News and notes from around the interweb:
- Ubers CEO went undercover as a driver and doesn’t like his customers (“some customers’ behavior unpleasantly surprised Khosrowshahi…riders discussing personal problems or confidential corporate information as if they were the only people in the car — made him feel slighted.”). Fundamentally the business he is in is hard because he has to entice both sides of the market onto the platform. If he gives too good of a deal to riders, drivers balk. If he does too well by drivers, riders exit. That was fine when they were happy lighting VC money on fire – it made up the difference. Not so good now.
When Khosrowshahi made food deliveries using an electric bike, he often encountered a practice called “tip-baiting,” where customers entice a courier with a big tip when they place the order, before reducing it after delivery.
- Seems like pins for nearly anything other than not quitting or being fired would be better. Pins for letters of commendation from managers or complimentary letters from customers maybe?
UA; new pins, i think kinda neat: pic.twitter.com/VrOK6QMOeu
— 🇺🇦 JonNYC 🇺🇦 (@xJonNYC) April 9, 2023
- I mean, who hasn’t made this mistake?
- FBI warns against using public phone charging stations (HT: Tommy L)
- Next time, don’t attack the flight attendant, just go…
- How retired planes are stripped for parts.
There’s three sides to Every story.
Uber is pushing people away because of ridiculous service fees in their food orders. Charging 14 dollars in service fees on a 38 dollar order AND the driver expects a TIP too
What exactly are the service fees for?
There are other issues with Uber.
1) Guaranteed scheduled pickup is far from guaranteed. If I book a car to airport for pickup at 7am, the driver can simply cancel. This is a HUGE issue
2) Drivers take pickup and say they’ll be there in 15-20 minutes and cancel with 1 minute left. Your screwed and you can’t leave negative feedback
3) Uber doesn’t enforce quality standards of Uber XL, Uber Comfort or Uber X. I’ve gotten the same class of car at each level
I’ve had drivers that want to play ‘their music’ the whole ride, control the radio station, are eating while driving or have someone else in front seat as a companion and talking a mile a minute to them or on a headset. To the CEO there are bad drivers too and Uber has ZERO customer service if there is an issue
Hey Mets Fan, don’t forget Uber is ALSO charging the restaurant a fee on the other end too. It’s hard to believe all those fees are justified and that Uber couldn’t still be profitable with half or even a quarter of the fees!
At least 2/3 of the time I book a nightime ride from airport to home, the driver cancels. I get no compensation and I can’t even leave negative feedback. It’s exactly as if the company does not care that they wasted my time and left me literally out in the cold.
The ride services need to reimburse customers when drivers cancel a ride. That will provide a direct financial incentive not to cancel.
If one of two companies implements this, that company will get 100% of my business, even at a higher price.
Next Dara should try being a passenger and use this service and see what passengers experience. Uber has gone from being great to being a PITA. Drivers that cancel. Promised pickups that get later and later. Drivers that don’t cancel but never come to get you. Fake spills reported. It’s a long list.
@Jeff, UberEats isn’t profitable WITH all those fees. They are basically a funnel of money from investors to employees/end users. Door Dash and Grubhub are both minimally profitable. Turns out, restaurant delivery is a low margin business that doesn’t scale.
@Mets Fan in SC – “What exactly are the service fees for?”
VCs want their billions back eventually, plus they spent a quarter billion on fucking over drivers AND customers in the state of California through their ballot initiative
If you do not like Uber start calling a cab.
STOP tipping for Uber deliveries. The whole thing is a scam.