepares to Go Public, Its Lead Lawyer Races to Clean It Up

nytimes.com

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Re: As Uber Prepares to Go Public, Its Lead Lawyer Races to Clean It Up

#61

Post by tehlike »

fancyfish wrote: post #25
jeswin wrote: post #13

Uber has among the worst customer support policies I have seen - but alas they are a monopoly and there's no end in sight. I think they should be regulated. Recently, I raised an issue when I got billed twice for the same ride. In India, they have no phone support, just email. Instead of checking transactions on their end, they wrote back to me asking me to submit my bank statement so that they can verify. I was quit…

Likewise, I gifted someone a $50 Uber gift card to their cell number. They never received it. I filed a support request online and received no response. Apparently there is no phone support here either? This is in US.

Chargeback.

Re: As Uber Prepares to Go Public, Its Lead Lawyer Races to Clean It Up

#62

Post by kbenson »

asafira wrote: post #22
marcrosoft wrote: post #7

The brand is already tarnished. I know many people that use lyft over Uber for this reason alone.

This might be the silicon valley bubble here though.

It might be (as long as we expand that definition to cover tech workers or tech industry aware people in other areas as well). I live an hour North of SF, and even there, if I mention I don't like to use Uber out of principle because of their past behavior and misdeeds, the question I invariably get is "Oh, like what? I haven't heard anything."

Whatever Uber did to paper over what news of their misdeeds reached general cultural consciousness (if any...) seems to have worked for the most part. That's a shame, since I truly believe there should be much harsher repercussions for their blatant disregard of the law over an extended period and the pain and problems it caused to many.

I suspect if the market was working efficiently, Uber would have a lot more problems and be in a much worse position than they are (efficient markets assume good information, and if people don't know what Uber's done, they can't make an informed decision).

Re: As Uber Prepares to Go Public, Its Lead Lawyer Races to Clean It Up

#63

Post by cameldrv »

FriedPickles wrote: post #30
jeswin wrote: post #13

Uber has among the worst customer support policies I have seen - but alas they are a monopoly and there's no end in sight. I think they should be regulated. Recently, I raised an issue when I got billed twice for the same ride. In India, they have no phone support, just email. Instead of checking transactions on their end, they wrote back to me asking me to submit my bank statement so that they can verify. I was quit…

In the US we have Lyft, so not quite a monopoly. Possibly an oligopoly though. I'm building an app that pits them against each other on price to promote a competitive transportation market. In some countries Uber does have a monopoly, or has been kicked out in favor of a different monopoly...

Good luck. You aren't the first to try this. Uber's terms of service expressly prohibit displaying their prices next to a competitor's, and they've sent their lawyers after anyone who has tried. You don't make money as a marketplace by competing in the market for marketplaces -- you do it by being the marketplace and charging the rent that the market will bear.

Re: As Uber Prepares to Go Public, Its Lead Lawyer Races to Clean It Up

#64

Post by V-2 »

wanone wrote: post #55
jeswin wrote: post #13

Uber has among the worst customer support policies I have seen - but alas they are a monopoly and there's no end in sight. I think they should be regulated. Recently, I raised an issue when I got billed twice for the same ride. In India, they have no phone support, just email. Instead of checking transactions on their end, they wrote back to me asking me to submit my bank statement so that they can verify. I was quit…

I had the opposite experience. Uber has customer support built into the App. I was also billed twice and just followed the instructions in App that created a ticket. Got my money back in 2 days.

Same thing in my case. I had a few mishaps - one guy didn't terminate the trip once I got off, so I got overcharged, another failed to pick me up to begin with (!), but started a trip anyway, etc. In every case the issue was financially resolved in terms of hours.

Re: As Uber Prepares to Go Public, Its Lead Lawyer Races to Clean It Up

#65

Post by V-2 »

lettergram wrote: post #28
biesnecker wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally. I use Lyft wherever I can but I can virtually always use Uber whereas Lyft is spotty.

Where do you go that doesn't have Lyft, but has Uber? I travel regularly and it is very rare not to have Lyft available. Virtually any city with >250k has both from my experience, although that could just be where I travel, I don't know.

> Where do you go that doesn't have Lyft, but has Uber?

Everywhere other than the US and Canada?

Re: As Uber Prepares to Go Public, Its Lead Lawyer Races to Clean It Up

#66

Post by dagw »

lettergram wrote: post #28
biesnecker wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally. I use Lyft wherever I can but I can virtually always use Uber whereas Lyft is spotty.

Where do you go that doesn't have Lyft, but has Uber? I travel regularly and it is very rare not to have Lyft available. Virtually any city with >250k has both from my experience, although that could just be where I travel, I don't know.

Where do you go that doesn't have Lyft, but has Uber?

Lyft is US/Canada only, while Uber is much more global.

Re: As Uber Prepares to Go Public, Its Lead Lawyer Races to Clean It Up

#67

Post by collyw »

aceperry wrote: post #49
fancyfish wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise, I gifted someone a $50 Uber gift card to their cell number. They never received it. I filed a support request online and received no response. Apparently there is no phone support here either? This is in US.

Uber's US support number is 800-593-7069. You can also tweet at their twitter account, which usually gets you a quick response. @Uber_Support ‏

Its sad that so many companies require you to kick up a stink on social media before they will acknowledge your complaint.

Movistar and Vodafone in Spain have both been like that with me.

Re: As Uber Prepares to Go Public, Its Lead Lawyer Races to Clean It Up

#68

Post by rchaud »

jimmaswell wrote: post #39
FriedPickles wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US we have Lyft, so not quite a monopoly. Possibly an oligopoly though. I'm building an app that pits them against each other on price to promote a competitive transportation market. In some countries Uber does have a monopoly, or has been kicked out in favor of a different monopoly...

Google Maps already does that.

Doesn't Uber pay Google for that privilege? I'm in Toronto and I've only ever seen Uber fare estimates on Google Maps.

Re: As Uber Prepares to Go Public, Its Lead Lawyer Races to Clean It Up

#69

Post by imustbeevil »

Hey I just got a crazy Idea.

Give me 18 billion dollars, and I'll pay people to drive other people around.

"How will we make money?" What? This is Silicon Valley, nobody makes money, we just burn capital ($18B) from people who invested in one good thing 20 years ago until we can sell the remaining capital ($7B) to braindead retail investors for 10x it's value.

The company only has a year and a half of runway left, so we have to move quick.

Re: As Uber Prepares to Go Public, Its Lead Lawyer Races to Clean It Up

#70

Post by xiphias2 »

imustbeevil wrote: post #69

Hey I just got a crazy Idea. Give me 18 billion dollars, and I'll pay people to drive other people around. "How will we make money?" What? This is Silicon Valley, nobody makes money, we just burn capital ($18B) from people who invested in one good thing 20 years ago until we can sell the remaining capital ($7B) to braindead retail investors for 10x it's value. The company only has a year and a half of runway left, so…

Try it. I don't think you will be successful. I think you underestimate the amount of money it took Uber to get the network effect in each city to have enough drivers. At this point it's easy to keep it up.
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