Uber

[bickster]

Just now, bobzy said:

In fairness on these points, the "long way" charge is still cheaper than an alternative who charges you for the "short way"...

 

...and Google Maps has never let me down on a journey

I'll bet it did bit you didn't notice. I use it on a minute by minute basis in work and have to force it to take the correct route about 90% of the time. I'm using it as a distance measuring tool as we in the trade are legally obliged to quote for the shortest route, that's the route any form of taxi is supposed to take as a condition of licence (you know so the public dont get ripped off) but getting google to do it isnt easy

[bickster]

7 minutes ago, blandy said:

Yeah, exactly. As the article say - they got a 4 month extension (only) in the summer because of all these concerns by the bissies. The regulator (TfL) is doing their job properly. Uber is a company whose only aim seems to be kill the rivals, make tons of money and stuff everyone else. For all that technology can advance things and help make the world work better, as (IMO) with all business Uber needs an approach that is focused on helping people, not harming their prospects. Or it needs to eff off.

Actually, that isn't why they only got 4 months. All the big players only got small extensions because TfL were consulting on raising the price of a licence to operate because they were losing money hand over fist and Taxi Licensing Enforcement is meant to self financing. They announced the new pricing structure only last week

EDIT: it its also a myth this technological advancement thing, there isnt one technological advancement in the Uber app, its quite technologically backwards

[blandy]

1 minute ago, bickster said:

Actually, that isn't why they only got 4 months

OK, sorry. I went off this (from my link). I bow to your superior knowledge on this, as ever.

Quote

ULL were granted a four-month extension to that licence earlier this year. This was because TfL, who are responsible for regulating taxi services in London, had a number of concerns that ULL might not meet the required standards of operational practice. 

 

[Stevo985]

2 hours ago, bickster said:

no need to carry cash = You’ve voluntarily given your card details to a company that have proved via the many accounts for sale on the Dark Web that they can’t keep that info safe.

 

Doesn't bother me. They have my prepaid card details

2 hours ago, bickster said:

 

you know how much it will cost beforehand = they'll take you the short way but have charged you for the long way. There’s a court case pending on this very issue in the US right now

No they don't. At least not in my experience. And if they do, it's still cheaper than everyone else.

2 hours ago, bickster said:

 

The drivers are polite because of the star rating nonsense, slip below 4.6 once and they go to the retraining camp. Go below it  a second time and they need to find a new method of earning money. 

 

Great. That's absolutely a good thing.

2 hours ago, bickster said:

 

They get you to the destination using the highly woeful google maps, it’s genuinely worse than most commercially available sat nags, even Vuse which is free is better

 

No it's not. It's the sat nav I choose to use despite having access to Apple Maps, Tom Tom, Audi's Sat Nav and Waze. And having previously used a Garmin. It's by far the best of that lot. 

[bickster]

23 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Doesn't bother me. They have my prepaid card details

No they don't. At least not in my experience. And if they do, it's still cheaper than everyone else.

Great. That's absolutely a good thing.

No it's not. It's the sat nav I choose to use despite having access to Apple Maps, Tom Tom, Audi's Sat Nav and Waze. And having previously used a Garmin. It's by far the best of that lot. 

Not for a taxi service it isn’t. Any PH or Hack is required by condition of their licence to take the shortest route. Google maps just isn’t capable of that, it has to be forced to go the shortest route manually (not poss on Uber app), it doesn’t understand there are roads that taxis can use that others can’t and trying to even force the map to use those routes and it  throws a complete wobbler. The fact that it’s still cheaper (on their minimum tariff at least) is irrelevant, they could have done the route even cheaper at their advertised tariffs. If a plummer advertised that his rates were £x per hour and the job should take 2 hours, but he takes the piss and stretches it out to 3 hours you’d be peeved no?

This stuff does matter, it matters to a lot of people and I speak as someone who works for a company that is actually cheaper than Uber a lot of the time. Our minimum fare is £2:50, Uber’s in Liverpool is £3 and that’s before you move. Our min fare includes the first mile, theirs doesn’t. Uber charge you for time in the cab, we don't. Uber charge you £4 for the driver cancelling the job, we don’t charge you a penny for no shows. Uber’s mileage rate actually goes up after 6 miles in Liverpool ours remains consistent. If Uber is surging at anything above x1.3 they are more expensive than our highest Saturday night tariff. But people still complain rightly so that the driver has taken the long route and he's usually only about 0.2 to 0.5 mile out. (30 - 70p)

PS they have your prepaid cards, they are still prepaid with your money I presume?

[AVFC_Hitz]

Bulgarian Mafia kicked out Uber in Sofia. 

Never used them, probably never will. They remind me of people that queue for iPhones.

[Stevo985]

48 minutes ago, bickster said:

Not for a taxi service it isn’t. Any PH or Hack is required by condition of their licence to take the shortest route. Google maps just isn’t capable of that, it has to be forced to go the shortest route manually (not poss on Uber app), it doesn’t understand there are roads that taxis can use that others can’t and trying to even force the map to use those routes and it  throws a complete wobbler. The fact that it’s still cheaper (on their minimum tariff at least) is irrelevant, they could have done the route even cheaper at their advertised tariffs. If a plummer advertised that his rates were £x per hour and the job should take 2 hours, but he takes the piss and stretches it out to 3 hours you’d be peeved no? 

This stuff does matter, it matters to a lot of people and I speak as someone who works for a company that is actually cheaper than Uber a lot of the time. Our minimum fare is £2:50, Uber’s in Liverpool is £3 and that’s before you move. Our min fare includes the first mile, theirs doesn’t. Uber charge you for time in the cab, we don't. Uber charge you £4 for the driver cancelling the job, we don’t charge you a penny for no shows. Uber’s mileage rate actually goes up after 6 miles in Liverpool ours remains consistent. If Uber is surging at anything above x1.3 they are more expensive than our highest Saturday night tariff. But people still complain rightly so that the driver has taken the long route and he's usually only about 0.2 to 0.5 mile out. (30 - 70p)

PS they have your prepaid cards, they are still prepaid with your money I presume?

On the plumber, no. Not if he was still cheaper than everyone else. I couldn't give a shit.

Uber don't charge you £4 for the driver cancelling the job. That has literally never happened to me. If I ever live in Liverpool I might use your firm. As it is I live in a city where Uber is comfortably the cheapest. A2B were the only ones who come close. Their customer service ended up being awful, and Uber has always been perfect.

Yes it's prepaid with my money. A small limited amount that I usually only use for a night out. If my details were compromised, then they could only take what was loaded onto the card. And I can cancel the card in 2 seconds using my phone.

Edited September 25, 2017 by Stevo985

[bickster]

Just an example of what I was talking about. Put in our old house address to New Street Station, this is the route Uber chose and the cancellation fee in Brum is £3:50 as is the minimum fare

That route is hilarious, it's gone down the motorway, I actually expected it to go down the Walsall Road, It should have gone through Handsworth Wood and Hamstead. That is the first route I tried

 

[Seat68]

I had a cancellation fee charged in Vegas, I was on one side of the hotel and they were on the other, the driver cancelled and I was charged $5, in the app I tapped my screen twice and it was refunded immediately. 

[AlwaysAVFC]

13 hours ago, bobzy said:

In fairness on these points, the "long way" charge is still cheaper than an alternative who charges you for the "short way"...

 

...and Google Maps has never let me down on a journey

Slightly off on a tangent but my street doesn't exist on google maps (think the house is 6/7 years old) 

My Mrs likes to sell unwanted things on Facebook. Without fail, while having told the buyers to not to use google maps and to check any sat nav is taking you to the right place, none listen and all end up 5 miles away.

[chrisp65]

Ibis Walk is nowhere near the Ibis in Gloucester.

Missed the first round of drinks on Friday.

 

[tonyh29]

Just now, chrisp65 said:

Missed the first round of drinks on Friday.

 

was that because it was your round  

 

[Wainy316]

My lord

[TrentVilla]

@bickster

So, the appeal by Uber... on what grounds will they appeal (other than them being very upset) and what are their chances?

[Stevo985]

3 hours ago, bickster said:

Just an example of what I was talking about. Put in our old house address to New Street Station, this is the route Uber chose and the cancellation fee in Brum is £3:50 as is the minimum fare

That route is hilarious, it's gone down the motorway, I actually expected it to go down the Walsall Road, It should have gone through Handsworth Wood and Hamstead. That is the first route I tried

 

Point taken about the sat nav. I still don't think it's a big issue though. It shows you the route, so you can quite easily tell the driver not to take that route, they're still humans. You'll still only get charged for the shorter journey then. Or you can choose not to use them at all if not.
Plus pretty much every taxi driver, uber or not, uses a sat nav these days (and plenty of them use Google) so I imagine this issue is something that happens all the time. Black Cabs aside of course, but I don't think the driver knowing where he's going is worth paying double or triple for.

 

You said earlier that the customer gets charged if the DRIVER cancels. That's not true is it?

Edited September 26, 2017 by Stevo985

[bickster]

12 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Point taken about the sat nav. I still don't think it's a big issue though. It shows you the route, so you can quite easily tell the driver not to take that route, they're still humans. You'll still only get charged for the shorter journey then. Or you can choose not to use them at all if not.
Plus pretty much every taxi driver, uber or not, uses a sat nav these days (and plenty of them use Google) so I imagine this issue is something that happens all the time. Black Cabs aside of course, but I don't think the driver knowing where he's going is worth paying double or triple for.

 

You said earlier that the customer gets charged if the DRIVER cancels. That's not true is it?

It’s absolutely 100% true. If driver is allocated to job more than 2 mins (I think) and customer cancels or driver is at what he thinks is location and no one shows up... you are charged.

you are only charged the short route if you haven’t agreed the fare with the app beforehand

[bickster]

1 hour ago, TrentVilla said:

@bickster

So, the appeal by Uber... on what grounds will they appeal (other than them being very upset) and what are their chances?

I’d be guessing at this point 

[rjw63]

Went to a gig in Brum last year, and had a few beers with Pelle and the Swedes after. This was the only time we had a problem with Uber....1.30am just outside city centre and we had about 5 cancel on us. No charges were incurred.

[TrentVilla]

2 hours ago, bickster said:

I’d be guessing at this point 

An informed one though.

I wasn’t expecting too much of an inside track on their case

[TrentVilla]

21 minutes ago, rjw63 said:

Went to a gig in Brum last year, and had a few beers with Pelle and the Swedes after. This was the only time we had a problem with Uber....1.30am just outside city centre and we had about 5 cancel on us. No charges were incurred.

Must have known you were party of the party!!!