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Tons of people here on HN use Uber - yet most of them know about those shady tactics used by Uber against Lyft. Genuine question: Why would you want to support

Tons of people here on HN use Uber - yet most of them know about those shady tactics used by Uber against Lyft. Genuine question: Why would you want to support such a company by being a customer?

kdamken 11y ago
The same reason everyone uses iPhones despite them being built in part by child labor - people don't care about how they get things, they care about what they get and how good they are. Uber as a company is slimy that does shady things to crush their competition. But Uber as a service is awesome and provides a way better experience than using a Taxi in most cities.
alistairSH 11y ago
UberXL is my most frequent use by far. It's easy to get a large SUV that can seat 6 passengers with room for luggage.
SyneRyder 11y ago
I've put my answer a bit higher in the thread: because the competition and customer experience are currently so much worse. (Lyft hasn't arrived in my city yet.) Some of the competitors here have used shady tactics against Uber as well, I've had taxi drivers pull up pretending to be my Uber driver. If a competitor can match or exceed Uber's service, I'd consider switching. The convenience of travelling interstate / overseas & using the same service I use at home is quite compelling though.
- DavidHm 11y ago
  Taxi drivers pretend to be your Uber driver? How on earth do they expect to get paid?
  - SyneRyder 11y ago
    I did wonder that. Perhaps he would have threatened to call it in to police as a customer refusing to pay. Maybe he just wanted to torch the ratings of Uber customers, by having them no-show for the Uber they actually ordered. The whole thing just felt very unsafe. This happened in the early hours of the morning as well. I was very glad when he finally drove off.
adventurer 11y ago
They can wage their own wars. It doesn't bother me, really. I have had a Lyft driver who also drove for Uber, tell me he used very similar tactics. He and other drivers would accept Uber rides and leave those people hanging at the airport to protest Uber's price decreases.
wfo 11y ago
Because ultimately voting with your dollar doesn't matter. It's ineffective and it does nothing. It's a myth that if people don't like [x], then they won't buy from companies that support/enact [x] -- the market can take care of collective action problems! It ends up being a convenient way to push the responsibility onto some amorphous other person and say "not my job". People don't like sweatshops. They don't like abusive monopolies who engage in shady anticompetitive practices like Uber. And yet most products are made in sweatshops, and Uber is wildly successful. I'm not sure why people (myself included) don't do this. I suspect a lot of it is information/guilt overload; our global capitalist system is so dysfunctional that almost any purchase you make is contributing to something morally abhorrent. So in order to get by and have a daily life we just have to turn that part of our moral compass off when we make purchases to some extent. In the end, it will never be effective to allow the market to decide matters like this: if a bar of soap whose purchase guarantees the murder of a baby for $2 is sitting next to a normal one on a supermarket shelf for $4, people will fight tooth and nail for the chance to kill that baby. Because they figure if they don't, somebody else will, and why waste $2? That's assuming they are even informed -- businesses, when necessary, will spend millions of dollars on PR and advertising campaigns to ensure their customers are uninformed and that the market is dysfunctional. The only solution is regulatory power, to through taxes or some other means delete the businesses with immoral practices from the market.
- randomgyatwork 11y ago
  I'd say that voting with dollars is the only democracy. Most people don't have the value to choose correctly, or simply don't care. If people don't care why would the government feel forced to do anything?

Tons of people here on HN use Uber - yet most of them know about those shady tactics used by Uber against Lyft. Genuine question: Why would you want to support such a company by being a customer?

kdamken 11y ago

The same reason everyone uses iPhones despite them being built in part by child labor - people don't care about how they get things, they care about what they get and how good they are. Uber as a company is slimy that does shady things to crush their competition. But Uber as a service is awesome and provides a way better experience than using a Taxi in most cities.

alistairSH 11y ago

UberXL is my most frequent use by far. It's easy to get a large SUV that can seat 6 passengers with room for luggage.

SyneRyder 11y ago

I've put my answer a bit higher in the thread: because the competition and customer experience are currently so much worse. (Lyft hasn't arrived in my city yet.) Some of the competitors here have used shady tactics against Uber as well, I've had taxi drivers pull up pretending to be my Uber driver. If a competitor can match or exceed Uber's service, I'd consider switching. The convenience of travelling interstate / overseas & using the same service I use at home is quite compelling though.

DavidHm 11y ago
Taxi drivers pretend to be your Uber driver? How on earth do they expect to get paid?
- SyneRyder 11y ago
  I did wonder that. Perhaps he would have threatened to call it in to police as a customer refusing to pay. Maybe he just wanted to torch the ratings of Uber customers, by having them no-show for the Uber they actually ordered. The whole thing just felt very unsafe. This happened in the early hours of the morning as well. I was very glad when he finally drove off.

adventurer 11y ago

They can wage their own wars. It doesn't bother me, really. I have had a Lyft driver who also drove for Uber, tell me he used very similar tactics. He and other drivers would accept Uber rides and leave those people hanging at the airport to protest Uber's price decreases.

wfo 11y ago

Because ultimately voting with your dollar doesn't matter. It's ineffective and it does nothing. It's a myth that if people don't like [x], then they won't buy from companies that support/enact [x] -- the market can take care of collective action problems! It ends up being a convenient way to push the responsibility onto some amorphous other person and say "not my job". People don't like sweatshops. They don't like abusive monopolies who engage in shady anticompetitive practices like Uber. And yet most products are made in sweatshops, and Uber is wildly successful. I'm not sure why people (myself included) don't do this. I suspect a lot of it is information/guilt overload; our global capitalist system is so dysfunctional that almost any purchase you make is contributing to something morally abhorrent. So in order to get by and have a daily life we just have to turn that part of our moral compass off when we make purchases to some extent. In the end, it will never be effective to allow the market to decide matters like this: if a bar of soap whose purchase guarantees the murder of a baby for $2 is sitting next to a normal one on a supermarket shelf for $4, people will fight tooth and nail for the chance to kill that baby. Because they figure if they don't, somebody else will, and why waste $2? That's assuming they are even informed -- businesses, when necessary, will spend millions of dollars on PR and advertising campaigns to ensure their customers are uninformed and that the market is dysfunctional. The only solution is regulatory power, to through taxes or some other means delete the businesses with immoral practices from the market.

randomgyatwork 11y ago
I'd say that voting with dollars is the only democracy. Most people don't have the value to choose correctly, or simply don't care. If people don't care why would the government feel forced to do anything?