Uber's Terrifying 'Ghost Drivers' Are Freaking Out Passengers in China (qz.com)

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Uber's Terrifying 'Ghost Drivers' Are Freaking Out Passengers in China (qz.com)

Posted by msmash on Thursday September 22, 2016 @02:00AM from the ghost-drivers dept.

Several Chinese publications are reporting that "ghost drivers" are frightening Uber passengers into paying for trips they didn't take. Passengers in Tianjin, Qingdao, Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou have been canceling Uber rides after seeing creepy driver profile pictures pop up in the app. Quartz reports: Passengers using the ride-hailing app in several Chinese cities have reported seeing their requests picked up by drivers with creepy profile photos of zombie faces. According to Chinese news site Sixth Tone, the point of these ghostly profiles is to scare passengers into canceling the trip, so they are fined for a few yuan (less than a dollar), which goes to the driver. Other passengers have reported seeing their rides accepted, but then their trips were "started" by the driver on the app before they even get to the car. These "ghost rides" last less than a minute, with the driver charging customers between 8 and 15 yuan (about 1 to 2 dollars) for a ride that never happened. Calls to the drivers in these cases are never picked up, according to The Paper, a state-owned media. Passengers can however eventually be reimbursed by Uber China if they lodge a complaint.

81 comments

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China? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 02:03 · Score: -1

Have goats?
1. Re: China? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 03:17 · Score: 0
  
  That's Iran.
  Chinese screw other people, not goats.
2. Re:China? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 10:14 · Score: 0
  
  Based on the title I thought this article was going to be about self-driving cars and people freaking out when their Uber pulls up without a driver.
3. Re:China? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 13:35 · Score: 0
  
  Have goats?
  That happens only in Charlotte and other BLM places.
How does that happen? by olsmeister · 2016-09-22 02:05 · Score: 2

I thought one of the selling points of Uber was that customers could review the drivers, and so you knew in advance you were getting someone you could trust?
1. Re:How does that happen? by Joe_Dragon · 2016-09-22 02:09 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  customers could review the drivers so we can call them 1099 workers and get out of the stuff that comes with w2 ones.
2. Re:How does that happen? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 02:14 · Score: 0
  
  It's China...they probably already have automated spamming of their driver reviews.
3. Re:How does that happen? by SmaryJerry · 2016-09-22 02:16 · Score: 1
  
  I think this will work itself out with reviews eventually but i bet people can still screw a certain amount of people before that happens.
4. Re:How does that happen? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 02:33 · Score: 0
  
  You can only review drivers with whom you have had a ride. If the driver cancels before the ride, then you cannot write a review.
5. Re: How does that happen? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 05:02 · Score: -1
  
  Yawn. Nice job repeating something you overheard from the grownups. Now off to bed with you.
Uber is a sham by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 02:05 · Score: -1, Troll

If you use it, you're a big dummy.
Comments?
1. Re:Uber is a sham by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 02:24 · Score: 0
  
  I've used Uber 3 or 4 times in LA and always enjoyed it. The cars were nice. The drivers were nice. It was easier to arrange a ride then using a traditional taxi. The cost seemed comparable to a taxi cost.
2. Re:Uber is a sham by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 02:40 · Score: 0
  
  Uber and its peers remove significant friction from the standard cab experience: hail-by-app, track approach of car, fare negotiated with the dispatcher rather than driver, dispatcher oversight of route actually driven, cardless payment, driver reviews and performance management, dynamically sized pool of cars on the road. Each of these significantly improves the experience of hiring a car. On the flipside, These "ride hailing" companies ares monetizing the commercial use of public roadways without paying for it, and most drivers likely do not have insurance that covers their livery activities.
3. Re:Uber is a sham by 110010001000 · 2016-09-22 02:59 · Score: 1
  
  Traditional taxi drivers don't pay for the "commercial use" of public roadways either. Unless you mean that they pay off the local politicians to maintain their hold on the market?
4. Re:Uber is a sham by master_kaos · 2016-09-22 06:07 · Score: 1
  
  comparable? Every time I have used uber it has always been at least 40% cheaper than a cab and a much nicer experience.
5. Re: Uber is a sham by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 07:33 · Score: 0
  
  Use your brain dude!
Hang ON!~ seperate post by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 02:07 · Score: 0

Scientists Discover That Horses Can Use Symbols To Talk To Us
OH MY GOD!~!
That's the last ride I take without an interpreter. What are those horses saying behind our backs ??
1. Re: Hang ON!~ seperate post by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 03:10 · Score: 0
  
  more like, what are we saying on their backs?
Simple Solutions by Ronin+Developer · 2016-09-22 02:15 · Score: 5, Interesting

to the "ghost rides".
Modify the Uber app so that the rider has to confirm the start of the ride on their mobile device.
Reporting of "scary" profile pics should be simple as well - simple snapshot and forward - If proven - the driver takes a hit on their next 5 drives - say $1-2 per drive.
Problem solved.
1. Re:Simple Solutions by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 02:32 · Score: 0
  
  I wonder how this works if the driver has a legitimate condition that makes their face look a bit scary.
2. Re:Simple Solutions by Grishnakh · 2016-09-22 02:50 · Score: 2
  
  What is it with people like you and your advocacy of slap-on-the-wrist punishments? This pathetic little punishment won't fix the problem; the solution is to ban these drivers for life once the company finds out that they're doing this. Uber is a private company and has every right to terminate a business relationship with a driver who is willfully harming its business and reputation this way, and absolutely should.
3. Re:Simple Solutions by plopez · 2016-09-22 02:58 · Score: 2
  
  That's called firing people and turns into an employer/employee relationship.
  
  --
  putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
4. Re:Simple Solutions by meta-monkey · 2016-09-22 03:01 · Score: 2
  
  When a report comes in the driver has the options to respond:
  1. "Yes, I was making scary faces and I'll stop now."
  2. "I'm just really ugly."
  Then they can get a star on their profile that says "driver fugly, not actual zombie."
  
  --
  We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
5. Re:Simple Solutions by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 03:02 · Score: 1
  
  Modify the Uber app so that the rider has to confirm the start of the ride on their mobile device
  So what happens when a passenger "forgets" to acknowledge the start of a ride? You'd have to have a system which would let the driver check that the passenger has acknowledge the start of the ride, and then there'll inevitably be issues with people not having a mobile connection to use to send the acknowledgement to Ubers servers.
6. Re:Simple Solutions by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 03:13 · Score: 0
  
  That's called firing people and turns into an employer/employee relationship.
  Not at all.
  Corporations remove contract workers all the time when the contract is terminated.
  Same with contractors to the military.
7. Re:Simple Solutions by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 03:20 · Score: 0
  
  In each persons app they have to hit ride has started. The driver can see in theirs if the user has said it started. If the user hasn't hit it, then the driver doesn't drive.
8. Re:Simple Solutions by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · 2016-09-22 03:22 · Score: 1
  
  Modify the Uber app so that the rider has to confirm the start of the ride on their mobile device.
  Suppose the user refuses to confirm the start of the ride to try to get it for free. What do you do then?
  
  Reporting of "scary" profile pics should be simple as well - simple snapshot and forward - If proven - the driver takes a hit on their next 5 drives - say $1-2 per drive.
  What's to stop people from just being jerks and reporting "scary" photos when it's not true? For example, person A has a grudge against person B and A knows that B drives for Uber so A gets a bunch of his/her friends to report B's photo as "scary".
  
  Problem solved.
  Maybe not for the reasons I stated but the thought also occurs to me that maybe Uber doesn't want to solve this problem for various reasons. Maybe it's rare or they have also thought of my problems with your solutions and view the fixes as worse than the problem.
9. Re:Simple Solutions by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 04:05 · Score: 0
  
  Which totally ignores the post you were replying to - good job!
10. Re:Simple Solutions by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 04:38 · Score: 0
  
  Local problems don't need a global solution. The fixes here are straightforward.
  Add a "cancel ride and report driver" option that enables the user to flag drivers for whatever (creepy profile, unsafe vehicle, etc) without having to get into the car with them.
  Send a confirmation that the ride has started (I think that this is already done) and allow the user to dispute that the ride started through the app. Since the app knows the location of the passenger and the driver its easy to sanity check this to detect users that are trying to scam free rides. Riders or drivers that scam even once should be banned from the platform. Drivers could also install a camera (already in most livery vehicles here in NYC) to provide additional protection against a scamming user.
11. Re:Simple Solutions by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 04:43 · Score: 0
  
  Modify the Uber app so that the rider has to confirm the start of the ride on their mobile device.
  Suppose the user refuses to confirm the start of the ride to try to get it for free. What do you do then?
  Then the driver doesn't provide the ride.
  ScamPassengerWannabe: "Hey, I'd like to use your service, but not pay. We cool?"
  GhostFaceDriver: "WTF?!? Are you not seeing my ghost face?"
12. Re: Simple Solutions by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 05:07 · Score: 1
  
  What is with people on me you and your little slap on the wrist punishments? We should zombify the drivers and send them in their way to inflict even more terror!
13. Re:Simple Solutions by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 05:26 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah, what if you're getting a ride from Skelton Knaggs?
14. Re:Simple Solutions by TangoMargarine · 2016-09-22 05:54 · Score: 1
  
  inb4 every single driver caught doing this goes with option number 2.
  
  --
  Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
15. Re:Simple Solutions by thegarbz · 2016-09-22 11:06 · Score: 1
  
  and then there'll inevitably be issues with people not having a mobile connection
  Something tells me if you don't have a mobile connection then you're not going to be upset about having to acknowledge something you need a mobile connection to access in the first place.
16. Re:Simple Solutions by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 11:30 · Score: 0
  
  Something tells me if you don't have a mobile connection then you're not going to be upset about having to acknowledge something you need a mobile connection to access in the first place.
  Not necessarily. Mobile connections vary, and the location where you call the ride is not necessarily the same place where the ride starts. (Or you could have enough batter life to call the ride, but have your phone die while you're waiting for the driver to pick you up.)
  The designated Uber/Lyft pickup point for my local Airport is in the bottom level of the parking garage, and my cell phone carrier has *horrible* signal there. So while I can call an Uber of Lyft while I'm still at the baggage claim, once I actually get to the pickup spot, I'm out of cell phone coverage, and have zero access to the internet. (It's been an issue a couple of times, when the driver has been late, and then I have to try to run to a location where I can get signal, but try to stay close enough that I don't miss my ride ...)
  If I needed to confirm in the app that the ride had started before the driver would take me anywhere, we'd be at an impasse.
  That said, if the driver was willing to drive me out of the parking garage, in my particular situation, I'd get cell coverage again and could confirm. But then you have to consider the possibility that I wouldn't/couldn't, and the driver now has a belligerent passenger riding in the back
17. Re:Simple Solutions by Anonymous Coward · 2016-10-04 03:52 · Score: 0
  
  Yeh they could do the job of making cab marketplace an efficient one, but right now uber is busy inventing flying vtols https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/09/26/145200/uber-is-researching-a-new-vertical-takeoff-ride-offering-that-flies-you-around
Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? by ilsaloving · 2016-09-22 02:18 · Score: -1, Flamebait

The only news I ever hear coming out of China is how everyone is screwing each other to make a quick buck. It's to the point where I make a point of avoiding any and all foodstuffs that originate in China cause I don't wanna be poisoned.
Don't any decent people live over there? Or do all the decent ones simply say "screw this" and leave, because the Chinese people I meet locally are great people.
1. Re:Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? by vikingpower · 2016-09-22 02:22 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Don't any decent people live over there?
  No.
  
  Or do all the decent ones simply say "screw this" and leave, because the Chinese people I meet locally are great people.
  Yes.
  
  --
  Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
2. Re:Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 02:34 · Score: 0
  
  Hey, I resent that "no." I have several Australian, American, German, Mexican, and Indian colleagues still working in China!
3. Re:Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 02:48 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah, it's not even news when people elsewhere are screwing each other to make a quick buck because it's that common place.
4. Re:Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 02:49 · Score: 0
  
  The only news I ever hear coming out of China is how everyone is screwing each other to make a quick buck. It's to the point where I make a point of avoiding any and all foodstuffs that originate in China cause I don't wanna be poisoned.
  Don't any decent people live over there? Or do all the decent ones simply say "screw this" and leave, because the Chinese people I meet locally are great people.
  They're great people especially to a Westerner because they come from a traditional society. Traditional societies value discipline and social graces. They very strongly frown on being self-centered, disruptive, and wanting to be the center of attention at all times. For example they tend to honor anyone who serves or waits on them, instead of thinking that such a person is beneath them as you often see Americans doing (ever work an entry-level job when you were younger? yeah...)
  I haven't had much contact with Chinese people but I found the Japanese especially pleasant to work with (i.e. people who grew up in Japan - not people who just happen to be of Japanese ethnicity but have been immersed in American culture for generations). They're just so very civil and they really mean it - it's not some perfunctory show. A lot of things provincial Americans wouldn't notice or think twice about would be major faux pas in Japanese culture. When doing business they didn't generally look for ways to screw me over, gain an unfair advantage, or weasel out of an agreement the way many fellow Americans have attempted to do, though to be fair American management is generally run by sociopaths.
5. Re:Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 02:54 · Score: 0
  
  Don't any decent people live over there?
  No.
  
  Or do all the decent ones simply say "screw this" and leave, because the Chinese people I meet locally are great people.
  Yes.
  It's like that saying about corruption - everybody either wants less of it, or more opportunity to participate in it. Apply this to a totalitarian government that doesn't really even give lip-service to ideas like human rights. I guess that may not really narrow it down much, so I'll spell out that I'm talking about the government of China (this time). Now you have a situation where people who are decent and have a chance to do so will want to get out of there, rather than live that way. So you get a self-selected group of immigrants which helps produce what you have observed.
6. Re:Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? by fluffernutter · 2016-09-22 02:58 · Score: 2
  
  You don't think it would be the same here if we didn't have regulations on everything?
  
  --
  Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
7. Re:Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? by 110010001000 · 2016-09-22 03:01 · Score: 0
  
  The Japanese are not anything like Chinese. However the concept of "Japanese honor" is a myth perpetuated by too many movies. The Japanese raped and pillaged parts of Asia for centuries. Modern events like Pearl Harbor dispel that myth.
8. Re:Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 03:49 · Score: 0
  
  Hmm... Are you from China or Korea? Those folks still, to this day, despise Japan, and for good reason. Pearl Harbour was nothing, compared to Nanking.
  The "Japanese Honour" thing is 100% true. However, just like "Knight's Honour" in medieval Europe, it's a highly selective, caste-based system that can be pushed aside in many cases, and is based on a very harsh scale. The lower on the totem pole you live, the more crap you get.
  The Japanese are not a touchy-feely people, but they are unbelievably polite; especially to folks they don't trust. Basically, if they trust you, they can be quite brusque or rude. I know this, because I've been dealing with them for decades.
9. Re:Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 03:55 · Score: 0
  
  Pearl Harbor is the best you can come up with? What about Nanking?
10. Re: Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 05:02 · Score: 1
  
  Hahahahahahh.
  It's hard to imagine how you could be more wrong. Chinese only have deep respect for family . They have zero respect for the community around them and they treat service workers like they are less than shit. Ask any stewardess / hostess in asia.
11. Re:Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? by 110010001000 · 2016-09-22 09:27 · Score: 1
  
  Exactly. Nanking is another. Honor my ass. Pearl Harbor was a sneak attack. They have no honor.
12. Re:Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 09:42 · Score: 0
  
  I haven't had much contact with Chinese people but I found the Japanese especially pleasant to work with...
  So why did you comment when you admit you were completely unqualified to?
13. Re:Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 10:27 · Score: 0
  
  You are vastly generalizing Asians, it seems. The Japanese are alright, nowadays. The Chinese are the fucking scum of the earth.
14. Re:Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? by david_thornley · 2016-09-23 03:39 · Score: 1
  
  Japanese honor is real, although not universally applied. The last war basically run by samurai, the Russo-Japanese war, was fought very honorably. Inside the Japanese caste system, honor in wartime is pretty much limited to warriors, and arming the lower classes has typically led to atrocities. I hope they've changed that.
  Japan did not rape and pillage any part of Asia except Japan for centuries, although you could argue decades in the case of Korea and Okinawa (and while Japanese treatment of them wasn't good, I don't know if it warrants the "rape and pillage" descriptor). Japan was very isolationist until the US and Russia opened up commerce by force in the mid-1800s, and it hasn't been "centuries" since then.
  
  --
  "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
15. Re:Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? by sysrammer · 2016-09-23 13:03 · Score: 1
  
  I learned that Samurais were basically taught to transition the unsheathing of their swords directly into a slashing attack. For some reason, they saw that as honorable.
  I found that it helped me understand Pearl Harbor from the JP view.
  --
  "Know your enemy" - Homer
  
  --
  His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
Always the same by Coisiche · 2016-09-22 02:23 · Score: 1

People find they can abuse a system for personal monetary gain, so they do.
There will be solutions to these existing abuses but I suspect that the drivers will be able to devise new ones faster than the Uber developers can mitigate against them.
Time for Jonnie Cab by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 02:32 · Score: -1

Uber needs to borrow a page from 'Total Recall', and put Jonnie Cab in the driver's seat. Seriously it would reassure the passengers and give them the sense of novelty. Complete Marketing screwup to have an empty driver seat. Maybe they should also buy a copy of 'Pre-Suasion'.
Well, you have to hand it to those Chinese. by hey! · 2016-09-22 02:36 · Score: 2

They sure are enterprising.
[I say this as someone who is Chinese; irony disclaimers apply]

--
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
1. Re:Well, you have to hand it to those Chinese. by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 02:59 · Score: 0
  
  I see; kind of like, Now why didn't I think of that?
  Timely, too, see if you can make something really quick for the upcoming Halloween =]
  and to top it all, today's captcha is mutate And here I thought lightning never strikes twice.
2. Re:Well, you have to hand it to those Chinese. by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 03:33 · Score: 0
  
  So they did it first, but this is a flaw in the Uber system. And what do people with low morals, like these drivers, do when they find profitable flaws? They exploit them, kinda like many /. pirates who clone music, movies and software.
3. Re:Well, you have to hand it to those Chinese. by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 04:08 · Score: 0
  
  Way to conflate two different things that have nothing to do with each other! It's almost like you're tro...
  Oh, Riiiight... okay.
  Yawn.
  If that's the best you can come up with you may needs another 50 points or more to hit a room temp IQ in degrees F.
That isn't frightening by Pseudonym+Authority · 2016-09-22 02:37 · Score: 1

Article makes it sound like they are getting spooked because of monsters or something, but they are really just deciding they don't want to ride with a weirdo.
1. Re:That isn't frightening by freeze128 · 2016-09-22 03:29 · Score: 2
  
  The photos don't look scary. They look like they have been stretched using some photo-manipulation software, and just look stupid. The 3rd profile picture just looks completely normal to me. Maybe there is some sort of cultural difference that makes the Chinese people suspicious of these pictures, but to me, it just looks like a 13 year old youtuber screwed around with the photos. It's UNPROFESSIONAL, sure, but I'm not scared. ("I ain't 'fraid of no ghost!")
2. Re:That isn't frightening by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 06:19 · Score: 1
  
  Thing is, Chinese people are afraid of ghosts. For real. I'm a European with a Taiwanese partner, and to me they (Chinese people) are shockingly superstitious. Graveyards are to be avoided, if you've even been near a dead person (including a hearse driving past on the street) you'll probably have bad luck for days because a ghost is following you, etc. Just seeing a dead animal is apparently bad luck. Fortune tellers make a fortune (no pun intended) on giving people career and love advice. I can easilly see how this mindset can be exploited by the unscrupulous, and the pictures sure look ghost-ey enough to scare people from that culture.
3. Re:That isn't frightening by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 08:08 · Score: 0
  
  You're right.
  And I should know, because I lived for many years in a haunted house.
  Crazy random shit would occur all the time.
  Weird noises, animals behaving strangely, things disappearing and then showing up out of nowhere on the kitchen table, people seeing things out of the corner of their eye, to look, then see nothing...
  But the Spring Rolls were to die for!
Robotic Uber cars will solve these problems by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 03:04 · Score: 0

Robotic Uber cars will solve these problems
1. Re:Robotic Uber cars will solve these problems by Tablizer · 2016-09-22 04:12 · Score: 1
  
  Not sure about that
  
  --
  Table-ized A.I.
2. Re:Robotic Uber cars will solve these problems by phantomfive · 2016-09-22 04:53 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, a car without any driver won't seem like a ghost to anyone.
  
  --
  "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
3. Re:Robotic Uber cars will solve these problems by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 05:32 · Score: 0
  
  Before reading the summary, I thought this story was about driverless cars.
4. Re:Robotic Uber cars will solve these problems by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 11:59 · Score: 0
  
  Me too. From an earlier post, Photoshop deformed drivers would have been more accurate.
Lodge the complaint by war4peace · 2016-09-22 03:25 · Score: 1

I sure hope they will lodge the complaint up someone's ass.

--
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Darth Uber by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 03:29 · Score: 0

Every day I shall drift farther away from the business plan of enabling ride sharing. Pray that I shall not drift from my business plan any further.
Uber doesn't work that way by naughtynaughty · 2016-09-22 03:34 · Score: 1

You can cancel a driver immediately without penalty. If you get a driver you've had before and didn't like or it's a driver with a POS car or a driver with a poor rating that's your opportunity to cancel.
The ghost drivers that plague me, in a non-US location, are drivers who are faking their locations so the appear to be close but actually aren't. I think they are being ghosts for a different reason, fear that the taxi mafia in this country in cooperation with the corrupt police harass Uber drivers and in some cases attack them. Every Uber driver insists that I ride up front and if pulled over pretend the driver is just my friend driving me around.
The taxi mafia here has good reason to fear Uber, it cuts into their revenue from ripping off people with everything from lying about the fare to pulling a counterfeit currency switcheroo when you pay.
1. Re:Uber doesn't work that way by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 03:41 · Score: 0
  
  Wrong!
  
  After accepting a request, a $10 cancellation fee will apply if the following occurs: The rider cancels 5 minutes after a driver-partner has accepted a trip; or. The driver-partner cancels ("Client no show") 5 minutes after arriving at the pick up location.
2. Re:Uber doesn't work that way by AvitarX · 2016-09-22 05:29 · Score: 1
  
  Post one: You can cancel immediately with no penalty
  Post two: If the riders cancels five minutes after...
  These two are in agreement, I don't know what is wrong
  
  --
  Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
dumb shits on slashdot by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 03:55 · Score: 0

Traditional taxi drivers don't pay for the "commercial use" of public roadways either.

well DUH they pay MORE for those medallions and they pay MORE for a commercial license and they pay MORE fees and tolls when they take passengers to the airport
so YES they ARE paying MORE for their "commercial use" of the public roadways.
my condolences go out to your family for your lost brain, I hope they find it
Chinese government is to blame by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 04:01 · Score: 0

If the communist Chinese government wasn't so corrupt and overall fucked-up, then maybe Chinese citizens wouldn't be so fucked-up and corrupt either, and you wouldn't have Chinese Uber drivers doing things to blatantly rip people off like this.
My sincere apologies by Tablizer · 2016-09-22 04:33 · Score: 1

Sorry about that; I forgot my makeup and to shave.

--
Table-ized A.I.
Possible Fabrication (Sabotage?) by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 05:05 · Score: 0

This could easily be a ploy to feed the rumormill to steer people away from Uber. The ride-sharing server market over there is extremely competitive.
Last I checked the driver profile pic is not something a driver can change, these are normally taken at the local uber "office" at the time of registration.
This just feels very fishy overall.
Oh Uber, we're going to miss you. by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 05:40 · Score: 0

A global company spending billions of dollars to destroy the taxi industry, and so little to show for it. Goodbye, sharing economy! It was fun.
Its a scam by citizenr · 2016-09-22 08:46 · Score: 1

make 10 fake uber driver profiles with "scary" pictures, collect from all the fake rides you didnt do, count on cultural fear of ghosts to not get complaints.
China is full of entrepreneurs like that.
Another example: Shenzhen police started a program rewarding traffic violation recordings from dash cams with straight up cash (something like $5?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
there are tutorials on chinese social media how to make good money inciting other people to brake traffic laws.

--
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
1. Re:Its a scam by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 20:54 · Score: 1
  
  Most people stop being scared of ghosts by the time they're ten.
User reviews are everything by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 10:24 · Score: 0

Driver ate my brain, cannot recommend.
Uber will be lapping this up by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-22 12:12 · Score: 0

Uber will be lapping this shit up - they love the de-regulated environment.