Uber Users-What say you?

[luvflyin]

I've used Uber a lot and love it. Always get a ride within minutes unlike traditional taxi service when you're somewhere off the "beaten path." At places with "taxi stands" like airports and hotels I'll grab a cab sometimes because it's right there. Most annoying thing I've found with Uber is some of the drivers are not very knowledgeable about the best way to get somewhere, they blindly follow Google Maps. It's kinda like the Magenta Line thing. Some will listen when you tell them that's not the best way and realize when they are giving you a ride to your house, you probably know the best way. They are pressured by the company to follow the route the Map App gives. I know the companies point is to follow the map so customers don't complain that driver took them the long way to gouge them, which is absurd. Drivers don't make money by going the long way and getting a bigger fare. They make it by getting you there as fast as possible and moving on to their next fare and tip.

 

[luvflyin]

I used Uber a lot when my grandson was born. I flew up there and didn't want to rent a car because with my cataract I am not comfortable driving an unfamiliar car around unfamiliar cities. The kids (parents- ha ha!) were real busy, the baby was in NICU for a few days, and so I used Uber to get around and to go get food to bring them. It was great.

I'm not going to start a political debate but there was this one black driver who was an immigrant from Somalia. He was very pro Trump, he said America needed to get back to supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs. He greatly feared a Hillary administration. A lot of the Uber drivers seemed to be like that, at least the ones I got that week.

Never used Lyft so I can't compare.

Hmm. Wonder if he "sized you up" right away. He just might extol the virtues of Hillary when his fare is someone who looks like they would lean that way. Did he launch right into his Go Trump speech out of the blue, or had you already said a thing or two on the subject. Yeah, I'm a cynic

 

[luvflyin]

Uber for me. I rode Lyft once, and the driver had a big box on his dash labeled TIPS. On his back seat he had all kinds of stuff for sale: snacks, tissues, etc. Overall, I felt like I was getting hustled by riding Lyft.

I've tried Uber many places, including Lyon France, where a particularly good driver named Mohammed picked me up. He was a native of Spain, was living in France, and he spoke good English which was a good thing because his Uber app was somehow stuck in English so that he was unable to switch it to Spanish or French. Mohammed in Lyon was much better than the last Uber driver I had in Iowa, a country boy who drove a Ford F-350 Super Duty diesel behemoth that hadn't been cleaned in ages.

F350 diesel. Farm boy from Iowa. Betcha the fuel in his tank isnt the right color. Even burning tax exempt off road tractor fuel, I'd think there's no way he could make a profit.

 

[Rushie]

Hmm. Wonder if he "sized you up" right away. He just might extol the virtues of Hillary when his fare is someone who looks like they would lean that way. Did he launch right into his Go Trump speech out of the blue, or had you already said a thing or two on the subject. Yeah, I'm a cynic

Yeah I thought about that but I endeavor not to reveal which way I fall with politics when first talking about "the election". I'm a middle aged lady and wasn't wearing any camo or anything, so why wouldn't I be for Hillary? Anyway, he talked very intelligently about economics, had his facts straight and was impassioned. If he was putting on a pro Trump act to get a bigger tip he was quite a well prepared actor.

 

[bradg33]

I see Uber and Lyft as equal: they'll both get me to wherever I'm going, I don't care about the back-end of the business. That said, I've only used Lyft a couple of times, I use Uber regularly when I travel out of pure habit. So far, I've had only 1 bad Uber experience. I was in Miami last month for work and I ordered an Uber to take me from the hotel to the airport. I was in south beach, so all of the hotels are literally lined up next to each other. Driver pulled into the wrong hotel driveway, despite my text message saying "I'm at X hotel." I saw her do it, so I sent another text saying "I'm next door." After waiting a couple of minutes, she didn't move so I just grabbed my bags and walked over. I should have seen this as a red flag, but I needed to get going so I proceeded. The next 45 minutes were full of regret. We were on the highway headed north to FLL, in the middle lane, doing 20mph UNDER the speed limit, as cars blew past us on both sides; very uncomfortable place to be. I tried to be patient, but I eventually leaned up and said "do you think we could go a bit faster?" It then became clear why the driver didn't respond to my text messages: she did not speak a word of english. When I asked to go faster, she had absolutely no idea what I was saying. After some pointing and hand movements, and my use of the like 3 spanish words I know, she finally understood I wanted her to speed up. She smiled, said "OK," and continued to drive the same speed. When we got to Fort Lauderdale, she drove right past the airport, totally ignoring her GPS. She then looked back and me and said "Aeroport?" as it passed in the rearview mirror. "YES! AIRPORT!" She finally got turned around and I had her stop at the very first opportunity once on airport property. Absolutely awful ride. I reported it to Uber, and was met with some generic canned response and a $5 credit.

 

[Art VanDelay]

I prefer Uber because they don't make you feel like you need to tip.

 

[denverpilot]

Haven't done a lot of either one but one Uber was memorable -- had to get a ride home after dropping the Yukon off in civilization for work at a shop.

Uber lady shows up in a brand new Jetta, very nice. I warn her that our place is two miles down a dirt road and if she doesn't want to ding up her new car, I would understand. She says no problem.

On the way out I asked her a few questions about the Uber app and how she liked driving for them. She's nice and likes it. I ask which cellular carrier she's on. She says T-Mobile. I say, "How well does the App behave when you lose phone coverage?" and joke with her that I'm asking because I know where TMo will die on the way to our rural place, and no I'm not a back seat evil person or anything. Ha.

She says she's not sure.

After she drops me off I get a notice that the app screwed up and way underpaid her. I send a note to her and Uber showing them where the TMo coverage stopped, so did the GPS ride tracking because the app is too stupid to cache that stuff and send it when it's back in coverage.

Uber takes a few hours to fix it and charges me some more, which was expected. Get a thank you note from the driver.

They need to write a better app. Frigging software engineers these days assuming the network is always available...

 

[SkyDog58]

The competition between Uber and Lyft is getting rough.

 

[Sluggo63]

2000: "Don't get in strangers' cars, and don't meet people from the internet"
2015: "Literally summon strangers from the internet in order to get in their cars"

Funny. When I first heard of the whole Uber thing, all I could think of was whoever created it must have been to Kazakhstan.

We used to do a tech stop in Almaty when flying from Asia to Europe. They had this gypsy cab system where, if you needed a ride, you would just stand on the curb and put your hand out and within minutes someone (not a cab driver) would pull over to pick you up in their personal car. You told him where you were going, haggle over the price, then jump in and away you go...

It was a low-tech pre-Uber.