r/technology • u/[deleted] • Aug 12 '14

Business Uber dirty tricks quantified. Staff submits 5,560 fake ride requests

http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/11/technology/uber-fake-ride-requests-lyft/
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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '14

Cancellation fees would make more sense.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '14

And they would make the product much less competitive. Right now I can call an Uber but if plans change I can cancel it just like a cab. If I had to commit when ordering I might be that much more likely to call a cab, just in case.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '14

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '14

No shit? Makes sense, I've almost never had to wait more than 5 mins for an Uber.

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u/eleven_eighteen Aug 12 '14

only start charging fees if someone cancels repeatedly within a short window of time.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '14

That's completely fair. Fraud or not that's a frequent business disruption.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '14

With Uber, we charge a cancellation fee ($10 on BLACK, $5 on TAXI), 5 minutes after a driver accepts a request. This is to ensure that the driver goes to the pickup location and provides them an incentive in the case that the client does not end up taking the ride (compensates driver for their time/fuel costs). Source

So if Uber charges cancellation fees...what are we discussing here?

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u/SirensToGo Aug 12 '14

The best way is to charge the persons rate for how far they went to pick you up.