I’ve gotta say, I’ve been mighty tempted to do something similar, and I admire the dedication…
Continue reading: Busted: Uber Driver Confronted About Cancellation Scam
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Uber needs all the drivers it can get. It doesn't care if they're low quality.
To them supply creates demand and footprint, no matter how low quality of a service they offer.
Yet another reason why Waymo >>> Uber & Lyft.
Once they can go to SFO, I’m entirely done with human driven rides at home.
This has happened to me several times, usually at an airport. Uber needs to crack down on this bs.
Good for him. This has happened to me a few times. Frustrating.
Maybe cuz I'm old, but when did we change the definition of "finesse"? /s
Leaving in Europe I must say I don't understand this at all. In France or in the UK, Uber or Bolt wouldn't charge you for cancelling if the driver isn't moving. And if they accidentally did, you'd easily challenge this to Uber/Bolt
I hope you fall of the stairs tonight and break your back and get operated in surgery by a Latino transgender surgeon and assigned a black lesbian nurse to your ward
This is true about much of Asia too. If driver is not getting closer to the pickup radius or is not in the pickup radius, no matter how long it takes, there is no charge levied to the customer and the app will promptly give option to cancel for free or assign another driver
This happened several times to me a few years ago in Madrid. At one point the driver just kept going in the opposite direction. He messaged me something like "aren't you going to cancel?" And I wrote back: "I can wait all day ;)"
same in nyc; they've gotten smart and don't charge for cancels in this situation. i think this is maybe more of an issue in smaller markets?
Take Waymo to BART, then BART to SFO. BART still has a driver but you don’t have to interact with them unless you want to say thanks at SFO.
Love this guy!
Many of us have had this happen, so good on him to fight back.
Uber needs to find the driver and ban him.
You can, but unless there’s really heavy traffic on 101 only, and not in the City, it takes substantially longer.
They probably do it while taking a break, and use multiple apps at the same time (Grab + Lyft + whatever else is available locally) so they can earn maybe $20-30 in an hour, but drive normally for at least a few hours every day to not get banned.
Happens to me all the time in Miami (and this video also happened in Miami). I've had half of those drivers message me to cancel.
It also happens to me a lot at the airport in MIA. They will show up on the opposite level (departures if I'm on arrival, or the opposite) and they will click "arrived" on the app since it looks like they have on the app GPS. Then, you have 5 minutes to get in before Uber starts charging you. The driver won't message you or anything, so you don't know where they are and you can't see them either. Then they ask you to cancel. Or they will wait forever as you keep getting charged, and then they will cancel and you still have to pay for their time. Nowadays I know about this scam so if I don't see their car and they click arrived, I will run to the other floor and catch them. Often they will be visibly mad that I caught on. I get that they barely make money nowadays, but you can't go around scamming passengers because of that.
An idiot who think I post with more than one name.
It's a made up name on the internet. If someone using multiple made up name in a blog, you seriously need help.
Quality of Uber & Lyft drivers fall with ICE activities.
Sure a fraction of them might be criminals and rapists. But most of them are hard workers trying to earn a living rather than being lazy and rely on government printing you money so you can buy beer and video games on you 80 inch 4k tv that you can't afford to buy so you carry a balance and deal drugs to pay it off.
Happened in LAS. Driver waiting for us to cancel so he can get more with surge pricing. He didn’t move and just sat.
Uber needs some AI to read the messages back and forth and assess the situation. Shouldn't be tough to see what's going on here.
When this happens I book a ride through another rideshare (or taxi, or public transit) and let them wait and wait and wait until they cancel on their own.
Uber doesn't have to and won't do anything about it anymore.
Uber has grown from being a better and cheaper alternative of cab to a miserable cab company itself.
They need more drivers to keep the prices low, they suck up to drivers more than passengers. You are the product, drivers are the customer. Wake up.
Like other too big to fail tech companies, they infiltrated our lives so much we depend on it.
From everyone saying this has happened to them, how many of those drivers were Uber Black vs the rest? Although way more expensive, I find Uber Black way superior and never had a problem. They are professional drivers, have commercial insurance, better cars and much higher standards.
I don't understand why Uber doesn't care about this issue. Surely the reliability of the service should be important to them? It's not a hard thing to implement - if the car doesn't start moving within X minutes of confirming the order, let the customer cancel for free. Simple.
There are no longer cancelation fees on Uber rides for the customer as long as the driver has not driven a significant distance yet to get to your pick up point. If they have, then there is a fee to compensate them for their time. This started some time ago, can't remember exactly when. Rough estimate is some time in the last 1-3 years. This was likely done to address this issue.
I had a variation in Montreal. The app showed the car coming close and then all of a sudden, the app showed that the driver picked us up and was heading to our destination. No car in sight. We finally cancelled and got a taxi. I was charge the full amount for the ride. I did contact uber, explained what happened and they refunded me and suggested I set up a PIN requirement. Clearly if they set up this PIN option (you get a unique PIN when you book and you have to tell the driver when they pick you up, thus ensuring they picked you up), this must be a common problem.
I've had it happen many times but it was always Uber X. No issues at all with Black when i book those.
We always request UberXL because:
- There are four of us and who wants to squeeze into a Tesla? A lot of drivers have issues with someone riding up front, too.
- People drive like nutcases where we live now, if I'm gonna be in a wreck on the freeway, I'd rather be in a Yukon than a Camry
- Drivers who have invested in a large SUV seem generally more committed to the gig and provide better service overall. Anecdotally, many of them are ex-military.
When it's just me riding solo, I will sometimes request UberX to save time and wow, the quality sure has degraded over the years. One guy insisted on dropping me off in the middle of an intersection. Like, literally in the middle, while the lights were green. One of the rare 1-star reviews I've ever given.
@Satastico:
Not all of us can take Uber Black. I am not allowed to take Uber Black when on company business. I have had Uber canx several times, even on trips that were pre-booked.
Lyft is more reliable now.
Same, if this happens to me on Uber, I’ll book a Lyft. The opportunity cost of having the ride going is much greater for them than it is for me.
As a current Uber/Lyft driver of 7 years and 25K+ rides completed, drivers like the guy in the video are the bad apples that make the rest of us drivers look bad. This is also uber's fault for paying so low and it leads to these type of drivers and driver behaviors. Of the 25K+ rides I've done, I have never ever done this to a passenger. It's not even worth it because we only get $2-$3 for rides that a passenger cancels.
Extra info for everyone: uber takes 55-65% of passenger payment when it's not busy and 70-80% when it's busy. Also in uber's TOS, it states drivers are the customers and passengers are the product similar to hotel industry where hotel owners are customers and guests are the products.
In Barcelona, my Uber was set for an early morning pickup but cancelled at the last minute. I was going extra early, so it was actually easy to take the metro to the airport bus stand. I was staying in a quiet neighborhood and immediately noticed a taxi slooowly driving past me. It was like they knew I was left hanging and had been handed an opportunity to gouge me.
This is why waymo has been so popular in San Francisco. Eliminating the driver. Unfortunately, the good drivers are also hurt by it but that's the nature of the business. Waymo is usually about the same price or 10% higher. I don't care. I still prefer using it. Nicer car, don't have to deal with driver antics even if it doesn't happen frequently. I was trying to get to the train station once at 11pm and the driver just drove in circles. Needed to catch a train. I would have appreciated if he just canceled the ride so I could catch another. But that 1 in 10 is enough for me to hate the service.
Irony here is that these drivers will push people towards driverless.
Or toss out the notion of honor or behaving with honor. A person's word no longer matters.
Yes can't wait for the sfo clearance. I used to deal with taxi cab drivers who refused to drive me late at night because the ride wasn't far enough. Uber/Lyft have no choice but they will whine about it the entire drive. Waymo is so much better. The only thing in the future better than driverless cars in the world of transportation will be Human free DMV
I was just about to comment that Miami & South Beach are the biggest offenders. Once, I waited 30 minutes in SoBe while he circled. Messaged him, called him, to no avail. I caught a standard cab and he soon thereafter posted me as a no-show. I got stuck with a $50 charge & Uber said he was entitled to it. The PIN someone mentioned is a great idea.
@Ben, in "When drivers dispute the cancellation charge due to how long they have to wait" it should read "customers" or "riders".
I’ve done this before. The car was circling about 3mins drive from my house and don’t have time to waste, so I drove over and got in the Uber; treated it like a normal pick up. Driver was a bit shocked but didn’t say anything and completed the journey.
He gave me a one star rating. And the wife was a bit unhappy that the car wasn’t at home.
I’ve had this happen to me on Comfort and Black. I don’t use X much but have had it happen on that on the few occasions I’ve used it too. The only one I’ve never had it happen on is Luxe.
USA, UK and UAE have been worst offenders with the faux pick up and drive away scam also happening to me in UAE as well as the never moving in first place ones.
I get it most at airports.
Uber replaced taxis, because they were reliable, had transparent pricing and none of the taxi scams...
Now there are so many Uber scams, it's the new taxi - and Waymo and other driverless cars will replace them! I can't wait...
Happened to me in Zaragoza. I kept the app running, enable the passcode required for all pick-up. Disabled my location sharing with Uber.
I threatened the driver that I will report this to Uber. She didn’t reply. My ride was on for a good one hour. I ordered a car with Cabify. All of a sudden I received a message that Uber swapped another driver, I then cancel the ride. The first driver texted me and apologized profoundly saying she was caught in a traffic accident and was dealing with police.
Paris France.
The Uber driver took us between hotels from Canopy Eiffel to Voco. Its a measured ride in Paris.
On the drop off, after taking our luggage to check in, the driver decided to use the hotel bathroom.
We did not think anything of it.
He took awhile to come out somewhere between 7-10 minutes.
But later the charge came through with €30 extra.
We had to argue with Uber as the first response came back not very friendly and supporting the driver.
We took photos on our phone showing the route, and proving it.
It was ridicule. So simple to solve, yet Uber argued.
Finally Uber relented and gave us the credit.
We were on the verge of never using Uber again. Don't think Uber realizes how close customers come to leaving forever.
I did not know about the pin option. Found it in the security settings of my account. Thank you for sharing!
The moral of the story seems to be that activating the PIN pickup feature is a must, as is taking screenshots of shady shenanigans to use as evidence when dealing with Uber.
"...This is also Uber's fault for paying so low..." No this isn't Ubers fault, it's the drivers who continue to drive for them. If you all stopped driving for their sh1tty wage, they would raise prices for drivers. It isn't rocket science.
Used to happen to me all the time with late night rides when I'd accept a shared ride for the lower rate booking. Though with Lyft, I think the deal was the driver had to keep in motion (it couldn't be a parked situation like the video). Then one night I just decided to play chicken with the guy doing it. He'd keep not coming. I'd keep texting and saying "I'm not cancelling. YOU cancel." Went for like an hour and a half. He finally cancelled.
I wonder if it might actually have been a setup (or possibly even the same driver)...
Taxi's around me (in the immediate city-like suburb of a large city a whole 7 minutes from downtown) where I had ordered a yellow cab for a specific time and they never showed up. I called the company after 15 minutes and they told me that the driver showed up, called me and my phone was off, they could get another driver to me in 30 minutes. That would make me late for my appt, at that point I hadn't taken an actual cab in years so I was outside 10 mins before the schedule time just in case and my phone was on and working with full bars and the driver never had tried to call me.
The second time I tried this the situation was similar except this time I called an hour before I needed the ride and verified that they could be there when I needed them, they told me absolutely and I even schedule the ride 15 minutes early and the driver showed up 30 minutes late. I was pretty pissed but kept the ride and it was obvious the driver had been smoking in his crusty yellow cab before getting me. While sometimes I get a nasty Uber or Lyft I think most people who complain about rides are drivers cars have never been in an actual cab, which are older, dirtier and far more uncomfortable, where you are treated as so much cargo.
The one other time I had called for a yellow cab was right before rideshare started getting really popular. I was at a bar after a show with my girlfriend and her roommate and we needed a ride back to their place as we all had a bit too much to drive so me, having worked as a docket clerk for a lawfirm had a ton of experience ordering cabs where they didn't. So I called a yellowcab and no one answered so I called the other big taxi service where we live and a man answered right away. The dispatcher asked where we were, how far we were going (about a mile, if if wasn't January we would have probably walked) and how many people (3 people) he then said "that's gonna be fifty bucks" I had planned on tipping generously as I am a happy kind of person when I drink and grateful to anyone who provides me with a service in that situation but knowing that's not how it worked I said "so this won't be a metered ride? How do you come up with the price?" to which the dispatcher replied "fuck you buddy" and hung up on me. At this point one of the bar tenders we were always friendly with asked us where we were going and told us she would drop us off, her shift ended already and she was about to clock out. So I added $20 to what I already tipped her and she got $20 for a 3-4 minute drive.
All these situations are still way better than trying to get a cab ride in New Orleans during jazz fest before ridesgare was a thing. Every local with a car and needed work was a "cabby" for at least two weeks every year (probably way more but we skipped Mardi Gras and Halloween and did just jazz fest every year) cars would just pull up with "you need a ride" and you'd negotiate. One time we came out of the Joy Theater and you couldn't get a regular cab for an hour at least especially since we had 6 people so we needed a van, bus or two cabs. We were going back to uptown to hit up our rental and then go out to some local spots to that so it was like a 10-15 minute drive in the festival traffic. This guy pulled up in a big ass sedan and asked if we wanted a ride and we said we wouldn't fit and he said he would so we shrugged and negotiated $50 agreed and he got out and said he had to move stuff, which included a leaf blower. We crammed on and still had a rake and shovel jammed with us on our shoulder and between our heads with girls sitting on laps. When he dropped us off my friends wife handed him a $50 and everyone rose threw in on a tip so he got about 80-90, yet as we were all getting out he said "that's 50 per person!" I think seriously but we all laughed and walked into the seafood and bar place across the street and laughed at him every time he started yelling and swearing.
So yeah, you really don't always know how much you'll pay for a cab and, they were always reliable in that you could identify them and if they weren't waiting on a ride they were yours and if they were waiting on a ride you could sometimes bribe them so not very reliable at all. They definitely ran scams when they think they can get away with it and in busy situations they'd find a way to make you pay. And their cars are shit, one can I got picked up in had nearly 500k on it, I don't know how they get them to run that long but it has to be black magic, something satanic.
I think people today expect way too much, are super entitled, and don't remember how it was before rides hare. Customers are usually getting great deals in nice clean cars. It's the drivers that are usually getting g shafted, either way the app Companies make out over the drivers and customers ever time and there's a special place in hell for those billionaires. The us government needs to regulate them more and low the drivers to unionize and get at least the same rights as regular employees. But we all know that will never happen in the USA where how many rights you have is directly related to how much money you make.