I don't think this particular issue is Lyft being shady. It's Lyft trying to solve a problem they have, and
going about it in a stupid, self-defeating way.
The problem they are trying to fix is the dreaded long pickup, which causes them to lose a LOT of rides because Uber's pickup time is much shorter.
However, long pickups are caused by two things:
- Not enough pax, so pax are scattered out all over the place
- Not enough drivers, so drivers are farther away from the pax than Uber
As long as Lyft is so weak in customer base and drivers, they will continue to have riders request both companies and take the first one who shows up. Lyft loses that contest 90% of the time.
So some genius Lyftkid, who has never driven rideshare a day in their life, came up with a brainstorm: If another driver goes online closer than the one we dispatched, we'll give the ride to them and cancel the original driver. The rider gets a quicker Lyft response and the driver who ends up with the ride has a shorter drive to the pax than the first driver would have had.
Lyftkid's idea is a big hit at the weekly Lyftkid meeting, their boss is a hero for hiring such a genius, and Re-dispatch is born!
The problem is, the Uber drivers are still gonna get there quicker and Lyft is still gonna lose those rides.
Nobody at Lyft ever checks to see if Re-dispatch
actually works, because Lyft is all about ideas, looking good, talking good, being inclusive,blah, blah, blah -- and they are not about RESULTS.
And...in the process, Lyft pisses off their drivers because they keep taking rides away from us.
But that doesn't matter, because
this issue is RESOLVED, and Lyftkid can move on to the next big thing. Let Support handle the complaints the best way they can.
This is just Lyft being Lyft.