[ATX 22]

Killeen Uber, I was sitting still in the same surge zone as NateR.
I never chase surge, because I do know better. I sat for 14 minutes and took screen shots as it went from 2.5 to 3.5 back down to 1.7 at 11:12pm. I was pinged at 11:13, screen still bright red and reading 1.7x. I was not paid surge rate for the ride, and according to the CSR, there was no surge as I accepted the request. I am, of course, disputing that with the CSR's right now.

 

[ATX 22]

Right now, yes.

 

[ATX 22]

J (Uber)

Aug 16, 05:08

Hi J,

Thanks for writing in. Sorry to hear about the confusion surrounding your fare here. I'm happy to explain.

Surge occurs differently throughout the city and changes in real time, depending on the demand in particular areas. I took a look, and during this trip, the area was not surging when you hit "accept trip."

We'll do our best to make you aware of when and where surge is likely to be happening, but we can never predict it 100%.

Please let me know if I can help with anything else.

J
_______________________________________

My reply

Aug 16, 08:22

Really? That's how you want to start? I was sitting in a surging area for over 10 minutes without a ride request, I have 10 minutes worth of screen shots of the areas surging along with the amounts of surge. The request screen said it was a 1.7x, unfortunately I can't get a screen shot of the request screen while I am accepting the request.
I think you should recheck at the very least.
______________________________________

Z (Uber)

Aug 16, 21:42

Hey Jay,

Happy to step in and clear this up for you.

It looks like at the time that you accepted this trip request there was no surge going on in this area.

I apologize for this inconvenience. In the future watch out for text messages from us alerting you about surge pricing in your area. You can also find info about surge pricing by looking for the surge icon in the vehicle selector.

If you have anymore questions about surge pricing please let me know.

I also see you have a 4.89 rating and a 90% acceptance over 489 trips! I appreciate your great partnership with Uber.

Best,

Z

I know what my rating is, how is that pertinent?
_____________________________________
My next response:


You've stepped in, but have failed to clear up anything. I had plenty of time to get screen shots while I was sitting in a surging area with no ride requests for 13 minutes. This shot was taken less than 30 seconds prior to my acceptance of the request in question. I am the blue dot, clearly sitting within the surge zone south of the Colorado River.
Look, it was a really short ride, but it just appears that the Uber - driver partnership is always very one sided in favor of Uber.
This is contributing to the high driver turnover rate, along with unwarranted rate drops and onboarding more drivers than are needed. Vehicle standards have been lowered, and the riders are seeing a drop off in the quality of service as well. With the current rates, I average well under the current minimum wage standards set forth by the federal government, so it's important to me that I receive every penny that's due to me.
If my partnership efforts are so highly appreciated, why is it I feel like I get dumped on by Uber at every turn?

Still waiting for their next response.

 

[ATX 22]

Notice the blue dot not moving.

 

[ATX 22]

Uber is anything but a rational business.

If supply and demand were truly what they were basing the model off of, then there wouldn't be nonstop ads still recruiting drivers in the Austin market.
This means that requests made during a surge period are fraudulent price gouging, especially in light of the fact that a number of drivers are already in the area not receiving requests. The heat maps are designed to predict potential need. In other words, Uber wants to manipulate where cars are, and keep them distributed evenly throughout the city. I never chase the different colors, nor do I chase surge pricing, but when I am clearly sitting within a surging zone and get a request from within the surge zone, I expect to be receiving surge rates.

 

[ATX 22]

My ride request at 11:13 said 1.7x, I checked before accepting. Now uber says it wasn't surging. Grrrr!

 

[ATX 22]

Misleading at best, blatantly fraudulent is more the description I have in mind.

Non surge requests from within a surge zone? Why light everything up then?

 

[ATX 22]

The latest on the non surge fare from the third CSR now.

Max M. (Uber)

Aug 18, 21:38

Hi J,

I am sorry for the frustration, I looked into every database we have and pulled the information for this trip.

There was no surge at the time of trip acceptance.

Happy to address any other questions or concerns you have.

Max M.

My response:

So what you are telling me is that as drivers, whenever we see our driver app all lit in red, and showing various denominations of surge, that it's all bogus. This is misleading at best, and fraudulent at worst. I find it interesting that the map was showing surge pricing for 15 minutes, yet when I received a ride request from within the same zone where my car was, it was somehow not surging. Pathetic.

 

[ATX 22]

I drive x only. So if I am seeing surge, it should only be x surge.

 

[ATX 22]

I've seen here, but only last night finally figured out how to utilize the pax app to determine what's surging. Basically, I mived my pin into the area that was showing up as a surge in my driver app. There was a surge icon beside the type of vehicle that was surging. X had the shortest surge duration last night during my little experiment. Once all 4 types were no longer surging, I clicked back over to the driver app. Still bright red and showing 2.5x. Uber’s playing us. Uber’s playing the pax. I'm not sure if I have ever seen a less ethical business model.

 

[ATX 22]

Fakes surges, what about fake pings being used to herd us were they want us? A cancel before five minutes and we get nothing.

That might be other drivers. I have unintentionally requested a ride while playing with the pax app. Others will ping people to see where they are sitting.