Uber let-downs

[froggerADL]

I've been using UberX in Bangkok this week. It's been great. BKK to Millenium Hilton was THB425 (A$16). The traffic was terrible and it took about 90 minutes so I gave him a THB100 tip which he accepted with a big smile and a pat on the shoulder. The car was a Toyota Vios which I think is an Uber Black car. Then I went from Millenium Hilton to the Conrad which is about 7km. Again the traffic was terrible and the trip took 45 minutes and cost THB101 (A$3.80). I offered the driver a THB40 tip but she refused! The car was a very clean Honda City.

I also used UberX from BNE and back again a few weeks ago, 17km trips and only $26 each way. I had no problem getting the car at BNE.

 

[Skyring]

Wow, $10 for not turning up. No wonder they can fund legal cases all over the world.

In fact the driver had to have showed up, otherwise he wouldn't have been allocated the cancellation fee. It is determined automatically by the car's location getting close enough to the pickup location to trigger the "your driver has arrived" message, and (for the driver) a "Start trip" button appears. Ten minutes must elapse between the driver arriving at the pickup point and cancelling the job for the fee to be payable.

Often there is a discrepancy between the pickup point and the passenger's actual location. Sometimes it is a drunk taking a fat-fingered stab at where he thinks he is, sometimes it is GPS error. Tall buildings blocking or reflecting GPS signals (such as Manhattan or Sydney CBD) will often put the pickup point a block or so away.

Or sometimes it is the passenger's fault, unable to see the car. The passenger will be given the car's numberplate, but the driver has no idea what his passenger looks like. Maybe they are inside still doing the final packing or whatever, rather than waiting on the street. I once parked at a suburban shopping centre, and shortly received a "ping" from a passenger waiting to be picked up. The pickup location was only a few metres away in a bar. Nobody came out to get in my car, even though I was right there. Perhaps they were expecting a car to drive up. Perhaps they were too lazy to look out the window. I don't know.

In any case, there are ten minutes for the passenger to text or call the driver to work out the correct pickup point. Sometimes I'll get a text before I arrive, specifying the place, sometimes when it's obvious that the car and passenger are not colocated I'll get a text or a call.

I generally give the passenger five minutes, then send a text specifying the place where I'm waiting, At eight minutes I'll send another, warning that I can't wait forever.

I'll do my best to make contact, but if the passenger isn't at the pickup point on my GPS map after ten minutes and hasn't made any effort, then I reckon I'm justified in getting the ten bucks.

 

[Skyring]

Attempted to book Uber Black from South Yarra for very early morning trip to MEL. Only one car available, about 5 mins away. Driver accepted the booking, then I watched his progress on the map as he got onto the Monash Freeway and headed south

Maybe he was already on the freeway and couldn't turn around? Sometimes I'll get a ping in an awkward place and I've got to continue in the wrong direction until I find a spot to turn. Waiting at lights, for example, and when the next job comes in, I discover that I need to take the turn that is three packed lanes across.

 

[Quickstatus]

Skyring, do you get Uber requests from passengers with foreign phone numbers?. Does this materially affect your phone bill?

 

[Skyring]

I would contact customer support through the app and list the amounts and dates with a question mark. In my experience they go out of their way to get a customer friendly resolution. The bias has consistently been to refund, so I think you would likely get an explanation and credit.

I strongly urge any passengers with a doubt about their Uber ride to complain. Uber makes it easy to do so. If the driver went "the long way" or took too long to reach you, then Uber can review the GPS data and see exactly what happened.

And rate them down. Poorly behaved drivers need to be weeded out. Uber is keen to keep standards as high as possible, and they want satisfied passengers. Use the features in the app.

However, Uber drivers generally get deactivated if their rating drops below 4.6 stars. If you rate an Uber driver at four stars, thinking he was good but not perfect, then you might as well spit in his face. Anything but a five star rating is a fail.

 

[Skyring]

Skyring, do you get Uber requests from passengers with foreign phone numbers?. Does this materially affect your phone bill?

So far as I know, the passenger's phone number has no bearing at all. They are using their own roaming data to make the request, which goes into Uber's computer system and I use my own roaming data to see the map and the request. The data requirements would be minimal. A name, some GPS coordinates, that's about it. If it was more than a K of data I'd be astonished.

Telephone numbers are disguised. I never see the passenger's real number, and they don't see mine. I dare say it's some VOIP deal using local numbers.

I have a plan with 8 gig each month. This covers everything I need for Uber including music streaming. And it's a tax deduction and a GST rebate.

 

[Quickstatus]

So far as I know, the passenger's phone number has no bearing at all.

Telephone numbers are disguised. I never see the passenger's real number, and they don't see mine. I dare say it's some VOIP deal using local numbers.

.

When I was in KL recently I used a local SIM card but could not use the phone number in my Uber account as it had been previously associated with an uber account - prepaid sim recycled number. So had to use wife's phone using her uber account.

I was was able to see the Uber driver's phone number when they did their pre-arrival call/sms. Maybe it's different in each country?

 

[Skyring]

When I was in KL recently I used a local SIM card but could not use the phone number in my Uber account as it had been previously associated with an uber account - prepaid sim recycled number. So had to use wife's phone using her uber account.

I was able to see the Uber driver's phone number when they did their pre-arrival call/sms. Maybe it's different in each country?

Probably not. I'll bet it wasn't the driver's real number. In fact, I'll bet it is the same number for every Uber driver you call in that country. When I get a text or a call from a passenger, it's always the same number. It works just like a real one, but it's obviously disguised in some way.

 

[moa999]

Probably not. I'll bet it wasn't the driver's real number. In fact, I'll bet it is the same number for every Uber driver you call in that country. When I get a text or a call from a passenger, it's always the same number. It works just like a real one, but it's obviously disguised in some way.

Im actually surprised that Uber hasn't built in some simple messaging function/ or VOIP service in the app -- given that people are often travelling and it will cost them to receive a call when roaming.
Or even allowing a temporary 'local' number - I must have changed my Uber phone number at least 20 times (I think ive used it in about 8 countries now), but you need to change it back every time you come back to Australia

 

[Bolthead]

I am a part time Uber driver. The driver/partner app has some inherent problems which I think is more related to GPS issues as previously mentioned. I still strongly believe that when passengers use 'drop the pin' function they never actually check that it coincides with where they are actually situated. With over 300 rides to date I think that I have had maybe 30-40 pickups where the passengers were not at the address on the app. The other week a pax was about 1.5km's away from the address on the app. She admitted that she just placed the pin where she thought she was. It took me 15 minutes to find her and all I made was $6.00. (min fare) Another thing to note is that if you use the Pin and it is away from the road the app will pick the closest street address. For instance the other day a lady pinned her location at the front of Cronulla Sharks Club (go the Sharkies...) It would have been better for her to type in her location as the Cronulla Sharks football club. This time it was not a problem as it was the only building next to the address however when I have tried to pick up in an industrial park for instance I have nothing but problems.

Unfortunately the poor old driver is often the one that gets the bad rating despite their best effort to get to the customer. Don't get me wrong, there are a few bad drivers out there and I have experienced a couple of them.

Uber on...

 

[lathiat]

I am a part time Uber driver. The driver/partner app has some inherent problems which I think is more related to GPS issues as previously mentioned. I still strongly believe that when passengers use 'drop the pin' function they never actually check that it coincides with where they are actually situated. With over 300 rides to date I think that I have had maybe 30-40 pickups where the passengers were not at the address on the app. The other week a pax was about 1.5km's away from the address on the app. She admitted that she just placed the pin where she thought she was. It took me 15 minutes to find her and all I made was $6.00. (min fare) Another thing to note is that if you use the Pin and it is away from the road the app will pick the closest street address. For instance the other day a lady pinned her location at the front of Cronulla Sharks Club (go the Sharkies...) It would have been better for her to type in her location as the Cronulla Sharks football club. This time it was not a problem as it was the only building next to the address however when I have tried to pick up in an industrial park for instance I have nothing but problems.

Unfortunately the poor old driver is often the one that gets the bad rating despite their best effort to get to the customer. Don't get me wrong, there are a few bad drivers out there and I have experienced a couple of them.

Uber on...

despite having a very good general idea of where I am, how to use a phone and how to use uber...

the other week I totally messed up and accidentally booked it about 200m away.. on the other side of the train tracks.
he rang me to confirm location and I realised my derp. didn't intentionally drop the pin I must have accidentally moved it before hitting book or something.
it could probably do with showing the driver your actual gps location as well as your booked location, to help figure those situations out.. or some kind of "are you sure?"

luckily for the driver it was about a $70 fare

 

[Travel Guru]

I've used Uber all over the world primarily in Australia, US and Europe.

For the most part I've always had fantastic experiences, the only time I've rated a driver 3 stars or below was when I hopped into an UberX in Scottsdale that was full of smoke residue and a driver playing techno music.

I have noticed though of late that as some of the taxi drivers have switched over to Uber especially in Las Vegas that they're bringing their bad habits with them.
Apparantly there's an issue in Las Vegas where the former taxi drivers will hang around not far from your pickup point and wait until you cancel so they can get the cancellation fee out of you, I noticed it a couple of times, but I expect Uber will be pretty quick to stamp that out.

Besides that there's just the typical taxi driver type attitudes of those who've come across but I'd say in 98% of cases the service is faultless.

 

[puppysparkes]

The drop pin is a persistent issue.

 

[moa999]

Never had an issue with the dropped pin.
Suspect those having an issue have phones with coughpy GPS or don't have AGPS (which uses triangulation of mobile signals)

 

[Bolthead]

I've used Uber all over the world primarily in Australia, US and Europe.

For the most part I've always had fantastic experiences, the only time I've rated a driver 3 stars or below was when I hopped into an UberX in Scottsdale that was full of smoke residue and a driver playing techno music.

I have noticed though of late that as some of the taxi drivers have switched over to Uber especially in Las Vegas that they're bringing their bad habits with them.
Apparently there's an issue in Las Vegas where the former taxi drivers will hang around not far from your pickup point and wait until you cancel so they can get the cancellation fee out of you, I noticed it a couple of times, but I expect Uber will be pretty quick to stamp that out.

Besides that there's just the typical taxi driver type attitudes of those who've come across but I'd say in 98% of cases the service is faultless.

I have yet to use Uber overseas but we are off to the states in October and will give it a go in Washington DC. It will be interesting to compare as I am also a member of a USA based Uber Facebook group and some of the stories and attitudes of drivers are hilarious.

 

[Bolthead]

despite having a very good general idea of where I am, how to use a phone and how to use uber...

the other week I totally messed up and accidentally booked it about 200m away.. on the other side of the train tracks.
he rang me to confirm location and I realised my derp. didn't intentionally drop the pin I must have accidentally moved it before hitting book or something.
it could probably do with showing the driver your actual gps location as well as your booked location, to help figure those situations out.. or some kind of "are you sure?"

luckily for the driver it was about a $70 fare

The drop pin is a persistent issue.

The pin is a little 'slippery' and I agree it doesn't take much to slightly move it before booking...

 

[Bolthead]

Never had an issue with the dropped pin.
Suspect those having an issue have phones with coughpy GPS or don't have AGPS (which uses triangulation of mobile signals)

Not sure what AGPS is... I will have to look that one up.... although what still confuses me is when you get a job that is say 10 minutes away and the passenger still takes over 5 minutes to walk out to the car... It's like they are trying to punish me for being the closest car. Despite this like any job you have to take the good with the bad.

 

[VPS]

I'm thinking about using Uber in Adelaide - I'm guess I'm concerned about the surge charge - I've heard of people finding large amounts extra on their credit card - what do people think of the safety aspect vs a taxi driver (for an older female)

 

[Cruiser Elite]

I tried to use Uber for first time last Sat night - well know Docklands location - clown couldn't find it - took a taxi instead.

 

[dajop]

I'm guess I'm concerned about the surge charge - I've heard of people finding large amounts extra on their credit card -

This can happen, but not without you knowing about it. When you book it comes up with the multiple of the normal amount which you have to accept before booking the car. You can choose to decline to book. I guess if you were drunk it may not sink in