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Uber To Ban Riders With Four-Star or Lower Ratings in Australia and New Zealand (bbc.co.uk)
Uber is to block customers in Australia and New Zealand from its ride service if they have a low passenger rating. Riders rated four-out-of-five stars or lower will be banned for six months. Ratings are based on feedback left by drivers after each journey. BBC: The move is aimed at improving passenger behaviour, the company said. Uber told the BBC that Australia and New Zealand had been identified as a place to bring in the rule after feedback from drivers. The same policy was introduced in Brazil earlier this this year, Uber said, but it's the first time the control has been rolled out in an English-speaking market. An Uber spokeswoman declined to be drawn on exactly how many of its 2.8 million users in Australia and New Zealand currently had ratings of below 4.0 -- but conceded it was only "a few thousand." The "vast majority" -- believed to be more than 90% -- had ratings of at least 4.5, the company said. The policy will kick in on 19 September and passengers will receive several warnings before they are banned.
I've gotten that line several times now. I see two approaches:
1) Rate it one star with a comment that:
I was perfectly happy right up until I had to take this piece-of-shit survey, and was told that not taking it would reflect badly on the employee. I have far more important things to do with my time than spending it rating every last bit of interaction I have with your company. Don't worry, if you fuck up: I'll let you know. Guess what: YOU JUST FUCKED UP. The ball is in your court now, fix it.
Thanks to rating inflation, one stars are uncommon enough that management DOES actually often look at them. And if some guy or gal gets fired over a 1 star review that says the above, really... in the long run you are doing them a favor -- they deserve a better employer.
2) Refuse to take the survey, ask to speak to the appropriate management directly, and then explain the above to them, in person.
This will not dissuade bad passengers very much.
Presently the driver has to issue a rating immediately at the end of every trip. The passenger has days to do their rating.
Practically speaking, if the driver leaves a bad rating, the passenger is guaranteed to leave a 1 star .. tit for tat retaliation.
And yeah, the system is setup where anything less than 5 stars is a bad review for the driver. If his/her rating goes below 4.6, they get kicked off the platform.
NZ and Australia are first world countries, we don't tip here.