Comment by ChrisMarshallNY

lol, three innocent people begging to be taken somewhere safe sure are scamming you. Stop pontificating on situations you’ve never experienced anything within a thousand miles of.

You are disagreeing with the concept, and then saying you only heard one side of… what story?

I just do not care if my customer service agent has a bad time after putting me in a dangerous situation.

Do people not realize that this is how the world works? If you are serving customers, putting them IN DANGER, yes EVEN if it was at their own request, is what is actually wrong.

You don’t let someone ride a roller coaster unrestrained. You don’t let someone eat room temperature meat. You don’t drop a family off in an extremely dangerous neighborhood. Any employee would be right to be ridiculed for allowing any of these things - ESPECIALLY when a child is concerned.

> So basically, you’re admitting key elements of your original story were made up?

Sure, and I regret it. I didn’t think it was a “key element.” The part that struck me, was the inflexibility of the driver. A real cabbie might laugh at you, but happily take more money to get out of there.

If he had refused to leave (which he did), then the driver might be legitimately worried. It sounds like the driver didn’t really understand which neighborhood he was in, or he would have been a lot more scared. A classic robbery technique against cabbies, is getting them to drive to bad neighborhoods, then robbing them.

The thing that struck me, was the complete lack of situational awareness, or customer service ethos, on the part of the driver. That seems to be an inevitable result of the Uber business model, and folks that sign up as Uber drivers, need to be aware of the dangers and responsibilities.

When you have people in your car, you have their lives in your hands, and your employer’s brand integrity, as well. The driver’s behavior resulted in some brand damage to Uber. My friend’s behavior may have resulted in a permanent ban, but he certainly didn’t care, as he’s done with Uber, anyway.

If, on the other hand, the driver had been sympathetic and helpful, he could have had three grateful, enthusiastic evangelists for Uber. Any experienced customer service person knows that having an upset customer, that admits they are in the wrong, but is also upset, is gold. It can easily be mined for the advantage of the service provider, or turned into a complete shitshow (which is what happened, here).

In the end, it sounds like it turned out OK for everyone (except Uber, who permanently lost three customers).

Ubers aren't cabs. They are paid for the ride itself, not for the time of the ride. There is no meter to run.

Honestly, in a city of any significant size, I prefer taxis. Taxis have accountability. And they know that it's about moving fares, so in a decently populated area, you do better by getting more fares rather than more out of a fare.

Is that relevant? It's a driverless car. Simply don't get out. Maybe it drives you back to dispatch or to the police station. Maybe the police show up to the current location. Regardless its got to be safer than wandering around a neighborhood you definitely don't belong in.

I grew up in substantially more dangerous environs than urban America.

It's entirely possible to live quite safely, in urban US areas, but the opposite is also true, and those folks are the ones that like people that live in the bubbles.

Yeah, but the route is on your phone as well. The driver cannot deviate from that course without you knowing.