Source
r/uberdrivers•
ryanbbb

Watchout for Uber changing surge after accepting

Last night I accepted a ride with a $13.25 surge. I remembered the amount because it was the largest I had seen since New Years. The ride was about 7 miles so I was thinking sweet $20 for 15 minutes' work. I was surprised to see the ride total after it ended was $14 and change. I looked at the details and the surge was changed to $7. In more details, Uber charged the rider $30 and Uber took over $15.

Of couse, I can't prove the amount because who screenshots every request?

Be careful people. Uber is scrambling to increase revenue before the IPO so the billionaires can get richer.

Posted Mar 10, 2019, 2:19 PM UTC

6745
Staplesnotme•

HEY, there is a place in details to contest surge amount being wrong. DO IT.

39
ryanbbbOP•

I did immediately. Got canned responses that said it was $7 when I accepted the ride. I kept replying demanding escalation.

25
Skeptic1999•

I had this happen once where I did screenshot it and they still refused to pay me. It was the straw that broke the camel's back and made me decide to no longer drive for them.

21
OTS_•

Fuck Uber and Lyft.

13
daffy_faffy•

Maybe just fuck Lyft

-2†
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
SomeUnicornsFly•

You might just try opening repeat tickets. I was denied surge on a 30 mile trip once when the idiot pax put in the wrong hotel and then canceled the whole trip the moment we got there and realized his mistake. I went through 3 different personnel who obviously thought I was assuming that any request I get in the cloud would be surged and refused to acknowledge the difference between being in the cloud and actually seeing the damn surge marked on the ping. I was pretty aggressive and down right yelling on the phone and miraculously got them to address it and they actually added the surge in, took over 45 minutes berating them on the phone though while I sat in the hotel parking lot. The first 20 minutes or so was arguing about whether I even took the trip since "sir the passenger canceled this trip, there is no history".

7
ryanbbbOP•

We'll see how this one gets escalated. I number dropped my number of rides which usually gets me what I want. Definately going to figure out a way to document my side from now on.

5
passingby2018•

I have to say all these adjustments are luck dependent.

All they have to do is to ignore you.

It's a very tiring process, and though I have some good experiences I gave up after like 5+ times reopening an issue. Sometimes they simply close the issue and don't even allow me to reopen it, I open a new issue and still gotten the shitty response.

1
Thedracus•

Recently, uber has consistently charged customers more and their net share of the what the rider pays is roughly 50-60% now after booking fee.

The larger the surge the higher the percentage.

14
convenientlyjewish•

As a passenger yesterday, I ended up being charged $10 more than the upfront price, and as far as I can tell, the trip started and ended in the appropriate places and was the shortest route home.

6
ndnrdr•

When you accept the ride, make sure the surge amount is showing on the ping screen

Here's what happened to me last night: had a $4.50 next ride, moving toward a $7 area. Rejected some pings from 10+ minutes away. Got to the $7 area. Uber all of a sudden decides to log me off (because of my 3 refusals earlier). I get back online and the $7 is now $1.50.

6
DSMIAGuy•

Thanks for warning. Uber wants us to take every ping no matter the distance or rating. No Uber I am not going to take at 4.5 pax or go 15 minutes for a $2 surge

6
Ambiguous64•

Hell no, there is no penalty for turning them down, esp if they are far away. It's only bad if you accept them and then turn them down. They used to display the two different ratings back in the day.. kind of stupid they don't still do that. There is the acceptance rate which doesn't matter at all, and then there is the decline rate which is jobs you've actively accepted and then turned down yourself, which can matter, long term.

I've had my acceptance rate drop to below 20% when I would get bombarded with requests from just outside of the surge area, when I can see it's like 2x the price next door. You better believe I'm saying no till you give me the good price, or expand the surge area.

I had one ride where I swear this is true, in 5 minutes I declined over 20 requests back to back, while still trying to drive my passengers to their destination. Good thing it was a long straight road. But they failed to make it surge for any of them, cause the surge is broken right now, and it's hard work turning those requests off on the fly.

2
DSMIAGuy•

Well if it’s no longer surging then you lose that sticky surge if you decline. I’ve lost some surges that way but I’m still not taking esp low rated pax.

2
Ambiguous64•

Yeah, you roll the dice, if you can't see the current rates. As a general rule though, if you are getting requests while you are still on a ride, especially in the heart of your city, then it's busy enough that you can probably wait to finish your ride and see how high it is. That said, if the surge is a good offer, then no harm in taking it. For me, I'll easy take anything 2.5x and over regardless, if they have a good rating. You will never know what you might have missed, so no harm.

That's another thing though. Here rating is mostly tied to the length of the trip, not the passenger. There are a few exceptions of course, but that's the general rule.

1
ndnrdr•

If you decline 3 in a row, it logs you off. You get logged off, you lose surge

2
puffywine•

I was taking my last ride this morning, after driving in surge earlier that morning, and things were pretty slow at the time. I’ve never had more back to back requests during one trip ever lol and of course long after surge was done and it was “slow”

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
DSMIAGuy•

How often do you get free food?

1
Ambiguous64•

I think that's the app. We have it different here, like we only see the multiplyier when it surges, like 1.5x or 3.0x etc, not any specific rate. We see the surge price on the fare before we accept, but we only get to see what we make at the end of the trip. That aside, I am constantly shitting down and re-opening the app to update it with there is a big surge on. I get a lot of left over artifacts, like big colors left on the screen well after they have died down. Once the multipliers have gone even if the colors still there I know it's over already.

1
One-eyed-snake•

I’ve noticed the surge blob colors are slightly different when it’s not really there

1
SomeUnicornsFly•

and this is how the new system works against drivers, trying to force higher AR and chasing surge. You roll through and get a nice $10 sticky, suddenly the next 3 requests come in from 10+ minutes away and they're all low rated shitters, what do you do? Roll the dice and see if today is the day you end up on youtube? Or decline 3x and lose your surge.

1
LVDave•

What do you expect?.. This IS Uber we're talking about, after all... Fuck both your customers (riders) and the drivers. That old surge racket mentioned has been going on for as long as I've been driving (a year and a half).

4
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
Tattooedjared•

This. 5-10 years away I’m thinking

1
SomeUnicornsFly•

it'll never happen. The moment a self driving car decides to murder a child on the street to protect the occupant or the other way around there will be such outrage the entire self-driving industry will be shut down.

2
Tattooedjared•

I’m not so sure. The second they can prove to insurance companies a robot is a safer driver than a human, the insurance companies will make the rates for humans skyrocket.

1
Cornix_•

/shrug

Uber sent me 34.50 last week for errors in surge pricing from Nov-Jan

​

Adjustment for surge earnings 11/31-1/1 that were incorrect due to a technical issue.
+$34.50

​

4
ryanbbbOP•

My guess is they are doing this when surge is over a certain amount because that would mean a driver would receive so many back to back rides that they wouldn't see or remember which ride was which. I only noticed because I had turned off new requests so I could reposition to a friendlier area after this ride.

2
luckycusk•

My town don't go above 4$. Hate this new pricing scheme

1
ryanbbbOP•

Works well if you have a concentrated area of people who live nearby. College towns are great for this.

1
luckycusk•

I do live in a college town but Lyft has been crazy 500 primetime and no one drives Uber (not literally but very few) because Uber is like 3.25$ added on when Lyft is 5 times the price of the ride... so just not loving the new scheme

1
brosephstalin7•

Happened to me once. Accepted an $11 surge and got $3. I phoned in with screenshots and everything, but all they could muster was that the surge was for Eats 😂😂 wouldn’t make sense cause I don’t even have Eats enabled!

1
dmack1206•

Uber eats in Philly. When theres a long pickup uber puts a dollar guarentee to get drivers to accept. Havent had a problem for a month with it. Now all of a sudden im not getting paid the guarenteed $. They want acreen shots, u only have 15 seconds to see what direction pickup is and if u want to accept. How are u gonna take a screen shot too?

1
Leanaann1•

Happened to me too.

2
GailaMonster•

Of couse, I can't prove the amount because who screenshots every request?

Hopefully YOU do, after this happened to you. Don't let Uber get away with lying to get you to work harder for THEIR bottom line.

0
Bigriff•

Quit.

Until we stand up for ourselves, they'll continue walking (stomping) all over us until they run low on drivers. Too many drivers = Too much pay in their minds.

Since the change in surge, and the misleading promos began, I have stopped driving for them. We have flexibility, we can drive for Lyft if need be. We can pass out Lyft card discounts to riders waiting for Uber on the side of the road. We can tell them how crappy Uber treats drivers, and that they should install Lyft app. We do have power, though Uber thinks we don't. United we could crush Uber. A 5% drop in riders would wake them up quick.

As long as they believe we have no power, they'll continue to behave worse and worse.

​

Lyft isn't better, but we can fight Uber by using them, and converting Uber users to Lyft as punishment for their behavior. Uber has the deep pockets in this pair, so it is the best strategy to go after Uber in this manner.

0
dude_305•

Lol. Nothing new. It happens all the time. Uber is shady af.

0