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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.
now male uber drivers can threaten females with low stars if they won't kiss em.
I can't see how telling everyone this could result in any forms of bad behavior to harm legitimate riders. Not at all.
Also, how skewed is the rating system if anyone below 4 is considered bad. They need a new system if it's 5 stars or bust.
Shouldn't that be up to the passenger? Offer a discount for riding with annoying drivers. Just make sure it's not the default.
Table-ized A.I.
I didn't think it was possible for them to find a way for internet businesses to double down on how badly they've fucked up the star rating system, but here we are.
Remember when 5 stars meant perfect and 4 stars meant good and 3 meant average and 2 means poor and 1 means unacceptable. Now 4 means poor for some reason? Because everyone on both sides is expected to rate the other side with nothing less than a perfect rating. Policies like this, where getting a 4/5 means kicking you off the service, only give everyone even more incentive to rate people and services with nothing worse than a perfect score. Give them a rating that is even 1 single point less then perfect risks getting them suspended or banned. That's just gross perversion of the whole point of a multi-tiered rating system.
WOW seems really bad and invasive. Since the Uber CEO just said during a business show interview that Uber is about ending car ownership.
;)
So you ban riders from using a service. While at the same time saying car ownership needs to be ended.
Uber is preparing for an IPO, the CEO is talking about new cultural norms, etc etc. Investors will be lining up for us.
This guy gives me the creeps.
Just my 2 cents
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.
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.
No, we don't any form of ranking system which bans people from a service based on a highly subjective rating system otherwise we'll end up in the dystopia portrayed in Black Mirror's Nosedive episode.
No, we don't any form of ranking system which bans people from a service based on a highly subjective rating system otherwise we'll end up in the dystopia portrayed in Black Mirror's Nosedive episode.
That's exactly what popped into my mind when I read about this.
And how can a "5" be great, while a "4" means you can't get a ride? What kind of fucked up scale is that? Why even have numbers below 4? It's turning a rating system into a "pass/fail" test.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...