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How Lyft screwed me out of a $350 referral bonus
- roflchoppa 10y agoI thought lyfts thing was that they don't screw the driver over? Don't hide behind political speak.....
- ajford 10y agoI've talked to a fair number of former drivers for Lyft/Uber in the Austin TX area. General feeling I've gotten from them is that Lyft was less shitty than Uber, but still not great.
- ajford 10y agoSo Lyft and Uber recently threw a tantrum and fled Austin TX when a vote on legislature regarding TNCs didn't go their way. A few new local companies have popped up to fill the hole in the market, and many have attracted drivers who were formerly with Lyft and Uber. I've talked to a few of them about the new companies versus Lyft/Uber, and every single one of them has voiced the same thing; Lyft and Uber treat their drivers like shit, pull questionable stunts like this (one even mentioned something similar, except his app kept crashing or signing him out for 48 hours before the deadline for his 100 ride bonus, preventing him from getting the last few rides), and generally being dicks towards their "independent drivers". Every single driver I asked said they wouldn't go back to Uber/Lyft. Most even indicated they wouldn't go back even if Uber/Lyft returned and drove the new companies out of business. I've had great experiences with many drivers, and I hate think that they've been getting such a rotten deal from these companies.
- caseysoftware 10y agoTried to use Fasten twice. The first time, I waited 15 minutes when the driver was 3 minutes away, I gave up. The second time, I got in the car and the driver said he didn't know where I was going and demanded directions. I had put it into the app but not sure why it wasn't passed along. If Fasten's mission is to "be good to drivers," that's fine. But I thought their mission was to "get passengers to their destinations." I started using cabs again. So Kitchens+Adler appear to have won that one.
- fokinsean 10y agoYour second experience just sounds like you got a bad driver, which has happened to me with uber/lyft before they left. I mostly use Ride Austin which has been reliable, but I've also used Fasten numerous times without an issue. It is the wild west of TNCs right now in Austin, I'm curious to see who comes out on top. I'm just glad they popped up quickly after Uber/Lyft left.
- caseysoftware 10y agoIt's easy to move quickly when City Council ignores the law and invests in you: https://medium.com/@CaseySoftware/mayor-steve-adler-is-scamming-the-austin-tech-community-399d12b976e9#.e0a3ct48l https://medium.com/@CaseySoftware/mayor-steve-adler-is-scamm...
- theli0nheart 10y agoSo much scare-mongering went into this vote and it's a big reason why Prop 1 failed. No one was scammed by anybody. Uber and Lyft chose to leave Austin. You can argue endlessly why they were forced out, but somehow other services managed to pop up and make the business work.
- caseysoftware 10y agoAdler and crew said they expected Uber+Lyft to continue operating in spite of the law. Weird. Most of the things I cite were done after the Prop 1 vote. U+L screwed that up.. the City's behavior since has been ridiculous.
- sfrailsdev 10y agoDidn't the law just require fingerprinting?
- fokinsean 10y ago
- Analemma_ 10y agoWait, you've had local competitors come in and fill the gap when Uber and Lyft left? But I thought Austin's new law was job-killing regulation that would make it impossible to have modern ride-hailing services there. Surely Uber and Lyft didn't lie to us?
- simonbw 10y agoThe competitors that came to fill in the gaps aren't following any of the newly passed regulations from what I've heard.
- paulryanrogers 10y agoPerhaps David gets more grace than Goliath? Or Austin's government is oblivious.
- jhayward 10y agoThat's not true at all. Please cite reliable sources when slandering.
- jsprogrammer 10y agoIf the sources were reliable, it wouldn't be slander.
- blahfuk 10y agoTo be fair, the tech to support a single city is radically less impressive than a global operation, which means it's very easy for startups to fill the void when the big companies have already done all the work to create the market and then all vanish at the same time. Still, they're doing a great job, and most are on track to meet the city's regulations.
- ethanbond 10y agoWhich is one reason that so many people feel Uber's valuation is a joke. Austin is hard evidence that Uber hasn't purchased anything with their "growth spending."
- bosdev 10y agoNot just that, but RideAustin is a non-profit and mimics virtually every feature of Uber. I seriously wonder if non-profit versions of the business will expand into other cities and challenge Uber and Lyfts margins.
- notyourwork 10y agoIs it possible that this becomes a city supported public transit system?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- vkou 10y agoSubsidizing cab rides is one of the least cost-effective ways to get people from point A to point B.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- mikefivedeuce 10y agoI was in Austin two weeks ago and was worried about the lack of Uber/Lyft. I had great experiences using RideAustin. A driver even mentioned that they pay him 2x fares to drive out to areas like the F1 track because it's outside of the city.
- chimeracoder 10y ago> I seriously wonder if non-profit versions of the business will expand into other cities and challenge Uber and Lyfts margins. Why would non-profits inherently be able to beat Lyft or Uber's margins? Non-profits, despite the name, are not prohibited from making a profit. Conversely, the "profit" referred to in "for-profit companies" doesn't come out of their margins. And even if you're talking about their bottom line rather than their margins, it's not like venture-backed companies are required to run at an operating profit anyway. To my knowledge, Uber has never actually issued GAAP accounting demonstrating that they're turning a profit[0]. Which makes sense - the whole point of raising outside capital is to spend money faster than you'd otherwise have access to it. Both non-profits and for-profit companies do this. Non-profits are functionally equivalent to for-profit companies. The only distinction in this case is that a non-profit would have a harder time raising money, because they can't provide equity in exchange for the outside funding they obtain, whereas a for-profit company can. [0] They've made plenty of non-GAAP claims, but that doesn't mean anything.
- overcast 10y agoSadly, you don't become an empire by being kind, and fair to everyone. They are ruthless, like any other big business.
- ohyoutravel 10y agoI was in Austin recently for a conference and was surprised to find no Uber or Lyft cars available. I asked around and found out that they had left, which left a bad taste in my mouth. Lyft also left Houston, apparently. I tried one of the new ones, Fasten. It worked really well and had several features I preferred over Uber/Lyft. I think the whole thing kind of worked out for the better.
- caseysoftware 10y agoIt's dirty saying "here's what you're working towards!" if they've already decided the driver doesn't qualify.
- jessaustin 10y agoIANAL, but the app prominently displaying "you're this much closer to the bonus" every time the driver uses it would seem to overrule some never-communicated retroactive contract term? If the app can't be relied on for commerce, why should any customer trust it?
- 0xmohit 10y agoA common shady practice these days: By signing up ... you agree to the terms and conditions. ... The terms and conditions are subject to change without notice. -- Consider WhatsApp, for example. It probably said that personal information would not be shared with anyone. And then later changed the terms, it would be shared (with Facebook or whatever).
- jsprogrammer 10y agoIt doesn't matter when the company contradicts their fine print. Seriously, did you look at the screenshots?
- notyourwork 10y agoI struggle to see how this holds legality. It basically says here is what you are agreeing to but also we can change that and you still agree.
- conjectures 10y agoWho knows? It may be my ignorance, but I struggle to remember an incident when customers challenged T&Cs on some service like this in the courts. There is law in the UK against unfair terms in contracts. But like the genome there are large parts that of the statute book which lie dormant.
- CamelCaseName 10y agoI hope someone with more knowledge can come in and clarify, but I have always interpreted this as, "You agreed to X, if in the future we change our agreement to Y and you continue using our service, we will have assumed you agreed to Y". I think that's pretty fair, it would be nice if services let you know when they updated their T&C, and sometimes they do (I recall Google doing this) but honestly, if you didn't read it the first time, will you read the updated version? It would be nice if they could also provide a document with the differences, but I guess that would be a lot of work with no real benefit and still, no one would read it.
- anon946 10y agoIf I understand this correctly, they are saying that you didn't complete the application within 30 days because it wasn't approved within 30 days. However, I believe that most people would consider the completion of an application and its approval as distinct events. What does the fine print state? Can this be pursued in small claims court?
- mararee 10y agoI've never liked Lyft. The first time I used them I was supposed to get a free ride, but I didn't know where to input the coupon. I thought it was at payment time. So I didn't get my free ride. Also the driver knowing it was my first took a long time so he could get $25 for the ride. He took the long route and going three miles took half an hour. When we arrived at the destination he told me he didn't have cell phone service and asked if he could turn it off at the corner. He didn't turn off his app until several blocks away. I wrote to Lyft to complain about it and they wouldn't refund my money or let me change my driver rating. The driver was also unprofessional and told me he would call me. I emailed Lyft to see if the drivers have our phone numbers because I was worried he would bother me afterward. They never responded to that email.
- circa 10y agoA friend of mine sent me a $50 credit but it only ended up being $10 when I went to use it. I didn't really investigate but I feel like they do this a lot. I know this is for a driver but still.
- beastman82 10y agoGosh a company that calls their ride fees "donations" didn't pay up? Shocking.
- baybal2 10y agoregister from a voip phone number and continue getting bonus rides, some people here in Russia are riding like that for months
- nwellinghoff 10y agoLets just call out the big elephant in the room here. Uber, Lyft or any other middle man service can be easily replaced by...you guessed it; Another middle man! Pulling out was so stupid for them as they basically did all the market creation and then just let others eat it all up. Thus setting a precedent that the same thing can be done in any other city and everyone will be "just fine". :?/