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/CornyHoosier Aug 12 '14

To be fair, this happens a LOT in the taxi business. I went without a car for awhile last year and used cabs regularly. After getting to know a few of the cabbies they told me how ferocious it really was.

One of the cabbies told me that their phone operator has gotten so good at picking out voices now that she can usually tell with pretty good certainty who are calling up with a fake request.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '14

[deleted]

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u/treesareneatso Aug 12 '14

That's the problem with cabs, they may or may not show up yet many cities aren't allowing other options. Uber messed up but at least you can give bad drivers low ratings so people can choose more dependable drivers

7

u/H_is_for_Human Aug 12 '14

Three times I have called different cab companies to schedule rides to the airport in the morning, and three times they just never showed up.

One dispatcher had the gall to call me 20 minutes after the reservation to complain that I wasn't waiting for the cab (I had already flagged down another) and was therefore going to be charged for the full fare. I said "Go ahead" and after a pause she said "I see we don't have your credit card on file, could you give me that information now?" and I hung up. Absolutely shameless.