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I don't know whether it's real or imagined, but there has been a drop in my subjective experience with Uber in the last few months since Travis's removal. - Wh

I don't know whether it's real or imagined, but there has been a drop in my subjective experience with Uber in the last few months since Travis's removal. - While in a rush, I've had back-to-back mid-day waits of 15+ minutes for any and every Uber I called (hailed a cab instead). - A day where I experienced $50+ non-surged fare estimate from downtown SF to the Sunset, something I've never seen before (usually $22-ish... I took MUNI.) - Increased rate of bad driver behavior: I've had drivers straight up cancel calls if I'm not outside immediately, drivers start a fare before I get in the car (and then lose the ability to find my true pickup point), and worse. - Inability to pinpoint my location when there's a conference or venue nearby - I had to call a Lyft yesterday because Uber insisted I was at an Oracle conference (I wasn't even that close) And more. Pretty much every reason I've had for not taking cabs over the past few years is now becoming a problem with Uber. If they can't regulate the quality of their service, there's no benefit to Uber in a major urban center (hailing a cab is far, far faster). I hadn't used Lyft in three years until about two weeks ago. I've started using it more frequently and have had a fantastic experience. I'm unbelievably disappointed - internal company politics aside, I had been a huge fan of Uber. I haven't fully converted to Lyft yet, but every experience I have continues to push me in that direction.

CoolGuySteve 9y ago
When talking to lyft drivers here in New York, they all drive for Uber exactly as long as it takes to pay off their car loan for that day and then switch to Lyft because it pays more. So I wouldn't be surprised if Uber is a lemon market when it comes to drivers.
- SerLava 9y ago
  I'm confused by that. Why do they drive for Uber for part of the day if Lyft pays more?
  - duggan 9y ago
    Some sort of lease arrangement stipulation on the vehicle with Uber for people who didn’t own / couldn’t afford a car?
  - Roedou 9y ago
    I'm just inferring, but it sounds like it's possible to get a car loan/lease through Uber. It might be more tax efficient to have Uber take repayments directly from your earnings? So if first $X earned on Uber that day go to your repayments, it's worth earning $X on Uber to pay off the car, and then drive on whatever app pays the most.
  - metaphorm 9y ago
    most drivers in NY drive for multiple companies. Uber, Lyft, and Gett are the most common.
JamesBarney 9y ago
Yeah I've had a similar experience. A year and a half ago a driver didn't pick me up, so I asked for a refund and got it immediately. A couple months ago a driver pretended to pick me up. I couldn't cancel because I was "in" the Uber. So my friends waited on me for an hour. Then when I requested a refund they wouldn't give me one. This was even though the ride was $9, I'd spent $200 on Uber in the previous month, it was only my second time requesting a refund, and my GPS would have validated my story. I've since then only used Lyft.
moftz 9y ago
Sounds more like there is more demand of rides than there are drivers. Whether that's from less people driving or more people riding is the question. Maybe Lyft is starting to become more popular. In my area, Lyft wasn't popular at all for a long time. You would wait forever meanwhile there was always an Uber driver in the next neighborhood. Now, they are pretty much the same in experience, wait times, and prices. Only time I've ever had "bad" drivers are when they call me before pickup and ask me where I'm going and demand I cancel since my destination would take them too long which I somewhat understand. There should be some sort of system to help drivers limit the amount of non-fare driving (giving them fares that might be a little further away to pickup but the drop off is right near the driver's home, kind of like pooling where the driver's home is the last "drop off"). I think both companies need to make sure that their drivers are happy. There will always be a demand for cab services so making sure you can keep drivers to match the demand will keep the fares coming in.
- keithwhor 9y ago
  > Only time I've ever had "bad" drivers are when they call me before pickup and ask me where I'm going and demand I cancel since my destination would take them too long which I somewhat understand. You understand this!? What? I haven't experienced this (thankfully), but this is ridiculous. This is the kind of behavior I experienced from cabs the led me to be an Uber evangelist to begin with. -20C, downtown Toronto, 2AM, cabs (illegally) outright refusing to drive you because they want to go a different direction. Uber was a godsend in comparison, at the time. If that behavior is making its way onto these platforms, I have to wonder whether the initial innovations in safety and value for the consumer are just getting absorbed and destroyed by the scale at which these companies have to operate (lack of ability to regulate and vet their drivers).
  - megaman22 9y ago
    You can either have being driven somewhere as a public utility, or as a private venture. You want to be driven somewhere very inconvenient? Fine, but you may have to pay extra for it. Uber is still a godsend in the relatively rural area I'm in, where there are effectively no taxis, and the only alternatives are A.) calling a friend, B.) hitchhiking, C.) driving anyway when you really oughtn't, for whatever reason.
jbob2000 9y ago
This is just the Uber market normalizing. Cabbies normalized a long time ago and we got: aggressive driving, taking the long route to jack up the fare, claiming the card terminal is broken to get cash, denying a ride if you're black/latino. Take your pick!
nemo44x 9y ago
>- A day where I experienced $50+ non-surged fare estimate from downtown SF to the Sunset, something I've never seen before (usually $22-ish... I took MUNI.) I agree in my personal subjective experience. They recently estimated a fare for me at $50 for something that was usually about $17 - there was no surge going on - at least they didn't say there was. It was not a typically busy time either. I hailed a cab and the meter read $21 when I got home. And yes, I'm aware that they changed how they tell you a surge is going on and there was no "Fares are higher because of demand" message.
pen2l 9y ago
For me, it's getting better and better. And by better, I mean cheaper. I always buy the uber "passes". So for 20$ a month, you get unlimited rides that are first $5 free. In Boston, I basically go get a meal, park my car, etc. all around the city for free. Just today I dropped off the car at an autoshop and Uber'ed my way to work... how much did it cost me? $0.21. Usually when I'm at work I'm hopping here and there, just a couple of miles -- it's almost always free for me. The wait-time is never more than 5 minutes. It's completely unbelievable. I will be sad when these deals go away. I do feel shitty though that drivers get paid crap... I rationalize my taking advantage of the system by convincing myself that I will stop when I'm in a financially better health myself and will start leaving big tips (I'm in academia, I'm pretty sure I get paid less than they drivers overall). Oh, and Lyft is ALWAYS more expensive. I used to check prices for both when I needed to go somewhere... since Uber was always cheaper (and that's leaving Pass discounts asides), I actually uninstalled Lyft app a month ago.

CoolGuySteve 9y ago

When talking to lyft drivers here in New York, they all drive for Uber exactly as long as it takes to pay off their car loan for that day and then switch to Lyft because it pays more. So I wouldn't be surprised if Uber is a lemon market when it comes to drivers.

SerLava 9y ago
I'm confused by that. Why do they drive for Uber for part of the day if Lyft pays more?
- duggan 9y ago
  Some sort of lease arrangement stipulation on the vehicle with Uber for people who didn’t own / couldn’t afford a car?
- Roedou 9y ago
  I'm just inferring, but it sounds like it's possible to get a car loan/lease through Uber. It might be more tax efficient to have Uber take repayments directly from your earnings? So if first $X earned on Uber that day go to your repayments, it's worth earning $X on Uber to pay off the car, and then drive on whatever app pays the most.
- metaphorm 9y ago
  most drivers in NY drive for multiple companies. Uber, Lyft, and Gett are the most common.

JamesBarney 9y ago

Yeah I've had a similar experience. A year and a half ago a driver didn't pick me up, so I asked for a refund and got it immediately. A couple months ago a driver pretended to pick me up. I couldn't cancel because I was "in" the Uber. So my friends waited on me for an hour. Then when I requested a refund they wouldn't give me one. This was even though the ride was $9, I'd spent $200 on Uber in the previous month, it was only my second time requesting a refund, and my GPS would have validated my story. I've since then only used Lyft.

moftz 9y ago

Sounds more like there is more demand of rides than there are drivers. Whether that's from less people driving or more people riding is the question. Maybe Lyft is starting to become more popular. In my area, Lyft wasn't popular at all for a long time. You would wait forever meanwhile there was always an Uber driver in the next neighborhood. Now, they are pretty much the same in experience, wait times, and prices. Only time I've ever had "bad" drivers are when they call me before pickup and ask me where I'm going and demand I cancel since my destination would take them too long which I somewhat understand. There should be some sort of system to help drivers limit the amount of non-fare driving (giving them fares that might be a little further away to pickup but the drop off is right near the driver's home, kind of like pooling where the driver's home is the last "drop off"). I think both companies need to make sure that their drivers are happy. There will always be a demand for cab services so making sure you can keep drivers to match the demand will keep the fares coming in.

keithwhor 9y ago
> Only time I've ever had "bad" drivers are when they call me before pickup and ask me where I'm going and demand I cancel since my destination would take them too long which I somewhat understand. You understand this!? What? I haven't experienced this (thankfully), but this is ridiculous. This is the kind of behavior I experienced from cabs the led me to be an Uber evangelist to begin with. -20C, downtown Toronto, 2AM, cabs (illegally) outright refusing to drive you because they want to go a different direction. Uber was a godsend in comparison, at the time. If that behavior is making its way onto these platforms, I have to wonder whether the initial innovations in safety and value for the consumer are just getting absorbed and destroyed by the scale at which these companies have to operate (lack of ability to regulate and vet their drivers).
- megaman22 9y ago
  You can either have being driven somewhere as a public utility, or as a private venture. You want to be driven somewhere very inconvenient? Fine, but you may have to pay extra for it. Uber is still a godsend in the relatively rural area I'm in, where there are effectively no taxis, and the only alternatives are A.) calling a friend, B.) hitchhiking, C.) driving anyway when you really oughtn't, for whatever reason.

jbob2000 9y ago

This is just the Uber market normalizing. Cabbies normalized a long time ago and we got: aggressive driving, taking the long route to jack up the fare, claiming the card terminal is broken to get cash, denying a ride if you're black/latino. Take your pick!

nemo44x 9y ago

>- A day where I experienced $50+ non-surged fare estimate from downtown SF to the Sunset, something I've never seen before (usually $22-ish... I took MUNI.) I agree in my personal subjective experience. They recently estimated a fare for me at $50 for something that was usually about $17 - there was no surge going on - at least they didn't say there was. It was not a typically busy time either. I hailed a cab and the meter read $21 when I got home. And yes, I'm aware that they changed how they tell you a surge is going on and there was no "Fares are higher because of demand" message.

pen2l 9y ago

For me, it's getting better and better. And by better, I mean cheaper. I always buy the uber "passes". So for 20$ a month, you get unlimited rides that are first $5 free. In Boston, I basically go get a meal, park my car, etc. all around the city for free. Just today I dropped off the car at an autoshop and Uber'ed my way to work... how much did it cost me? $0.21. Usually when I'm at work I'm hopping here and there, just a couple of miles -- it's almost always free for me. The wait-time is never more than 5 minutes. It's completely unbelievable. I will be sad when these deals go away. I do feel shitty though that drivers get paid crap... I rationalize my taking advantage of the system by convincing myself that I will stop when I'm in a financially better health myself and will start leaving big tips (I'm in academia, I'm pretty sure I get paid less than they drivers overall). Oh, and Lyft is ALWAYS more expensive. I used to check prices for both when I needed to go somewhere... since Uber was always cheaper (and that's leaving Pass discounts asides), I actually uninstalled Lyft app a month ago.