4 ms·

However, for the vast majority of users, who cares? The service is useful at a usually-fair price. If it works, use it.

by lemcoe9 12y ago

300bps 12y ago
The service is useful at a usually-fair price. If it works, use it. Hopefully we can agree that Uber doing things like corporate attacks against Lyft might say something about their character that should give you pause on dealing with them. For example, someone willing to unfairly attack a competitor might also think nothing of disclosing a customer's location in real time without permission for promotional purposes. Oh, they reportedly did that too. With a pattern of poor judgment, it only makes sense to question whether you should use them even if it generally just works.
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- morganvachon 12y ago
  For me at least, it's not even the questionable morality of pulling dirty tricks on your biggest competitor. It's the fact that Uber feels they have to do these dirty deeds to get ahead in the game. If you feel you can't compete on a level playing field and you have to do such things to keep up, it tells me that you don't have a clue how to really do business in the first place. If I can't trust Uber to build a better product instead of sabotaging their competitor, I'll go with their competitor by default.
  - GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
    Why do you think they're doing it because they 'have to' instead of doing it because they 'can'.
    - morganvachon 12y ago
      It could be either, or both. Regardless, it's dirty and makes me feel that they'd probably treat their customers with the same disdain.
lnanek2 12y ago
Honestly, Lyft has been providing much more affordable pricing ever since Uber's surge pricing went into effect.
- potatolicious 12y ago
  Lyft has surge pricing also - called Prime Time - but is structured in a way that makes me more willing to participate. The extra price goes 100% to the driver, Lyft does not take a cut. I'm always wary of Uber manipulating surge pricing since they profit off of surge as well. Without the extra profit motive it's easier to trust that surge pricing really is a supply-management tool instead of a price gouging one.
  - vonklaus 12y ago
    I took lift earlier today. Surge pricing was 2.25 and then fell to 2.0x. Lift prime time went up from 0.75 to 1.0x for the same area in the five minute span. Also, lift has typically been cheaper FOR ME.
TeMPOraL 12y ago
The service provider is not a human, its goals are not those of humans. It provides you cheap service because it's weak, it needs to feed in order to grow stronger, to fight the others of his kind, money-eating beasts we call companies. Don't think for a second Uber will continue to provide useful service at fair price when it finally grows mature and stifles its competition. With its continued disrespect for human values, such as honesty and decency, it already shows us the shape of things to come. We know this beast will not be friendly to men. Uber needs to be slain now, while still young and weak.
- seanflyon 12y ago
  > Don't think for a second Uber will continue to provide useful service at fair price when it finally grows mature and stifles its competition. I don't think for a second that Uber wants to continue to provide its service at a low price, but barrier to entry in the market is relatively low. Unless something changes on the legal front, I don't see how Uber can stifle its competition.
  - avalaunch 12y ago
    Why do you think the barrier to entry is low? It seems extremely high to me. There's a massive network effect in play. I imagine competing with Uber at this point would cost millions of dollars per city.
    - seanflyon 12y ago
      Perhaps we are speaking of costs on different scales. Uber is valued at 18 Billion. Millions of dollars per city sounds like a low barrier of entry to me. If almost any small start-up can afford to compete with Uber in one city and a well funded one could compete in dozens, yeah I call that a low barrier to entry.
untog 12y ago
That's actually the greatest argument for regulation. Few people are able to comprehend exactly what Uber's level of data access means to them - same goes for Facebook, Google and the rest. It does - at a basic level - make sense for people who do know to draft legislation to protect those that do not.

However, for the vast majority of users, who cares? The service is useful at a usually-fair price. If it works, use it.

by lemcoe9 12y ago

However, for the vast majority of users, who cares? The service is useful at a usually-fair price. If it works, use it.

The service is useful at a usually-fair price. If it works, use it. Hopefully we can agree that Uber doing things like corporate attacks against Lyft might say something about their character that should give you pause on dealing with them. For example, someone willing to unfairly attack a competitor might also think nothing of disclosing a customer's location in real time without permission for promotional purposes. Oh, they reportedly did that too. With a pattern of poor judgment, it only makes sense to question whether you should use them even if it generally just works.

deleted 12y ago
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deleted 12y ago
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morganvachon 12y ago
For me at least, it's not even the questionable morality of pulling dirty tricks on your biggest competitor. It's the fact that Uber feels they have to do these dirty deeds to get ahead in the game. If you feel you can't compete on a level playing field and you have to do such things to keep up, it tells me that you don't have a clue how to really do business in the first place. If I can't trust Uber to build a better product instead of sabotaging their competitor, I'll go with their competitor by default.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
  Why do you think they're doing it because they 'have to' instead of doing it because they 'can'.
  - morganvachon 12y ago
    It could be either, or both. Regardless, it's dirty and makes me feel that they'd probably treat their customers with the same disdain.

lnanek2 12y ago

Honestly, Lyft has been providing much more affordable pricing ever since Uber's surge pricing went into effect.

potatolicious 12y ago
Lyft has surge pricing also - called Prime Time - but is structured in a way that makes me more willing to participate. The extra price goes 100% to the driver, Lyft does not take a cut. I'm always wary of Uber manipulating surge pricing since they profit off of surge as well. Without the extra profit motive it's easier to trust that surge pricing really is a supply-management tool instead of a price gouging one.
- vonklaus 12y ago
  I took lift earlier today. Surge pricing was 2.25 and then fell to 2.0x. Lift prime time went up from 0.75 to 1.0x for the same area in the five minute span. Also, lift has typically been cheaper FOR ME.

TeMPOraL 12y ago

The service provider is not a human, its goals are not those of humans. It provides you cheap service because it's weak, it needs to feed in order to grow stronger, to fight the others of his kind, money-eating beasts we call companies. Don't think for a second Uber will continue to provide useful service at fair price when it finally grows mature and stifles its competition. With its continued disrespect for human values, such as honesty and decency, it already shows us the shape of things to come. We know this beast will not be friendly to men. Uber needs to be slain now, while still young and weak.

seanflyon 12y ago
> Don't think for a second Uber will continue to provide useful service at fair price when it finally grows mature and stifles its competition. I don't think for a second that Uber wants to continue to provide its service at a low price, but barrier to entry in the market is relatively low. Unless something changes on the legal front, I don't see how Uber can stifle its competition.
- avalaunch 12y ago
  Why do you think the barrier to entry is low? It seems extremely high to me. There's a massive network effect in play. I imagine competing with Uber at this point would cost millions of dollars per city.
  - seanflyon 12y ago
    Perhaps we are speaking of costs on different scales. Uber is valued at 18 Billion. Millions of dollars per city sounds like a low barrier of entry to me. If almost any small start-up can afford to compete with Uber in one city and a well funded one could compete in dozens, yeah I call that a low barrier to entry.

untog 12y ago

That's actually the greatest argument for regulation. Few people are able to comprehend exactly what Uber's level of data access means to them - same goes for Facebook, Google and the rest. It does - at a basic level - make sense for people who do know to draft legislation to protect those that do not.