back to article Uber wants your top tips to mend its rotten image

Uber is looking to mend fences with its drivers by adding the option for riders to tip. The embattled dial-a-ride broker said Tuesday it would begin trials of the feature in Minneapolis, Houston, and Seattle. The in-app option will allow users to give tips after both Uber car rides and UberEat food deliveries without deducting …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Unless absolutely 100% of the amount I enter into the app is going into the driver's bank account they can fuck right off. I can and will tip drivers. It's a hard job with shit pay and a good one can be the difference between my day being a disaster and being actually alright. The sexual harassment factory known as Uber doesn't get to take a cut of that.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Unless absolutely 100% of the amount I enter into the app is going into the driver's bank account they can fuck right off.

      So who codes, maintains, and hosts the app?

      Who protects any IP that may exist?

      Who makes all the decisions about policy, charging?

      Who pays for marketing?

      Who does (or in Uber's case should) validate driver background, licences, insurance, vehicle condition & maintenance records?

      Fairies, apparently. I think (on public domain info) that Uber is a corrupt, busted entity. But the idea of every penny you paying going to the driver? Give that one some further thought, please.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Or, put in far more sensible terms:

        What is the marginal cost to Uber of servicing a tip?

        (Hint: Starts with "sweet" and ends with "all")

      2. Jeffrey Nonken

        You misunderstood him. He's merely insisting on tipping the driver, and the only scenario that would stop him would be the unlikely one he described and you berated him for.

        IOW he's not demanding the company give up all its money. He's demanding the right to tip.

        1. Jeffrey Nonken

          Or possibly he just wants a guarantee that Uber won't take a cut of the tip. If so, that's less clear.

    2. Boo Radley

      Yes, if the driver gives good service, like helping me with packages, I will certainly tip, and I want all of the tip to go to the driver. Hell, maybe I'm unusual, but I normally tip at least 20% as long as he's ontime, clean car, and doesn't take the long route.

    3. Boo Radley

      Yes, if the driver gives good service, like helping me with packages, I will certainly tip, and I want all of the tip to go to the driver. Hell, maybe I'm unusual, but I normally tip at least 20% as long as he's ontime, clean car, and doesn't take the long route.

      Maybe my small city is unusual, our two taxi companies are pretty honest, they wash and vacuum the car each shift, no driver smokes, and the wait time can be as little as ten minutes from when you call, up to 30 minutes if they're busy. The trick is to call earlier and make a reservation. Then you've got a 99 out of 100 chance that the car will be there when you need it, and probably earlier.

      I looked up several of my regular taxi rides on Ubers find your fare page, they were consistently a dollar or two more than I pay for a regular taxi. The booking and other fees alone add up to my home to work taxi fare before the mileage is added, making Uber the high cost provider. I want to study the pricing a littlemore, probably on longer trips Uber will be cheaper. There's got to be a sweet spot, because they charge only half the per mile taxi rate.

  2. The Nazz

    Top tips

    Act lawfully* everywhere you trade.

    Stop denying you are a taxi service.

    * in full accordance with all local laws and regulations.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Top tips

      Act lawfully* everywhere you trade.

      I don't think that's going to work. I get the impression that Silicon Valley culture by now equates aggressively breaking the law with profit - the one doesn't exist without the other. Personally I blame Microsoft and Bill Gates for that one, the rest just copied the playbook.

      It's the only reason I can come up with that explains why we always find the mega ones in court. Given that their own President is presently proving the validity of that approach, I don't expect that to change soon either, it is as persistent as police getting away with shooting black people without any consequences to speak of.

      1. Trigonoceps occipitalis

        Re: Top tips

        "without any consequences to speak of"

        Except, of course, a dead black person. Some police apologists seem to forget that minor point.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Top tips

          Except, of course, a dead black person. Some police apologists seem to forget that minor point.

          A valid correction, and of sufficient insight to prompt a mea culpa from my side. I should have added ".. for the perpetrators" (I can't bring myself to call these people "police" - I know enough people in law enforcement that are *not* murderous thugs with an ego and panic problem).

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    As long as the drivers have to rate you before they see if you have left a tip (or not), we don't have a tipping culture in Australia, Uber fares I think are much higher than in the US and we are already getting stitched in multiple other ways because the taxi companies have their panties in a bunch that Uber is a better service than the BO smelling sweat pits they currently provide.

    Saying that if the service is exceptional I would gladly tip!

    1. Little Mouse

      I lived in Oz some twenty-odd years ago, and Christ on a bike, the taxis then were hideous. To the extent that every night-out required someone to stay mostly sober to deal with the inarticulate, innumerate, and cartographically-challenged excuse for a taxi driver and ensure we all got home safely.

      It was a work-visa thing to get family members into the country. I mean, hey, anyone can drive, right?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I don't think so, we don't tip in Australia, not that I'd ever use Uber anyway, they are more expensive than a taxi from my place to the airport. Not to mention the scandal ridden industry preying on vulnerable passengers.

  4. Brenda McViking
    Meh

    Add tipping - yes, absolutely, and keep your filthy paws off any money there.

    Don't you dare reduce the time riders have to cancel drivers - half the time in India it takes a few minutes just to see if the driver is trying to take the piss (e.g. not move until I have called him, or if they're incompetant - if they don't follow the satnav, then a wrong turn could very well mean I'm waiting 20 minutes for the driver to rectify the situation, due to the horrendously badly engineered road layouts here. I've also had drivers demand to know where I'm going to cancel seconds later because it's not where they want to go. Uber charges the rider by default for this behaviour which is also wrong.)

    I object to being fined for something that is the driver's fault. Uber also need to recognise that they aren't a monopoly, and that the consumer (the riders) are still king in this situation. You make it anything less than super-easy to use with predictable results, and I'll go elsewhere. At the moment, they really are the best of the bunch in India, but that can change overnight. Drivers will moan, but they're getting paid, and with Uber, they can quit any time they like if it's really getting that bad. If Uber need to patch it up with the drivers, then do so, but leave me, the paying customer, out of it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Uber also need to recognise that they aren't a monopoly, and that the consumer (the riders) are still king in this situation.

      Upvote for (possibly unintentional) humour :)

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tips

    Don't eat yellow snow

    Don't work for a crook

    Don't go to nightclubs

    Don't bet at the races

    1. Headley_Grange Silver badge

      Re: Tips

      And always wear goggles when grinding.

      1. Alistair
        Coat

        Re: Tips

        So -- THATS why my priest is still at 93. I'll get my goggles and go WOW to see if that helps.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Tips

      Never play cards with a man called Doc

      Never eat at a place called Mom's

      Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own

    3. HandleAlreadyTaken

      Re: Tips

      Walk on your tip toes

      Don't tie no bows

      Better stay away from those that carry around a fire hose

      Keep a clean nose

      Wash the plain clothes

      You don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows.

      1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

        Re: Tips

        Don't follow leaders.

        Watch the parking meters!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I don't have any top tips for Uber; they're past that now.

    I do have a Top tip for any Uber investors though -- take your money and get it as far away from that organisation as you can.

    The way things are going, I don't expect Uber to survive in the long term. The Waymo case on its own has the potential to wipe them out. That thought alone should be enough to get the investors nervous. But even if they do think it can survive, the Uber brand is so toxic that anyone associated with it is going to find themselves tarnished by association. I wouldn't want my money associated with it. I wouldn't even use their services, let alone invest in them.

    There is honestly no way of fixing this organisation now. If the investors had acted early, when the attitudes at the top were already clear, then they could have made it work, but they've left it to fester for so long now that anyone with a moral conscience will have left the company; I'd be surprised if there is a single good egg among their entire permanent work-force. You'd basically have to fire everyone and start again.

  7. Valeyard

    Tips

    the last bastion of the company that accepts employees want to be able to eat but doesn't want to actually pay them so turns them into a charity case for the customers for donate to

    see also: US service industry

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It can be cheaper to drive yourself

    I can drive to the airport, park under cover, park within a secure area, park within 50 feet of the main terminal entrance, park for 2 weeks and STILL beat the Taxi fare to and fro.

    No BS

    No BO

    No waiting at either end

  9. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    Ch, Ch, Ch, Changes

    Interesting changes.

    Three are to the detriment of the customer and the 4th is leading Uber very slightly into the direction that they claim their business is based on, ie people offering rides because they happen to be going that way anyway.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The ironic thing

    Its obvious all this uber hate is from taxi drivers, who seemed to have finally worked out how to use the internet. If only they had worked out technology a decade earlier, they might have avoided their businesses going down the pan...

    Every time I have used uber, it'd been a superb experience, better on every level to some smelly dirty black cab, with a daily mail reading racist driver who wants to rant at me in a south London accent.

    1. Bob Hoskins

      Re: The ironic thing

      Very true. I've had nothing but good experiences with Uber drivers - seems to be some issues at the top mind.

    2. phuzz Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: The ironic thing

      So what I'm learning from this is; as long as most of your customers are happy, you can fuck over your employees and break the law as much as you like.

      Thanks capitalism!

  11. Bob Hoskins

    It's quite simple really

    Stop treating your people like crap. They don't like it. Admittedly, most of them won't have worked for IBM in the recent past thereby having a common frame of reference but that advice is equally applicable to IBM.

  12. 2Nick3

    Tips recorded for taxes

    Don't know specifically for Uber (taxi) drivers, but don't service workers (waiters and waitresses, stylists, etc) get taxed on tips? It's been a long time since I worked in that sector, but I remember being taxed on the estimated tips I would have received. I was supposed to self-report anything higher than that, too. So with paying a tip on your bill the exact amount can be monitored, with Uber withholding the appropriate amount, and sending that to the IRS quarterly (again, could have changed). So they are making interest on the withheld taxes.

    From their reputation I doubt this has as much to do with driver or customer satisfaction as the bottom line.

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