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Uber Is Ripping Off Frequent Riders and Here’s How to Avoid It

• Etheryte 9y ago
  While it always weird to see just how much Uber plays both the local laws as well as its customers, it’s also quite an interesting insight into what I would call peak capitalism.
• deleted 9y ago
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• deleted 9y ago
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• cryptoz 9y ago
  > Here's How to Avoid It Stop using Uber.
• Charlie_26 9y ago
  "and Here’s How to Avoid It" Quit using this horrible company since day one's app?
• maxxxxx 9y ago
  That's one thing I have noticed in general. I used to think that as a long time customer you are valued and get better deals. But this seems to have changed to the opposite. Long time customers are viewed as something a company doesn't have to compete for anymore and instead more money can be extracted from them. See cell phones, TV cable, car insurance and others. Almost like employment where now the only way to get a raise is often to change jobs and not to stay. It's a weird development and I wonder what the long term effects of this attitude will be.
  • cryptoz 9y ago
    ~15 years ago I sold cellphones for Rogers in Canada and there was the exact same system in place. Long time customers get no deals and deal with effectively rising prices for stale outdated monthly plans, while new customers get discounts and deals out the wazoo. Made a lot of long term customers really angry at me, the sales rep. Thanks Rogers.
    • ams6110 9y ago
      You can go in and demand the "new customer" deals. I've done it several times with Comcast. It's a pain, but they will do it. Best to do it in person not on the phone. It's not possible online AFAIK.
      • AngeloAnolin 9y ago
        The opposite thing happens to me though - with regards to communicating with the telecom company. I usually do it over the phone, ensuring that I get escalated to their Customer Care manager, who in essence, have more power to give you better deals. I find most of the staff at kiosks for Telecom companies are only focused on selling, and does not have any power to provide you a deal that you cannot resist.
        • c22 9y ago
          A lot of the "kiosk people" have more power than you'd expect. Sometimes it's just a matter of finding the one who has bothered to explore the system, or goading them into it.
          • maxxxxx 9y ago
            I looked a little over the shoulder of one of the guys in the AT&T store. They can override pretty much all prices. For example this guy gave me a $39 plan for $19 because they had messed up a previous order. He just typed in different price numbers for each item on the bill. I assume they have a certain amount of discounts they can give away each month.
      • maxxxxx 9y ago
        This constant struggle against not being abused is a real pain. Very unpleasant. Although it probably works for people who are aggressive by nature and live to fight.
        • mschuster91 9y ago
  • evrydayhustling 9y ago
    Yes, similar to voting for political positions, being a marginal (or "swing") consumer draws the most benefits. Over time, today's swing consumer becomes tomorrow's safe user, so it is really complacency that is penalized. That makes some sense, but is hardly the utopia where we get to spend less mindshare on fundamental services.
    • maxxxxx 9y ago
      Complacency is the right word. Loyalty gets redefined as complacency that can be exploited.
  • joezydeco 9y ago
    When you base the financial success of the company on 'growth', this is what you get.
  • karmelapple 9y ago
    Isn’t it basically the model of places selling addictive things? Cigarettes, alcohol, other drugs - once you’re hooked, the provider can keep upping the price.
    • icebraining 9y ago
      Neither cigarettes nor alcohol are particularly expensive, if you take out the taxes.
  • thisisit 9y ago
    While it is weird, the long term effects of this attitude depends entirely on the market. Until there are competitors out there, Uber will keep using this tactic. But, once they get some sort of monopoly everyone is going to be worse off. Something which is happening right now with Grab's acquisition of Uber.
    • goerz 9y ago
      Isn't Lyft a competitor in almost every market? Personally, I always check both Lyft and Uber to see which is cheapest (and wait for a little while, to see if they price fluctuates)
  • Consultant32452 9y ago
    The anecdote that comes to mind for this phenomenon is the more frequent flyer miles you have the more like you are to get a negative experience such as being bumped from a flight. This is because they know you're invested in their airline and are more likely to come back. A new customer might decide to take a different airline next time. Edit: Apparently this was an old wive's tail or something. Oh well...
    • CaptainZapp 9y ago
      That's absolutely not logical. With a lot of frequent flier miles you are very likely a status customer and airlines will bump those last and, depending on the status, will bump other low revenue passengers to make space for a high status customer. I know a bit about aviation and if an airline really needs to involuntarily bump a passenger (which is quite rare) they will chose an infrequent flier with a cheap ticket. Unless you can provide a source for your assessment I call bullshit.
      • JumpCrisscross 9y ago
        > airlines will bump...low revenue passengers This is accurate per everyone I know at airlines. The reason is it’s trivial to shift one’s loyalty. If an airline goes to shit, I’ll switch from spending cash with them to burning down miles while I book work trips with someone else.
    • sidlls 9y ago
      That doesn't match my experience. When I have a large reserve of frequent flyer miles I am generally treated quite well, actually. Frequently I have been bumped to first class gratis, or "economy plus" if that is what is available, given discounts/rebates on luggage and other fees, offered complementary access to the airline's lounge/club at the airport, etc. This is all above and in addition to the usual perks, like priority/VIP boarding order or whatever.
      • chrissnell 9y ago
        "Frequent flier miles" don't mean a thing on any major US airlines. The only factor in how they treat you is your overall profitability, which is calculated in elite qualifying miles (EQMs). This is what determines your status and your status determines your perks. These miles come from buying high cost-per-mile tickets, i.e. a $300 SFO-LAX fare, a $20K international first class R/T from IAH to LHR, etc.
  • rellui 9y ago
    Definitely the result of larger companies with fewer competitions. Around my area there is usually one or two specific providers for any service, for example internet. If they hike the price, there's nowhere else to go.
    • icebraining 9y ago
      We have four Internet providers in my area, yet they still pull this crap (better prices only for new customers). We've actually switched in the past just for this reason.
      • lotsofpulp 9y ago
        I'm not seeing the problem of offering a discount to new customers. The new customer is taking a risk by accepting a new vendor, and hence to entice them the vendor offers a discount. Now, if the vendor continuously offers the discount to the customer just because they keep asking for it, then that is unfortunate. But I usually only see this with monopolies, like Comcast. I'm sure their strategy is to do that on purpose just to satiate the vocal minority.
        • icebraining 9y ago
          The problem is that it removes any incentive for loyalty and encourages churn, while being a pain in the ass for the customer. What benefit can possibly come from getting people to constantly switch providers?
          • lotsofpulp 9y ago
            That would be a problem for discounting for people who threaten to cancel or cancel and re-subscribce. That is not a problem for new customers, who have 1 chance to try a new product.
            • icebraining 9y ago
              In this case, "new customer" is anyone not currently subscribed. So if you go from provider A to B and then back to A a few months later, you're a new subscriber.
  • dalbasal 9y ago
    That's a dynamic that emerges frequently. The examples you gave are in good company. Its a side effect of an optimization function, basically. New customers are price sensitive. Loyal customers are.. loyal. They will buy anyway. Advertising is expensive, and discounts can be a cheaper way of getting them. If your decision framework is "do what brings the most growth by lunchtime" you will often end up with new customer perks. If you have freebies and discounts to spread around, spending them on newbies will produce more sales. Politcal campaigns often consider voters in reverse order to loyalty. Party members are guaranteed votes, so don't spend effort courting them. Party supporters need some attention, to bring them out. Fence sitters or potential conversions are courted vigorously. Lots of tech "platforms" will be free for new users, cheap for small users and expensive for big clients. The big clients are more locked in, so it's hard to affect sales one way or another. New/small users are fickle, and more likely to respond to prices. Banks have better rates for new customers, sometimes actual free money. Its like when you don't put effort into dating your wife. It's not the right thing to do, but there are some difficult to avoid consequences to knowing she will go home with you regardless.
    • zentiggr 9y ago
      I've imagined a company (cable phone or some other long term service) that signs everyone up at their full rate, and for every month you stay with them, they add 1% discount till after 50 months you are at 50% of full rate and stay that way. No coupons, no special just for you! offers, just an honest straightforward "we need to collect money to keep things running, but we value our loyal customers most". Fantasy I know.
      • janekm 9y ago
        Fantasy indeed... most consumers will prefer the offering of 40% off for the first year instead. Which can even be rational since there will frequently be another company offering a similar discount for switching to them the next year (ignoring intangible switching costs, of course).
      • mattmg83 9y ago
        Actually Canvas by Ford (month to month car rental) does this, but yes it's rare
  • mathattack 9y ago
    It’s because companies have financial incentive to spend resources where they have the biggest impact. Why spend on someone who won’t leave anyway? It took me a while to realize how misplaced my loyalty was. In reality, the loyalty becomes to the individual seller (that specific restaurant owner) or leader rather than corporate entities. For small businesses this type of service still pays. I know bars who hold tables for hours on a Saturday to save them for the regulars who come the rest of the week. But even there, loyalty is to the staff more than the owners.
    • blktiger 9y ago
      You should never have loyalty to a company, only to an individual (even then you have to be a bit careful; CEOs of public companies for instance, have responsibilities to share-holders which take precedence to their personal opinions and desires).
      • rectang 9y ago
        Companies are not people. They are single-purpose, amoral, profit-optimizing entities. The larger the company and the more detached the ownership, the less sensitive the company is to any negative effects. Like gut flora, they can be useful to humans -- but they are not like us.
  • kodablah 9y ago
    > It's a weird development and I wonder what the long term effects of this attitude will be. Optimistically, middlemen or automated tools that ease the pain of changing in hard-to-enter markets. In easier-to-enter markets, the emergence of companies respecting simple pricing (we've already seen some of this). Simplicity will win in the long run, again, unless it's a market that can keep competitors out.
    • tom_mellior 9y ago
      > Optimistically, middlemen or automated tools that ease the pain of changing in hard-to-enter markets. Not sure what it's like outside of the EU, but what made it easy and attractive to swich mobile operators here were neither "middlemen or automated tools". It was regulation. Namely, the EU directive that forced mobile operators to allow you to take your phone number with you when switching to another operator. Before this you had to get a new phone number when you switched operators, which was a huge disincentive.
      • kodablah 9y ago
        It's like that outside the EU too (e.g. in the US).
  • blowski 9y ago
    Online supermarkets in the UK as well. Your first order, you get £10 off, and a free gift. They encourage you to buy the same products again for 'usability' but hugely increase the prices on everything.
  • matthewmacleod 9y ago
    It's also just a total pain in the arse. I have no interest in repeatedly shopping around for new providers for things like energy, telecoms, savings accounts and so on. I just want to give a company money in exchange for services and have them continue to provide that service with reasonable increases in price as inflation happens. I feel like I'm constantly being bullshitted – "Good news, we're reducing your savings interest rate!".
    • black_puppydog 9y ago
      see, the comfort of not having to shop around provides value to you. feels much more comfy now, doesn't it? ;)
      • kolpa 9y ago
        Yes, but it's a deadweight loss, waste that provides no value to anyone. It's a breakdown of trust leading to market failure. It would be better if the waste was converted to economic profit and the difference split between vendor and client.
        • pishpash 9y ago
          Competition will solve that. It becomes a problem when you have no effective alternative.
    • qyv 9y ago
      Companies understand this, that's why you get to pay them a little more for the convenience of not having to shop around.
      • Scoundreller 9y ago
        Then there's a leveraged buyout/new CEO and the rates start creeping up. Initially things are great for shareholders, then they go bankrupt.
    • andreasklinger 9y ago
  • IloveHN84 9y ago
    Typical example: Apple old customers are drained like sheeps
    • nealabq 9y ago
      You mean they're fleeced like cash cows?
    • frockington 9y ago
      I thought Apple price fixed their goods so everybody gets the same price
      • sokoloff 9y ago
        There are corporate and educational discounts.
  • JumpCrisscross 9y ago
    > cell phones, TV cable, car insurance and others Set a reminder to call cancellation every year or so. It’s annoying we have to do this, but it easily saves hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year.
  • rdiddly 9y ago
    Lots of examples here, but the one I can't stop thinking about is rent. The longer you stay, the more you pay. To get a decent rate, you have to move. But there's a lot of friction there, and landlords know it.
    • gutnor 9y ago
      That's the other way around most of the time where I lived (Continental Europe and London) Only in London, people I know have had both experiences. Letting agencies are really the one pushing. For the landlord, a paying tenant is a good tenant, there is friction in changing tenant: you can lose 1 month rent or need to do some refurbishments. Even missing a few weeks can mean losing any benefit of keeping the same tenant at the same rate for 1 or more years. Letting agencies offer a service to both the landlord and the tenant. As a tenant you get a certain level of service, like repairs or maintenance. As a landlord, the agency offer vetted tenant, management and various guarantees. They are the one pushing for rate increase as that's what they take their share from. The real problem with renting is the underlying skyrocketing price of housing. You can't escape it.
    • HillaryBriss 9y ago
      OTOH, also consider local rent control laws, which often only allow a rent increase below the CPI. the longer you stay the more you save.
      • 15155 9y ago
        Living expenses artificially subsidized by the non-rent-controlled property around you, what's not to like?
        • vkou 9y ago
          As opposed to living expenses artificially inflated, despite the landlord not putting one iota of work into their property? (Because the neighbourhood gentrified, a new school was built with taxpayer money, Amazon opened an office..?) Property markets are perverse in many different ways, most of which don't benefit renters.
  • brudgers 9y ago
    The fundamental shift is that more and more businesses are exploiting consumer trust. The shift to online makes it easier. In face to face transactions, the emotional and psychological makeup of a business's sales staff bound what is practical at scale...it's hard to hire a lot of psychopaths into low wage high turnover jobs. The low wages make it hard for people to rationalize continuously taking advantage of trusting individuals, a business really needs high ticket goods and commissions to make it work (e.g. car sales). With automated online transactions there are no ordinary staff who might loose sleep at night over abusing trust.
  • piracykills 9y ago
    Yeah, I mean it only makes sense. It's about price discrimination - they don't want to give you a discount if you're willing to pay full price, same reason companies send out coupons or mobile app offers. They want to offer discounts only to bargain hunters and those who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford the service because that's where it's worth spending the money for them. If you're not already, find yourself a local deals site - it can really help you avoid getting screwed over by stuff like this. You can also wind up staying if you're willing to call your current provider back and say "here's what they're offering, beat it or I'm leaving".
    • lotsofpulp 9y ago
      I suspect that for many on this forum, their time would be better spent making more money than figuring out how to save money.
      • HillaryBriss 9y ago
        true. OTOH, consider the value of the satisfaction you feel pushing back against a business that rips you off.
        • lotsofpulp 9y ago
          It's just business. If you really feel like pushing back, then focus your efforts on changing legislation or spreading your money around so that we don't only have 2 mobile providers, and 1 internet provider, and 2 taxi options, etc.
      • piracykills 9y ago
        Not so sure, I saved over $1200 this year in about 1 hour of research and 1 hour of phone calls and live chats... my time is definitely not worth $600/hr.
        • TrinaryWorksToo 9y ago
          What sort of research did you do?
  • ABCLAW 9y ago
    Financialization of everything and everything strikes again; we're now routinely applying quality of income measurements to determine book of business value - this means that increasing the current revenue take from recurring customers gives you a huge expected customer LTV bump prior to the increased churn. During this period, your numbers look great, so analysts pop up your ratings, which affords you access to cheaper capital - or alternately you can cash in and sell with a higher valuation multiple on your book. In larger firms, you'd think the incentive would be to account for the drop-off caused by eroded goodwill, but functionally there's a middle level manager who is using this spike in numbers to jump to another role before the piper has to be paid by his replacement. Even if the company blows up, he can lateral safely with his new title.
    • DenisM 9y ago
      I would think the board would setup independent quality of business monitoring commitee as a matter of course. Is that, like, a thing?
      • ABCLAW 9y ago
        Sure but in the gap between your changes and the long term change in churn, a third party isn't going to be able to quantitatively monitor future churn rates before they happen. The solution doesn't fix the problem, because the problem is that quality of business models just plain don't sample for customer goodwill - they measure sales metrics rather than feelings. So the sales metrics are gamed at the expense of the consumer feelings that create the metrics in the first place.
        • Benjammer 9y ago
          The dark side of data rears it's ugly head.
          • pishpash 9y ago
            More like the dark side of stupid B-school ideas that should be discarded in the dustbin of history. The data is there if one cares to measure them and incentivize properly. But why would they favor that? They are intelligently blind.
  • dcchambers 9y ago
    This is a major gripe I have with the modern service/subscription-based economy. I give major props to companies that reward loyalty. IntelliJ, for example, offers discounted rates the longer you've been subscribed. It works for them because it's an incentive to never let your subscription lapse, and it rewards the dedicated end-users as well with cheaper prices. Source: https://www.jetbrains.com/store/#edition=commercial https://www.jetbrains.com/store/#edition=commercial
    • FridgeSeal 9y ago
      Plus, perpetual fall-back is nice as well: decide to stop your subscription? You just stop getting updates, rather than losing access altogether.
  • nfriedly 9y ago
    I just called up my ISP and got them to renew the $20/month discount for the 4th year since getting the service. I have to go to the retention department each time, but this time I didn't even have to threaten to switch. Doing this will all of your bills can easily save you hundreds of dollars a year, but it's socially awkward and kind of a pain in the butt (especially if you actually have to switch providers), so most people don't bother. Companies know this and capitalize on it.
    • ryandrake 9y ago
      You probably have an ISP with competition. I tried the cute “Give me the introductory rate for another year or I’ll cancel!” bluff, and the response from Comcast was: “Just a moment... OK sir your service has been canceled. Have a great day!” Oops
      • nfriedly 9y ago
        LOL, ouch. In my case, windstream is the only wired option.. but they don't seem to realize it. The service used to be completely unreliable too, but as I've complained over the last few years, they seem to have improved things a bit. It's now approaching the reliability of Comcast (i.e. still not great), but at ~1/3 the speed and slightly higher cost.
      • gnicholas 9y ago
        It certainly helps to have competition but is not required. I have Comcast also, and there are no alternatives where I live (5 miles from Palo Alto, BTW). Sometimes when I call in they immediately give me the discounted rate, and sometimes I have to call in a few times to get a rep who can get it done. Kind of a pain, but worth it to save hundreds of dollars every year.
      • knightofmars 9y ago
        I recently did this with Charter as AT&T is also in our neighborhood. The person at Charter first tried to do an up-sell (which would have cost more money) and eventually came around to saying that they wouldn't offer the lower rate again. At which point I said, "I'm going to AT&T who will give me a better rate, cancel my service." Which resulted in a slightly rude interaction before they canceled my service. A week later AT&T internet was up and running. It's was a very odd interaction given that Charter's fine print says that to qualify for the discount you have to not have subscribed to Charter's services for a mere 30 days[0]. Even with limited competition, now with MiFi hotspots a person could cancel their plan, do a pay-as-you-go MiFi hot spot for 30 days, and then resubscribe with the new rate. (Not sure if Comcast is the same.) [0] "Offers are valid for a limited time only, to qualifying residential customers who have not subscribed to applicable services within the previous 30 days and have no outstanding obligation to Charter."
  • loceng 9y ago
    The current VC model inevitably leads to this, a similar flaw/holistically inefficient long-term to that of like how the political system/most politicians only sell to the short-term perception to rally shallow needs instead of discussing the depth of what matters.
  • amelius 9y ago
    Yes, this should be simply illegal.
  • GFischer 9y ago
    Unfortunately it does work. I worked in insurance, and you definitely got the short end of the stick if you were a loyal customer. New customers got all sorts of incentives. So, perversely, the system encouraged to switch providers every year or every 2 years. Many people (myself included) don't do it because of the hassle.
  • xster 9y ago
    Not to summon my inner Bernie, though if you think about the nature of it, it's actually hard to think of a different outcome than the candycrushification of the producer-consumer relationship in an unregulated monopolizing market (thank god Candy Crush wasn't a monopoly of anything).
  • pklausler 9y ago
    > Almost like employment where now the only way to get a raise is often to change jobs and not to stay. This has always been so, it's nothing new.
  • sudomake 9y ago
    My health insurance provider try to pull this on me this year. So I went got a better(relatively) plan on the exchange...from them.
  • throwaway84742 9y ago
    Same with employers: if you don’t move around every 2-3 years, they get used to you and divert a part of raises and bonuses to the more uncertain targets. So I always urge people (including my own reports) to look around every now and then, and move to where the grass might be greener.
  • tzs 9y ago
    > I used to think that as a long time customer you are valued and get better deals I bet that would lead to complaints that companies are exploiting the less wealthy. The argument would be that less wealthy people might not be able to afford to switch to a new company where they would not have the long term discount.
  • duxup 9y ago
    A couple decades ago I used to get legit offers from banks or financal institutions on other services or products they offered. They were legit, and sometimes even includes some minor bonus for being a customer (or at least they said so or something was there). In the meantime I'd get really bad offers (I want to say scam, but they were IMO deceptive) from other places (they were still legit financial institutions) for whom spamming me via mail wouldn't cost them much and they'd make plenty if I was dumb enough to take their offer. Then I found I got the same, not a scam... but really bad offers from the places that I had done business with for years. It really irked me when I'd get those fake check (actually a loan) things from a bank I'd been with for ages... Eventually just said screw them and to a credit union who just keeps mailing me about local discounted baseball tickets. I can handle that.
  • garfieldnate 9y ago
    I felt that last week with Amazon: https://twitter.com/garfieldnate/status/977994478911975426 https://twitter.com/garfieldnate/status/977994478911975426. For non-customers they show a nice price to get you into the web site, and for customers they might block an item altogether to get you to sign up for Prime. These days I always check the prices of large things in an incognito window.
• tomcooks 9y ago
  Am I the only one seeing an "Earn up to 1500$/week" Lyft banner right above the header of this article?
  • kalleboo 9y ago
    It's hosted on the domain and links to https://therideshareguy.com/NewLyft1 https://therideshareguy.com/NewLyft1 so it appears the blog is an affiliate
• paublyrne 9y ago
  This makes me wonder aloud ... why shouldn't we charge people who are more affluent more than those who are poor? We apply this idea already in our income tax systems. I'm not sure I subscribe to this idea, but I notice I don't feel morally aghast at this story.
  • cryptoz 9y ago
    Uber has no idea if you are poor or not. Even if you want more price segmentation (maybe okay) you certainly can't ask each passenger their income. And Uber isn't indicating if a price is cheap or not, creating a very large disadvantage to the poor as they are unable to accurately judge the expected value of the service before planning their method of transportation somewhere.
    • dboreham 9y ago
      >Uber has no idea if you are poor or not. Seriously? Of course they do. They have your online id and your credit card so they know more about you than you do.
      • cryptoz 9y ago
        No, they don't. They have indicators and clues about your income based on your rides and credit spending at uber, but they do not know if you are poor. All those indicators could and often are very wrong if that is what they draw assumptions from. Their indicators can be wildly off because they do not know the person themselves and they can only make guesses. Also, > Seriously? Yes, seriously. Of course seriously. Stop being insulting and rude.
        • wlll 9y ago
          I would have thought that they know enough to make a decently accurate guess. Not that I know what they do of course, but without much thought I can think of a model that would allow me to predict income. - They're using Uber, that cuts out a decent chunk of poor people. - What areas do you visit and at what times? - Property prices in those areas, are they workplaces or urban commuter areas? Can likely predict value of someone's house if they use it from home. - Type of Uber taken - Size of tip - Frequency of travel - etc. etc. I reckon that given some time and some people's ride data I could estimate their income, house value, and even perhaps job. I would guess Uber have done this and then some. Of course it's not going to be 100%, but Uber don't need that.
• agumonkey 9y ago
  My first and only uber ride was a 80$ one. Enjoying the special 3x tarif, according to them to help me having the fastest service. Felt like a very hypocritical scam. I don't know how they keep these sort of things.
  • icebraining 9y ago
    I don't see what's hypocritical about it.
    • agumonkey 9y ago
      Felt like a very weak excuse to benefit from hurried people at night to shell out way to much.
      • icebraining 9y ago
        Why didn't you get a cab? Maybe then you'd see that it's not such a weak excuse after all. At least, my experience is that it isn't.
        • agumonkey 9y ago
          Was let down in the middle of the night, angry and impatient, I thought I'd try uber because f. it. Actually I think I installed the app because I thought it would be cheaper than a traditional taxi, but a quick calculation the next day showed that they would have asked for 50$ end to end.
• wlll 9y ago
  "Uber involved in $shady_business_practice, news at 10!" Seriously, they're scum, this isn't surprising at all. I deleted my account a while back and although sometimes it's less convenient, I've managed. I don't regret it. I hate the idea of supporting such a bunch of thieves and liars.
• htormey 9y ago
  I’ve notified this a lot in San Francisco/Oakland coming and going from the airport. I always comparison shop with lyft and sometimes their is a $10-$20 difference in price.
  • myrandomcomment 9y ago
    Agreed. Last week landed opened both applications and picked the cheapest. Lyft this time by almost $20.
• recursivelambda 9y ago
  Couldn't a higher upfront price also partly be because Uber tries to predict the travel time and need to add some error margin due to uncertainty? That would probably explain only a small part of it and certainly not why different people seem to get different deals.
  • dx034 9y ago
    In that case they could let you choose. If you know the trip is always around $60, you'd probably not hand over the risk to uber for a 25% higher fee.
• nukeop 9y ago
  Please don't call it "ride sharing" or "ride hailing", that's what they want to be called despite being very clearly a taxi service.
• spodek 9y ago
  > I started regularly taking a Monday morning trip to the airport, then another ride home from the airport Tuesday evening. My first thought from the headline: Walk, bike, or take public transit. But the pollution I expected wasn't in the same league as his actual behavior. He's a global warming machine.
  • vanderZwan 9y ago
    Convenience breeds complacence. It's part of why I'm extra-sceptical of anything that markets itself as easy.
  • criley2 9y ago
    Yes, walk or bike >30 miles between cities before getting on an airplane for work. Your fellow passengers in coach will appreciate your odiferous devotion to the environment. Sometimes the comments in here are truly insane. How could you even suggest walking or biking between two California cities? Just to add to the hilarity of your "global warming machine", here's a Google breakdown of the THIRTEEN HOUR WALK you suggested that this man take https://www.google.com/maps/dir/San+Diego+International+Airport+(SAN),+3225+N+Harbor+Dr,+San+Diego,+CA+92101/33.2090363,-117.3496005/@32.9682962,-117.4064659,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m9!4m8!1m5!1m1!1s0x80deab3944f1e6ef:0xdc2e46f957550b6b!2m2!1d-117.1933038!2d32.7338006!1m0!3e2 https://www.google.com/maps/dir/San+Diego+International+Airp...
    • vanderZwan 9y ago
      > Walk, bike, or take public transit. Here is a tip: comments are a lot less insane if you actually read them.
      • criley2 9y ago
        "Here is a tip: comments are a lot less insane if you actually read them." Oh, so when he said "walk, bike or take public transit" he actually meant "walking and biking aren't options for you, only public transit is" Wow, I'm so glad we have folks like you to literally rewrite posts. And of course it's completely beyond the pale that I dared quote someone and judge their words as they wrote them! The reality here is that this person obviously did not read the post and wrote a boilerplate "green shame" post, assuming that walking was valid, assuming because they obviously did not read. The "insanity" is people not reading and just running to the comments to parrot their script even when the script is absurdism when applied to the situation.
• saosebastiao 9y ago
  Here's what I do: I ride Uber for a while, then I ride Lyft. After a day or two of riding Lyft, Uber sends me a discount on my next 10 rides. When those run out, I go back to Lyft until Uber gives me some more. I never really end up riding Lyft for more than a day or two before I get the next discount email. Im not sure if it's cause they're spying on Lyft like they've done in the past, or just noticing that I've stopped riding Uber. Either way, thanks go out to all the idiot VCs for making this happen.
  • ams6110 9y ago
    Competition among ride services should keep this kind of thing in check. If you're in an area where Uber is the only option (don't know how likely that is) you may be stuck.
    • martinald 9y ago
      London is Uber only. Would be great if Lyft started in the UK.
      • SyneRyder 9y ago
        I thought London had banned Uber? Did that end up getting repealed? There are competitors to Uber in London [2], myTaxi seems to be the one that lets you hail London Cabs via an app. And apparently they're offering 33% discount over Easter [1]. (Never used them and I'm usually an Uber fan, but it seems myTaxi could be an alternative to try.) [1] https://uk.mytaxi.com/EasterDiscount https://uk.mytaxi.com/EasterDiscount [2] https://www.pocket-lint.com/apps/news/uber/142333-best-taxi-apps-uber-alternatives-to-get-you-a-cab-in-london https://www.pocket-lint.com/apps/news/uber/142333-best-taxi-...
        • te_chris 9y ago
          There's Gett as well.
        • martinald 9y ago
• Spoom 9y ago
  Seems like an easy thing for Uber to fix; it's not running its price gouging calculation on mid-trip changes.
• alexmorse 9y ago
  Very simple way to avoid it. DON'T USE UBER
  • ilkan 9y ago
    Cabs can be next to impossible outside downtown core. Calling in advance had minimum half hour wait in Hamilton, even an hour wait when when you're only 10 minutes outside the downtown. And street pickups have massive discrimination. Everyone except cab drivers was happy for Uber.
• paul7986 9y ago
  Oh look another negative article about Uber. Also they are struggling to make money and they just killed an innocent woman. I wonder if the lawsuit or lawsuits from their murder prompted by following the startup adage move fast, break things and learn will cause them irreparable harm? Does anyone know if the victim has next of kins?
  • wlll 9y ago
    > Also they are struggling to make money Isn't this largely their own choosing? They're deliberately undercutting the competition to at best gain a foothold, or worst eliminate the competition entirely so they can put prices up.
    • paul7986 9y ago
      Yet they are doing everything including 3rd degree murder to be the winner. Can anyone name a previous modern company who succeeded via this type of playbook? Wonder why people downvote my loathe for Uber who stole 1k from me and then laughed in my face and 1000s of other users who fell the same fate.
• im_down_w_otp 9y ago
  My semi-regular Lyft ride to work has increased steadily from ~$7 to ~$10 over the last 3 months. The only change is that the pattern of days and times has become much more consistent. I don't know if they're doing a similar thing or if they've just steadily increased prices. Now that the weather is getting better, I'll just be riding my bike more often.
  • therideshareguy 9y ago
    Lyft has switched to an upfront pricing model too so it wouldn't surprise me if they are doing something similar. But I haven't seen any examples that are as bad as with Uber, where I'm constantly seeing big discrepancies like this.
• memco 9y ago
  As a rider, I use Uber and Lyft interchangeably to get a roughly stable price whenever I come to work. This price is about 40% more than what I would like to pay based on my budget, but I don't have a choice but to pay it sometimes because neither app is willing to give me a lower price (which I have paid in the past). I know I'm being overcharged, but I still need to get home or to work so I have to pay the higher price. Also, because I'm using a transportation program through work, I can only use the carpool services, which means I can't take advantage of the tactic in this article since you are not allowed to change your destination after booking for pools. I was really hoping Waze's carpool would help, but I can't get connected to someone else at the times I need to leave and they are not recognized as a valid candidate for our work program. Uber once had a monthly pass available, which was a huge help for me financially, but it hasn't been available in over a year. Would really love to get some more affordable options as I use these services almost daily.
  • JumpCrisscross 9y ago
    > I don't have a choice but to pay it sometimes because neither app is willing to give me a lower price Depending on your market, you may have a choice. I use Juno in New York and Scoop or Waze Carpool in the Bay Area as my primary choices.
• neolefty 9y ago
  Yes, Uber's opacity is shady, but raising their rates is a business necessity. If rides are still being subsidized by Uber (via losses) and its drivers (via low wages), would it be more accurate to say that new riders are given a promotional discount and frequent riders are charged a more sustainable rate?
  • ksk 9y ago
    >would it be more accurate to say that new riders are given a promotional discount and frequent riders are charged a more sustainable rate? The government had already regulated cab fares to where they couldn't just gouge the customer and (hopefully) the prices were fair to both the cab driver and the rider. Uber re-introduced risk into the equation, along with the opportunity to capture the consumer surplus.
• philipodonnell 9y ago
  This is fairly similar to the way airlines can charge lower prices for a SFO-NYC-BTV route than they do for SFO-NYC. They know certain routes (SFO-NYC) are used by business travelers. Some people try to game the airlines in the same way that the article describes, getting a price based on one route (SFO-BTV via NYC) and then actually taking a different one (SFO-NYC). I expect Uber will eventually prevent this the same way the airlines do: penalizing you for taking a trip that doesn't match what you told them you were doing by refusing to allow you to continue once you deviate.
  • usaphp 9y ago
    I did not know that airlines penalize you for that. What happens when you have a sfo-nyc-btv flight and decide to get out in NYC?
    • preinheimer 9y ago
      The airlines get grumpy. They may not grant you miles, cancel your return trip entirely, etc. Skiplagged I think helps you figure this sort of thing out: https://skiplagged.com/ https://skiplagged.com/
    • meaydinli 9y ago
      There was a whole controversy a few years ago around this. See https://skiplagged.com/about https://skiplagged.com/about . This website automated that approach so that you got a ticket with a few stops for cheaper but you just left at the stop you wanted originally.
    • speby 9y ago
      People do this a lot. This is a well-known and old issue known as "Hidden City Ticketing" and goes by other names, as well. It is against the typical Contract of Carriage agreement passengers have their airlines, though it's hard to actually enforce: https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/17984/is-leaving-airport-at-a-stop-before-the-final-destination-illegal https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/17984/is-leaving-... Note that while this tactic can be money-saving and useful in practice, it does have certain downsides, like if you need to check luggage, or if you expect to collect your airline miles and segments (typically requires completing the full itinerary, though not always).
• Jedi72 9y ago
  I recently went home with a girl who lived on the other side of the city. About 11am next morning I go to catch an Uber and the price is 4x what it normally would be. As a software guy, I know how this shit works - I know they know it's raining, they know my income, they know I live on the other side, theres no easy public transport and I'm basically screwed. But fuck them, I would rather pay a taxi that 4x fare than god damn Uber. There is no way the area I was in had that much activity to justify this price, I know that what happened is some black-box neural net predicted with >80% confidence that I would take the ass-pounding. Well fuck them and fuck anyone who worked on such a system, I hope your kids get cancer.
  • Spivak 9y ago
    In summary, you're upset that a business is, largely correctly, assessing the value of their service to you and adjusting the price based on your willingness to pay? You do know that this happens constantly right, just usually by overpricing it and giving out discounts based on your willingness to pay.
    • ilkan 9y ago
      Your scenario doesn't match this case and your logic is flawed. First, "it happens" is different from "legal" or "morally defensible". Second, agreeing to pay an upfront standard price and then accepting a visible discount, is different from receiving a hidden overcharge.
      • Spivak 9y ago
        It's no less morally defensible than an employee asking for a salary that's more than they need because they know their worth to the company. I don't think that anyone thinks Uber's upcharges are hidden given how often they're talked about -- hell, Uber seems proud of the system. It might be bad for their business in the long run to price this way but who am I to tell them how to run their show.
    • logfromblammo 9y ago
      The problem arises when the business overestimates willingness to pay. Ancestor post said "screw this; taxi". That damages customer goodwill. Every time. If you double the prices on umbrellas every time it rains, some people will stop buying umbrellas from you entirely, even when it's sunny and they're still normal price. But if you offer a 50% discount whenever weather is fair, there will be no adverse reaction from consumers. Weird. The prices are the same either way, but the reaction is totally different. People like to know "this is the maximum I can be expected to pay" a whole lot more than "this is the lowest price I can get". When planning out a budget, it is always better to have an unexpected surplus at the end of the month than an unexpected additional expense. That's why businesses overstate the price by X% and then continually give out Y% discounts. People who can pay the higher price might not bother with requesting the discount. If they advertise a low price, then add on a bunch of hidden fees and surprise upcharges, people get pissed. This is something telecoms and airlines should consider.
• wemdyjreichert 9y ago
  Here's how to avoid it: use Lyft. Thanks, free market!
  • CloudYeller 9y ago
    I only use Lyft for personal reasons but FWIW Lyft almost certainly uses this type of predatory regularly trip pricing. As I mentioned in another comment, I take the same trip at roughly the same time 1-2x per week. After doing that for awhile, I noticed the price went up 10-20%. When I adjust the locations just a few hundred meters from my usual endpoints, the real time price drops 10-20%.
• niksmac 9y ago
  This is very true, I used to get offers but right after I took some insane surge of 3x no new offers were coming. Other than that, none of the usual coupon codes were working for me.
• paulsutter 9y ago
  Now that I switch between Uber and Lyft I notice the prices are lower for the same rides than when I used Iber exclusively. I noticed it by accident when I would use Uber out of habit instead of Lyft. Similar for reserving hotels on travel sites. I started always checking the price on the hotel’s own site and it’s often cheaper. At first the gaps were huge, but they came down after I became a frequent-abandoner on Kayak
  • dahdum 9y ago
    I’ve traveled a lot recently and was surprised by Lyft always being cheaper than Uber until I had my colleague check Uber rates for the same destination when together. Uber has decided I’m a schmuck who must pay more for the same service. Not a fan. For accommodation, the rates are usually a bit cheaper direct (often a few dollars), but unless you have/want hotel status, the rewards program at Hotels.com gives a lower effective rate.
• bogomipz 9y ago
  It seems like its time for consumer-driven AI to combat these shenanigans. Like if there is an app I could open that would automatically do the Uber/Lyft rate arbitrage for me, create false positives/negatives to thwart the business traveller flags and then to automatically reset the destination mid-way to ensure I get the honest price. Is there some reason this wouldn't be viable? I would think such apps would have applications beyond just fighting the latest discriminatory or dynamic pricing exploitation by Uber.
• rayiner 9y ago
  This is basic market segmentation—charging more to people who pay more. Although I think rate regulation is a stupid idea, taxi rate regulation was designed to prevent exactly this sort of thing. (It’s also why taxis can’t compete “fairly” with Uber. They have to charge everyone the same all the time; surge pricing and price discrimination allows Uber to offset the cost of cheaper service for some people against increased revenues from other people.)
  • awakeasleep 9y ago
    Wow. I didn't think about it like that but Uber is transforming itself into a pirate taxi (G*psy cab) company. Thats pretty crazy.
    • XR0CSWV3h3kZWg 9y ago
      Uber has always been a pirate taxi company.
    • smt88 9y ago
      Uber started as a pirate taxi company and has used enormous amounts of money, shady tactics, and market pressure to turn itself into a legitimate taxi company.
      • sgregnt 9y ago
        And provided very valuable service that has improved life quality for many costumers and drivers.
        • vkou 9y ago
          Many taxi drivers are of the opinion that they'd rather quit then work for Uber's rates.
          • ric2b 9y ago
            They're free to do so.
• viscanti 9y ago
  It says the algorithm is based on time and distance. Was there more traffic? Is it possible that the up front pricing algorithm knew that the time portion of the trip would be more than usual and charged more because of that?
  • therideshareguy 9y ago
    We tested all different times and traffic levels but in general, Uber's algorithm is terrible at predicting traffic since they use their own internal maps system (as opposed to gmaps or waze).
    • viscanti 9y ago
      > Uber's algorithm is terrible at predicting traffic So how does that rule out that their algorithm is looking at estimated traffic? I usually get an estimated arrival time right after booking and that's generally correct on the few Uber trips I've taken. How different was your estimated arrival time and your actual arrival time?
  • Dylan16807 9y ago
    It is not possible for that to explain two phones on two accounts looking at the same route and getting fees $10+ apart.
• bad_user 9y ago
  I hate companies doing this. Uber is profiling passengers, it's been known, which is why I stopped using them. As convenient as they are, I hate being profiled. I'm from Romania and our alternative over here is https://taxify.eu; https://taxify.eu; the app is as polished, the cars and drivers are actually a little better due to being less popular and thus less noisy. And they do charge higher prices in rush hour, but their pricing is far more predictable. I don't care if this is legal or not btw. It's my money, so fuck Uber.
  • praneshp 9y ago
    Looks like you need a phone/login. Am I incorrect about that? That means there is at least a simple object representing your profile of you. Unless you mean profiling in the racist sense.
• jdp23 9y ago
  An even better way to avoid it: don't use Uber.
• jdlyga 9y ago
  Here's how to avoid it: Use Juno, Via, or Lyft. They are all better than Uber, at least in NYC.
• lhorie 9y ago
  This hasn't been my experience at all. I have been using express pool basically every day to commute for months, and the price has always been between $5 and $8 for a 30-45 min ride (depending on traffic and how many people pool in the same car). Fare increases are pretty obviously correlated with how close to the peak rush hour window I request and things like rain (i.e. more demand) What I did notice though is that prices can fluctuate plus or minus a dollar in a matter of minutes, so sometimes I can get a cheaper fare by simply waiting a couple of minutes (though that tends to only work if I'm not approaching peak rush hour).
  • therideshareguy 9y ago
    We didn't test this with Express Pool but Pool in general is a different animal since the prices are so cheap to begin with, there's not a lot of variability that can come into play and affect the pricing. Plus, Uber takes a huge loss on Pool and Express Pool especially when they first launch since they want to offer low prices to riders but they don't know the match % rates yet.
    • lhorie 9y ago
      Thanks for the insight! Can you qualify what you mean by a frequent rider? How frequently are we talking about? I did experience lower prices when I first started using express pool (though not to commute to/from work), and at one time I got a $2.50 ride to go from downtown SF to Ocean beach (a 40-ish minute ride), which anyone with half a brain would suspect to be VC subsidies at play. Could it be that this is a similar case, where the original "cheap" price is just subsidies for new rider/some desirable target audience and the "ripoff" price is just the regular price if VC money/competitive race to the bottom weren't in the equation? Another theory I had was that congestion in pick up/drop-off areas would play a role in pricing (given that cheaper-than-expected rides happened to be nearer the freeway as opposed to, say, Market st)
  • Camillo 9y ago
    Express Pool is almost another form of price discrimination, IMO. It's around the same price as I remember Pool being before, but they make you walk a couple of blocks to the pickup point. But in my experience, the pickup point is almost never better or easier or faster for pickup than the place you're calling from; in fact, sometimes it's much worse! (E.g. they try to pick up from a busy road where cars can't stop.) I think the point is not to shorten or speed up the driver's route, but instead to deliberately add inconvenience for the rider. So if you can afford it, you'll do traditional Pool (which now costs more) or UberX, while if you're truly price sensitive you'll deal with the indignity of Express Pool.
• nodesocket 9y ago
  Additionally as the article hints at, imagine they detect that you use Uber to commute to work (destination is a business and Monday - Friday at near the same time each morning and evening). Of course they can charge you more because often times the companies are reimbursing, or it's a tax write-off.
• reconbot 9y ago
  Easy to avoid. Use Lyft, Use Juno, Use anything else and compare prices.
  • CloudYeller 9y ago
    Lyft is definitely doing it too. I take the same trip at roughly the same time 1-2x per week. After doing that for awhile, i noticed the price went up like 10-20%. When I adjust the locations just a few hundred meters from my usual endpoints, the real time price drops 10-20%.
• specialist 9y ago
  Increasing the price? Or reducing the discount? I ask, because Uber is operating at a loss, hemorrhaging money.
  • paxys 9y ago
    Their US business has been profitable for a while.
    • kn0where 9y ago
      Is it really? https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-usa/uber-boss-says-u-s-market-unprofitable-amid-tough-competition-from-lyft-idUSKBN1D9348 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-usa/uber-boss-says-u...
      • paxys 9y ago
        From the same article > For a brief period last year, Uber was profitable in the United States and Canada, the company said Recent troubles have been due to negative press and Lyft's popularity, but again in the same article (from November) they said they could be profitable again in 6 months. So overall their business is pretty stable and not really on the brink of death as people here usually make it out to be.
    • urda 9y ago
      You have a citation for that? Because last I checked Uber is bleeding money everywhere.
• the_watcher 9y ago
  This is the opposite of false advertising - upfront pricing means you agreed to the price by definition. Uber is under no obligation to detail the pricing mechanism to the user.
  • chacham15 9y ago
    While I see what you're saying, without the details of how the pricing structure works this is basically gambling from the consumers point of view and theres a lot of harm in that.
    • the_watcher 9y ago
      Flight pricing works in similarly opaque fashion (I generally compare pricing between different browsers and private sessions and sometimes even devices before buying).
      • dahdum 9y ago
        Flight pricing is opaque, but there is no comparison possible with Uber since that price is based on your individual profile. United doesn’t use my recent travel history and detailed personal information gleaned from data brokers before quoting me a fare class ticket.
      • chacham15 9y ago
        The difference is that when I buy a plane ticket, I see the price that the company wants and then I can decide to purchase it or not. With Uber, I have to agree to pay first and then they tell me what the price is. That difference, in my mind, is the key difference to what makes riding an Uber gambling, while buying a plane ticket not.
  • dahdum 9y ago
    You’re right of course, but it is in the public interest to know that it is happening. Profiling individuals for price discrimination is not popular, violating most people’s notion of fairness. Amazon experimented with it years ago before pulling the plug after consumer outrage.
• jsjohnst 9y ago
  Digging into ride data I have access too, I see this is definitely the case for UberXL / UberBlack rides. Seems they are fairly consistently "overcharging" for those types of rides by 20-25% with upfront pricing. Unfortunately most of the data I have access to for other types of rides has RidePass's associated with it, so the difference isn't as pronounced, but that could potentially be the advantage of the Ride Pass.
• the_watcher 9y ago
  This doesn't seem any different than the known behavior of online merchants (particularly airlines in my experience) of listing different prices based on what they can infer about the user, or than a mechanic quoting an artificially high price to someone who seems less knowledgable about what's actually required (Seinfeld has an episode touching on this, blanking on which one). That said, I have noticed that, the rare times I Uber to work (I work in a pretty big corporate office space), if I enter a nearby Target as my location, my price is often notably lower. This happens with Lyft as well. It's hard to tell if this is just timing based (sometimes just re-requesting fares to the same destination has a similar effect).
• misterbowfinger 9y ago
  I've definitely noticed that if use Uber infrequently, I consistently get marketing promotions for "40% off" of your rides. This might be specific to my market, but it happens really consistently. Honestly, I just think about it like a marketing analyst. Who would you try to entice back onto your platform? High value users, who show interest (i.e. opening the app but not taking rides). It really becomes easy to game most marketing promos this way, but Uber's is particularly gullible.
• swiley 9y ago
  Man I thought the point of all this shiny app crap is that you don't have to know what's going on with it and everything "just works." I'll stick with my non-mobile command line tools and keeping all my cash under my bed.
• xchip 9y ago
  TL;DR: Uber charges more if it thinks you might be expensing the trip. When going home from the airport try setting as destination a place close to your house. That will fool the system and will give you a non inflated upfront price. Then wait to be in the middle of the ride and ask driver to change destination and take you home.
• bradhe 9y ago
  I've had $5 Ubers for the past like 4 months. No idea why they keep giving me $5 ubers, but I save a TON of money every month thanks to it.
• deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
• pithymaxim 9y ago
  Not an Uber fan but this just seems like price discrimination with better data, which in principle could subsidize rides for poorer drivers. Student rush tickets to the opera could be framed as price gouging of non-students (by probing into their personal lives, no less). But in reality more students get to go to the opera this way. Hard to judge without knowing the tradeoffs.
  • frgtpsswrdlame 9y ago
    >which in principle could subsidize rides for poorer drivers. I don't think you can specify this. In principle this could subsidize rides for some people or it could increase profit and even if the money were put towards subsidizing rides there is no guarantee it's going to subsidize rides for the poor, there is no law that says the poor are going to receive these subsidies - frequently they don't because they don't because they're a lower priority for the company due to their decreased spending power, have less information about the marketplace and are less able to substitute between alternatives.
• amr137 9y ago
  First time commenting...I found this article highly reaffirming. I'm a frequent uber rider with almost 800 trips on my personal account alone. I take uber M-Th to and from work. The same exact end points. And I've noticed changes with pricing but ALSO with route times: Pricing - yes it's going up - both from a "this seems higher" perspective but more concretely in the 30 day "pass" I buy that locks in a flat fare for 30 days between 2 specific endpoints. My flat pass fare when up 50 cents a ride between last month and this month. I believe it's gone up in the past as well but don't have my receipts readily available. Route Time - I believe the uberpool route is no longer (if it ever was) calculated purely on efficiency. Instead, I suspect the individual riders are assigned a priority and then the route is calculated. And I'm guessing the flat fare pass riders are assigned a low priority. My ride times have increased dramatically over the last two months, with 8 rides marked as "late arrival" meaning they took longer than the longest time estimated by the uber app. These rides are approaching 1 hour to go 7 miles (that's right, that's an efficiency of 7mph if you will). The most egregious was a route that literally passed by my block (my home was 3 houses away from the intersection) and took me 10 minutes further out to drop off a co-rider and then 10 minutes to return to the intersection. (I realized too late to jump out.) So I am guessing they are testing people's tolerances both for 1) pricing and 2) duration. I have some wiggle room with pricing and am willing to stomach some increases. However, I can't stomach the ridiculous routing and excessive ride times. I may be unique in that Uber is the only rideshare app I've used to date but I'm now planning to try out Lyft, read about Waze Carpool, and investigate any other rideshare solutions out there... :)
  • gnicholas 9y ago
    Seems crazy that they would allow routes that are this obviously inefficient. It's as if they're just catering to new folks and not checking to see if the route can be even slightly adjusted to increase total rider efficiency by large amounts (i.e., dropping off another passenger with a 30 second detour, saving 10 minutes).
• Ro93 9y ago
  This is fake news. The media is purposefully generating outrage for ad clicks. People need to think when they see a headline, "Is this title clickbait?", "Is it purposefully angled in a way to increase likelihood of me sharing the article?" EDIT: This article should be flagged, since it's spreading misinformation.
  • Dylan16807 9y ago
    Are you going to say what the misinformation is, or just make a vague nonproductive comment?
• rhizome 9y ago
  Milking the whales, film at 11.
• jtokoph 9y ago
  I've noticed that Uber gives discounts when you don't use them for a while. Uber will give 10 rides at 50% off. I'll do 10 rides with them and then go back to Lyft...until Uber notifies me of the next round of discounts.
• bananatron 9y ago
  How to avoid it: use lyft?
• jtmb 9y ago
  Uber seems very actively hostile to its employees, drivers, and riders. It's kind of impressive in a bad way.
• LyalinDotCom 9y ago
  I avoid this by using Lyft.
• jellicle 9y ago
  Everyone, including Uber, said this would happen, so... To all the people talking about giving up their car to use Uber, just realize that once Uber realizes you don't have a car, your rates just doubled.
• akhilcacharya 9y ago
  I basically used uber to commute (exclusively for a few weeks and as a second option for the rest) during an internship. I noticed my pricing going up from $16 to $22 at the same times during the same season. By the end I ended up using Lyft.
• kaitari 9y ago
  I tweeted a couple of weeks ago about Uber Eats charging me way more than my wife for delivery. I use the app way more than her. Related? My tweet with photo comparison https://twitter.com/kaimallea/status/974819433322557440 https://twitter.com/kaimallea/status/974819433322557440
  • dingdongding 9y ago
    Same happens on DoorDash as well. I don't use it often so my delivery is cheaper and my wife uses it often and her delivery is expensive.
  • smilekzs 9y ago
    > (@uber_support) We're here to help! Please send us a note here; https://help.uber.com/h/c4699569-e59a-4e8e-950a-1ac0aa1bb6c1 https://help.uber.com/h/c4699569-e59a-4e8e-950a-1ac0aa1bb6c1 … and our team will be able to help. /sarcasm We're here to help [you stop feeling discriminated by making your wife pay $12.16 fee too]! /endsarcasm
• lewis500 9y ago
  This is how Comcast works too: introductory offer and then the price goes up. So about every two years I call them acting like an over sharing man-child and say my parents cut me off and I can’t afford Comcast anymore.
• njarboe 9y ago
  This behavior is as old as civilization. When you went to a market and wanted to buy something from the owner/operator of the business stand, none of the prices were marked. You asked the owner the price of something and he would respond. Or maybe he would try to hawk you something by giving you the price of something first. Then you start haggling. If you have a lot of time and like the game, you might get a very low price. If you are his cousin, you get a good price, no haggle. If you are in a hurry (your time is valuable too you at the moment) the price is likely to be higher. All sorts of bullshit/fun-time-shopping. At some point in the 1600? the Quakers decided that a person morally should only get some fair markup on something they were selling and that to charge more was wrong. On thing they were selling they put fix prices on and no haggling. Lots of people liked this way of shopping. You save time and don't feel ripped off. This idea really spread, department stores took off, and fixed pricing was around for quite awhile. It is a much better way of selling things for society in many ways. This fixed price for everyone has been eroding for awhile. Coupons have been around for all of my life. Not sure when they started or if they always existed since the first newspapers. In any case, with computers, businesses are able to change the price at will and everyone is carrying smartphones leaking their identity. I wouldn't be surprised to see digital prices in supermarkets that change depending on who is next to the tag. Sets the price when you pick it up. Amazons automatic stores could easily do this. I really like Trader Joe's because it does not do all of this coupon, sales, huge bulk discounts, etc stuff.
  • zawerf 9y ago
    > I wouldn't be surprised to see digital prices in supermarkets that change depending on who is next to the tag. I think safeway already does this with their just-for-u coupons which gives personalized deals on frequently bought items.
• johnklos 9y ago
  The person who's hosting this article is a jerk. The ads are crazy and max out all cores.
• tom-_- 9y ago
  This is the Ride Share Guy's false assumption: "It’s important to understand that traffic is rarely an issue when I’m going to and from the airport, as I’m usually doing it in non-peak hours. So the part of the cost having to do with time shouldn’t fluctuate by more than a few dollars." The time has a very large impact on the price, because morning is when demand is commonly the least elastic (people need to get to work) Uber is not "ripping off frequent riders", it's charging more for trips where riders will accept higher prices. And now, the Ride Share Guy has ripped off Uber (and it's drivers) by publicizing a flaw in pricing.
• dano 9y ago
  It takes just a few moments to bring up Lyft and Uber and compare prices to your destination. The one you don't choose will likely see an abandoned cart type of metric as feedback as you did not complete the transaction. This is the only method I can think of for keeping prices competitive.