As I briefly mentioned in my previous post about using Lyft at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, I had a bad experience with my driver on the way back to the airport.
It started as soon as I got in the car. A woman was crossing the street in front of us and the driver kept talking about how he couldn’t wait to check out her ass. Sadly for him (I guess), she had a jacket that was long enough to cover her backside. Then I got to hear about all of the wonderful sexual harassment he yelled out to the female pedestrians of Las Vegas.
I have two young girls and a wife who I admire for not taking any crap like this. And in almost any other situation I would have immediately called the guy on being a pig. But, when you’re a passenger in a stranger’s car, it’s hard to know what to do or how they’ll respond.
Our next fun adventure was when he decided to race a cab driver who was two lanes over. The cab driver was unaware we were in a race. But, that didn’t stop my Lyft driver from weaving in traffic and driving at unsafe speeds.
Just as my driver decided he’d won said race, he started telling me about his plans for the day. He was apparently really looking forward to getting high before picking up his next fare. That’s not the most reassuring thing to hear from a guy who was just racing through traffic.
Thankfully we made it to the airport and I was very happy the short ride (less than 7 minutes) ended safely.
While I don’t use drugs, I don’t care how people choose to spend their spare time. If getting high is fun for you, that is fine with me. But, if you endanger others when using that goes way beyond acceptable behavior in my book.
One of the best features of ridesharing apps is the fact they reduce the number of impaired drivers on the road. So, the last thing you expect or want from your Lyft or Uber driver is for them to be more messed up than you are.
It seems Lyft agrees. They advertise a zero-tolerance policy for drug and alcohol use on their website.
So in addition to giving the driver the lowest rating possible, I reported the experience to Lyft. I finally received a response today.
Follow-Up from Lyft Trust & Safety
Hi Michael,
I am following up on the incident that you reported regarding your ride on November 23, 2015. I am so sorry to hear about this experience, and I sincerely apologize for the delayed response.
This sort of behavior by a driver is something that we do not tolerate on the Lyft platform. Safety is our highest priority, and your feedback is something that we take very seriously. We want every Lyft experience to be a positive one, and we want you to be comfortable with every driver that picks you up.
I want to reassure you that the concerns you have brought to our attention have been investigated, and that we followed up with this driver upon creation of this report and took the appropriate and necessary actions. In the meantime, please know that you will not be paired with this particular driver again.
I have applied a ride grant for up to $25 onto your account as a small thank you for alerting us to this situation. This credit will be good for the next 60 days and you can check the status of your credits by going into the Payment section of the app.
Please let us know about any sort of behavior in the future, as your feedback is one of the best tools we have to continually improve the Lyft community.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. To ensure that I receive your response, please reply directly to this email.
While I’m sure the $25 credit is meant as a gesture of goodwill, I personally think it cheapens their response. I didn’t report this to get a free ride. I reported it because the guy shouldn’t be driving for them.
More concerning to me is this doesn’t make it clear whether the driver is still working with Lyft. Telling me I won’t be paired with him again still leaves open the possibility this guy is picking up other people. I’ve replied to Lyft asking for clarification of how they investigated this (i.e. a drug test) and what the driver’s status is with Lyft.
Given the incredible liability involved if this guy did something after being reported for his behavior, I can’t imagine Lyft would still let him work on their platform.
But, if they’ve ended their relationship with him, why wouldn’t they just come out and say that? I suppose there could be privacy concerns. But, as a passenger, I want to be reassured they really do take safety seriously.
After all, knowing my next ride will be safe is more important than knowing it will be free (up to $25).
I’m curious how you guys would have responded in this situation and what you think of Lyft’s response. Please let me know in the comments. And if I get any additional information from them, I’ll be sure to let you know.
Has anyone had an experience like this? What would you have done?
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