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Nobody Likes Uber Anymore, Recent Reviews and Ratings On App Store Suggest (qz.com)
Alison Griswold, writing for Quartz: The public is not happy with Uber. Incensed by allegations of sexism and harassment in the company's corporate halls, people are once again #deleting Uber, while one-star ratings and withering critiques of its service are piling up in Apple's iOS App Store. From Jan. 1 through Feb. 22, Uber accumulated 4,479 one-star reviews from US users in the iOS App Store, according to data from analytics firm App Annie (the highest possible rating is five stars). Several of the most recent reviews cite the horrifying and explosive account of sexual harassment published by former Uber engineer Susan Fowler over the weekend. "Was harassed and scammed by an Uber driver for two hours in the car," reviewer "Jorwl" wrote on Feb. 20. But far more reviewers have another gripe: Uber's apparent disregard for user privacy. The monthly volume of one-star ratings for Uber in the App Store first spiked last November, after the company redesigned its app and infringed on user privacy by eliminating an iOS setting that let users grant Uber access to their location only "while using" the app. Users are now forced to choose between letting Uber track their location "always" and "never".
The App Store ratings for Uber are meaningless in the same way that a restaurant or other service provider that attracts the ire of the media for some reason suddenly gets one star reviews â" from people that have never eaten at the restaurant or used the service. Those who are regular Uber users or non-users looking for traditional taxi alternatives will continue to use or look to Uber. Lyft should be leveraging this too-doo, but as before the Uber issue, Lyft is absent from serious media promotion, and I wonder how they stay in business.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Doxxing reporters, digging up dirt on critics and smearing, ignoring state laws, screwing over local governments. They have a long history of terrible actions before this happened.
Like every other app on my phone doesn't do the same bullshit. Can't even buy tickets to UCF games or without a privacy eroding app these days.
:T:R:A:N:S:
A crying shame about your company. I guess when you screw over your employees, your customers and municipalities where you operate, things tend to work themselves out.
Using investigators to go after people who write mean things about your scam doesn't help either.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
The memo is Uber is not progressive enough and so tech workers are not to like them.
Also, you are not capable of forming your own opinions, you insensitive clods !!
I was going on a trip to DC and needed a ride from the airport to the place I was staying. I pre-loaded Uber about a week before I left, put in a credit card number, and thought I had everything set up. But the app wouldn't let me pre-save an address. So I had to write it down to type in to my phone later. Strike one.
The morning I was leaving, I got an e-mail from Uber that my credit card wasn't 'supported' and I'd have to enter a new one. What the hell? I used it twice on the way down. It works fine. (And I used it throughout my entire trip with no problems.) Put in a second credit card number before boarding. Strike two.
Got in to IAD, fired up the Uber app and it said there were errors submitting my ride request. Trying to continue typing in 13 degree weather sucked. Strike three.
I put my hand back in my glove, raised my arm and said "Taxi". The regular Taxi had no problems with my 'request', or my original card.
Next time I go to DC I'll try Lyft instead.
There's no place like
Uber CEO was on Trumps economic advisory council. This means he supports Trump and therefore is satan. At least that's how people are treated who support him. Ergo Slashdot piles on.
These reviews mean nothing about the functionality of the app and are more about a vocal minority complaining loudly. If Google had the balls like Yelp does to remove reviews that aren't about functionality and are instead some hair brained attempt at "social justice" when an app or its company makes it into the news this would be a non-issue.
Take a look at all of the BS one star reviews for writers like Daryush Valizadeh or Mike Cernovich on Amazon. These people haven't even read their books yet get to do drive by whining and get the rush of being another sheep in a crowd.
The people who still use Uber will keep on using it and eventually these negative reviews will be forgotten. Uber isn't going anywhere.
I *really* like Uber and can't imagine having to go back to a normal taxi experience? So the company and leadership is not perfect, bit surprise, but the experience rocks and ultimately if you are a driver you are participating by choice... and there are a lot of drivers out there.
Some us never liked them in the first place.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Some of us didn't from the start because we could see at the outset what this company was all about.
"Science is the power of man"
You have to wonder a bit whether a boycott would actually help. Uber is currently cheap because they're using VC money to subsidise every ride and making a loss to build up market share. Is it better to use them and cost the company money, or not use them and help ensure that competitors stay in business?
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Do you see a pattern here? I'm starting to think there is a bias on slashdot into bringing Uber down.
And no, I don't have any Uber shares, and I have used Uber in my (european) city exactly once. And I don't ride taxis as I rarely need them. I am as unbiased as can get.
I thought /. was pro Trump since he was anti TPP and anti-H1B visas.
If we got to put a rating on other "first world" infrastructure we use to live our lives, they'd all have shitty marks too. And yet, we still buy them. (Well, except for cable - no one pays for that hot mess anymore.)
At least on iOS it's just a usability regression. You can go to settings and remove the permission to access location data at all and as long as you toggle it back before you book a ride. I think recent Android versions are the same, but on older ones it's a choice of privacy violations or uninstalling the app.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Wrong forum much? I think you're wanted over here: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/17/03/01/1643251/programmers-are-confessing-their-coding-sins-to-protest-a-broken-job-interview-process
I dislike them, and it doesn't have anything to do with sexism or harassment. I live in a downtown beltway, have no car, and take rideshares fairly often. Why? The 'drivers' are the worst. They're just people with a car and an app. And, I can't even tip using the app. What the hell is the point of a cashless experience if I also need cash? It's stupid. I'll pay the extra dollar for better drivers and not having to go to an ATM or feeling like I'm taking advantage of others financial weakness.
Who was in an Uber car for TWO HOURS and getting harassed?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
In London, where the (in)famously racist but highly-competent "black cabs" are ruinously expensive, Uber works really well, and it's much cheaper.
Paris too.
some people on slashdot agree with certain things Trump says and does, but the majority of stories and comments about him are negative. And those that defend him are soundly beaten.
I've only used Lyft once, from the airport to home after a trip, and was pleasantly surprised.. Since I'm retired, I'd considered driving for Uber/Lyft, but once I found all of the endless goverment bullshit I had to go thru (3 fucking business licenses, state, county, and city, for a total of over $500/year), I decided to forget about it.. Since then I've talked to some people who drive for Uber/Lyft locally and it becomes glaringly apparent I dodged a LARGE bullet by skipping them....
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
I was a heavy Uber user for years. I understand why they would like to collect additional GPS related information, but their decision to take away my choice and force me into "no GPS at all" or "GPS even when I'm not using the app" was a clear "f**k you" to its customers.
I contacted their customer service and let them know why I was leaving their platform and switched to Lyft.
The rest of the news about the organization in the months since may not have been enough for me to stop using the service, but it has reinforced my choice (i.e. if they reversed their position on GPS, I don't know if I would switch back right now)
Evolution: love it or leave it
Try Lyft. It allows tipping. And in addition, I can say from experience that they (or their dev team, at least) are responsive to feedback. I had made a suggestion to them about their app, and said suggestion was in the next release. (If you're interested, it was the ability to schedule multiple destinations -- useful when you're picking someone up on the way to wherever).
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
While what's happened at Uber is terrible, what the media thinks is popular, or social ratings, is suspect at best. In the end, how people vote with their money is what really matters for "popularity".
In debates about Christianity, there are two groups: those looking for answers, and those looking to just ask questions.
Can't believe how much people just believe everything they read
In both the Fowler and Kamal incidents, Uber's CEO did not dispute any of the allegations, and acknowledged and apologized for what happened. So, yes, I believe the allegations. Do you have any reason I shouldn't?
Uber is currently cheap because they're using VC money to subsidise every ride
Sure, but Lyft is doing the same, and also burning through cash. Their prices are nearly identical. When I switched to Lyft, they even had a "first ride free" promotion.
And, I can't even tip using the app.
That is a feature, not a bug. Tipping is stupid. Drivers (and waitresses) should be paid a fair wage, and the cost of providing the service should be included in the price. People feel social pressure to tip even if service is mediocre. Many countries do not have a culture of tipping, and the service is just as good, or better, than what you get in America, and service people have a more reliable income.
The lack of tipping is one more reason that I prefer ridesharing over taxis.
Yup, you got me.
And in conclusion, allow me to dicuss how much I hate this shit:
I know how to type. I'm just saying "Yup". I don't need to think about this for ten minutes to decide whether that's the right answer.
. People feel social pressure to tip even if service is mediocre.
Sure they do, Bill... just not in any industries where tipping is common.
You don't have to manufacture anything. But if all of a sudden every newspaper is writing stories where they've decided to interview all your ex-girlfriends, your third grade teacher, your mailman, to plaster every negative thing about you that you've ever done across the media landscape, every bit of it might be true but that's still a coordinated effort by some group in the media to take you down. I've never liked Uber, but I am curious as to who has suddenly decided that Uber needs to die.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
The Slashdot Uber-hate is right up there with the Apple-hate. No one's buying Apple products any more, are they? Oh, wait ....
While on business travel, I've ridden in taxis where I had my credit card skimmed by the driver, where the credit card machine was "broken", where I've been taken on the "scenic" route to pump up the fare, and even one time when the taxi broke down on a freeway. I've experienced enough horror stories with taxis to last me the rest of my life.
Uber and Lyft have never been anything but a pleasure to use. As a rider, that is what I care about, not about someone's definition of social justice concerning a company they've never dealt with. As long as Uber offers me a good service at a good price, I will continue to use that service. No one is forcing anyone to drive for Uber or ride with Uber.
Now whether or not the Uber business model will succeed is an entirely different question, but that doesn't worry me. As long as the ride comes when I press the button, and I know in advance what it will cost me, and I can get into that Uber vehicle with a reasonable degree of confidence that I won't be cheated (unlike many taxi rides I've experienced), then I will keep right on using them. I suspect that most business travelers will do likewise.
Uber is currently cheap because they're using VC money to subsidise every ride and making a loss to build up market share.
I've read this several times this year, and I have to say... I don't believe it.
With Uber, I pay for the ride. 80% goes to the driver, 20% goes to Uber. The VC funding is only subsidizing Uber's sophomoric corporate circle-jerk embezzlement-Ponzi scheme.... Not the rides.
With YellowCabs, the customers subsidize the corrupt-political-medalian and regulation embezzlement Ponzi scheme.
I realize I might be splitting hairs here....
FWIW, I interviewed a while back with Uber, and although my ride experiences with Uber have all been good, the interview process was a case study in ham-handed incompetence. I've always thought that the interview process was a good indication of the company as a whole, and I can't report that they did well.
Some of the interviewers didn't have a clear idea of what they wanted from me or exactly what my role would require, some asked questions that had no real bearing on what my skill set entailed, and one wasn't sure what he was supposed to be asking me (and he said so in exactly those words). They insisted I bring a laptop ("you'll need it") but it never came out of its case. Also, "Make sure you bring writing samples", but they never asked to see them. Who knows, maybe they'd already hired someone and were just being polite.
This involved flying me down to San Francisco at their expense, nice hotel, meals, Ubers to and from the airport, etc etc. They seemed to be burning a *lot* of money on me without the slightest regard as to whether I was a serious candidate or not. I would have taken the job if they had made me an offer, but in some ways I was kinda glad that it didn't work out. The people were nice enough, but more than a little disorganized to put it bluntly. I can only imagine what the day-to-day work environment would have been like.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
In both the Fowler and Kamal incidents, Uber's CEO did not dispute any of the allegations, and acknowledged and apologized for what happened. So, yes, I believe the allegations. Do you have any reason I shouldn't?
Bingo.
These weren't just rumors or "he said, she said" stories, these were basically confirmed as true by the people involved.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
If Google had the balls like Yelp does...
Except isn't this about iOS/App Store? I guess that just means "balls" -> "courage"...?
That said, from TFA:
“There’s absolutely no reason for Uber to track my location AFTER the ride is over,” a reviewer wrote on Feb. 22. “It’s a completely sketchy move that does not benefit the user is any way.” Another user titled their Feb. 20 review, “Invasion of privacy!!!” “You are now required to give Uber your location 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, whether or not the app is open,” reviewer “Christian425” wrote. “It’s just ridiculous. I can’t support such terrible business practices.”
“The new version makes it more and more difficult to see the prices,” one reviewer wrote on Feb. 22. In a review on Feb. 21 titled “Hidden surge pricing is out of control,” another said rides from their Bay Area apartment to San Francisco International Airport that historically cost $18 to $20 are now routinely priced at $48 to $50.
Granted they're cherry-picked, but those seem to be based on the service/functionality, not a "social justice" conspiracy...
Uber executive casually threatens journalist with smear campaign
Uber driver tells MPs: I work 90 hours but still need to claim benefits
Uber is ignoring California rules on self-driving cars, and the government is pissed
I assume, given the 'rampant agendizing(sic)' accusation, you have evidence to refute the above? It would be interesting, as Uber themselves did not refute any of it, nor did they take legal action against anyone printing it.
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
That's great and all, but in America we still have a culture of tipping for many service sectors.
Sure, but that can change. For instance, fast food restaurants discourage tipping, and as a result McDonalds workers are paid more than a waitperson at a low end sit-down restaurant where tipping is expected.
Similarly, as we make the transition away from taxis, that is also a good time to dump the tradition of tipping drivers. Uber used to explicitly state on their website that "tipping is not expected". They no longer do that, but many, and perhaps most people do not tip rideshare drivers.
"Nobody goes to that night club anymore, it's too crowded".
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I agree they should be paid a fair wage, we might disagree what that wage is. I usually tip 20% but I will cut that back to 15%, 10% and in egregious cases none if the services is poor and I think its really that persons fault. I will got to %25 when I feel like I have been given exceptional attention too.
Slow service in a restaurant? I know that probably got as much to do with the kitchen as the wait staff. I won't hold that against them at all. Bring me the wrong order, well you either put in wrong or failed to realize it came from the kitchen wrong and get it fixed before bringing it to the table. That is on you, pal. Ditto if my glass of tea or water is allowed to remain empty. I'll forgive you if the place is packed and you have clearly been assigned to many tables but if that isn't the case well?
I think tipping is a good idea to keep service people honest. The waiter that never allows a patrons glass to sit empty. Takes orders promptly and reliably, is polite and helpful deserve to be rewarded beyond what the other staff get. That is hard for the proprietor to do short of surveying every customer on their way out the door. Letting the customers do that rewarding solves the problem. What we ought to do is go back to the old model of tipping. You set out some amount on the table at the start in small denominations and remove it thru the course of the meal or don't to give constant feedback. If the waiter saw $25 at the start and sees $23 a little later he/she knows you are not thrilled and they'd better shape up or it be only $20 by the time the meal is over.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Maybe they are bad, I don't know.
I think they're bad, based off my opinion of their business model.
But if the media just decided they have to die, I'm VERY suspicious of that in and of itself.
Yeah, it seems like they're going after every aspect of their business. "Their CEO's a shit! They're sexist! Nobody likes them!" And then when some kind of coordinated regulatory crackdown hits them next month there will be no public outcry because "well serves them right for hatin' wimminz and being mean and shit."
Fuck Uber, sure, but also fuck the media.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
Uber is basically garbage. A large corporation that is becoming the amazon of cabs, reducing wages for the purpose of corporate profits. Want to do something good for your community? Hire a local cab driver to keep the money in your local community rather than give it to this big corporation to be siphoned off for some overpaid CEO.
The thing is, if you aren't going to tip, you can still not tip with Lyft. If you want to tip (I do because I feel these people aren't paid enough), you should be able to do it from the app. Similarly, Uber drivers all accept tips in cash (and some even have QR codes to digital payment systems outside uber). If uber disallowed tipping of cash, it would make some sense. As it stands, its just annoying for those of us that don't feel right about rideshare wages.
Re:Amazon's Self-Reinforcing Decline in Hires (Score:5, Interesting)
by Chris Johnson (580)
The trouble with this situation is a bit like Uber: it preys upon people who've lost all perspective.
One woman in the article was said to spend her own money hiring someone in India to do data entry so she could get more personally done. At her own expense.
[snip]
Re:Amazon's Self-Reinforcing Decline in Hires (Score:2)
by taxman_10m (41083)
Could you expound on Uber?
Re:Amazon's Self-Reinforcing Decline in Hires (Score:5, Insightful)
by Chris Johnson (580)
Sure, a bit. Uber's the same thing. It's designed to make maximum use of crazy people and force the others to live up to that standard or be fired.
I'll define 'crazy Uber people' not as 'danger to customers', but 'people who are bringing more value in terms of vehicle, skill and desire to please, than they are getting back in pay and benefits'. So the crazy Uber person is the one who keeps buying a new Lexus or whatever, vacuums their car three times a day and busts their ass to outperform all the other Uber drivers, so they can continue to win out over anybody else seeking to be a driver.
The key factor is that they are giving more than they get back, in the belief that they're cornering some kind of market or buying in to something important.
If you make a business that relies on people like this, you can demolish anybody else because you've worked out how to get voluntary unpaid labor, like the Amazon exec who was said to use her own money to hire subcontractors to do more. As long as there are people who are willing to do that, the market breaks and Amazon/Uber get to do what Wal-Mart did in small towns, break the back of other market participants so they can't break even or continue.
Another way to be a crazy Uber person is to put more depreciation and wear and tear on your car than you can afford to repair (or replace). It's easy to be crazy in these ways. It's externalities which are easy to overlook. These Amazon/Uber business models are designed to leverage that kind of crazy as hard as possible, and kick out everybody who's not willing to lose (one way or another) on the deal. Psychology is useful in getting people to buy into this stuff.
As they say, a cult.
mfwright@batnet.com
Not to mention there's video of the Kamal incident, and the full version makes him look worse than the merely edited version.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I've read this several times this year, and I have to say... I don't believe it.
Then you're an idiot.
Uber's only cost is not your ride, in fact it costs them zero (that's what the 80% is supposed to cover), their costs are all in the back end (remember those engineers being sexually harassed?)
Then somehow they're also supposed to return a profit to their investors (though at the moment most of those are just hoping for capital gains).
They do disallow tipping cash, the drivers are supposed to refuse it.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
If a 200 pound ape won the presidency and wanted to stop H1B, I'd shout "Go, 200 pound ape!" but it doesn't mean I would have voted for it.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
You don't have to manufacture anything. But if all of a sudden every newspaper is writing stories
Newspapers write stories because news happens that reporters think is worth knowing about. In this case, the harassment allegations and lawsuit are real events that came within the last week, so now reporters know that there's something worth digging for here. Every reporter likes smelling weakness, or blood in the water, and everyone wants to be the one to get the scoop and break the story. Now that's different than some high level "let's get together and figure out how to take down Uber with a slew of astroturf all of a sudden."
Exactly this. One of the articles in the NYT allegedly interviewed 30 anonymous former workers and reviewed a lot of email and internal documents. I don't remember them even describing how they got that info, let alone showing us any of it.
I know exactly how you can get this: people who are treated like crap in a hostile workplace are far more likely to leak secrets and talk to reporters off the record than people who really enjoy their work and the people they work with.
Hey, when I made the suggestion, I had to schedule the guy to pick up my SO. And THEN do another schedule to go to the event.
With the change, it's I need to go to ${EVENT}, but stop at ${LOCATION} first.
It addressed a major annoyance in the app.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
I thought /. was pro Trump since he was anti TPP and anti-H1B visas.
Trump will sometimes say things I agree with. However he usually fails any time he actually starts to say how he actually plans to do such things. Furthermore, I have yet to see anything from him that makes me think that he actually is basing what he says on any sort of logic and not just spouting what he thinks people want to hear. So far, he seems like the standard broken clock telling time correctly twice a day.
In practice, this never happens. And sting ops to bust it seems like a stupid idea. If I leave a fiver on the seat as I leave, it's not reasonable to expect you to throw it out the window. I will insist.
Racist against the native whites you mean?
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
Uber randomly borked Google Maps about a year ago for many people by forcing the default map to Uber services while using an Uber icon that looked almost exactly like the Car icon.
See the google forums here: https://productforums.google.c...
As you can see the Car and Taxi/Uber icons were very similar until recently: https://lh3.googleusercontent....
By changing the default mapping method to Uber this totally broke Google maps for those who couldn't tell what had changed.
To make it worse the recommended fixes and perceptions of what really happened changed as they tweaked the app to fix things.
Yup.
Kid-proof tablet..
But they do actually disallow tipping cash, and I have had drivers refuse it before they cut the pay.
The reason I switched to lyft is the awkwardness of the tip that's not supposed to happen with Uber. It's a safety issue too.
I'd prefer they just charge enough, I don't even care if it's more than a cab, the drivers actually show up and take me wherever without complaining.
In a smaller city at least, these companies aren't competing with cabs, they are providing an unmet need.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
The Slashdot AI can't tell whether you're doing that or attempting to crapflood.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
I haven't seen it nor read a full transcript, like I don't want to spoil it. The setting and conversation seem so theatrical (or dramatical, I don't know what's the best word), it could used be as the beginning of a fictional story, novel, film, TV show. It could be a fake biopic about an ill-fated but resourceful businessman, or get into a role reversal comedy. Or introduce a character at CEO's destination and build up from there.
There was a story about how Hollywood is dying because they only make film about Iron Man or old franchises. Do they still do comedies? (no magical powers, no science-fiction, no alternate reality, no fire arms..)
"Can't believe how much people just believe everything they read and are so blind to all the rampant agendizing going on to day." You use "agenda" like it's a dirty word. An agenda doesn't have to be inherently bad. Rooting out corporate evil seems like a fine agenda for the media to me.
... I absolutely *never* liked Uber, not from the very beginning. Good thing, that people come to mind now - better late, than never...