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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 wonder how quickly "ratings" will simply be an additional commodity sold with the ride ?
This opens up passengers to being blackmailed into giving additional money to the driver to ensure they maintain their rating.
I got guilt-tripped into giving a 5-star rating at my car dealership for some routine service. "If you give any less than 5 stars, or no rating at all, our management considers that a failure."
Or maybe I was blackmailed. "Give us a 5-star rating if you ever want your vehicle to pass inspection again."
The stupid part was I was very happy with the service that day... right up until the guilt trip. I gave him the 5 anyhow, its not that poor guy's fault the entire world is fucked.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Seemed to start with eBay where they gave you three choices, and for some reason you're only allowed to use the "Good" rating when rating anyone, because "Neutral" will cause the ratee to get, uh, irate. So there's no way to distinguish between someone who sold you exactly what they said they'd sell and shipped it on time, and that person who made a special effort to make sure you got what you needed a little more quickly.
And this has been going on since the late 1990s, so it's not new.
And it's stupid.
Oh, did you know that when your cellphone carrier follows up with you after you call them to change your rate plan, to ask how the customer care person was, that if you don't rate them 5/5 for everything there are "consequences"? Like "Too many 4/5s, you're getting canned" type consequences?
But sure, you're going to rate people honestly now knowing that.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Perhaps there could be a tag system, like for anime porn on Sankakucomplex. This driver has the "Quiet", "Knows_The_City_Well" and "Respects_Other_Drivers" tags, but he also has the "Body_Odor" and "Farts" tags, so, choose carefully.
Passengers could have similar tags; "Consistently_Drunk", "Will_Not_Shut_Up_About_Rick_And_Morty", "Difficulty_Paying" and "Changes_Destination_More_Than_Three_Times_Per_Trip".