Help Me Understand The Uber Cancelation Scam?

If you had the Uber driver’s location on the app and was able to pull off getting the taxi to drop you off behind him, then just opening the door and getting in that would of been one for the ages. He probably would have shi*t himself not knowing who you are.
I use Uber a lot I don’t think I have had a driver scan me but there are some riders scams that I have seen.
*if you don’t have enough for your entire fair you put in a location that is closer to you and just change it after pick up. Your account will go negative but in a desperate situation it’s a good little hack even though they have seemed to crack down on it a little more, from when me and my coworkers were living check to check and did not want to ride the bus lol
Also another little hack is changing your payment method, now I haven’t this done since back in Uber early days but also have not tried it. It allows your card boy to get charged and whatever is remaining in ur balance for the account u switched too(visa prepaids were a common way to get some free dollars from the multinational company that can’t just give the lowered income a break here or there allowance for overdraft and timeframe yo repay it.

I canceled my ride cause there was problem with system & destination address was wrong. Driver canceled & she got canceled fees out of my trip charge but I never got the difference I paid for a trip I never took & it's no longer pending nor returned to my account. I'm catching he'll trying to chat talk or even get someone to say ok we'll refund the remainder of the fare u never took. So what should i do get a lawyer its been 5 days which they said someone would contact me in 6 to 12 hrs its been over 72 hrs no help yet nor refund. I won't ever use Uber again.

Yes this happens all the time in yuma Arizona!! I will get a uber to go to work, AND THEY WILL just sit there and not move for 5-10 min while I'm losing my shit! I usually tell them I'm late for work, I will tip you really well, and then not tip them a penny when they suddenly start racing towards my house! F THAT! THATS Whats wrong with this country, lazy ass ppl, all with their hands out & don't want to earn anything. Plz move to Canada I that's how you operate. They all love being controlled & fed like babies!

Play games with me and I will get you fires, your drìver touched my peepee!

On the whole I love uber for business and have never had an issue, however, tonight I logged in and accepted a ride from the pub to home at £6.97. I waited 10 minutes for the driver to accept and it complete and got bored so cansmcelled, I tried again to get thw same ride but was now £22! That is 3 fold and as far as I am concerned a rip off. I knoe people arw going to say well tjese guys need to make a living etc but I am sorry not at the expense of mine!!! If you think it is acveptable to triple your price because it is a pub pick up think again, 20 mins walk and I am home, I don't mind paying a fair price as quoted for a 5 minute ride but when you ask me to remotgage for the same you can bloody well do one. A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush, one day you will realise that Abdul!

With lyft I had a bad experience., I was driving for them and in the middle of a $9 three in a row streak I was sent to pick up a lady I. A gated community., So when I arrived I texted asking for gate code no response, so I called her three times she never answered, so I figured she was canceling,. So I waited at the gate for the a cancellation time of five mins, to make a long story short since I cancelled the ride and wasn’t close to her residence she didn’t have to pay the cancellation fee and she broke my streak also so I was out $10-12 bucks , I emailed support the next day and of course they said since I wasn’t close enough to her apartment when I cancelled that I lost the streak and the cancellation fee., so I responded so next time I am to walk in the pouring down rain thru the gate to procemity of her residence and have to start the cancellation policy then ….I only drive for Uber now, because the streaks are rigged in Lyfts favor

It's not a driver scam Uber is sending fares to there drivers and hiding info on how long trip is or how far it is to pickup and now a lot of the time you don't even know how much your getting til trip is complete so when driver accepts they reveal how far pickup is and fare price and drivers are cancelling don't blame the driver it's Uber not paying there drivers example driver receives fare request Uber shows it's 10.00 driver accepts then he sees pickup info only and it could be 20 mins plus just to pickup and you don't even know how far drop off is they don't show driver that until driver picks up so there cancelling Uber is out of control right now raping riders and there drivers

No one would stay all day for $5 cancelation fee . That is ridiculous! The main reason is: Uber charges 45% up to 69% on each trip whatever multiplier or not at airport. The fee of flat ride doesn’t cover round way gas and time a driver spend. Uber is trying to force driver on the road , if not accepted, driver will lost ability to see detail for next trip( other word, driver probably lost money and time on next longer trip if they don’t know where to go before starting the trip) That’s why driver accepted and waiting for rider to cancel. Nobody would win the game, but Uber does. If Uber doesn’t setup this rule, I believe no driver took your shit ride all night ! Call taxi or Lyft next time if no one like your ride.

I’m a driver for Lyft and haven’t been doing this long, however, I get a lot of riders saying thank you for accepting my ride I’ve been waiting an hour some have waited 3 hours and said multiple drivers have cancelled on them when the ride is longer than 20 minutes. I live and drive in Akron, Ohio and my only complaints are:
1.) many times after accepting a ride I get halfway to pick them up or almost there and then they cancel but because it’s within the time frame Lyft allows they aren’t charged a fee and there isn’t always a ride immediately after one so I get zero money for the gas and time I put in to get there to pick them up.
2.) I think as far as how much a driver gets paid vs. how much Lyft gets paid should be a bit different. The app should let drivers login and mark their zone they want to drive in and instead of Lyft getting such a huge cut of our pay the bulk should go to the drivers. Like maybe at sign up the driver agrees to a set smaller percentage of each ride that goes to Lyft for services and app use and we dictate whether Lyft gets paid after each trip or at sign off or weekly. Driving to Columbus from Akron a rider complained he was paying almost $300 for the ride and I got $98 of it and used the destination feature and never got a ride from Columbus back to Akron. So we eat the cost of time and fuel between pick up locations and the drive back. I don’t know about other cities but Akrons roads are horrible! Some potholes look like they could swallow a car! J/K, but seriously they are big and will definitely screw up a car. The money earned is obviously nowhere near enough to cover tire replacement, shock and strut replacements, etc not to mention regular required maintenance for the vehicle let alone accept a ride longer than 30 minutes with no compensation for the long haul back.

3.) so I feel a standard cancellation fee should be required when a customer cancels so the drivers can get compensated for gas already wasted and time already wasted. I too agree there should be a way to track how often a driver cancels and hold them accountable for suspicious or fraudulent activity. Maybe deactivation and criminal charges for fraud might help reduce those types of incidents from occurring.

Unfortunately there are really bad drivers out there that do this. If a passenger cancels within 2 minutes or we've not made significant progress to the destination, we don't receive the cancellation fee, so they've definitely figured out how to game the system. Uber pays us for long pickups for everything over 9 miles and 13 minutes, so again, he was gaming the system. Usually the only time this doesn't work in our favor is when it's a long pickup on a very short trip. 5 minutes or less. Lyft is even worse about this, so I personally won't take any rides more than 10 minutes away when I'm running Lyft.

So what could have happened with the Uber passenger from the airport that wrote the unnecessary novel LOL! Is that maybe the driver was pulled over and fell asleepZzz. Very possible. Uber is not that easy you get hella sleepy and if you do a lot of rides back to back you find yourself taking a lot of breaks.
As to the UBER driver experiencing the Fake UBER rep., LITERALLY the same thing happened to me just yesterday, I had all my money taken, ~$700. I couldn’t believe I had fallen for this piece of shit “hacker” is what UBER called him. I went to pick up the passenger, said passenger was nowhere to be found, he then sent me a message saying: “my app is acting up, I don’t know where you are,” then I attempted to call, it did not go through… immediately after the 2nd attempt in calling I get a call from a number that would look to be Uber’s so I answer and he sounded, even a lot more professional than most our UBER Support reps, he spoke perfect English, said his name was Adam, that he was a supervisor at UBER and my dumbass didn’t think anything of it I was SOLD on the idea that he was a rep for Uber, even mentioned being on a “recorded line” we stayed on the phone for a whole hour. Long story short, don’t make any decisions in a situation like this until your app is Really having problems bc this mother fucker really made me believe there was a problem, he said “your account is now on hold” bc of the fraudulent use of payment method by the passenger you were about to pick up. It was odd to me, I didn’t seem to think there was an issue with my account BUT at the same time I didn’t want to risk missing my ride goal for the bonus I was so close and it made me give into this mother fuckin hacker’s wishes!!!! Call me crazy but I’m starting to think that UBER office workers are doing this on their own. They could be selling our info. to 3rd party hackers. The crazy thing is that we wouldn’t even know if this was happening or not. Fuckin crazy man

California Uber Driver,
Can't say above mentioned Uber driver was a straight shooter, after all, he did read the, "what's up?", messages. Maybe he got a case of the eff-its. Even so, 9.99% of the time, drivers know when a trip is in progress or money is being made. Logically speaking, it makes no sense to spend 30+ minutes to make a percentage of a fare with a grimy scam, when more money could be made in less time, legitimately. Not only that but, why risk losing the job, entirely, over one measley ride? I would have to go with overworked and dumb as a bag of bricks, scammer. Ok, now look into the Uber tip screen okeydoke scam. Ya, Uber puts Uber first. Out of seventeen rides tonight, one person tipped. No complaints, on time, great convos, wealthy areas, one tip. Not just tonight but, every night. I asked a couple riders if the tip screen pops up after the ride. "No, it doesn't", they said. At first I thought, that must be impossible but, sure enough, I saw with my own eyes, after a ride is completed, the rider app returns immediately to the same screen for booking a new ride. Later I learned that, Uber passengers must first watch an Uber add, decline an offer, and rate the driver to even see a tip screen. 99.9% of people see an ad which initiates an immediate knee-jerk reaction to put the phone in their pocket and then, poof, byebye big tipper. What a crap thing to do and to think, almost all Uber drivers have no clue about this. Uber knows this is what is happening but they would rather see our hard earned and much needed tips be soon forgotten just to divert customer attention to some advertisment that rarely makes them a few more bucks. I would say every Uber driver on the planet loses an average of $8.00 an hour because of this strategically timed tip sabatoge. Dirty dirty. Now that's a real topic worth discussing.

The part that a lot of you don’t understand is that when an Uber driver accepts a ride they may already be on a ride. They may have to complete a ride before picking you up. That may also include driving in a direction away from you. Might not have anything to do with scamming and all about congested traffic and needing to complete a ride. Also when you are in traffic on the freeway going 70mph sometimes it is not a priority to text every person back who is waiting for a ride.

@Ronald Carr Here's what I don't understand. I have never NOT tipped a driver. I tip every time and often generously, minimum 20%, partly because my company pays for it and I usually use Uber mostly for work. The other day I doubled the driver's fare because the trip was relatively short and it took her a while to find me. Yet I have a rating below 4.8. I have no idea why. I'm always courteous, although I do sometimes ask to turn down the music so I can do a call or focus on my work. I had never even noticed my rating until I looked at this thread. Now that I realize I have a subpar rating despite my high tips as well as the fact that I've learned a lot of passengers don't tip, I'm inclined to stop tipping. I'm wondering if because I always tip in the app (so I can use my credit card), I don't get the benefit of my tips in my rating. Either way, I have to rethink my approach to tipping, maybe smaller amounts but cash only?

Help me understand why passengers don't tip drivers is a more relevant question? You will tip the paperboy, waiter, man in the restroom with hand sanitizer and a towel, usher at the church but won't tip a driver who is safely getting you to where you need to go. Cancelation fees are way below minimum wage so to pose this question is absolutely absurd and as a driver I'm appalled. There are many variables that can occur between the time the driver receives the notification to pick you up.

Even UBER drivers get conned & scammed. There are 2 parts to this story. Part 1. I get a ride just 1.5 miles away it tells me that it is a 10 minute ride, so I assume that it is a $ 5 ride. I pick it up. I pick up the ride. The lady wants to sit behind me, however there is a larger space on the rear passenger side. She say that she is comfortable behind me. The ride is to Walmart just 4 miles away and 12 minutes duration. One minute into the ride she says that, Sir can she add a destination as she just has to pick up groceries. I say no I can’t wait. She very politely says that the groceries are ready I have to just go in and pick them up. I don’t want to miss an additional ride so I say yes. That is just what she is waiting for. Part 2. Because of the snow, we arrive at Walmart 14 minutes later. She mentions that the pickup bay is on the side of the building. I pull into the bay number six. There are two cars waiting next to me waiting for their groceries. 10 Minutes pass no groceries arrive. I ask her to phone Walmart. She tells me that she ordered them one hour ago and is surprised at the Walmart service. She says that she is using this service for the first time and doesn’t know the process. I also tell her that I am also using the pick bay for the first time. I ask her to go and talk to the Walmart delivery lady at the next car. She goes and comes back, says that the goods will arrive soon. Another 15 minutes pass. Then the goods come. The goods are in blue tubs around 8 tubs. More than 25 plastic Walmart bags of goods. Milk gallons, soap gallons, diapers, Frozen food, Ice cream, tinned food, bath tissues etc.it was a whole months groceries for 2 to 3 adults. The Walmart lady swipes her EBT card and US Debit card and says, that she will get her receipt in email. Now we travel another 8 miles = 16 minutes. She says thanks for waiting, and says that she will give me a big tip. Next she never give me any tip. I drop her. After dropping her, husband comes and collects the goods. I get $ 17 on my UBER app. Now that I had time to think, I realized this is how she conned me. First she sat behind me so that I could not notice her using the Walmart app to order groceries. So the groceries were ordered while she was sitting behind me. Next this was not the first time that she was buying groceries on the app. She tried to put the blame on Walmart staff for working slow. Of course it will take them 25 minutes to fill 25 plastic bags. Also another 5 minutes to deliver them to the car. I thought that I don’t want to lose my next ride so I accepted her request. She used 70 minutes of my time, and what did I get only $ 17. It was cold, and after a snow storm, she did not want to book a second UBER because she may have not got one quickly so she wasted my time. Hereafter I am not doing multiple rides to pick up Groceries at Walmart, Target or any other place. A Taxi for 70 Minutes would have costed her $ 80.

Daniel is Right ON!

EVERYONE knows FULL WELL you get what you pay for. You want to pay a Ford Fiesta price, then guess what, that is what you are going to get. You want a nice car and service, then you are going to have to pay up. RIDERS, please stop with this ENTITLEMENT mentality. You have complete control over your ride experience in the form of how much you pay. Pay more for a premium ride, and you will get it. Pay for a budget no frills bottom of the barrel ride, and that is what you will get (along with the associated problems that come from anything that is bottom of the barrel)

I have been fortunate to have a great experience with Uber and it's drivers in Las Vegas. Although I have noticed that rates have risen, we have always had positive experience with every ride request. We have been picked up promptly, treated with professionalism and safely delivered to our destination. I sincerely hope that these issues of fraudulent charging and unprofessional behaviors are resolved promptly. Even one bad experience would sour me on using the company in the future.

A driver asking me to cancel has happened to me a few times. In London for sure, but maybe elsewhere as well (I travel a lot and I think it may have happened in Marin County). I've also had drivers cancel when I am a) exactly where Uber has told me to go; b) Uber says that they have arrived; and c) they don't answer the phone when I call them to find out where they are. I don't like the idea of canceling because I then have to go complain to Uber (who has always refunded the fee in cases in which I felt a refund should be requested).

In one instance when I was asked to cancel, the ride was a long ride from an outer London neighborhood to Westminster but maybe they didn't want to come to the side street where I was visiting. In another instance, it was really unclear from the map where I was supposed to be (very complicated intersection). I also tip pretty much on every trip in the US and the UK. My tipping outside the US depends upon the local culture. And I think I'm pretty courteous to drivers (my passenger rating is pretty close to 5).

I've never understood the motivation for drivers asking me to cancel until now -- some people here say that drivers are penalized for cancelling. So if a driver doesn't want to take a short trip or find an odd location, they would want me to cancel.

I have wondered about my inability to find or contact a driver after Uber says they have arrived and I'm at exactly where Uber says they are. What is happening there? Is a driver gaming something?

I am an Uber driver. I am doing mostly Uber Eats in Chicago.
I did a lot of Uber passenger rides over a yr ago.
I am certain there are drivers that do this but I'm not one. I don't know how those drivers end up earning anything. 25% of my income is tips.
That being said, I have had this situation happen numerous times to me. I pull up in front of a house. Nobody comes out. I call and they tell me they found an alternate route of transportation and forgot to cancel. I ask them to cancel the ride. They agree but never cancel the ride. There a bad people everywhere. There are good people everywhere too.

I am an uber driver- i do hear about drivers that just never seem to get close enough to a meeting point. I'm sorry a rider has to endure that. I'm out of Dallas Fort Worth area and i take extreme pride in the cleanliness of my vehicle and giving someone a super experience. I only charge a cancellation fee if i have had to wait and the rider ended up being a no show. I've called uber driver support myself personally and asked that they refund a riders cancellation charges- to me this is my business and i practice ethics at all times. I would recommend calling uber rider support and explain that the driver is not responding to your attempts to contact them. Also if you cancel before 5 minutes have passed there is no cancellation charge. If they aren't moving and responding after a minute or two i would say cancel. It will hurt them alot. I don't know about Miami- but at DFW airport a driver might wait 3 or 4 hours to get your ride request.

Lucky you have a creative imagination, stop torturing yourself and dragging other riders along with you. There is no way a driver can strike it rich from a $3 cancellation fee. I am both an Uber rider and a driver partner. Uber Pool riders have the ability to cancel within 3 minutes, Uber X riders have 5 minutes to cancel, and Uber Comfort riders have up to 8 minutes to cancel without being charged the $5 cancellation fee. Uber gets $2 of the cancellation fee and the driver receives $3. The driver will only get the $3 fee in one of two ways, if the driver has been in route to the location for a minimum of 5 minutes or has waited for a minimum of 5 minutes within 25 feet of the rider's pick up location. Basically a driver would have to waste 10 to 30 minutes trying to so call scam a rider to get $3, when they can drive a rider for 10 to 20 minutes and earn at least $6 - $10 or better yet stand on the street corner with a cup panhandling a sob story.

I will tell you what I have discovered as a driver and a rider, the GPS app is as creative as your thinking Lucky. Meaning there were times my rideshare driver was sitting right in from of me but my app showed my driver was 15 minutes away. My riders have had similuar experiences where they were sitting in my car but their app showed me minutes away.

You have the power as a Rideshare passenger to protect yourself from what you think are scams opposed to errors in technology. You also have the power to protect yourself from the big bad rideshare drivers that have nothing better to do than to scam riders all day. This is how:

1. Text or call your driver with any special instructions immediately after you have confirmed your ride. If your driver does not respond to your communication promptly or just doesn't sound pleasant if they respond then cancel the ride within the time you are allowed to cancel.

2. If you are past the time you are allowed to cancel without being charged just contact Uber and request a refund of your cancellation fee, and no we don't get to keep the three dollars if it is refunded back to the rider. Now does Uber keep the kitty, I don't know but I know the driver doesn't get it.

3. Always monitor your Uber account

4. If you are concerned about the vomit scam take a selfie when you first get in your ride and when you get out of you rideshare car with a time stamp. Drivers are required to send time stamped pictures after any damage done to their vehicle by a rider and are required to call and report the damage to Uber Driver support immediately after the incident. Time stamped pictures will protect you against any wrongful claims of damage from driver.

5. Last safety tip for all the creative thinkes who believe Uber drivers are out to scam them, from time to time Uber drivers are required to take and submit a selfie before they are able to take rides for security persons. Therefore unless you have an identical twin you are not able to drive under another driver's profile.

One thing I love more than driving is giving top notch customer service. I do understand that not all Uber driver partners share my passion for this work or can say they have proudly provided more than 2,900 safe trips within 9 months of driving for Uber with a 4.97 rating like myself.

I'm a Uber driver and I've never done anything like that. I can't imagine a driver would get away with that for very long as the misbehavior is obvious.

I always show up to the pick up point. That's when Uber's clock starts going. After 5 minutes, I'll cancel if I'm still waiting. That's the only way I'll get a cancellation fee unless the passenger actually cancels when I'm there or nearly there.

This is how it's supposed to work and should work. I can't imagine the behavior you describe if common, but we divers are fairly solitary and I really don't know what others do. I hope Uber deactivates such divers. They give us all a bad name.

I drive for Uber but in the different city.

Sometimes, I get a request and accept it right after I pass the turn. Then I would need to make a u-turn or take different route to get to a pick up location.

You said the driver was not moving so I am wondering if the traffic was heavy?

I agree that it was unprofessional for this driver not to communicate with you. Waiting for that long was not normal if you got the estimate arrival time of 7 min.

Here is a little insight that may help riders to understand from a driver's perspective. (I am not defending this driver though). When we get a phone call, we would "lose" the navigation screen, which makes it very hard for a driver to navigate. It can be frustrated for a driver and dangerous to have to look for a navigation screen while driving. Also although we have several preprogrammed reply in the form of text, we cannot/should not be testing while we are driving. So sometimes it is not as easy to reply back as you'd think....

I am sorry for your experience.

I boycott anything to do with Uber. I'm in Orlando for a business trip, I'm originally from Guam.

My story:

Boss gave some stipend for travel expenses in form of Uber gift cards. Signed up for an account to be used. Got to Orlando, loaded one gift card and tested it with one ride from the Airport to my AirBnb. Following day - Uber locks me out of my account and disables it, stating "Fraudulent".

Wanted to address this issue immediately because I had already loaded all the gift cards provided to me and Uber was to be my main form of transportation. Guess what? There's no customer hotline outside of the very app that I'm locked out of. I had to send a inquiry request via their help website. So many run arounds and late replies.

I created a second account with a different number and email to be able to access the app for help support. Sends me to the exact same inquiry on their site. They don't have a hotline. Everything is through slow emails and their reasoning is "security concerns due to hacking".

Finally, the last email sent said I was flagged for having 2 accounts. As their policy is only 1 email/account per rider... hmm..

It stated they had fixed the issue and reactivated my account.

it's Dec. 8, 2019. My account hasn't been fixed for over a month and counting.

You suck Uber. Get ur shit together

Im a driver in Jersey. Keep in mind, cell phone signals around the Airport are not always reliable. Keep a look out for the make, model, plate and color of your car. Ive had to call passengers whos app what showing them i was still at fhe Uber waiting lot. Also, uber penalizes drivers who cancel too much. Oh and if you cance wihtin 2 mins there is no charge and for Drivers to be to cancel and receive a fee they need to arrive close to where you requested, then a 5 min clock counts down but check youe market, may be different down there.

Yes, the driver gets to keep the cancellation fee, even if the passenger requests a refund, which is $5 in my city. Once it has been paid to the driver, no matter the reason, uber/lyft WILL NOT require the driver to give it back. Cancellations initiated by passengers never affect the drivers rating in any way and also still count as a completed ride for those trying to hit any bonuses. Drivers can do it all day as long, as long as the passenger is the one to hit the cancel button. I've been both driver and passenger for lyft and uber. As a driver... I've had more passengers try to scam me in many different scenarios than drivers trying to when i was a passenger.

You asked why someone would want riders to cancel instead of giving the ride to earn money.

The sad truth is drivers lose money on every ride they give. They are literally trading the principal value of their car for physical cash money.

Imagine it like this. You rented out a house. Each month you collect rent, an equal amount of damage is done to that house. $1,500 rent, $1,500 damage. Eventually you won't be able to rent out the property anymore. It's the same logic with cars & ridesharing. Because vehicles are depreciating assets with every mile you drive.

Drivers are only paid 2 fees essentially. Per mile & per minute. I believe in Chicago the per mile was about $0.71 cents and the per minute came out to about $8 per hour. If you're not making $0.91 cents per mile, you're easily losing money on every ride you give.

First off I hope you (Ben/Lucky) reached out to the Taxicab Authority about the driver asking for cash.
As for that sort of nightmare I've had a couple with drivers here in Vegas both of which thought I was a tourist because I was working on the Strip. My first driver took me off towards the west when my home is on the east, I was sick at the time and in foul mood which is probably why my ride ended up being free. The second ride blew a tire and left me rideless off the Strip somewhere behind the Tropicana (not the best neighborhood to find yourself) they never called another cab and I reported the incident to the Taxi Authority about 10 minutes later, again my ride was free.
I have only taken Uber a handful of times and, luckily, have had no issues.
Having something like the Taxicab Authority for ride sharing might not be a bad idea after all the recent issues involving drivers. Something that will keep both the driver and passenger happy and safe.
Tipping is a gratuity it's something you give in thanks for service. If I'm not tipping you it probably speaks to your service and it's not nor has ever been considered mandatory. That said thank you to all my patrons that have tipped me well for my service and thank you to all who have not.
If people feel they are not receiving the services they believe that they were due then boycott the company, start a movement to ensure driver and passenger are treated fairly, file suit for fair wages, create a union for independently contracted drivers, do more than just b***h. Or like Lucky did, write a column and get others interested and involved (Thank you for that by the way).
Just don't be complacent and allow things to remain stagnant or become worse.

I have a %67 acceptance rate and have never been banned from driving with Uber.

I have a high cancellation rate, and yet haven't been banned.

I have a full time job and do this to supplement my income. I speak perfect English and don't mess around. Every job I do, big or small, I put %100 into it.
I don't care for the "perks" from Uber since they are horrible and I have other ways of saving on gas money.

I've had riders cancel on me numerous times within a few minutes of accepting rides. Probably because they are impatient but I NEVER get a fee. That only applies if I'm within 5 minutes of picking up a rider and that has only happened once and I got $4.37. I was literally 1 minute away from arrival so I assume they hailed a cab also or a Lyft and it beat me. Oh well.

You can't really "game" the system as you'll eventually waste more time then turning a profit use the platform legitimately.

A surge only occurs if an area that has a high demand and not enough drivers.... And yes, drivers DO get a portion of the surge price. I've only received ONE surge fair as I primarily use Uber/Lyft on my rides home from work.

Why would anyone do this as a full time job? Probably because they are an illegal alien and/or have no skills like flipping a burger at a fast food restaurant (that's not even how McDonald's works as their system is stupidly easy yet people still mess up a simple order due to not comprehending basic English) and need money to live as people are getting thrown off of welfare as they should since it's not a handout but a aid.

Charges per mile/minute vary by demographic. So stop claiming uber drivers get $.60 a minute when I get more. Read the website you illiterate rejects to society.

Anyone "working" for Uber is not an employee, but a freelancer thus, stop calling it a job.

The scummy people don't take away from those such as myself who make ~$100 a week driving roughly 3 hours a week. If you aren't making those numbers, you obviously suck at life.

If you're not getting tipped you probably don't deserve them as I get plenty of tips without offering much besides a way for riders to charge their phone, safe driving, politeness, and a good overall experience.

Yes, Uber has its flaws but comparing it to the local cabbies who BARELY speak English, drive like maniacs, will stalk you if you don't use THEIR cab, and sometimes have horrendous hygiene, people are THRILLED with my exceptional driving and clean car. The data show's this to be the case for me.

To the driver's complaining about not getting paid enough, try working a real job and stop relying on people to give you hand outs. America was built with blood and sweet. Put in the hard work and you get that in return.

I have driven for Uber for a year. And one possiblity is that , the drivers phone might have hanged or the app crashed and it took him some time to get it back up. It had happened to me , and it took me close to 10 min to get my phone back up. It won't restart or switch off.

And there are drivers who asks the customer to cancel the trip after calling them and finding out that the trip is not worthwhile.

Uber suspendeds the drivers account if they get too many cancellations, so I don't think a driver can scam money by cancelling trips.

As an Uber driver, I will say that this is ridiculous. Why would he sit around for 30 minutes to make $10? Totally unprofessional and doesn't make any economic sense. I've had several passengers cancel for various reasons. If one of my passengers is charged a cancelation fee because of something that happened on my end, I have and will continue to refund them. They shouldn't have to pay for it. I've actually returned to a passenger's house and left cash and a note with an apology when I think they've been overcharged. There are times where I've driven over 15 minutes taking me out of a higher paying area. I do this because it's important to keep your acceptance rating up. Lyft is notorious for this. A 20 minute drive for a 5 minute ride sucks but due to the crappy algorithms of these apps, sometimes you get screwed over. Part of the job I guess. I've maintained a 5 star rating since I've started, I'm very proud of that and work hard to give my passengers extra amenities and a great experience. It's terrible that the few give the majority a bad rap. Not saying that this doesn't happen frequently, but I think that most drivers don't fall into this category. Unfortunately, good experiences don't make headlines because our society has fallen into this mindset of complaining and negativity. Now, with access at our fingertips, these kinds of stories spread like wildfire. It's sad but it doesn't stop me from giving the best experience possible. All I ask is that if you do have a good experience, show that gratitude in the form of a tip or a good rating. Share some of your awesome experiences with these drivers. Or anyone in the service industry. Don't let a few bad apples ruin it for the rest of us. Sorry for the rant, just wish I saw more good experiences from the rideshare community.

I keep seeing comments accusing Uber and Lyft drivers of being "unprofessional". If you want a "professional" driver, take a taxi. Uber and Lyft drivers are NOT professionals. That was never the intent of these platforms. They were supposed to be a way for people to make a little extra money giving rides in their own cars when it was convenient for them. They were supposed to be a way to reduce the numbers of single occupant cars on the road by getting people headed in the same direction to ride together. And keep in mind that neither Uber or Lyft has ever managed to make a profit and they're now trying to do so by scamming their drivers as well as passengers. From what I've heard the apps will frequently send drivers to pickups they can't possibly get to in a reasonable amount of time and they penalize the drivers if they cancel, or don't accept the ride in the first place.

Again, if you want a professional driver, pay for one.

I'm a driver and I just don't see how this would be financially lucrative for any driver part or full time. First, usually when a Rider requests a refund of a cancellation fee, that is deducted back from the Uber drivers earnings. I've had it happen in a busy area where the rider didn't show up where he requested but the next day asked for that refund. It was $3.25 so that was no worry to me. I work the airport in my city sometimes because it's usually for sure that it's going to be a longer trip which means a pretty decent fair. It would be an absolute waste of time to accept any ride, wait the 5 minutes and then additional time to try to get the rider to cancel. That's money lost over time, not gained. Also, I don't know about other airports but if you do this too many times in my city, Uber will block you from accepting airport requests.

The person who referred to drivers using location spoofing software may be advised that the Uber app will detect this and not be usable until it is turned off. As far as I know, this trick still works with Lyft. But why would a driver pretend to be in the queue at the airport to provoke riders to cancel rides? The cancellation fee is the same no matter where the trip originates. The only advantage of location spoofing is to put yourself in the queue before you actually arrive at the airport.

Add a driver I never cancel a job unless they're is no choice. All my cancellations are because either the driver didn't turn up or I couldn't locate the driver. For all of the above I have first messaged a couple of times and then tried to call. Every cancellation was because there was absolutely no response to contact. So I think it all depends on the driver. Maybe Uber needs to think more about how to deal with serial cancellers. Up until now I have a 0 cancellation rate and 4.99 rating. This is because it's a service job and I believe in customer service. As I say, it depends on the driver. Not sure if Uber can change much as all of the drivers are basically self employed and runs their business in their way. Maybe part of the feedback could include the drivers cancellation rate and riders comments on cancellations. Might make more drivers accept and honour more jobs. I think it would benefit drivers that have low cancellation rates maybe and make more drivers more reliable

As an Uber driver, their have been times where I forgot to turn off my app after I finished driving, or my daughter turned on the app while playing on my phone.
I think this is what happened, because after 5 minutes, the driver can cancel the trip and not get dinged for it and get the cancellation fee because the rider did not show up.
Drivers only get paid $.21 per minute, so it’s not worth the price of 30 minutes.
I do not think he tried to scam you, but that this was purely on accident.

There are different reasons as to why the driver did this to you:
1. If the fare increased after the driver picked up your request. There are many ways to check the fare. Especially in busy airports the fare would double in a matter of minutes so ...
2. If you are going to a not desirable destination like in the middle of nowhere far or no chance of getting a ride request... experienced driver will refuse that simpley because they don't make any money if they drove you 40 miles and return empty.
3. They are scamming
4.If the driver is tired or unable to complete the trip due to vehicle or other issues but couldn't cancel because uber is a pain in the butt for those who cancel frequently.
5. The driver was checking his phone and accepted by accident and he didn't want the ride so ...

The moral of the story is don't generalize from a single experience and blame all the drivers!

You get what you pay for. If you’re unhappy with this, as a consumer you have a choice to take a taxi, super shuttle, public transportation, drive yourself and park, ask a friend, hire a private car service or walk.

My suspicion is that you’re like most people in America - you want Ritz Carlton treatment but only want to pay Motel 6 prices for it.

As an Uber driver, we are told that you are your own boss - you accept the rides you want. But the reality is that you are punished sometimes deactivated for cancelling rides or not accepting every ride.

When I was driving for Uber in Los Angeles it was $1.25 a minute. It is now $.60 a minute. So the service that I was providing has degraded as well. I stopped carrying and auxiliary cable, washing my car every day, stopped helping you with your luggage, etc etc. — and when the gas prices went up and the prices went down I stopped turning on the AC.

As a business owner when you’re revenue goes down you have to cut expenses - those expenses affected the customer directly.

So stop complaining and pony up more money and take Uber select or uberBLACK or Uber SUV and you’ll get the five star treatment that you’re paying for.

I have had that scam along with the following scams happen to me here in Boston.

1) Driver arrives to pick me up, I get in car, and then they tell me the ride is too far. They ask ME to cancel the ride and to call another driver.

2) Driver shows up in a different car than expected. Sometimes the plate matches, sometimes it doesn't.

3) Not a scam, but recently the last 3 rides I have recieved the drivers seemingly hot boxed their cars by chain smoking cigarettes. The last of which could be smelt on me throughout the day.

Despite this, I have found more often than not drivers care and work hard. I'm an Uber Platinum customer so I tend to get the higher rated cars/drivers.

I've had this exact same thing happen to me several times in the past month here in California. I started saving screen shots of everything for proof with Uber, although they have always been quick to give me some credit when I've notified them (a very small amount).

The most egregious example was just a couple of weeks ago. I ordered an Uber and the car was about a mile from me (I am in a suburb of SF). The app said it would be a few minutes until the car arrived but the car started going a different direction, basically the very long route toward my location. It then at some point stopped at a residence. I assumed the driver was dropping another passenger off, even though the app didn't indicate this, and so I waited. When the car didn't move for a while I tried to text/call the driver, with no response.

Eventually the car started moving again but again started going a different direction, basically back the way he came. I figured for some reason he was again taking the long route but then he entered the freeway, and rather than going north toward me, began heading south. I tried to contact him again and this time he responded saying he needed to get gas. However rather than exiting at the next exit, he just kept heading south, going further and further from me. The ridiculous thing is the whole time the app was telling me he was coming but the time to arrive just kept increasing. Eventually the ride was cancelled, after more than 25 mins or so. I kept screen shots of most of this interaction. This driver has a 4.7 rating, similar to your story.

The day before this ride I had two other rides canceled by the drivers once they got close to me. I don't know why and whether my destination (assuming they get some sort of advance information about the destination) was a factor. Either way, I've been disappointed with Uber lately.

Yup had this happen in Pennsylvania and almost missed a flight and got real hot with Uber because they have no way to contact them like all these tech companies where being a millennial and not having to talk to anyone or communicate is a feature.

Also in Kenya this a big thing. I had about 5 people do this in a row. In the us it was every so often and I figured it was because the driver didn’t want the long trip. In Kenya they explained that when you pay with credit card they don’t like it so they do this. They rather cash or their cash app system where they can avoid taxes. But that said this very common where they just mine cancellation fees.

Uber should hold their money earned in escrow and if this happens they forfeit a month’s money to a fund to compensate people who have missed flights or anything like that because of this behavior.

1. Drivers for guber and ryft are not employees (yet).

So therefore they cannot be "fired".
2. There are many many more ignorant customers than there are drivers.

3. If a driver is using both apps, why is it called ignorance if he decides to run a better trip offered from the other app (happens many times ever day), but in just about any other situation it would be considered a smart business decisions.

4. Look in the mirror and realize "you" who are so quick to refer to drivers as ignorant, are probably looking at one.

I live in Hartford, CT on one occasion I had a driver blatantly pass my location, get on the highway and drive 3 towns away. The whole time ignoring my calls and texts inquiring if they could cancel from their end..Uber credited me back.

Then another time I had an Uber driver pick up my Uber eats order and then immediately cancel. I called the restaurant, which I regularly visit . The advised my order was picked up by the driver. It was a complete order. I contacted Uber immediately because I did not think it was ok that the the restaurant lose their payment because the driver essentially stole the food.

While this is not the norm for me it makes me more weary of using their services.

The responses from some uber/lyft drivers sound almost insulting. Almost like "how dare you request me to drive you to your destination even though that's the job description. "
We all have/have had jobs we didn't like. Don't penalize the customer for choosing the wrong employer. That's the job. If you think the cons outweigh the pros. Quit.your.job
Or dont.
I've been scammed by uber drivers while in Miami. Had to request refunds 8x in the span of a weekend. The drivers canceled on me but I got penalized anyway. More often than not I've gotten picked up by drivers who didn't speak a lick of English. End up using google translate to communicate. At least they showed up.

Your problems are due to the pay that has been too low for years and is constantly being cut by Uber and Lyft. You, the customers, can holler all that you will that you are not part of this pay problem and that it is between driver and company. When you make this statement, you ignore several things:

1. Capitalism 101 dictates that the customer pays the cost of doing business plus a profit for the provider. These artificially low rates fail to do that. There is a reason that cab rates are what they are. In reality, the cab rates and Uber/Lyft rates both need to increase. It would be economic suicide for the cabs to increase their rates. It is time for this Chavista Socialism, imposed by Uber/Lyft on the drivers to go and for you, the customer, to start paying the real costs of this.

2. We have been appealing to Uber and Lyft for years. Our appeals have been met with more pay cuts, some of which have been spun (READ: lies) as something else. As you are the ones paying the costs, we get them out of you one way or another. As long as Uber/Lyft are going to be dishonest, please do not expect us to be honest.

3. We have to make a living wage. Uber/Lyft are doing everything that they can to deny us that. We have to do what we can to make something that approaches a living wage.

You want "professionalism"? How do you expect to get "professionalism" for a driver who is being paid 1979 cab rates?

As one driver who posted here put it, if you want five star service, try being a five star rider. As one who drives both a cab and Uber/Lyft, I can tell you that my Uber/Lyft customers treat me far worse than do my cab customers. As Issue Numero Uno that faces the drivers is money, start with tipping. On that........ the reason that drivers never believe you when you say "I will tip in-application" is that the overwhelming majority of those who say that, NEVER do. Most of you see nothing wrong with that. When you are dishonest with us, especially when you do this to get more out of us, why are you surprised when we return your dishonesty?

What one poster posted about being required to accept eighty per-cent of the rides is myth. You will not be "fired" for not accepting offered trips. Many of us brag about our single digit acceptance rates. You will, however, be "fired" if you accept trips then cancel too many of them.

Those of you who are doing that "Muttley chuckle" for supposedly keeping the driver from working for thirty, sixty or ninety minutes or whatever while you did not cancel that Uber request; your recalcitrant driver is having the last laugh. He is running Lyft jobs while your Uber request is still on his telephone.

Shame on the Miami cab driver who was caterwauling about cash. He is a DOLT, as well. Here was his chance really to shine and show the public why they should use cabs and not Uber/Lyft. By balking at the plastic, he is playing into the hands of the Uber and Lyft about which he is caterwauling. One of the reasons that Uber/Lyft have been as successful as they have is that the users did not need cash. These cab drivers must stop balking at the plastic.

TL;dr: Users, get the idea that you have to pay the freight. You can not get limousine, or even cab service for bus rates.

So sorry to hear your otherwise perfect life was interrupted by a few minutes of inconvenience. Even more sorry that you felt the need to dump on your cab driver who was there to accommodate you. Its absolutely hilarious to hear these stories regarding the "utopian esque" guber and ryft company and drivers. Why not just stick with them and continue to not get in a taxi ever again. People like you perfectly fit the definition of wanting to have your cake and eat it too. Whiners. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I must admit people like you seem to me to be just a bit narcissistic with the mindset that you and the world which evolves around you is perfect. There is no utopia in case you havent realized this. Glad to see the you and thousands of others are realizing that there is no magic bullet, no end all be all for anything including guber and ryft. Even in your industry whatever it might be, there are idiots morons scammers and so forth just as in any other. So step off your soap box and remove your figurative holier than though halo and just eat your cake and enjoy it.

Don't be quick to blame the driver, the Uber server suuuuck. As an UberEats driver I have called support a few times for help and during the call was told that I should go ahead and deliver my last order because the system showed I was still on an order that I had delivered 30+ minutes ago. No wonder I wasn't getting any new orders. I tey to explain that yes, I dropped off the food, and yes I swiped the "Delivered" bar, and now my phone shows "Online" and "Finding Trips", but they never seem to believe me, usually ending the call with, "And go ahead and finish that delivery." Yeah 'cause I've just been tooling around with some poor person's burrito for the last hour. *eye roll* This has happened repeatedly, along with other frustrating bug, like getting multiple orders at once but only one notification and the others disappear when I try to view them, being told the delivery address was the pickup address until I reboot my phone, etc. so it wouldn't shock me if the Uber passenger driver system was just as buggy.

1.Drivers must accept over 80% of rides while the app is open or risk deactivation consideration.

This means they must agree to rides they do not want even if they already have a pax on a run.

2.Most drivers will not answer texts while driving because it is distracting and AGAINST THE LAW.

Never expect a driver en route to have an ongoing convo with you.

3. Drivers who already have passengers are often volunteered for another ride. In this case they never accepted your ride, but were TOLD you would be next after dropping off their passenger. They could still be en route 20 to 30 minutes to the next drop off

4. Drivers who sit and do not move want you to cancel the ride. It is not for the small fee which is split between uber and the driver. They do NOT want your ride* but cannot refuse it without getting penalized.

They hope you catch the clue and cancel because they also get penalized for canceling rides

Riders cancel up to 2 minutes after acceptance with no fee.

5. If a driver is heading AWAY from you, it often is because the gps has a lag time to kick in and provide directions but because a driver is in traffic, they may miss the exit or turn off that is closest to you.

6. Uber gps messes up. A lot

7.The info drivers get about YOUR RIDE is limited. Unless a platinum or premium driver, the driver only knows your rating and how long it should take to get to the pick up.

They do not know where you will be going and if they have another appt, scheduled ride or job, timing is critical.

If YOUR RIDE is over 10 minutes away, many drivers will NOT want that ride. The reason is drivers are NOT PAID to drive to you. If they need to go 15 miles to pick up a 2 mile trip (worth around 2.12 in some markets) that is a loss, so as a rule they shun far away pick ups.

8. At the airport, drivers often wait 2 to 3 hours for 1 ride. If they are not a higher pro driver, they call to find out where you are going because anything more than 2 miles, uber does not allow drivers to cut in line.

In other words, if your destination is 5 minutes from the airport and you want a ride, MOST who see how close you are will REJECT your ride. No one wants to wait 2-3 hours to pick up a 2 to 5 dollar fare.

9. Those who cannot see your distance, call you or take a chance if they are new

10. Most drivers HATE: grocery store pick ups, animals in a ride and rides under 10 miles. In many markets, a 9 mile ride is worth. 6.40. The further a driver must drive to start such a ride, the more likely the driver will cancel.

11. Drivers hate driving in super congested areas. They are paid literal pennies for time and ONLY when the pax is in the car. A nightmare is driving to or away from a concert or event with a car full of people, going 2 miles but it taking 45 minutes. The driver will have made about 4.50 for that hour.

12. When your driver changes, either they canceled you or uber changed them.

13. When your driver is,over 10 minutes away, chances are high other drivers are rejecting your ride.

Rides are rejected due to distance, location (like in a congested area) or your rating or the convo you are having.

14. If you are angry, self entitled, etc and let your driver know this begore they pick you up, either you or they should cancel, it is not going to be a good ride.

15. A distracted driver is a road hazard. If your frustration, anger, self righteousness is transmitting, your ride and everyone else is at risk due to your driver being upset.

It is better to cancel, than to wait to try to force a driver to "serve you"

16. At the end of the day, drivers are NOT there to serve you they are trying to make money. The 2 to 40 most pay is often NOT WORTH the stuff drivers must deal with.

If YOUR RIDE is a losing money proposition for any driver be it too long, too short, a grocery run, you are a problem, it is too far to the pick up, etc drivers have found ways to get around a losing pick up.

Riders DO have a right to expect reasonable pick ups and fares BUT drivers have the right to decide they will not make certain runs, or accept certain behavior. Unfortunately, both uber and lyft assert these rights on paper but place other mandates on drivers to subvert the agreement.

The net result can be BOTH unhappy pax and drivers.

Note: during surges at events, uber gps often goes haywire and CANNOT keep up with event roadblocks.

Very FEW drivers scam for a cancellation fee. If there is an ongoing issue it is drivers are trying to find ways to stop exploitation. It is not uncommon for a driver to drive 20 to 28 miles only to have a pax take a 1 to 3 mile ride.

That driver will not be driving long if that happens a lot.

If you think that is tough luck..go back to your original premise about cancellations and apply that same lack of empathy to yourself.

Some drivers DO try to scam by waiting less than 5 minutes for a pax then cancelling. Uber can review and see EXACTLY where a driver is an how long they waited.

In the case of Alejandro driving 31 min to you and not texting you..if he had ro drive so far, they pulled him from general traffic and not the airport queue and YOU should have seen that and the time est on your phone. The driver cannot make up the time. Drivers are tracked, all the time the app is running.

There is a ride share app called Wingz that allows you to schedule your ride in advance. This is perfect for airport trips. Only once has it ever let me down and that's when my flight was delayed and the driver said he couldn't take me and Wingz couldn't find me another driver. So I took a taxi that time and found that taxi rates had come down a lot at my airport and what used to be a $45 trip home was now a $35 trip, about the same price as Wingz.

I've taken Lyft a couple of times on business trips with no issues, I wouldn't even consider Uber due to their business culture. I haven't even signed up with them.

Uber and lyft is the real scammers..Im a driver we do not receive a cancellation fee if we do not arrive ...We barely receive this fee after arriving and the customer does not show...In when we do its 5 dollars not 10....Drivers except rides in dont go so they won't be penalized for declining a ride they dont want....As far as cancellation fee thats uber and lyft scamming if we arrive 1 min after gps they say we are not eligible for a fee because you arrived late....period

Uber takes $5 for the cancellation. They only pay the driver a portion of that. So Uber is making money on not doing anything. Start with that thought and you should be able to figure out that it's the company rooted in greed and not the drivers. Refunds never affect the driver. But how is there any profit in playing games over a few bucks for a cancellation when...you know...I could just pick someone up and drop them off and make tips. This is kind of a waste of an article to be honest.

I've had that maybe twice, since Lyft has recently changed to a system where after a certain amount of time, if the driver isn't headed in your direction on something around the expected time scale, the app automatically swaps you to a driver who's closer to you, so those issues almost never happen.

Early on when I used Lyft, I'd have a problem with drivers not accepting my rides, when one driver finally pointed out that the problem was that I had a 5.0 star rating despite having two years on the app, and that was something only new passengers usually had because he says "everyone who rides for long enough eventually runs into a jerk who gives them a low rating for no reason," so he expected that most drivers thought I might be a bot, company exec, "secret shopper" type situation, or someone else who had the ability to get Lyft to give me a fake passenger rating, and he'd only picked me up because he was curious to see who was behind that kind of profile. So he offered to give me a 4-star review, I agreed, and sure enough, the problems getting accepted and picked up vanished.

The other big problem I had was when Lyft started doing "pickup lots" at concerts and stuff, their system was absolute shit, and even though riders would be directed to the pickup lot, drivers who weren't already in the lot would be marked as "arrived" any time when they got within a certain distance of any edges of the venue's property - so the timer would start running down while the driver and rider were stuck half a mile apart, resulting in much frustration for both people.

Luckily the local taxi company has started following the app model, where you can request a ride, see an estimate of how much it'll cost and when they'll arrive, and get proof of who you're supposed to be riding with. It's still fairly unaffordable for most people here because it's 3-4x the rideshare prices and there's no equivalent to UberPool/Lyft Line if you want to make it more affordable by sharing, but at least it'll give you a reasonable estimate instead of being like "Surprise this 7 mile trip cost you $75 and the driver is suddenly insisting his credit card machine is broken even though you were not alerted of that when you called the cab company." Ironically, the "professional" drivers who are paid the same no matter how many rides they give in a day, like the paratransit drivers, are the absolute WORST and won't think twice about showing up 45 minutes late bc they know that if the rider had the money to take any other form of transportation, or the ability to take the bus instead, they'd be doing that.

The thing that most people dont understand is that this isn't necessarily a scam. The reality is that Uber and Lyft do not show drivers where you are going until after you are in the car and the driver has started the ride. The reason this is important to understand is that if you end up needing to go 2 miles in a certain direction but that way takes the driver into heavy traffic and the ride might last an hour. But since you were only going a mile or two the pay for that ride, even if you paid a lot for it, is garbage. Uber and Lyft will take the majority of that money for themselves. So that driver may make $6 and have spent an hour on that run. The issue with cancellations is that after accepting Uber and Lyft will punish the driver for cancelling, even in cases of an actual emergency. For the majority of drivers it is not about the cancellation fee. Most driver couldn't care less about that fee unless you actually wasted their time. The issue rests with Uber and Lyft not showing them where you are going and allowing the driver to make an informed decision about whether they want to take the run or not. When you're working as a contractor you're supposed to have all those facts so you can make the appropriate decisions for your bottom line. If you want to place appropriate blame somewhere then place it at the feet of Uber and Lyft. They are the responsible parties in this instance.