[MartynSinclair]

I have been a regular Uber user for a year or so and only just found the part of the app that tells you about your driver. In case you didn’t realise there are details on the app about your driver, beyond the car reg and his / her name. I recently found the part that tells you how many rides he has made, his star rating and passenger comment. The same is available for drivers to see about the passengers. Interestingly there is a statistic somewhere that shows the average passenger rating is lower than the average driver rating and drivers can and do turn down jobs based on the passenger rating.

I know there are always bad apples and have read the shocking experience LP’s family suffered, I also understand the surge pricing issue and think it is partially unfair, BUT who has had good/bad experiences with Uber?

As once mentioned, i have only had 1 bad driver, who drove with a foot on the brakes, but apart from that, I have only had good experiences..

[SimonRowberry]

Hi,

I only use Uber in the UK between LHR hotels and the terminals. I have used them several times in Zagreb, and the cars were dirty and the drivers were frankly fairly useless.

I have also used them in Finland, where the savings are huge and have also found the cars to be dirty, the drivers useless and a lack of language ability (English or Finnish). However, they now no longer operate in Finland, I understand, having “suspended” their operations. Indeed, I once had to direct a driver (on a longish journey from the city centre to Espoonlahti) as he couldn’t read his satnav…. Mind you, the ‘normal’ cab drivers can lack language skills and knowledge in Helsinki as well. I once had a ‘black cab’ driver take me from the Kämp Hotel to Helsinki/Vantaa, and he got lost and we ended up in the cargo area!

On the positive side, I used Uber in Amsterdam a few times a couple of weeks ago. They were absolutely excellent. The drivers were well dressed, they arrived quickly and the cars were spotless. The fares were around 70% or less of what I would have expected to pay in a normal cab – for example, from the Amstel Hotel to Schiphol was around €25.00.

Simon

[LuganoPirate]

Apart from my experience, so many of my friends have had at least one bad experience with UBER. From drivers not knowing the way, to overcharging, demanding a tip, to assaults. Not once have I had a complaint using cabs.

My biggest gripe though was ubers total non interest or help claiming they are not responsible but just put a passenger in touch with a driver. Despite all the advertising giving the impression you’re taking a UBER, you’re not. You’re taking a private driver who pays a slice of the fare to UBER.

[Swissdiver]

As mentioned before, I am a heavy user of Uber, and don’t use taxis excepted in Central London and where Uber is not available.There are mainly six reasons for this:
– Safety: I can track the driver, know where he goes and how. Taxi in some places tend to trick you.
– Convenience: No language issue. I write in English my destination, the driver gets it in his local language.
– Reliability: Uber drivers will take the ride no matter where you go while many taxi drivers will only take the ones they like.
– Governance: Uber drivers abide to Uber rules, taxis to their own, like in many Thai places where no one use the meter.
– After-sale service: With a taxi, little chance to get heard if something is wrong. Uber will deal with the issue.
– Price and choice: for the same Toyota Prius, UberX will cost much less than a taxi (-50% in Geneva). And if I don’t want a Prius, I can chose an Uber Black, paying the same as for a taxi but getting a decent car. And I can select a larger one in some locations.

Frankly I don’t see the point in continuing to get screwed by taxi drivers wherever an alternative exist. Rogue drivers exist in any corporation. So limiting the risks by using a GPS tracked service does just make sense!

[DavidGordon10]

A couple of good experiences with them in Philadelphia recently, but outrageously ripped off in London (LHR T2) this week.

I requested the ride at 22.05 on 8 March
The driver phoned me to confirm and to confirm where I was waiting
He then asked me my destination
He then phoned me to say he had a puncture and could not accept the booking
I asked him to cancel it and he said he could not
He said I should cancel – and said there would be no cost as “it would be less than two minutes”

I was charged a £10 cancellation fee.

What was wrong

He should never have accepted the ride if he had a puncture
The “puncture” becoming apparent after he had confirmed my destination is odd
Why could he not cancel? His phone was working and he had accepted my ride in the normal way.

The next driver gave a very satisfactory ride to my destination.

It stinks. Worse, the Uber website will not let me get in to demand a refund, it tells me the password is wrong and then the “resent password” function is just not working

[capetonianm]

A strongly worded registered letter to the UK company address on file at Companies House should do the trick.

Aldgate Tower – First Floor, 2 Leman Street, London, E1 8FA

[Ah-Mahdi]

[quote quote=856511]A couple of good experiences with them in Philadelphia recently, but outrageously ripped off in London (LHR T2) this week.

I requested the ride at 22.05 on 8 March
The driver phoned me to confirm and to confirm where I was waiting
He then asked me my destination
He then phoned me to say he had a puncture and could not accept the booking
I asked him to cancel it and he said he could not
He said I should cancel – and said there would be no cost as “it would be less than two minutes”

I was charged a £10 cancellation fee.

What was wrong

He should never have accepted the ride if he had a puncture
The “puncture” becoming apparent after he had confirmed my destination is odd
Why could he not cancel? His phone was working and he had accepted my ride in the normal way.

The next driver gave a very satisfactory ride to my destination.

It stinks. Worse, the Uber website will not let me get in to demand a refund, it tells me the password is wrong and then the “resent password” function is just not working[/quote]

This is what the Uber drivers do to know where you are going, when they accept you they don’t know where exactly the destination till they pick you up, so they call and ask you where you are going so if it does not suit them then they cancel, this happened to me several times as I live close to the airport in Manchester and many drivers prefer much longer journeys, one of the uber drivers saw me looking around, so he asked me what is going on, I told him that the driver called me and asked my destination then suddenly after saying he will be there in 5 min instead he cancelled , he told me not to tell the driver your destination and tell him that the destination will appear for you on your platform and even threaten to report them if they cancel on you.

[Swissdiver]

[quote quote=856511]A couple of good experiences with them in Philadelphia recently, but outrageously ripped off in London (LHR T2) this week.

I requested the ride at 22.05 on 8 March
The driver phoned me to confirm and to confirm where I was waiting
He then asked me my destination
He then phoned me to say he had a puncture and could not accept the booking
I asked him to cancel it and he said he could not
He said I should cancel – and said there would be no cost as “it would be less than two minutes”

I was charged a £10 cancellation fee.

What was wrong

He should never have accepted the ride if he had a puncture
The “puncture” becoming apparent after he had confirmed my destination is odd
Why could he not cancel? His phone was working and he had accepted my ride in the normal way.

The next driver gave a very satisfactory ride to my destination.

It stinks. Worse, the Uber website will not let me get in to demand a refund, it tells me the password is wrong and then the “resent password” function is just not working[/quote]

It happens occasionally and it is unacceptable. Uber tries to fight this. The trick is to refuse to do it yourself as drivers get into trouble when they cancel too often, and they know it. As for the password reset issue, there is a way: https://help.uber.com/h/91c1ddc5-b1d8-4b4c-8f58-df336a9ebc47

[DavidGordon10]

Many thanks all three responders. The crazy thing is that, when Uber is good, it is very good.

One calculation is that the time to reclaim the £10 will cost a lot more than £10 at my normal hourly rate. I suppose that is part of their calculation.

[Swissdiver]

[quote quote=856614]Many thanks all three responders. The crazy thing is that, when Uber is good, it is very good.

One calculation is that the time to reclaim the £10 will cost a lot more than £10 at my normal hourly rate. I suppose that is part of their calculation.[/quote]

This is the rational thinking. Then there are those damn principles…

[JPNU]

[quote quote=856614]Many thanks all three responders. The crazy thing is that, when Uber is good, it is very good.

One calculation is that the time to reclaim the £10 will cost a lot more than £10 at my normal hourly rate. I suppose that is part of their calculation.[/quote]

I’m not sure about that (but then I don’t know your rate).

I complained about an uber driver missing the turn off to the airport and taking a circuitous route about six weeks after the fact. It took me about four minutes. I had an apology and refund within one hour. No need for further communication.

[capetonianm]

Since learning of LuganoPirate’s family’s experience I am reluctant to use Uber in CPT specially for early morning and late night airport runs. Over the next couple of weeks we have both, and I am using a specialist transfer company.
I appreciate that there is no 100% guarantee of safety.

Uber faces a class action suit by customers who say they suffered emotional trauma and physical injuries while using its service. Eleven people represented by Ulrich Roux Attorneys will approach the High Court in an effort to pursue a damages claim from the transportation service as a class action.

The class action comes on the back of criminal and civil suits involving people who were harmed, allegedly while using Uber.

In a criminal case, four men are currently facing trial on a number of charges including rape, attempted rape, kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances and attempted murder. They allegedly attacked five Uber users between July and August 2016.

According to the charge sheet, the accused’s modus operandi was for one of them to pose as an Uber taxi driver and pretend to be the driver who received the victim’s Uber request. But he was not the driver linked to the victim’s Uber app.

In most of the cases, the other accused would emerge from the boot of the car, through the back seat, and attack the victims, stabbing and raping them in all cases but one, which was an attempted rape. The victims were also robbed of their belongings and made to tell the accused their bank account details.

In the civil case, Roux said that eight people had come forward wanting to claim damages from Uber for incidents that took place while they were using the service.

Safety ‘a top priority’

Roux said that the team of lawyers was drafting an application to have the case certified as a class action, which must be approved by the High Court before it can proceed. He said the team believed that Uber had “vicarious liability” in these incidents, as it advertised the service as safe and reliable to use.

Uber told News24 on Thursday that it could not comment on a case that has not yet begun, however, its thoughts remain with the riders affected by these incidents, it said.

“Our thoughts continue to be with the riders and their families, these incidents are deeply upsetting.

“As soon as these incidents were reported we reached out to local authorities and whatever information we could provide was handed over to the police and it was this close collaboration that led to the arrest of the suspect. In cases of this nature we work closely with police to support their investigations,” Uber explained in a statement on Thursday.

The taxi service also wished to clarify that since these incidents, it had undertaken to improve its verification process and safety features for riders and drivers.

“Safety is a top priority for Uber, and has been since our launch in South Africa. We’re committed to doing the right thing and take on our part of the responsibility to increase safety.

“We constantly invest and innovate to raise the bar on safety,” Uber said.

[MartynSinclair]

[quote quote=826511]Turns out drivers are cancelling trips to claim the easy EUR5 and then reaccepting the same customers, thereby getting effectively a EUR5 tip.
Anyone else have similar negative experiences on UBER?[/quote]

I thought these Uber scams had stopped. Used an Uber Wednesday eve out of central London to North London. Ride arrived within minutes, hopped in, saw the driver faffing about. He apologised and said the software wasn’t working I need to get out. 5 minutes later got a £6 notification of being late and to rub salt into the wound, my phone then died and had to get a black cab home for double the cost.

Gave the driver 1 star – which he will probably appeal, Uber only gave me a £6 credit (not a refund)..

2nd bad driver in about 70 rides. I can live with that….

[gaargy]

Uber not a scam, I use it for a long time.

[capetonianm]

I’ve just used Uber for a short journey in CPT. 100% satisfied.

The car arrived within 3 minutes, driver from Botswana, very pleasant and polite, smooth safe drive, and he let me direct the route instead of blindly following a satnav.

[Author]

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