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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

#81

Post by cameldrv »

NoTeslaThrow wrote: post #56
bradly wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both Uber and Lyft's pay-to-not-wait is about as dark as I've encountered recently. It makes it extremely hard to get an reliable wait time.

Not to mention they don't refund you you when they fail to deliver the car on expected arrival.

This is my biggest aggravation. They consistently underreport estimated pickup times. Dropoff times are essentially universally significantly later than the estimate before booking.

It's things like this that make agents potentially exciting. So much of enshittification is wrapping an essentially good service in a crappy and misleading UI to drive extra revenue. If you can replace the lying UI with a more honest one, and then do a fair and automatic comparison between Uber and Lyft, a lot of the annoyance goes away.

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

#82

Post by reaperducer »

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.

They should have embraced the internet and apps.

In some cities, they did, even before Uber existed.

But they still had to pay their drivers a living wage. Uber didn't, and people went with the cheaper fares.

Then there were no more taxis, and all the taxi drivers were making a third the money driving for Uber.

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

#83

Post by radicaldreamer »

csharpminor wrote: post #80
teeray wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst thing is that you can't even do a chargeback, otherwise you get banned. There is no recourse for the consumer. If this is their solution for fighting chargebacks, they should get banned from accepting Visa / MC / AMEX.

Another sketchy practice: if you get Uber Cash through a card like Amex, when you go to use it the price for the ride is automatically $15-$20 more than someone who doesn’t have an Uber Cash balance. I’ve checked this side by side with colleagues at the airport getting ride quotes to the same hotel. When you have Uber Cash they will quote you more. You can find numerous Reddit threads on the topic as well. This feels…

Send in a complaint to your state attorney’s general

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

#84

Post by radicaldreamer »

MrDarcy wrote: post #69
alfalfasprout wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you can't use it anymore... that's kind of a problem when there's a duopoly in the rideshare space.

What’s the threshold for getting banned? I’ve done a few chargebacks against Lyft since they removed all forms of customer support and haven’t gotten banned yet.

Uber is likely a lot more aggressive banning people as that’s how they operate all aspects of their business

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

#85

Post by radicaldreamer »

ceejayoz wrote: post #52
gruez wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd take that with a grain of salt. I've went through the process to cancel an uber one trial recently, and I would say it's not anywhere near "23 screens". Maybe the user in question got unlucky and got hit with all the A/B trials, and they're being super generous with what counts as a "screen", but the process was relatively painless.

I mean, in my case, I was literally forbidden from canceling. I got a screen saying I couldn’t cancel within 24 hours after the monthly renewal. Very clearly intended to combat “oh shit I need to cancel that one” when the charge shows up in hopes you forget again.

Pretty sure that’s straight up illegal in many jurisdictions

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

#86

Post by rs186 »

acdha wrote: post #74
alfalfasprout wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you can't use it anymore... that's kind of a problem when there's a duopoly in the rideshare space.

The answer to that problem is not giving them more money. They’re going to use that money to try to drive competitors out of the market and lobby for laws which harm riders and drivers.

It's not a choice for many people, like, easily many millions in a city.

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

#87

Post by Retric »

rs186 wrote: post #86
acdha wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer to that problem is not giving them more money. They’re going to use that money to try to drive competitors out of the market and lobby for laws which harm riders and drivers.

It's not a choice for many people, like, easily many millions in a city.

Where exactly is Uber the only option?

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

#88

Post by zippergz »

cameldrv wrote: post #81
NoTeslaThrow wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention they don't refund you you when they fail to deliver the car on expected arrival.

This is my biggest aggravation. They consistently underreport estimated pickup times. Dropoff times are essentially universally significantly later than the estimate before booking. It's things like this that make agents potentially exciting. So much of enshittification is wrapping an essentially good service in a crappy and misleading UI to drive extra revenue. If you can replace the lying UI with a more honest one,…

This is the same thing the food delivery apps (including Uber Eats) do. I have screenshots showing the estimated delivery time pretty consistently jumping up anywhere between 20% and 50% from what it shows on the initial screen to what you get once you've placed the order. And then often they don't even make that time estimate.

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

#89

Post by Forgeties79 »

rs186 wrote: post #86
acdha wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer to that problem is not giving them more money. They’re going to use that money to try to drive competitors out of the market and lobby for laws which harm riders and drivers.

It's not a choice for many people, like, easily many millions in a city.

In a city?

Cabs, busses, bikes, trains...

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

#90

Post by tristor »

darkwizard42 wrote: post #75
tristor wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst part is I have never figured out a way to spend any of my Uber credits. I have hundreds of dollars in Uber credits I've accumulated over the years, and I regularly use Uber, and yet have never spent any credits.

When you choose your payment method in the ride selection screen you should be automatically using credits (unless those credits are for something specific, like Eats, or something else). I'm able to see this in my Uber app today (set a destination, then at the bottom of the screen is a row for payment options, clicking that will show you Uber balances (uber cash), payment methods, and vouchers) and am located in the…

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).
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