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They also sweeten the deal so that if you cancel more than 5 minutes AFTER you accept the fare, they still charge you a cancellation fee. So, they give you a p
by joelrunyon 10y ago
They also sweeten the deal so that if you cancel more than 5 minutes AFTER you accept the fare, they still charge you a cancellation fee.
So, they give you a pie-in-the-sky estimate, you wait ten minutes, realize it's still gonna be an extra 10 minutes and then cancel because you can grab a taxi right there and they want to charge you a cancellation fee.
I understood that when they were at least close on their estimate times, but now it just seems like they're intentionally being difficult.
- tehlike 10y agoi wonder if you could dispute through credit card. they would have paid more for such stupid system.
- mahyarm 10y agoIt's faster and easier to just get a refund through the app first, and then try a credit card dispute. %99 of the time they do it. I've never had something not refunded when it should of been.
- chinathrow 10y ago> %99 of the time they do it. This would need to stop - how many of the clients file a dispute? Maybe a large percentage of HN readers - but not so much from the general public. Uber wins money it never was entitled to. No service provided, no pay. I see now why legislation might have been the better choice, after all.
- praneshp 10y agoI don't think that is correct. I'd wager that people outside of HN would spend more time to make sure their $5 is returned.
- stouset 10y agoIf you're suggesting that lower-income people would be more likely to dispute the charge due to it having a larger impact on their bottom line, I strongly suspect you're wrong. People in that demographic tend to, in my experience, not put forward the effort to get things like that refunded. Even though the money is important to them, it's frequently conditioned that it will take hours of time and effort to recoup the $5, and that's hours and effort they simply don't have. Whether or not it actually takes that amount of time is irrelevant. The problem is that people expect it will take too much of their time to deal with and simply let the money go. This is yet another example of Uber treating their customers like shit. If it's easy enough for them to determine that the cancellation was legitimate and issue the refund, they should do so proactively. Waiting for customers to complain before returning money they collected for a service they did not provide is as user-hostile as anything else they do. I will never give another dollar of my money to Uber.
- chinathrow 10y agoAs others have pointed it out - they don't even return the money. They credit your account which is even worse than taking it the first time. I reckon a class action regarding this scummy behaviour will be filed soon.
- tehlike 10y agofiling through credit card would cost uber money. consider it a punishment (For the lack of a better word) by the consumer. Whether it works out in favor of consumer is a question. I would probably not use uber in the first place.
- mahyarm 10y agoFiling a charge back with a credit card company is painful compared to complaining about something in the $rideshare_company app in 2 minutes, and then getting refunded in less than a day. It's your life / time.
- tehlike 10y agothe downside is it's in terms of "Credit". With dispute, it's as good as cash. The difference between the two might be less than many would think. Also with dispute, you are sending business a message: if they charge you for their mistakes (in scheduling), you'll look for disputing (which costs them around 25$/dispute, i believe?).
- soloadventurer 10y agoIn Vietnam, Uber required a credit card for the longest time. This is a silly position to take, given most Vietnamese do not have credit cards. You can now use Uber without a credit card, but Uber's position had a cost. Grab Taxi has now taken much of the market and do not require a credit card. I will never use a hailing service requiring a credit card, and as such I can never be charged a cancellation fee.
- ikeboy 10y agoThey usually refund the cancel fee if you ask. I've had issues with both uber and lyft where cancel fees were charged when I wasn't at fault (driver went to wrong place, etc) and just reported and got refunded.
- johnfn 10y agoI've requested a refund multiple times and never been rejected. Furthermore, when the estimates are more than a couple of minutes off as GP suggests, Uber waives the cancellation fee.
- joelrunyon 10y agoI don't think that's true unless you specifically request it.
- CoolGuySteve 10y agoThey don't refund, they just credit your account. It didn't count for much after I switched to Lyft entirely. In general, I find Lyft is wholly more pleasant, both as an app and as a customer.
- remarkEon 10y agoIf you push enough, they will. Once I had an 18 hour layover in Honolulu and I decided to go to the Pearl Harbor memorial (sentimental, I know) and Uber was a mess. I got cancelled on, and I cancelled one...both times I was charged the fee. After a few emails of back and forth they actually refunded my credit card instead of just giving me "Uber credits."
- nommm-nommm 10y agoThey will put it back on your card if you ask. It's a dark pattern for sure though.
- mannykannot 10y agoYou should not have to ask for a refund if, after reasonable time after the original estimate has passed, the cab has not appeared. Of course, Uber is also free to screw around with the customers to the extent that they will acquiesce to it.
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- macNchz 10y agoI stopped using Uber after a couple of instances where a driver accepted my ride request and then drove steadily in the opposite direction for quite a while before canceling and triggering a charge to my account for not 'being where I was supposed to be'. Each time this happened on a busy Manhattan avenue where I watched empty yellowcabs fly past for 15 minutes. Totally infuriating. Used to take a few per month but now haven't taken an Uber since September.
- mannykannot 10y agoThat is not going to win the driver a good rating - or do you not get to rate the driver in that case? Either way, a pattern of such events (with the same bogus reason given) would suggest that someone - the drivers, Uber itself, or both - has found a way to screw customers.
- jghn 10y agoIt's the drivers. If you read /r/uberdrivers one discovers that there are a host of tricks designed to game the system.
- Paul-ish 10y agoSeems only fair if the system is rigged against you.
- mannykannot 10y agoBut the drivers' beef is with Uber, not the customer.
- jghn 10y agoRight. Regardless of if their sentiment is justified or not generally what you see from the drivers on that sub is a sentiment of "damn the man" against uber itself. Occasionally this behavior will be described as linked to riders in annoying locations or with low ratings but usually it's uber they're targeting
- edoceo 10y agoThat's almost as bad as the Taxi companies!!
- eon1 10y agoHow so? If I book a taxi and then don't show up they can't charge me a thing. Quite the opposite, they send me a text saying "driver couldn't find you, reply YES if you still need a cab".
- edoceo 10y agoI did say almost. In place of an app, a charge and a process to ask for a refund I have to call someone to order a car. Then it shows up more or less on time and costs some money. Read all the other complaints here. There is very little difference between Uber and Lyft and the age old cab companies.
- JumpCrisscross 10y agoI've been required to give a credit card over the phone to book. When the taxi didn't show up thirty minutes later, it was a chargeback to avoid their fees. Uber is becoming a horrible company. But in most cities (e.g. Silicon Valley, Austin, D.C., New York) they replaced something much, much worse.
- nommm-nommm 10y agoWow, that's awful, sounds like a blatant cash grab! You're basically guaranteed money from everyone that calls, there's no incentive to have enough drivers to cover demand. --- It's been my experience that, when calling, I've never waited less than 20 minutes for a cab and often have waited an hour. It's amazing that taking the bus is quicker than calling a cab. Once I actually was unable to even get through. I was in a small hotel lobby and the owner offered to give me a ride instead. Later on, in another hotel lobby, I paid it forward and offered to give a lady a ride to the airport when she was having trouble getting a cab on the phone. I guess my point is, for all its flaws, Uber is still better than a taxi in less populated areas....
- akinalci 10y agoWith pool at least, I've had them charge me a fee when I cancel immediately. I was in a rush to the train station and accidentally booked a pool. I cancelled within a few seconds and booked an Uber X, but they still charged a cancellation fee. And I was in a rush because the first pool I booked that morning didnt show up (he called and asked me to cancel).
- akinalci 10y agoWith pool at least, I've had them charge me a fee when I cancel immediately. I was in a rush to the train station and accidentally booked a pool. I cancelled within a few seconds and booked an Uber X, but they still charged a fee.
- JDiculous 10y agoUber also won't tell you when they charge you a cancellation fee. They'll pop a message saying something like "Sorry about that your driver had to cancel. But don't worry there are other drivers". But then you check your ride history and you've been charged $5. Downright unethical and should be illegal.