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I'd love to take my business elsewhere. Particularly to Lyft however when I tried to sign up the other day to try it out I got a message that my account was ban

I'd love to take my business elsewhere. Particularly to Lyft however when I tried to sign up the other day to try it out I got a message that my account was banned and I had to contact support. I believe it said I had a duplicate account. I've never used Lyft. I wonder if action they took against my account was a result of them trying to mitigate these attacks from Uber. If so the damage is much worse than just the canceled rides.

jjoonathan 12y ago
Or uber "borrowed" your account info and used it for one of their Lyft smurfs...
- AustinDev 12y ago
  ewww... I guess I should take the time to contact support.
- crazypyro 12y ago
  Is there any evidence of this? That is going beyond anything I've read, in my opinion.
  - jjoonathan 12y ago
    Nope, it's pure speculation based on multiple reports of seemingly baseless shadowbans from Lyft. But given uber's recent behavior Lyft might want to look into this just in case. I have no idea what the relevant laws are but parking a username seems less much risky than making fake calls, yet it could easily have similar upside for uber.
  - mpyne 12y ago
    The logic doesn't sound that far-fetched if you've read the linked article and find the business case plausible.
    - crazypyro 12y ago
      You honestly think Uber would risk their customer's credentials to shut out a competitor they are already trouncing by most accounts? I would consider the risks of using customer's credentials in such a careless and ridiculous way many magnitudes higher than the potential rewards. It's much safer to buy burner phones and assume fake identities. Sorry, it just doesn't make sense without some evidence to back up it up.
      - jjoonathan 12y ago
        Credentials? They would just need a username, unless I'm mistaken? > the risks of using customer's credentials in such a careless and ridiculous way many magnitudes higher than the potential rewards Are you sure? What are the risks of parking a username? I doubt it's illegal and I bet they could obfuscate the traffic well enough to make it very difficult to prove to a court that they were the ones doing it. The only downside seems to be a bit of slightly negative PR (i.e. the assumptions of those who jump to conclusions) when Lyft detects the widespread parking. Meanwhile, the upside is the expected value of their most profitable customers times the probability that they will switch to Uber+Lyft or 100%Lyft. Low risk, large upside... I don't think this is as bad a business proposition as you make it sound like.
        atmosx 12y ago
        Slightly negative PR for having the monopoly in the long term? I'd take the negative PR any day.
        illumen 12y ago
        Jail time for fraud?
        jjoonathan 12y ago
        Have you seen people go to jail for parking domain names? We aren't talking about stealing credit card numbers here.
panorama 12y ago
Same, pretty sure I've been shadow-banned by Lyft for the past year or two since it never shows any available cars in the middle of the day despite living in downtown SF (and plenty when my roommate opens the app next to me). I'm very cordial in any rideshare service I take, and have a very high Uber rating over hundreds of trips (though that large quantity is a direct result of not being able to use Lyft). I've always joked I was caught up in the counter-Uber net, because I see no other reason why I wouldn't be able to use the service.

jjoonathan 12y ago

Or uber "borrowed" your account info and used it for one of their Lyft smurfs...

AustinDev 12y ago
ewww... I guess I should take the time to contact support.
crazypyro 12y ago
Is there any evidence of this? That is going beyond anything I've read, in my opinion.
- jjoonathan 12y ago
  Nope, it's pure speculation based on multiple reports of seemingly baseless shadowbans from Lyft. But given uber's recent behavior Lyft might want to look into this just in case. I have no idea what the relevant laws are but parking a username seems less much risky than making fake calls, yet it could easily have similar upside for uber.
- mpyne 12y ago
  The logic doesn't sound that far-fetched if you've read the linked article and find the business case plausible.
  - crazypyro 12y ago
    You honestly think Uber would risk their customer's credentials to shut out a competitor they are already trouncing by most accounts? I would consider the risks of using customer's credentials in such a careless and ridiculous way many magnitudes higher than the potential rewards. It's much safer to buy burner phones and assume fake identities. Sorry, it just doesn't make sense without some evidence to back up it up.
    - jjoonathan 12y ago
      Credentials? They would just need a username, unless I'm mistaken? > the risks of using customer's credentials in such a careless and ridiculous way many magnitudes higher than the potential rewards Are you sure? What are the risks of parking a username? I doubt it's illegal and I bet they could obfuscate the traffic well enough to make it very difficult to prove to a court that they were the ones doing it. The only downside seems to be a bit of slightly negative PR (i.e. the assumptions of those who jump to conclusions) when Lyft detects the widespread parking. Meanwhile, the upside is the expected value of their most profitable customers times the probability that they will switch to Uber+Lyft or 100%Lyft. Low risk, large upside... I don't think this is as bad a business proposition as you make it sound like.
      - atmosx 12y ago
        Slightly negative PR for having the monopoly in the long term? I'd take the negative PR any day.
        illumen 12y ago
        Jail time for fraud?
        jjoonathan 12y ago
        Have you seen people go to jail for parking domain names? We aren't talking about stealing credit card numbers here.

panorama 12y ago

Same, pretty sure I've been shadow-banned by Lyft for the past year or two since it never shows any available cars in the middle of the day despite living in downtown SF (and plenty when my roommate opens the app next to me). I'm very cordial in any rideshare service I take, and have a very high Uber rating over hundreds of trips (though that large quantity is a direct result of not being able to use Lyft). I've always joked I was caught up in the counter-Uber net, because I see no other reason why I wouldn't be able to use the service.