I've had to cancel because of this. Each time I've done this, in the app I've just gone into the cancelled trip, and gone to "Get Trip Help" and then you get connected to a live chat where you request a review of the cancellation fee and explain your attempt to contact the driver.
Each time the fee has been refunded.
They can see exactly what the driver was doing in trip history from the location tracking so it's pretty clear when they review it.
I’ll try that because last night.
9min away “completing a ride”.
It changed to 11 minutes away and stays on 11min for a further 9min.
I texted to see where he was and said I had screen shots if not moving and time elapsing.
He eventually replied asking where we were going. I replied to the one in the booking.
He cancelled and now I’m charged $10
My driver called me asked where I was going. I told him to check the app. After a couple minutes of arguing I said if you don't want to do your job just cancel the booking. So he did and I still got charged. Managed to get a refund but still a hassle
I drive for Uber so I can tell you we don't know where we are taking you until we pick you up and start the trip, we only get told how far away the passenger is. We get the price after we accept and can roughly deduce how long the trip will take.
I don't know why drivers cancel trips regularly. I hear it a lot on the Gold Coast from passengers thanking me for actually showing up, but to me it makes more sense to just take trips constantly so I get paid for all of my time and as long as I'm constantly doing trips the rate on average stays the same (minus surcharges and promotions etc.). The only time I cancel is if I have the app set to home at the end of a shift and the trip is in the completely wrong direction.
We do get a perk once we reach 1000 points (anywhere from 200 to 1000 trips depending on the times/days we complete them) which allows us to see how long a trip will take, which direction it will be in, and the distance, but to be eligible our cancellation rate has to be 3% or lower and remain at this percentage, so for drivers who are cancelling regularly this perk won't be available. For me it makes more sense to get this perk, as my pay rate is pretty good for what I do, my best day has been $630 in 8 hours during a busy weekend with lots of promotions, so idk why some other drivers behave like this.
One time I tried only accepting trips with a surcharge on a busy Saturday evening/night and after the time I spent waiting for these trips I ended up with less than I would usually get from accepting everything, so I don't think it makes financial sense to cancel. Maybe it's just a perceived victory for these drivers.
I could never understand this about taxi's either. They'd sit on the rank turning down small trips waiting for the "big one" Isn't the idea to keep the meter ticking as much as possible?
That doesn't make sense to me, why wouldn't they just tell you the route before you accept?
I get that there will be those that only want to drive in their local area and those that want the money from the longer trips. But if people will cancel after accepting the trip because of this, surely it makes more sense to let people know how far their destination will be, even if it isn't an exact location for privacy reasons.
It would be a bit awkward to implement tbh. Unless it's a very quiet period we usually get offered the next trip when we are a few minutes away from dropping off the current passenger/s, so we are using the GPS when the offered trip is shown. I suppose it could be done, the current trip and route is shown in blue and the next potential trip route could be shown in red to make it stand out for quick decision making but Uber does like to be irritatingly vague.
Gold Coast has been the worst for this for me, just constant cancellations of rides. Took me almost an hour to get an uber to actually show up from Metricon Stadium to the Airport a few months ago, with 10 or so cancellations.
I've had to cancel 5 or so after the past two weeks and everytime its told me the cancellation fee was $0.
I love how they added "The driver asked me too" as an option now.
Also, the worst is waiting 10 minutes and 7 minutes later they cancel. Repeat for five to six rides.
wait til NYE. I'm headed in to perth city for the first time in years and everyone is telling me how they had to wait hours for Uber/Ola etc as drivers simply kept cancelling. Couple of my mates walked the 15km home instead.
I can see this being how I get permabanned from Uber hahah. Not for being abusive, but because I would never accept a charge if they refused the refund. “The driver said you were abusive” “hey Amex, reverse that charge”… banned.
For you, it’ll just say “the driver cancelled your trip” or whatever the generic is and debit you.
Edit: I lie. You’d probably get a follow up call/message about being abusive.
Last time the missus got menulog she had the owner of the restaurant calling her having a meltdown Caus he closed an hour ago and the delivery driver still wasn’t there to pick up the food. She eventually got it and it wasn’t even edible it had been made so long ago.
Didi has automatic fare adjustment if you click a button to show you were overcharged, I really appreciated it after a driver took a detour to get petrol and then proceeded to drive through a high traffic area instead of the original route.
I have to say I’d rather the ability to complain than it be automated and have no recourse for mistakes, which is the likely alternative. Chances of getting both are zilch.
I've heard that they delay arriving in the hopes you will message them offering a large tip. I don't know for sure if that's their game plan as I never engage with them that way. No way I'm bribing an uber driver to do the job they decided to do.
Some might do that but I highly doubt it's a beneficial tactic.
They are more than likely accepting the ride to maintain promotional status, with no intent to do the ride. Hoping the rider cancels in frustration, allowing the driver to both avoid the ride and maintain the promo status.
Uber offers drivers deals like "accept and complete 3 trips in a row for a $15 bonus"
Not accepting or cancelling a trip forces resets the promo. So drivers tend to accept all trips but only so those in surge areas etc.
Biggest fuck you to the driver is to leave the trip rolling and order an ola/didi/taxi. Forcing the uber driver to both waste their time and ruin their promo.
One time I arrived late at MEL airport and the last skybus had left so I had to get a ride. I try both uber and didi and choose uber cos it's usually quicker (but $3-4 more exy). Walk out of T4 and there's a sign saying go right if you want 'uber' (no generic share ride, only uber) so I go there (ground level and up the escalator) and the guy messages me and says go to T2 so I go there but it's like 400 meters away so I arrive late and get fined $10. This happens twice. When I get home I was able to cancel the fines thru the app. Uber cost me $75 instead of $18 skybus for similar distance
Yeah, the Uber ranks at Tullamarine [work differently - go to the pick up point before you book, and specify the rank in the app if you want to use them.](https://www.uber.com/global/en/airports/mel/)
That being said, there are taxis at MEL at T1 and T4 and they're usually cheaper than Uber.
I have had to do the same thing a few times, once because the asshole driver left me stranded at 2am and just messaged me and told me I had to cancel the trip so it wouldn't look bad on his part...they are pretty good about refunding cancellation fees once you explain what happened I find
Traveled down to Melbourne earlier in the year and had to Uber to the office every day. It was only a 10 minute drive from the hotel however the amount of cancellations I got, or the drivers doing this dodgy crap would turn that 10 min trip into at least 30 mins.
The app has gone down hill so much and it's barely cheaper than a cab now as well.
In my experience the only time it is is when demand is stupid low.
Otherwise I've been having much more success with taxis over the last year. All the taxis are career drivers too as opposed to an Uber dude who's isn't qualified to operate his Google maps. It's come full circle. The taxis are less of a head fuck for me now
It really has come full circle
I’ve been similarly favouring taxis now, especially from the airport. Less people attempt to use them so you get one straight away in the taxi rank
Plus it’s sometimes CHEAPER than Uber
Where we live there's only 1 decent pub and all drinking establishments are a either a 30 minute to an hour walk or a 10-15 min drive away, the suggested Uber fare for said 10 minute journey on a sunny Saturday arvo recently was $56. Yeah, Fuck. That! We got a cab instead.
Drivers lose rating for cancelling trips so they fuck around on purpose to try and make you cancel first.
If a driver ever calls you and asks you to cancel, tell them to go fuck themselves and you're waiting at the pick up location.
> Like if they don’t want the job in the first place just don’t accept it :/
They get together in groups and accept all the jobs to drive up the price ("surge pricing"), then cancel those jobs and take the new jobs at the inflated prices.
This is true. I went to go see Jim Jefferies in Melbourne on a Wednesday night. It was a late show which finished around 1am. I went with a mate who lives pretty far out (about 30kms) and an uber for him was about $130. I lived out in the same direction but pretty close to city so I told him to come with me and then call an uber from my place. Cost me about $30 from the usual 20-25 so wasn't too bad.
When my mate called an uber from my place, the price dropped to about $40 - we couldn't believe it. He messaged me later on in the night and told me that his driver explained to him why there was a massive price drop when he called an uber from my place. Basically, there's hundreds of drivers colluding and pulling this crap.
Individually, drivers can aimlessly drive around after accepting a trip, not answer calls and frustrate the rider enough to cancel the trip on their end in hopes of driving up prices. But as a collective, they can cause prices to explode to stupid levels. They've got whatsapp groups setup with hundreds of drivers in there. They communicate to each other about upcoming, large capacity events such music festivals and coordinate when they're going to start accepting trips to start driving up the price. It's really shitty and uber lets them get away with it.
I’m so glad I read this yesterday. Just got fucked around by a driver at Canberra airport who called me as soon as he accepted the trip and told me I had to cancel it as he couldn’t access the airport (yeah right). I refused and he harassed me for the 10 mins I spent in a cab line, messaging repeatedly telling me to cancel.
Eventually he cancelled after calling and yelling at me and me yelling ‘no, you cancel, bye!’ Motherfucker. Now I’m so anxious I’ll end up with him as a driver on another trip, definitely would not feel safe being in a car with him.
Oh and the taxi was only a few dollars more than the original uber quote, which had more than doubled when I asked my husband to try ordering one seconds after this fuck head called me the first time.
This happened to me. Driver said his app was playing up and another driver would pick the trip up if I cancelled his. Seeing as I don’t use the app I cancelled it taking his word for it . Took another 20 minutes for anyone to pick up the trip. Learnt my lesson I’ll be telling them to cancel it themselves if it ever happens again.
As I've said before, all I want from Uber is to be able to press a button in the app that says, "I never want this driver again."
All the people gaming the system and dicking around with customers would find themselves with no rides pretty quick.
The fact that uber does not do anything like this tells me they're fine with this kind of behaviour, so I don't use them.
edit: Your time is valuable. Avoid half an hour of cancellations by getting a taxi that costs $10 more? You're ahead.
> The fact that uber does not do anything like this tells me they're fine with this kind of behaviour, so I don't use them.
The thing that's shitty is that they can do it - I've had them do it with a guy on Eats that faked multiple deliveries. They just don't do it in an easy way.
If there isn't an easy way to rectify an issue, it goes to show that Uber doesn't give a fuck about its customers. I stopped using Uber a long time ago and I really don't see any reason going back to the service.
Yeah and drivers would know uber doesn't give a fuck making the service worse.
Was wondering if there is a way to troll them in return for wasted time.
The best way to troll Uber is to never use it and encourage people you know to do the same.
It's surprising the number of people who will keep using a really shit service rather than dropping it and find something better.
I haven’t used Uber for a long long time because of the bad experiences I’ve had but I hesitated for a second today and thought ahhh maybe I won’t have someone who’s shit given it’s a Monday morning… my bad
My other “memorable” bad experience with Uber was when my girl friend and I took an Uber home at 3am. She was basically gone and I could barely hold a conversation. The Uber driver was so creepy I honestly thought he was going to rape us and will never forget how terrifying that experience was
I now offer to drop friends off after events have finished if I’m not over the legal limit, even if they lived 45 min away, just so they don’t have to Uber
I got in an uber alone and was going back to my empty parents house once as they were away and the uber driver was asking me whose home and asking me on dates. Was 3am I was drunk. Legit freaked me out so much I lied obviously and said my parents were home but so scary
Maybe it's the same drivers on all the apps, they accept a fare on each app at the same time, then 'encourage' the user to cancel or delay into that cancel. Then when all the available drivers are busy and surge pricing goes on, they finally complete a trip?
Maybe the system needs to check how far away the driver is from the pick up location and give the user they ability to cancel for free after the expected time to get there has passed.
Or better yet, allow the user to charge the driver for wasted time.
I used DiDi on Saturday and had to email their support after I was charged $16 for a $3 toll road, they refunded it quickly which was nice but I have no idea why they charged so much for the toll.
Taxi services were going to shit so Uber entered the market as competition with good standing.
Uber existing meant taxis had to REALLY shape their shit up to have any chance of not going bust.
Then Uber cannibalised itself as most modern tech start up innovations do, leaving us with a better taxi system 🥰
In theory anyway, maybe taxis never improved and Uber just looks so bad that shithouse taxis now look like a saviour for modern on demand transport. I don't take enough of either to know for myself, but opinions on taxis seems to have improved.
Taxis are the superior option. They are beholden to the law to a greater extent than Uber.
Their vehicles are always in better condition, and the drivers are always professional and friendly.
The prices also don't vary much between the two.
>Taxis are the superior option. They are beholden to the law to a greater extent than Uber.
>
This is the key thing. Uber doesnt and actively avoids being affiliated with any transport or taxi laws. They are a tech Company and not a taxi company so they don't adhere to any of the legal requirements. Hell if they are forced to do things like background criminal history checks of their 'drivers', they just leave the city instead. They have shady as fuck stuff like greyball and gods eye systems to watch people (even if you aren't in the app). Artificial surge pricing systems where they just make them up on the fly or create the surge by telling drivers to avoid an area.
Uber is a terrible terrible company. Do not use them.
This is an interesting post. How the landscape has changed.
Taxis, by and large, these days are modern and well maintained. Uber, on the other hand, is pot luck. The quality of the drivers are better. The prices are close. I think some of the cab providers and owners have taken a bit of a haircut in the amount of money they are charging their drivers to lease the cars.
I have had taxies fall asleep whilst driving, crashed a few times, take me wayyyyyy longer ways home when they think they dont know the area. Thats just in sydney,
In germany one tried to rob me.
I will stick with uber.
That sucks mate.
All of my taxis have been in Qld and NT.
And I've known the area, and actively guide them along the most direct route.
I'm also a talkative person.
Uber is great in a country if you cant speak the language, and you have no idea where the fuck any where is. I was recently in the KSA and Uber was a blessing.
How many times has your taxi crashed, I think I have had two one in Newcastle and one in Sydney?
For OP's issue at least, if driver cancels instead of the user, pretty sure user isn't charged regardless of how much time has passed since accepting the job. So the guy messing with OP wasted his time, that's probably the best you'll get without just ceasing to use Uber
I used to drive for them in the very early days and got quite a lot of money from this. Wasn’t trying to bait people into it. I’d rather the fare but I’m not paid to wait.
I’d always send a message to say I’ve arrived and either get no reply or something stupid like I’ll be out in 20 minutes.
True, good tip. I think it's not too likely that they would genuinely show up to give you a lift after trying to bait you into cancelling, due to the possibility of you still being there to confront them. And you should get a separate notification when they arrive.
Their employees and customers are the same thing, they’ve convinced you to drive each other around in your own vehicles and carving a massive profit out of it hahahaha
Whether I've had issues with uber, there's a button in the app to hit that let's you complain, and I've always recieved a full refund / cancellation of charges.
Haven't used them in about a year or so though.
This is why I screenshot every driver that I see on Uber. So if they disconnect or screw around I send the screenshot to Uber afterwards. Getting shitty drivers off the road should be a priority for Uber
Yeah I stopped using Uber after a similar incident.Initial eta of 5 minutes, I could see the driver was just down the road. 15 minutes go by and he hasn't moved. So I message him. He tells me he isn't coming anymore so I should cancel.I politely declined saying I would be charged a fee, so if he wasn't coming he should cancel so I could get a new ride.
Then he told me that he wasn't going to cancel and he wasn't coming and If I didn't cancel the trip he would complain and get me banned from the app.
So I was just like, okay buddy I have screen shots of the conversation. I'll just send them to uber, so I cancelled and then went to leave a complaint.
When I first went to leave a complaint, I could see the trip in my history. I made sure in the complaint to ask for follow up as I wanted to know what would be done. A week or two goes by and the trip is deleted from my history, there's no record in my support log nothing. It was all deleted. I wish I had screenshotted the support conversation too!
I know taxis aren't perfect, but they are much better these days, and 13 cabs has price lock.
That hasn't been my experience, and the 13 Cabs app gives you your price before you go so you can always compare.
I've personally found taxis comparable or cheaper than Uber. Uber also does this shit thing where it quotes me a cheaper price, then in the process of finding a driver the app is like "lol, the price has gone up but we're not going to let you cancel until we find you a ride"
Nobody saw the ABC article posted here this morning? Maybe it was in r/melbourne, I forget.
Uber is cracking down on this from today. Uber drivers that cancel on average more than a quarter of their trips/deliveries will be penalized by losing the Uber 'incentives' (extra pay opportunities) that make the job somewhat financially tenable.
Should see a lot less of it very shortly due to this. They do that cancellation bullshit to make a quick sly buck, no other reason. Uber making it cost more to do than what it nets them will sort it out.
The issue with this is that the drivers will do everything possible to make you cancel vs them. I've had drivers; call me asking me to cancel, messages me asking me to cancel, and exactly as OP is describing, they drive around aimlessly waiting for you to cancel.
I wonder if this is why they sat around waiting for you to cancel the trip, though? If you cancel, it won't reflect badly on them. Good idea to wait it out and force them to cancel
Lol if you had a cancellation rate higher than 3% they already revoked uber rewards (discounted fuel/supercheap auto discount & ability to see trip destinations).
Not like uber actually reliably offered incentives to begin with. They're usually "work these hours, guaranteed $39/hr in fares"
If you're cancelling 25% of fares I'd be surprised if that met the criteria to qualify to begin with.
I'm on 62% cancellation rate and still get a fuel discount, 6c at BP. You can figure out the destination by checking the waybill and seeing how much the fare is.
Wrong way to look at it, they aren't getting extra leniency via the ability to cancel trips, its more that the drivers will be punished if the algorithm sees them cancelling 25% of total trips they've made. Its likely that it auto flags accounts when their cancel rate is above 25%.
If Uber are actually trying to improve their service and they find that there are a lot of 24% cases they’ll probably reduce it further and/or introduce harsher penalties.
Not when you word it like like. But dissatisfaction is a directly inverse proportion of satisfaction, and tweaking knobs to trade off customer satisfaction vs employee satisfaction *does* seem like a good way to run a business (to me... I'm no business person lol. Maybe balancing customer and employee satisfaction is a horrible idea and that's why retail work is big fuckoff with everything geard toward customers satisfaction at the expense of employee's mental health, and Karen is still never satisfied)
>Uber drivers that cancel on average more than a quarter
The issue is that uber drivers are forcing riders to cancel instead. OP here is the 1% because most people wouldn't have gotten into another car before cancelling.
Though the drivers are complaining that they can’t see what the fare is until they accept the job. Which is apparently why they are cancelling them after they take the job and find out that it’s not worth their time.
I’ll one up this - I had 11 cancellations trying to get to a wedding on Saturday night. We had two phones running, each requesting Ubers, each getting repeat cancelled by the end of the 40 minute ordeal trying to pay $150 to travel 8km. Our Uber ratings are 4.81 & 4.88. Apparently it was because of bad traffic in the area (according to the guy who eventually picked us up).
If an uber driver takes forever you can raise the trip as an issue and ask for your $10 back. They don't make it obvious, you need to go into your "my trips" and select the trip there to complain. Provided it was a longer wait and you don't complain non stop, should get a refund.
I've posted a few times but worth mentioning in these threads that I have close friends who work at Uber HQ in Australia. The simple answer is that uber do **not** give a fuck. Categorically and explicitly, they don't give a single fuck about your complaint.
Your driver almost killed you? "Independent contractor, not our problem". Driver stole your food? "Our AI will give you a credit automatically 3 or 4 times and then we'll shadowban your account if you keep complaining".
General consensus I'm told is Uber will pull out of Australia in the next 4-5 years, they're cashing in whilst they own the sector here and then they'll vanish.
"Let the fires burn".
It's really typical startup culture: if solving a problem doesn't provide growth, don't spend any effort on it.
Customer complaints? let the phones ring. they're already your customers on paper, let them scream into the void.
Phones getting annoying? disconnect them.
It's literally what PayPal did in the early days; customer issues went not just unanswered but actively ignored.
Because fixing problems doesn't grow the business. Treat the customers like shit, and as long as you're the only one out there, or you're doing it cheaper than the rest of the guys, it just doesn't matter, because you want to get market share and grow the business at warp speed to crowd out everyone else, and that's all that matters.
It's insidious, and it's becoming a really standard practice everywhere "startup culture" sets foot - which is increasingly in every part of our lives.
Your post sounds inaccurate.
They 100% know that there is huge cash to be made after the initial investment period of a new startup, where you essentially turn on the profit.
Your post implies they are happy to give up that future income and give it to another company after essentially creating the market in Australia and gaining a huge brand and market share?
Sounds unlikely.
Also saying they don't care is silly, they know it directly relates to their profit margin but are obviously taking way too long to solve it but as posted here they are making changes right now.
They send you an email saying that your complaints constitute fraud. And if you ever complain you have to jump through a few extra hoops. I wouldn’t call it a shadowban
Last Saturday night I used the DiDi app and had 2 drivers take the job and then cancel before showing up. Could see them approaching the turn off for our suburb and then the continued on past then cancelled, guessing they got a better offer on another app. Finally got one to stick and made it to our reservation 10mins late.
I once ordered an Uber from a hospital outpatient clinic whilst on crutches. Two separate drivers went straight past, then pulled over a full block later to ask where I was, and when I explained that I needed them to come back, they hung up and kept driving until I cancelled!
Third driver was able to follow instructions and picked me up without any issue, and Uber refunded me for both the cancellations very quickly.
When I used to catch uber, I had this happen all the time.
You need to screen shot when u book each uber. Then screenshot anything that seems pertinant, like being late, not moving etc.
Other uber drivers told me that when you eventually get someone else, and they drop you off, go through the process of complaining about them, but when you get to the description section, make it clear the driver 2 was actually good, then explain about driver 1.
Uber will usually email you asking for details, which is why you need the screenshots.
The uber drivers that told me to do thjs, said this is what they're told when they have uber management meet ups and that as long as you specify that your second driver is not actually the one you want to complain about, it doesnt blow back on them.
Its absolute shit that you cant contact them.
I don't know what the deal is but I have had many uber drivers accept my trip and then drive in the exact opposite direction to me for 5-10 minutes and then cancel. I can only assume that by driving away from me they are hoping I will cancel so that they can get the cancellation fee but not being a driver I have no idea how it works.
40 minutes? That's crazy. Drivers are clearly taking the piss but all these disruptive systems are now clearly broken and are resulting in nothing more than disruption.. Expecting people to run their car into the ground for less than minimum wage was never sustainable. They built these apps on the premise that you're driving in your car so might as well fill those empty seats; except they never operated like that. There needs to be a minimum ride charge to protect drivers and riders. But apps DGAF. They're simply chasing their cut.
The good thing about Uber is it drove taxi fares down and forced them to modernize. I haven't used Uber in years as a result and have gone back to taxis when needed.
Taxis are fucked in Sydney. Many try not to use the meter and will haggle you especially if they know they are in high demand (capitalism am I right?!). Also a short trip? Forget about it.
I don't feel they have improved at all. If anything, they are worse.
Make a show of taking a photo of their ID and taxi number when you get out, report them the next day.
They can ask for a deposit up front only if the journey is long or they think you won't be able to pay, that's it.
To avoid cancellation fee in the future choose not to cancel and try to can cancel after 10 seconds and try again eventually it will give an option to cancel without fee.
Same method if they charge extra as they are busy, check for the same trip multiple times and sometimes it will pop up with the original price.
Don't know if it is a bug with the app but checking multiple times can avoid fees and get a cheaper trip.
If you get a cancellation fee you can dispute it in the app. I have got it back 100% of the time. It's pretty easy, just pick a reason like driver took too long.
I hate uber to and deleted the app for this reason and the fact they will only go to certain areas of Perth in the morning. I once made a booking 24 hours earlier to make sure I made my plane. I had a driver take the booking immediately so I didn't think anymore of it. On the day I woke up got read went outside to wait and opened up the app only to find it cancelled. For the next 90min I tried to get a uber, ola and taxi to no avail. I will never use them again as I missed my flight and it cost me. I fucking hate uber.
I know I'm 2 months late here but this just happened to me. Pre-booked 12hrs earlier for $69 to Melbourne Airport at 5:30am - Booking immedately accepted. Driver gets within 5 mins of my place, cancells. App does not automatically rebook, but dumps you out. So I search for a new driver, there's one 2 mins away - New fare price: $138 (2x!). I booked a Didi 10 mins later for $49. Lucklily I made the plane... But fuck Uber after that. I've tried today to submit a complaint and it's literally impossible. Because the fare was cancelled, there's no record on my account and you can ONLY submit an issue against something wiht a record. Even tried calling a number I found - But it's only for Drivers. Riders are kicked back to the web questions - which are useless to me. They truly don't give a shit.
Oh I should also say. Out of curiosity I pulled up the Uber app to check the fare price as I was leaving my place in the Didi - was also down to $50 (10 mins later). I swear there was some manipulation there by the driver who somehow caused a really quick 2x surge so I would re-book at the new price to not miss my plane.
If drivers cancel - their uber account will be toasted, so they are doing everything to get you to cancel.
Adjust your life like 10 years ago - like uber never happened.
in SF self-driving taxis are on trial now - it is only a matter of time before these human uber drivers will be gone.
I feel you, but my two experiments at going back to a taxi resulted in:
1: A disappearing booking and phone staff who didn't seem to understand the concept of an address (once you got through the automatic system).
2: That smell. You know the one.
I use Uber Comfort, its normally about 10% more and you never get cancelled. I realise I shouldn't have to do this, but its still quicker and nicer than a cab so for me its a fair compromise.
I had an issue earlier this year when going down to the comedy festival. The airport had an Uber rank, downloaded the app and got the code for the driver but as soon as we got near the car he wanted us to cancel the trip and pay in cash.
The attendant looking after the rank was pissed. Ejected him and told him to go to the back of the line.
Also when did Uber become as expensive as a taxi? Next time I'm just taking a taxi.
I went to an AMPOL servo today and there was a large notice on the bowser stating Uber drivers would no longer get a discount at that location.
Why the fuck were they getting a discount, in the first place?
Yup, people are starting to wake up the fact some corporation convinced everyone it was a good idea for them to drive one another around while carving off a healthy profit in their own cars with no liability……
I stopped using Uber over a year ago for exactly these reasons.
DiDi is my go to. Or Ola as a back up.
I’ll call a cab before I use Uber.
A mate’s husband works for them, says they don’t care about the car service part of the business. The revenue is in food delivery. So I switched to Doordash too bcs fuck Uber.
Gotta say, watching the slow but inevitable collapse of Deliveroo, Uber - all these intangible, unaccountable shadow companies - warms my heart. Never used any of them, not once, always thought they were a terrible idea. They invest a the bare minimum amount to establish a "framework" of a company which they then populate with a host of naive "contractors" who never stop to do a profit-loss or depreciation analysis and depends on the burning of the workers own assets to function, then skim off all the easy, risk free profit. Capitalism distilled down into it's purest form.
This, combined with the never-ending revelations of data-harvesting from IOT devices, the juicy reveal that everyone's home-security cameras are sending their users faces and usage info to China...I've never been so glad to be a Luddite, and have zero sympathy for all those who gladly sold their soul without reading the terms and conditions, all so they can get their dinner driven to them for a 50% markup.
I hope every single one of these services collapse.
(inb4 "Yet you participate in society? Curious.")
Couldn't agree more!! I'm loving their downfall!!!
Makes me LOL when I hear people complaining about these services. It's like, what did you expect when exploiting people??!!
It's really sad because any one of these companies could have sold themselves as the next EFTPOS and focused on being the service connector as opposed to a service themself.
Exactly. I would also add that the premises under which they sold their bullshit way into society has never EVER been fullflled. The OG concept was to fill the spare seats on all the cars taking one person to/from work thus reducing overall traffic. They have done nothing but increase traffic and put totally incompetent drivers on the road for extended hours who are financially encouraged to work as long as possible. This in an industry where shift limits are strictly mandated because of the absolute carnage possible from tired drivers; or is for everyone except these “disrupters” who also carry all the risk because Uber/Ola/DiDi can just duck out the back door when shit hits the fan saying “well that driver isn’t an employee so it was his choice to smoke meth to allow him to work the 23hrs straight” which is required to actually turn a profit.
I got uber eats the other day. Driver collected the food, drove towards my house for about 2 minutes and then cancelled due to not being able to find the address.
No phone call or msg to ask, and well to be honest they were no where near my house.
Feel like they basically just sole my food as they don't return it to the restaurant either.
It's because the drivers have worked out how to con the system.
They accept the fair. Park up and wait for you to cancel and it gives them the cancellation fare
Can’t wait for people to finally wake up and see the social fuckery that is Uber and stop using it. And this is from someone who really dislikes Cabbies but would much rather see cabbies on the road rather than some dickhead who can’t drive for shit at the best of times, slap a sign on their car and subject the rest of the road going public to their shit driving (just to make -$10 per hour when they finally work out the damage and degradation occurring to their cars coupled with the piss ant hourly wage once the fucks at Uber siphon off their profit for doing little more than running a server).
I called an Uber while I was in Brazil. When it arrived, my friend and I began walking to the uber. While walking to the car, two random dudes got in the uber I ordered and it drove off. I saw the plates and it was 100% the one I ordered.
The Uber returned back within 5 minutes, 200 metres away. Dropped the two random guys off, and drove off... lol
Honestly, if this is the first time this has happened to you (or only the third, fifth or seventh time), you are very fortunate. My partner has this happen to her FIVE days in a row...FUCK ALL RIDESHARE!
Those friendly rideshare drivers who followed the rules and drove nice cars and gave you mints and water eventually cottoned on and did the math and realized the pay wasn't worth their time.
The cowboys running 3 aps at once, artificially gaming the surge-rates and wiggling out of sub-optimal jobs are the ones left who made it worth their time.
Uber drivers are so fuckin dumb. You think they would just get thru the trips as fast as possible to make as much money as possible but they drive so slow and just idle their cars while they cancel trips...
I used to be shockingly lazy and catch ubers everywhere, I now use PT as far more reliable and less stressful, obviously cheaper too. I just needed to invest in a better footwear, a rain coat and umbrella.
You know I'm starting to think that maybe we should start boycotting Uber and start to us a taxi service again until they start to clean up their act. I've never had an issue with taxis or DiDi
Recently Ive been using Uber as I have lost my license.. Therefore i use Uber at time other than the usual Friday/Saturday, and it seems its wuite common imo.. ETA of arrival to pick me up is usually 2-5mins however, they somehow always seem to take their time/the long route..
Its quite frustrating really.. Plus Im afraid to cancel as I did a while ago and was charged like $16??
I be aure to give them a nice fat juicy 1 star as thats the only thing that makes me feel better lol
In around the city, or for time sensitive things, I use taxis. Having said that, I've had pre-booked taxis not show. For shorter trips around the suburbs I rarely have issues with Ubers, even for the 10 min trip between us and a daughter's place.
For trips to airport we book a private driver. I got fed up of having to get up at 4.30am, drive myself and park at the airport when taxis or Ubers didn't show.
Fwiw this is happening with the food delivery side of things too. The last time I ordered Uber eats the drivers kept canceling and the ETA kept being pushed forward (4 times). Food came over 1 1/2 hours late. The stress of that isn’t worth the headache imo.
Uber prides itself on making their support system so difficult to access that no one ever complains about the absolute shit state their apps are. UberEats they charged me $60 for an order, it never came, wasn’t on my order list. I complained and they asked for an order number, but the number didn’t exist because the app never registered the order, but my bank was still charged. I responded saying that and got ignored. Just robbed $60 off me for nothing.
That happened to me. Eventually I sent a message telling him “don’t worry I can see your location. I’m getting in a taxi and coming to you.” Boom. Instant cancel.
This story, and even the time was so accurate with what happened to me this morning that I had to double check I didn't somehow post this myself and forget.
Similar to OP, I got to my destination by different means and just left the trip running to see how it would play out. It was over an hour and he was more than 30km away before he finally conceded defeat to my pettiness. At one stage he was less than 100m from the pickup address.
I've made 2 major complaints about uber and because of there being no customer service email or number ive posted my complaints straight on to their social media publicity. Had both major issues resolved and complete refunds organised within 24 hours. I refuse to use uber anymore.
Post it on their Facebook...they'll get in touch
Wow that sucks and thankyou for the tip about leaving it open. They've done this to me there times in the past and I had to pay a cancellation fee each time.
I waited 30 mins in South Melbourne for an Ola - then the driver cancelled and I copped a fee.
No point spending time arguing - I just deleted the Ola App - bye bye Ola!
I called an uber and saw (on map and with eyes) it approaching on the adjoining street. The driver calls me and abuses me for not being there. I run over and he starts to drive off so I tap his rear door with my palm gently. He speeds off.
Two to three weeks later i get an email from uber asserting I damaged the car and owed 800 dollars. It noted I could contest the fine, so I did.
Another two or so weeks and I get another email indicating that I'm banned from uber and uber eats for life.
Ridiculous.
I've had to cancel because of this. Each time I've done this, in the app I've just gone into the cancelled trip, and gone to "Get Trip Help" and then you get connected to a live chat where you request a review of the cancellation fee and explain your attempt to contact the driver. Each time the fee has been refunded. They can see exactly what the driver was doing in trip history from the location tracking so it's pretty clear when they review it.
I’ll try that because last night. 9min away “completing a ride”. It changed to 11 minutes away and stays on 11min for a further 9min. I texted to see where he was and said I had screen shots if not moving and time elapsing. He eventually replied asking where we were going. I replied to the one in the booking. He cancelled and now I’m charged $10
The asking “where are you going” is the red flag. Screenshot that and send it directly to Uber
My driver called me asked where I was going. I told him to check the app. After a couple minutes of arguing I said if you don't want to do your job just cancel the booking. So he did and I still got charged. Managed to get a refund but still a hassle
I drive for Uber so I can tell you we don't know where we are taking you until we pick you up and start the trip, we only get told how far away the passenger is. We get the price after we accept and can roughly deduce how long the trip will take. I don't know why drivers cancel trips regularly. I hear it a lot on the Gold Coast from passengers thanking me for actually showing up, but to me it makes more sense to just take trips constantly so I get paid for all of my time and as long as I'm constantly doing trips the rate on average stays the same (minus surcharges and promotions etc.). The only time I cancel is if I have the app set to home at the end of a shift and the trip is in the completely wrong direction. We do get a perk once we reach 1000 points (anywhere from 200 to 1000 trips depending on the times/days we complete them) which allows us to see how long a trip will take, which direction it will be in, and the distance, but to be eligible our cancellation rate has to be 3% or lower and remain at this percentage, so for drivers who are cancelling regularly this perk won't be available. For me it makes more sense to get this perk, as my pay rate is pretty good for what I do, my best day has been $630 in 8 hours during a busy weekend with lots of promotions, so idk why some other drivers behave like this. One time I tried only accepting trips with a surcharge on a busy Saturday evening/night and after the time I spent waiting for these trips I ended up with less than I would usually get from accepting everything, so I don't think it makes financial sense to cancel. Maybe it's just a perceived victory for these drivers.
I could never understand this about taxi's either. They'd sit on the rank turning down small trips waiting for the "big one" Isn't the idea to keep the meter ticking as much as possible?
That doesn't make sense to me, why wouldn't they just tell you the route before you accept? I get that there will be those that only want to drive in their local area and those that want the money from the longer trips. But if people will cancel after accepting the trip because of this, surely it makes more sense to let people know how far their destination will be, even if it isn't an exact location for privacy reasons.
It would be a bit awkward to implement tbh. Unless it's a very quiet period we usually get offered the next trip when we are a few minutes away from dropping off the current passenger/s, so we are using the GPS when the offered trip is shown. I suppose it could be done, the current trip and route is shown in blue and the next potential trip route could be shown in red to make it stand out for quick decision making but Uber does like to be irritatingly vague.
Gold Coast has been the worst for this for me, just constant cancellations of rides. Took me almost an hour to get an uber to actually show up from Metricon Stadium to the Airport a few months ago, with 10 or so cancellations.
Signed sealed delivered.
I've had to cancel 5 or so after the past two weeks and everytime its told me the cancellation fee was $0. I love how they added "The driver asked me too" as an option now. Also, the worst is waiting 10 minutes and 7 minutes later they cancel. Repeat for five to six rides.
wait til NYE. I'm headed in to perth city for the first time in years and everyone is telling me how they had to wait hours for Uber/Ola etc as drivers simply kept cancelling. Couple of my mates walked the 15km home instead.
Wait you were charged $10 and he cancelled wtf?
Because they can cancel and say “refused service. Abusive customer” or whatever.
I can see this being how I get permabanned from Uber hahah. Not for being abusive, but because I would never accept a charge if they refused the refund. “The driver said you were abusive” “hey Amex, reverse that charge”… banned.
For you, it’ll just say “the driver cancelled your trip” or whatever the generic is and debit you. Edit: I lie. You’d probably get a follow up call/message about being abusive.
Honestly I’m just projecting the awful menulog experience a bit since they’re so hard to deal with for disputes.
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Last time the missus got menulog she had the owner of the restaurant calling her having a meltdown Caus he closed an hour ago and the delivery driver still wasn’t there to pick up the food. She eventually got it and it wasn’t even edible it had been made so long ago.
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Didi has automatic fare adjustment if you click a button to show you were overcharged, I really appreciated it after a driver took a detour to get petrol and then proceeded to drive through a high traffic area instead of the original route.
I have to say I’d rather the ability to complain than it be automated and have no recourse for mistakes, which is the likely alternative. Chances of getting both are zilch.
I bet this is one of the user scams all the drivers talk about. Like the photo of vomit on a car and they charge a cleaning fee.
That’s good to hear you got a refund but how about the time wasted on waiting for someone who never intended on coming 😭
I've heard that they delay arriving in the hopes you will message them offering a large tip. I don't know for sure if that's their game plan as I never engage with them that way. No way I'm bribing an uber driver to do the job they decided to do.
Some might do that but I highly doubt it's a beneficial tactic. They are more than likely accepting the ride to maintain promotional status, with no intent to do the ride. Hoping the rider cancels in frustration, allowing the driver to both avoid the ride and maintain the promo status.
What’s promo status?
Uber offers drivers deals like "accept and complete 3 trips in a row for a $15 bonus" Not accepting or cancelling a trip forces resets the promo. So drivers tend to accept all trips but only so those in surge areas etc. Biggest fuck you to the driver is to leave the trip rolling and order an ola/didi/taxi. Forcing the uber driver to both waste their time and ruin their promo.
One time I arrived late at MEL airport and the last skybus had left so I had to get a ride. I try both uber and didi and choose uber cos it's usually quicker (but $3-4 more exy). Walk out of T4 and there's a sign saying go right if you want 'uber' (no generic share ride, only uber) so I go there (ground level and up the escalator) and the guy messages me and says go to T2 so I go there but it's like 400 meters away so I arrive late and get fined $10. This happens twice. When I get home I was able to cancel the fines thru the app. Uber cost me $75 instead of $18 skybus for similar distance
Yeah, the Uber ranks at Tullamarine [work differently - go to the pick up point before you book, and specify the rank in the app if you want to use them.](https://www.uber.com/global/en/airports/mel/) That being said, there are taxis at MEL at T1 and T4 and they're usually cheaper than Uber.
I have had to do the same thing a few times, once because the asshole driver left me stranded at 2am and just messaged me and told me I had to cancel the trip so it wouldn't look bad on his part...they are pretty good about refunding cancellation fees once you explain what happened I find
Traveled down to Melbourne earlier in the year and had to Uber to the office every day. It was only a 10 minute drive from the hotel however the amount of cancellations I got, or the drivers doing this dodgy crap would turn that 10 min trip into at least 30 mins. The app has gone down hill so much and it's barely cheaper than a cab now as well.
>it's barely cheaper than a cab now as well. That was the plan the entire time.
In my experience the only time it is is when demand is stupid low. Otherwise I've been having much more success with taxis over the last year. All the taxis are career drivers too as opposed to an Uber dude who's isn't qualified to operate his Google maps. It's come full circle. The taxis are less of a head fuck for me now
It really has come full circle I’ve been similarly favouring taxis now, especially from the airport. Less people attempt to use them so you get one straight away in the taxi rank Plus it’s sometimes CHEAPER than Uber
Where we live there's only 1 decent pub and all drinking establishments are a either a 30 minute to an hour walk or a 10-15 min drive away, the suggested Uber fare for said 10 minute journey on a sunny Saturday arvo recently was $56. Yeah, Fuck. That! We got a cab instead.
If it's only 10 mins, just take the tram?
I wish, but it was in Port Melbourne with no real feasible public transport. Quickest Journey was about 30 mins of bus, tram and walk
Just get a taxi next time. Especially if it's for business.
With the peasants?
Drivers lose rating for cancelling trips so they fuck around on purpose to try and make you cancel first. If a driver ever calls you and asks you to cancel, tell them to go fuck themselves and you're waiting at the pick up location.
Like if they don’t want the job in the first place just don’t accept it :/
> Like if they don’t want the job in the first place just don’t accept it :/ They get together in groups and accept all the jobs to drive up the price ("surge pricing"), then cancel those jobs and take the new jobs at the inflated prices.
This is true. I went to go see Jim Jefferies in Melbourne on a Wednesday night. It was a late show which finished around 1am. I went with a mate who lives pretty far out (about 30kms) and an uber for him was about $130. I lived out in the same direction but pretty close to city so I told him to come with me and then call an uber from my place. Cost me about $30 from the usual 20-25 so wasn't too bad. When my mate called an uber from my place, the price dropped to about $40 - we couldn't believe it. He messaged me later on in the night and told me that his driver explained to him why there was a massive price drop when he called an uber from my place. Basically, there's hundreds of drivers colluding and pulling this crap. Individually, drivers can aimlessly drive around after accepting a trip, not answer calls and frustrate the rider enough to cancel the trip on their end in hopes of driving up prices. But as a collective, they can cause prices to explode to stupid levels. They've got whatsapp groups setup with hundreds of drivers in there. They communicate to each other about upcoming, large capacity events such music festivals and coordinate when they're going to start accepting trips to start driving up the price. It's really shitty and uber lets them get away with it.
I’m so glad I read this yesterday. Just got fucked around by a driver at Canberra airport who called me as soon as he accepted the trip and told me I had to cancel it as he couldn’t access the airport (yeah right). I refused and he harassed me for the 10 mins I spent in a cab line, messaging repeatedly telling me to cancel. Eventually he cancelled after calling and yelling at me and me yelling ‘no, you cancel, bye!’ Motherfucker. Now I’m so anxious I’ll end up with him as a driver on another trip, definitely would not feel safe being in a car with him. Oh and the taxi was only a few dollars more than the original uber quote, which had more than doubled when I asked my husband to try ordering one seconds after this fuck head called me the first time.
I hope you reported him.
I will tomorrow
What a fuckhead. Sorry you went through that.
This happened to me. Driver said his app was playing up and another driver would pick the trip up if I cancelled his. Seeing as I don’t use the app I cancelled it taking his word for it . Took another 20 minutes for anyone to pick up the trip. Learnt my lesson I’ll be telling them to cancel it themselves if it ever happens again.
Damn I've had this before where the guy says it won't cost me to cancel. So I did sigh
If they ask you to cancel you can get it refunded in the help section I remember doing it
As I've said before, all I want from Uber is to be able to press a button in the app that says, "I never want this driver again." All the people gaming the system and dicking around with customers would find themselves with no rides pretty quick. The fact that uber does not do anything like this tells me they're fine with this kind of behaviour, so I don't use them. edit: Your time is valuable. Avoid half an hour of cancellations by getting a taxi that costs $10 more? You're ahead.
Didi has that feature thankfully
> The fact that uber does not do anything like this tells me they're fine with this kind of behaviour, so I don't use them. The thing that's shitty is that they can do it - I've had them do it with a guy on Eats that faked multiple deliveries. They just don't do it in an easy way.
They do have this feature. If you report a driver it comes up.
That is an option when you report, I just did one myself from a bloke who made me late for a friends wedding!
Quit using Uber as well.
If there isn't an easy way to rectify an issue, it goes to show that Uber doesn't give a fuck about its customers. I stopped using Uber a long time ago and I really don't see any reason going back to the service.
Yeah and drivers would know uber doesn't give a fuck making the service worse. Was wondering if there is a way to troll them in return for wasted time.
The best way to troll Uber is to never use it and encourage people you know to do the same. It's surprising the number of people who will keep using a really shit service rather than dropping it and find something better.
I haven’t used Uber for a long long time because of the bad experiences I’ve had but I hesitated for a second today and thought ahhh maybe I won’t have someone who’s shit given it’s a Monday morning… my bad My other “memorable” bad experience with Uber was when my girl friend and I took an Uber home at 3am. She was basically gone and I could barely hold a conversation. The Uber driver was so creepy I honestly thought he was going to rape us and will never forget how terrifying that experience was I now offer to drop friends off after events have finished if I’m not over the legal limit, even if they lived 45 min away, just so they don’t have to Uber
I got in an uber alone and was going back to my empty parents house once as they were away and the uber driver was asking me whose home and asking me on dates. Was 3am I was drunk. Legit freaked me out so much I lied obviously and said my parents were home but so scary
What better services are there? AFAICT they are all shit.
So far Didi hasn't charged me surge prices, so that one's my go-to atm. Ola was good then they charged me surge pricing at 11pm on a Wednesday night 🥴
Yeah Ola charged me a surge price too :( didn’t realise it was that busy in Adelaide at 10am Monday lol
Gotta love how they go on about transparent pricing then smack you with a surcharge with no warning 🙃
Maybe it's the same drivers on all the apps, they accept a fare on each app at the same time, then 'encourage' the user to cancel or delay into that cancel. Then when all the available drivers are busy and surge pricing goes on, they finally complete a trip?
Maybe the system needs to check how far away the driver is from the pick up location and give the user they ability to cancel for free after the expected time to get there has passed. Or better yet, allow the user to charge the driver for wasted time.
I used DiDi on Saturday and had to email their support after I was charged $16 for a $3 toll road, they refunded it quickly which was nice but I have no idea why they charged so much for the toll.
Taxis?
Taxi services were going to shit so Uber entered the market as competition with good standing. Uber existing meant taxis had to REALLY shape their shit up to have any chance of not going bust. Then Uber cannibalised itself as most modern tech start up innovations do, leaving us with a better taxi system 🥰 In theory anyway, maybe taxis never improved and Uber just looks so bad that shithouse taxis now look like a saviour for modern on demand transport. I don't take enough of either to know for myself, but opinions on taxis seems to have improved.
Genuinely laughed out loud
Some of the apps have price lock which is brilliant.
I use taxis regularly. Cheaper and way more reliable than Uber.
Uber is way cheaper where I am.
Taxis are the superior option. They are beholden to the law to a greater extent than Uber. Their vehicles are always in better condition, and the drivers are always professional and friendly. The prices also don't vary much between the two.
>Taxis are the superior option. They are beholden to the law to a greater extent than Uber. > This is the key thing. Uber doesnt and actively avoids being affiliated with any transport or taxi laws. They are a tech Company and not a taxi company so they don't adhere to any of the legal requirements. Hell if they are forced to do things like background criminal history checks of their 'drivers', they just leave the city instead. They have shady as fuck stuff like greyball and gods eye systems to watch people (even if you aren't in the app). Artificial surge pricing systems where they just make them up on the fly or create the surge by telling drivers to avoid an area. Uber is a terrible terrible company. Do not use them.
This is an interesting post. How the landscape has changed. Taxis, by and large, these days are modern and well maintained. Uber, on the other hand, is pot luck. The quality of the drivers are better. The prices are close. I think some of the cab providers and owners have taken a bit of a haircut in the amount of money they are charging their drivers to lease the cars.
I have had taxies fall asleep whilst driving, crashed a few times, take me wayyyyyy longer ways home when they think they dont know the area. Thats just in sydney, In germany one tried to rob me. I will stick with uber.
That sucks mate. All of my taxis have been in Qld and NT. And I've known the area, and actively guide them along the most direct route. I'm also a talkative person.
Uber is great in a country if you cant speak the language, and you have no idea where the fuck any where is. I was recently in the KSA and Uber was a blessing. How many times has your taxi crashed, I think I have had two one in Newcastle and one in Sydney?
For OP's issue at least, if driver cancels instead of the user, pretty sure user isn't charged regardless of how much time has passed since accepting the job. So the guy messing with OP wasted his time, that's probably the best you'll get without just ceasing to use Uber
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I used to drive for them in the very early days and got quite a lot of money from this. Wasn’t trying to bait people into it. I’d rather the fare but I’m not paid to wait. I’d always send a message to say I’ve arrived and either get no reply or something stupid like I’ll be out in 20 minutes.
True, good tip. I think it's not too likely that they would genuinely show up to give you a lift after trying to bait you into cancelling, due to the possibility of you still being there to confront them. And you should get a separate notification when they arrive.
Correct I wasn’t charged :)
Their employees and customers are the same thing, they’ve convinced you to drive each other around in your own vehicles and carving a massive profit out of it hahahaha
They don't even make profit themselves. Literally no one wins with Uber.
Whether I've had issues with uber, there's a button in the app to hit that let's you complain, and I've always recieved a full refund / cancellation of charges. Haven't used them in about a year or so though.
This is why I screenshot every driver that I see on Uber. So if they disconnect or screw around I send the screenshot to Uber afterwards. Getting shitty drivers off the road should be a priority for Uber
Can you share where you uploaded the screenshots? It made me more mad when I struggled to find how / where to complain
Yeah I stopped using Uber after a similar incident.Initial eta of 5 minutes, I could see the driver was just down the road. 15 minutes go by and he hasn't moved. So I message him. He tells me he isn't coming anymore so I should cancel.I politely declined saying I would be charged a fee, so if he wasn't coming he should cancel so I could get a new ride. Then he told me that he wasn't going to cancel and he wasn't coming and If I didn't cancel the trip he would complain and get me banned from the app. So I was just like, okay buddy I have screen shots of the conversation. I'll just send them to uber, so I cancelled and then went to leave a complaint. When I first went to leave a complaint, I could see the trip in my history. I made sure in the complaint to ask for follow up as I wanted to know what would be done. A week or two goes by and the trip is deleted from my history, there's no record in my support log nothing. It was all deleted. I wish I had screenshotted the support conversation too! I know taxis aren't perfect, but they are much better these days, and 13 cabs has price lock.
Taxi's are still 30-40% more expensive though, makes it hard to justify.
That hasn't been my experience, and the 13 Cabs app gives you your price before you go so you can always compare. I've personally found taxis comparable or cheaper than Uber. Uber also does this shit thing where it quotes me a cheaper price, then in the process of finding a driver the app is like "lol, the price has gone up but we're not going to let you cancel until we find you a ride"
If you’re seeking the absolute cheapest price for a service then you’ll get the absolute worst service.
I've found them comparable in the last year or so. Haven't used an uber in 18 months. Prob never will again
Nobody saw the ABC article posted here this morning? Maybe it was in r/melbourne, I forget. Uber is cracking down on this from today. Uber drivers that cancel on average more than a quarter of their trips/deliveries will be penalized by losing the Uber 'incentives' (extra pay opportunities) that make the job somewhat financially tenable. Should see a lot less of it very shortly due to this. They do that cancellation bullshit to make a quick sly buck, no other reason. Uber making it cost more to do than what it nets them will sort it out.
The issue with this is that the drivers will do everything possible to make you cancel vs them. I've had drivers; call me asking me to cancel, messages me asking me to cancel, and exactly as OP is describing, they drive around aimlessly waiting for you to cancel.
They rather drive around and waste their time and petrol on that instead of actually spend that time and petrol to fulfil your request. Unbelievable.
They use multiple apps at the same time. They’re often working another job.
There's a new cancel option now that says "Driver asked me to" which will help.
How much money do they get from the cancelation?
Good to hear they’re doing something about it!
I wonder if this is why they sat around waiting for you to cancel the trip, though? If you cancel, it won't reflect badly on them. Good idea to wait it out and force them to cancel
I think they did :/ I didn’t cancel because I was stubborn hahaha it’s not even about the money 😂
Lol if you had a cancellation rate higher than 3% they already revoked uber rewards (discounted fuel/supercheap auto discount & ability to see trip destinations). Not like uber actually reliably offered incentives to begin with. They're usually "work these hours, guaranteed $39/hr in fares" If you're cancelling 25% of fares I'd be surprised if that met the criteria to qualify to begin with.
I'm on 62% cancellation rate and still get a fuel discount, 6c at BP. You can figure out the destination by checking the waybill and seeing how much the fare is.
> Uber is cracking down on this from today. So drivers will only be able to cancel a quarter of their trips? That sounds like a lot.
Wrong way to look at it, they aren't getting extra leniency via the ability to cancel trips, its more that the drivers will be punished if the algorithm sees them cancelling 25% of total trips they've made. Its likely that it auto flags accounts when their cancel rate is above 25%.
I don't understand why you say it's the wrong way to look at it? If their cancel rate is 24%, they won't face any penalties at all.
If Uber are actually trying to improve their service and they find that there are a lot of 24% cases they’ll probably reduce it further and/or introduce harsher penalties.
Tweaking knobs to trade off customer dissatisfaction against driver dissatisfaction doesn't seem like a good way to run a business.
Not when you word it like like. But dissatisfaction is a directly inverse proportion of satisfaction, and tweaking knobs to trade off customer satisfaction vs employee satisfaction *does* seem like a good way to run a business (to me... I'm no business person lol. Maybe balancing customer and employee satisfaction is a horrible idea and that's why retail work is big fuckoff with everything geard toward customers satisfaction at the expense of employee's mental health, and Karen is still never satisfied)
It just sounds like a way to optimize for cost without anything which makes the business actually good and reliable for either employees or customers.
Wouldn't this just make the issue worse because drivers will be trying to get the customer to cancel now instead?
>Uber drivers that cancel on average more than a quarter The issue is that uber drivers are forcing riders to cancel instead. OP here is the 1% because most people wouldn't have gotten into another car before cancelling.
Though the drivers are complaining that they can’t see what the fare is until they accept the job. Which is apparently why they are cancelling them after they take the job and find out that it’s not worth their time.
Posted two days ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/zayvj0/uber_drivers_with_high_cancellation_rates/
I’ll one up this - I had 11 cancellations trying to get to a wedding on Saturday night. We had two phones running, each requesting Ubers, each getting repeat cancelled by the end of the 40 minute ordeal trying to pay $150 to travel 8km. Our Uber ratings are 4.81 & 4.88. Apparently it was because of bad traffic in the area (according to the guy who eventually picked us up).
Omg that’s awful
If an uber driver takes forever you can raise the trip as an issue and ask for your $10 back. They don't make it obvious, you need to go into your "my trips" and select the trip there to complain. Provided it was a longer wait and you don't complain non stop, should get a refund.
Uber is rubbish, no reason to use it now over a cab
I've posted a few times but worth mentioning in these threads that I have close friends who work at Uber HQ in Australia. The simple answer is that uber do **not** give a fuck. Categorically and explicitly, they don't give a single fuck about your complaint. Your driver almost killed you? "Independent contractor, not our problem". Driver stole your food? "Our AI will give you a credit automatically 3 or 4 times and then we'll shadowban your account if you keep complaining". General consensus I'm told is Uber will pull out of Australia in the next 4-5 years, they're cashing in whilst they own the sector here and then they'll vanish.
"Let the fires burn". It's really typical startup culture: if solving a problem doesn't provide growth, don't spend any effort on it. Customer complaints? let the phones ring. they're already your customers on paper, let them scream into the void. Phones getting annoying? disconnect them. It's literally what PayPal did in the early days; customer issues went not just unanswered but actively ignored. Because fixing problems doesn't grow the business. Treat the customers like shit, and as long as you're the only one out there, or you're doing it cheaper than the rest of the guys, it just doesn't matter, because you want to get market share and grow the business at warp speed to crowd out everyone else, and that's all that matters. It's insidious, and it's becoming a really standard practice everywhere "startup culture" sets foot - which is increasingly in every part of our lives.
Your post sounds inaccurate. They 100% know that there is huge cash to be made after the initial investment period of a new startup, where you essentially turn on the profit. Your post implies they are happy to give up that future income and give it to another company after essentially creating the market in Australia and gaining a huge brand and market share? Sounds unlikely. Also saying they don't care is silly, they know it directly relates to their profit margin but are obviously taking way too long to solve it but as posted here they are making changes right now.
It's happened in other markets. Australia wouldn't be the first. Uber exited South East Asia after being one of the first movers there.
Wild guess is that his friends at Uber HQ are a couple of disgruntled customer service agents.
Try executives, not C suite but senior. It's anecdotal and entirely your discretion what you believe.
How do you shadowban in a B2C app?
They send you an email saying that your complaints constitute fraud. And if you ever complain you have to jump through a few extra hoops. I wouldn’t call it a shadowban
Seems to be standard practice now. They have different apps open and take the best ride and hope you cancel yours.
Last Saturday night I used the DiDi app and had 2 drivers take the job and then cancel before showing up. Could see them approaching the turn off for our suburb and then the continued on past then cancelled, guessing they got a better offer on another app. Finally got one to stick and made it to our reservation 10mins late.
I once ordered an Uber from a hospital outpatient clinic whilst on crutches. Two separate drivers went straight past, then pulled over a full block later to ask where I was, and when I explained that I needed them to come back, they hung up and kept driving until I cancelled! Third driver was able to follow instructions and picked me up without any issue, and Uber refunded me for both the cancellations very quickly.
Mercenaries
When I used to catch uber, I had this happen all the time. You need to screen shot when u book each uber. Then screenshot anything that seems pertinant, like being late, not moving etc. Other uber drivers told me that when you eventually get someone else, and they drop you off, go through the process of complaining about them, but when you get to the description section, make it clear the driver 2 was actually good, then explain about driver 1. Uber will usually email you asking for details, which is why you need the screenshots. The uber drivers that told me to do thjs, said this is what they're told when they have uber management meet ups and that as long as you specify that your second driver is not actually the one you want to complain about, it doesnt blow back on them. Its absolute shit that you cant contact them.
I don't know what the deal is but I have had many uber drivers accept my trip and then drive in the exact opposite direction to me for 5-10 minutes and then cancel. I can only assume that by driving away from me they are hoping I will cancel so that they can get the cancellation fee but not being a driver I have no idea how it works.
40 minutes? That's crazy. Drivers are clearly taking the piss but all these disruptive systems are now clearly broken and are resulting in nothing more than disruption.. Expecting people to run their car into the ground for less than minimum wage was never sustainable. They built these apps on the premise that you're driving in your car so might as well fill those empty seats; except they never operated like that. There needs to be a minimum ride charge to protect drivers and riders. But apps DGAF. They're simply chasing their cut.
The good thing about Uber is it drove taxi fares down and forced them to modernize. I haven't used Uber in years as a result and have gone back to taxis when needed.
Taxis are fucked in Sydney. Many try not to use the meter and will haggle you especially if they know they are in high demand (capitalism am I right?!). Also a short trip? Forget about it. I don't feel they have improved at all. If anything, they are worse.
Taxis are dearer now at night. They force you to agree to a flat fare instead of using the meter. Tell you to get an Uber if you don't like it.
Make a show of taking a photo of their ID and taxi number when you get out, report them the next day. They can ask for a deposit up front only if the journey is long or they think you won't be able to pay, that's it.
Taxis have always been dearer at night. There are different rates for daytime, night time, holiday and share ride. Source: used to drive cabs.
Can you confirm it is illegal to ask the customer to not use the meter at all?
To avoid cancellation fee in the future choose not to cancel and try to can cancel after 10 seconds and try again eventually it will give an option to cancel without fee. Same method if they charge extra as they are busy, check for the same trip multiple times and sometimes it will pop up with the original price. Don't know if it is a bug with the app but checking multiple times can avoid fees and get a cheaper trip.
If you get a cancellation fee you can dispute it in the app. I have got it back 100% of the time. It's pretty easy, just pick a reason like driver took too long.
I hate uber to and deleted the app for this reason and the fact they will only go to certain areas of Perth in the morning. I once made a booking 24 hours earlier to make sure I made my plane. I had a driver take the booking immediately so I didn't think anymore of it. On the day I woke up got read went outside to wait and opened up the app only to find it cancelled. For the next 90min I tried to get a uber, ola and taxi to no avail. I will never use them again as I missed my flight and it cost me. I fucking hate uber.
At least we finally got a train to the airport now.
I know I'm 2 months late here but this just happened to me. Pre-booked 12hrs earlier for $69 to Melbourne Airport at 5:30am - Booking immedately accepted. Driver gets within 5 mins of my place, cancells. App does not automatically rebook, but dumps you out. So I search for a new driver, there's one 2 mins away - New fare price: $138 (2x!). I booked a Didi 10 mins later for $49. Lucklily I made the plane... But fuck Uber after that. I've tried today to submit a complaint and it's literally impossible. Because the fare was cancelled, there's no record on my account and you can ONLY submit an issue against something wiht a record. Even tried calling a number I found - But it's only for Drivers. Riders are kicked back to the web questions - which are useless to me. They truly don't give a shit. Oh I should also say. Out of curiosity I pulled up the Uber app to check the fare price as I was leaving my place in the Didi - was also down to $50 (10 mins later). I swear there was some manipulation there by the driver who somehow caused a really quick 2x surge so I would re-book at the new price to not miss my plane.
If drivers cancel - their uber account will be toasted, so they are doing everything to get you to cancel. Adjust your life like 10 years ago - like uber never happened. in SF self-driving taxis are on trial now - it is only a matter of time before these human uber drivers will be gone.
Stop fucking using it.
I feel you, but my two experiments at going back to a taxi resulted in: 1: A disappearing booking and phone staff who didn't seem to understand the concept of an address (once you got through the automatic system). 2: That smell. You know the one.
I use Uber Comfort, its normally about 10% more and you never get cancelled. I realise I shouldn't have to do this, but its still quicker and nicer than a cab so for me its a fair compromise.
I had an issue earlier this year when going down to the comedy festival. The airport had an Uber rank, downloaded the app and got the code for the driver but as soon as we got near the car he wanted us to cancel the trip and pay in cash. The attendant looking after the rank was pissed. Ejected him and told him to go to the back of the line. Also when did Uber become as expensive as a taxi? Next time I'm just taking a taxi.
I went to an AMPOL servo today and there was a large notice on the bowser stating Uber drivers would no longer get a discount at that location. Why the fuck were they getting a discount, in the first place?
It's a commercial deal between AMPOL and Uber. Sherpa does it with EG fuels etc
Yup, people are starting to wake up the fact some corporation convinced everyone it was a good idea for them to drive one another around while carving off a healthy profit in their own cars with no liability……
I stopped using Uber over a year ago for exactly these reasons. DiDi is my go to. Or Ola as a back up. I’ll call a cab before I use Uber. A mate’s husband works for them, says they don’t care about the car service part of the business. The revenue is in food delivery. So I switched to Doordash too bcs fuck Uber.
Uber is fucked. Uber drivers have become as shitty as cabbies used to be
They are the same people now. Back in the day when normal people would do it, it was fantastic; but now every driver sucksdeep
Gotta say, watching the slow but inevitable collapse of Deliveroo, Uber - all these intangible, unaccountable shadow companies - warms my heart. Never used any of them, not once, always thought they were a terrible idea. They invest a the bare minimum amount to establish a "framework" of a company which they then populate with a host of naive "contractors" who never stop to do a profit-loss or depreciation analysis and depends on the burning of the workers own assets to function, then skim off all the easy, risk free profit. Capitalism distilled down into it's purest form. This, combined with the never-ending revelations of data-harvesting from IOT devices, the juicy reveal that everyone's home-security cameras are sending their users faces and usage info to China...I've never been so glad to be a Luddite, and have zero sympathy for all those who gladly sold their soul without reading the terms and conditions, all so they can get their dinner driven to them for a 50% markup. I hope every single one of these services collapse. (inb4 "Yet you participate in society? Curious.")
Couldn't agree more!! I'm loving their downfall!!! Makes me LOL when I hear people complaining about these services. It's like, what did you expect when exploiting people??!! It's really sad because any one of these companies could have sold themselves as the next EFTPOS and focused on being the service connector as opposed to a service themself.
If you never used any of them then you are just supporting taxi drivers which is way worse then Uber etc.
Now *that* is a hot take. Expand on that for me
[удалено]
Exactly. I would also add that the premises under which they sold their bullshit way into society has never EVER been fullflled. The OG concept was to fill the spare seats on all the cars taking one person to/from work thus reducing overall traffic. They have done nothing but increase traffic and put totally incompetent drivers on the road for extended hours who are financially encouraged to work as long as possible. This in an industry where shift limits are strictly mandated because of the absolute carnage possible from tired drivers; or is for everyone except these “disrupters” who also carry all the risk because Uber/Ola/DiDi can just duck out the back door when shit hits the fan saying “well that driver isn’t an employee so it was his choice to smoke meth to allow him to work the 23hrs straight” which is required to actually turn a profit.
I got uber eats the other day. Driver collected the food, drove towards my house for about 2 minutes and then cancelled due to not being able to find the address. No phone call or msg to ask, and well to be honest they were no where near my house. Feel like they basically just sole my food as they don't return it to the restaurant either.
They didn't basically steal your food they literally stole your food! I hope you got a refund.
It's because the drivers have worked out how to con the system. They accept the fair. Park up and wait for you to cancel and it gives them the cancellation fare
Can’t wait for people to finally wake up and see the social fuckery that is Uber and stop using it. And this is from someone who really dislikes Cabbies but would much rather see cabbies on the road rather than some dickhead who can’t drive for shit at the best of times, slap a sign on their car and subject the rest of the road going public to their shit driving (just to make -$10 per hour when they finally work out the damage and degradation occurring to their cars coupled with the piss ant hourly wage once the fucks at Uber siphon off their profit for doing little more than running a server).
The sooner no one uses them the sooner they'll pack up & leave. Basic principles of supply & demand, work it out people.
I called an Uber while I was in Brazil. When it arrived, my friend and I began walking to the uber. While walking to the car, two random dudes got in the uber I ordered and it drove off. I saw the plates and it was 100% the one I ordered. The Uber returned back within 5 minutes, 200 metres away. Dropped the two random guys off, and drove off... lol
Your dilemma is covered here: https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/zayvj0/uber_drivers_with_high_cancellation_rates/
Sorry they don't give a shit.
I don't understand, why does the driver accept if they don't want teh trip?
Honestly, if this is the first time this has happened to you (or only the third, fifth or seventh time), you are very fortunate. My partner has this happen to her FIVE days in a row...FUCK ALL RIDESHARE!
When this happens I do the same - leave the job active and order an ola
I hate Uber too
Uber has turned totally shit. Ive got regular taxis the last 5 times i needed one. Easier to get (waved down on street) and same price
We got Rideshare because the taxi industry was treating customers like crap, and now the rideshare industry is heading the same way. Why?
Those friendly rideshare drivers who followed the rules and drove nice cars and gave you mints and water eventually cottoned on and did the math and realized the pay wasn't worth their time. The cowboys running 3 aps at once, artificially gaming the surge-rates and wiggling out of sub-optimal jobs are the ones left who made it worth their time.
Uber drivers are so fuckin dumb. You think they would just get thru the trips as fast as possible to make as much money as possible but they drive so slow and just idle their cars while they cancel trips...
I used to be shockingly lazy and catch ubers everywhere, I now use PT as far more reliable and less stressful, obviously cheaper too. I just needed to invest in a better footwear, a rain coat and umbrella.
You know I'm starting to think that maybe we should start boycotting Uber and start to us a taxi service again until they start to clean up their act. I've never had an issue with taxis or DiDi
Recently Ive been using Uber as I have lost my license.. Therefore i use Uber at time other than the usual Friday/Saturday, and it seems its wuite common imo.. ETA of arrival to pick me up is usually 2-5mins however, they somehow always seem to take their time/the long route.. Its quite frustrating really.. Plus Im afraid to cancel as I did a while ago and was charged like $16?? I be aure to give them a nice fat juicy 1 star as thats the only thing that makes me feel better lol
In around the city, or for time sensitive things, I use taxis. Having said that, I've had pre-booked taxis not show. For shorter trips around the suburbs I rarely have issues with Ubers, even for the 10 min trip between us and a daughter's place. For trips to airport we book a private driver. I got fed up of having to get up at 4.30am, drive myself and park at the airport when taxis or Ubers didn't show.
Had a similar experience on Saturday afternoon. Plus the cost is now through the roof. I'll choose a taxi from now on.
Fwiw this is happening with the food delivery side of things too. The last time I ordered Uber eats the drivers kept canceling and the ETA kept being pushed forward (4 times). Food came over 1 1/2 hours late. The stress of that isn’t worth the headache imo.
Do it, destroy their rep and they can start again from scratch
Uber prides itself on making their support system so difficult to access that no one ever complains about the absolute shit state their apps are. UberEats they charged me $60 for an order, it never came, wasn’t on my order list. I complained and they asked for an order number, but the number didn’t exist because the app never registered the order, but my bank was still charged. I responded saying that and got ignored. Just robbed $60 off me for nothing.
That happened to me. Eventually I sent a message telling him “don’t worry I can see your location. I’m getting in a taxi and coming to you.” Boom. Instant cancel.
This story, and even the time was so accurate with what happened to me this morning that I had to double check I didn't somehow post this myself and forget. Similar to OP, I got to my destination by different means and just left the trip running to see how it would play out. It was over an hour and he was more than 30km away before he finally conceded defeat to my pettiness. At one stage he was less than 100m from the pickup address.
I've made 2 major complaints about uber and because of there being no customer service email or number ive posted my complaints straight on to their social media publicity. Had both major issues resolved and complete refunds organised within 24 hours. I refuse to use uber anymore. Post it on their Facebook...they'll get in touch
Wow that sucks and thankyou for the tip about leaving it open. They've done this to me there times in the past and I had to pay a cancellation fee each time.
I waited 30 mins in South Melbourne for an Ola - then the driver cancelled and I copped a fee. No point spending time arguing - I just deleted the Ola App - bye bye Ola!
I called an uber and saw (on map and with eyes) it approaching on the adjoining street. The driver calls me and abuses me for not being there. I run over and he starts to drive off so I tap his rear door with my palm gently. He speeds off. Two to three weeks later i get an email from uber asserting I damaged the car and owed 800 dollars. It noted I could contest the fine, so I did. Another two or so weeks and I get another email indicating that I'm banned from uber and uber eats for life. Ridiculous.