Anybody else Uber ?
 

I've got a customer who swears by Uber. Says it's the best thing since sliced milk.
I was having trouble with my truck so I decided to leave it at the shop and try Uber. I downloaded the app and it took about five minutes for my ride to arrive. A quick ten minute ride cost me $6.35. I've taken a regular cab from the shop before and not only did it take an hour for it to show up it cost me $20.00 for the same ride.
I'm sold. I like this.
Then I get an email with a promo. Anyone who signs up using my specific promo code will get $15.00 off their first Uber ride and even better, I'll get a $15.00 credit on my account. So sign up!! And use my promo code kevinm24829ue .
Cool stuff

Yup. Going to be Ubering again soon with a few friends to go bar hopping. I like it. Used it to send my cousin home to my parents one night as well under my account.

I use it instead of taxis when traveling. Inexpensive, fast arrival, clean, polite drivers, pay with card on file, no tipping.

I use it all the time especially for work travel. Makes expensing car trips super easy. Always felt like cab drivers were annoyed at taking a card or issuing a reciept.

My family and I used it exclusively when in NOLA last September. I am sold on the speed and affordability

Yes and I am big fan!

How about the flip side...Anyone driving for Uber?

One of my friends in the local regional PCA club is a Physician. He has a new 991 currently but his new GT4 should be in next week.

He is single and as something to do in the evenings he drives for Uber in his Honda DD. He says he meets some interesting people and few jerks.

One of my friends drives for Uber. Part time, as are most Uber drivers. I think that if you drive only a couple, carefully selected hours - the highest demand times and surge times - it's possible to make a pretty good $/hour, but only for those couple hours. Driving Uber full time is, I hear, more or less a minimum wage job - maybe lower, once you include depreciation and insurance.

The only times I prefer a taxi over Uber are:

1) in Manhattan, where cabs are so common and, for me, part of the New York City experience, and

2) in Portland, where our largest taxi company, Radio Cab, is the best cab company I've ever experienced. It is a co-op, owned by the drivers. Punctual, professional, pleasant, pristine - if all cab companies were like RadioCab, Uber would never have succeeded.

My first experience with Uber was in SF, on a Friday night, and it just started to rain. Got to see what "surge" pricing was like at it's highest.

Even with that being my first experience, I'll still avoid taxi's at all costs. Years of over-charging, long routing, nasty, smelly, rude, and expensive taxis and they all scratch their head why damn near everyone is jumping ship to any and all ride sharing apps!?!?!

Uber is great. Fast, courteous, cheap, clean. All the things taxis aren't. Taxi authorities in many big cities are controlled by a combination of the government and the mob. They have been milking a quasi-monopoly for decades and now they have some real competition.

Surge pricing is simply a lesson in economics. If you've ever waited 30+ minutes for a taxi, you understand supply vs. demand.

I worry that after the taxi companies all go out of business and Uber also drives Lyft away, will Uber itself be an effective monopoly, and will prices then go up.

You mean kinda like the cabs did before Uber and Lyft for the past 75 plus years?

When they do, I'll start Dildage, (or some other clever named smart phone app), undercut them by 20% and become the next punk billionaire of Palo Alto.

Or 100 other people will beat me to it. :)

I rode a Pontiac Aztec Uber car one time. I thought it was just hyped as the ugliest car. They weren't kidding.

I used it Montreal in February. No parking downtown, -40 wind chill....perfect time to use Uber.

No waiting around outside, you know when the driver is there, and you jump into a warm car.

Remind me never to go there, Uber or not. :eek:

Wifey and I used it a month ago in Anaheim, CA to go 3-4 miles from a hotel to an event at the Honda Center, cheap, there in a few minutes. $15 for both trips, and parking at the Honda Center was more than that. I also downloaded the Lyft app. Some drive for both.

Speeder, I go back to Montreal for a show in a few weeks.

I was in Portland last year and used Radio Cab to get to the airport- best taxi experience ever; in fact only taxi experience that didn't annoy me on some level.

Very good point.

Use it all the time.. Love it...

I haven't taken a taxi in two years. As a rider, if there's a downside to uber vs taxi, I haven't found it yet.

(Unless you're in an area with poor coverage, in which case not being able to preschedule could be problematic)

My wife and I Ubered for the first time Friday night
The first trip was very nice. Clean new Buick SUV.
Heading back we got a clapped out old Monte Carlo (2Door). It was dirty and smelled like a strip club.
Question is, do I leave negative feedback? I'd be afraid the guy would hunt me down?
Both rides cost the exact same amount and were less than half what a cab would have been

Both of our kids are at university. My daughter and her friends use it every weekend as some places are too far to walk. Our son never uses it, as everything is within walking distance.

That's interesting. In Los Angeles, there are fairly high standard for the car used, i.e. must be 2010 or newer, 4-door sedan, etc. I do know that these standards vary from city to city but it sounds like someone was using a car that was not authorized for Uber. It's conceivable that he registered with a different car but it was in the shop or(?)

I've never ridden in an old or dirty car in L.A. or Minneapolis. Some drivers could back off with the car wash air fresheners, (think Breaking Bad), but that's another subject. :)

My last uber down in Redwood Shores, CA was a brand new Lexus sedan. Guy was in sales at Oracle and fired up the app when he was leaving work so he could use the carpool lane heading back to the city. Great ride to the airport, cheaper and vastly nicer than any cab.

exactly, they have high standards. Leave poor feedback, likely he will be reprimanded and your fare will be refunded.


I love uber, even got a ride in a Cayenne once!

I tried driving for them for a bit, but in a large city like PHX you end up driving as far to pick up the passenger as you take them, and it pencils out to not much money /hour.

A bar buddy out here was picked up in a Panamera once. I've been in a New Mercedes once.

If someone just did it part-time, during the peak hours, it would completely pay for an expensive new car every month. Maybe that's what some are doing. :cool:

I don't have much need for Taxi service but I have used Uber twice and it was always great.

When I'm in Portland I just grab Light rail to a nice brew pub and wait for my friends to get off work and meet me there. :D

I have a friend that likes to go bar hopping but is otherwise a very responsible businessman... he uses Uber extensively and swears by it.

I don't business travel anymore so don't have much use for taxis or Uber, but if the need comes up I will give it a try.

Oh, and, my neighbor had a super early (3-4AM) flight and tried Uber (she has used it before) but couldn't find a ride that early in the morning, had to call a cab.

Uber is good, but watch the algorithm, a $50 $ ride could suddenly be $70 etc.

A frend just posted this on another forum. (English is not his first language)

Last night for the first time we tried to use UBER and the experience was not so amusing, actually it was bad. The trip was OK, the driver and his car arrived shortly after we look for a ride.
When we arrived at the destination, the driver and us have a hard time connecting to UBER and after 10minutes we decided to pay up the driver the estimated fare plus a 15% extra and we part with him sans receipt. BIG MISTAKE!
Apparently the driver didn't end the trip as soon as he connected to UBER but he end the trip after he arrived at his own home, some hours later after he drop us and another hundred thousand of Rupiah charged to us.
He has since terrorizing us with his message including those involving life, death, him being a common fool etc. the response to our complain to UBER is not satisfying too.
We decided to pay the driver tomorrow to stop the terror and it seems last night will be our first and last UBER ride.

(Edit: 100,000 Rupiah = $7.50USD)

Thanks for the tip, I'll make sure not to uber when I'm in Indonesia.
;);)

I Uber all over when I travel and I travel every week. It is truly a wonderful alternative to a conventional taxi.

I used it last week on my trip to Boston. Fares that would cost $20-25 were only $12-15. I kind of felt sorry for the cab drivers though, but they have no one to blame but their owners. Their monopolistic attitude of take it or leave it has cost them dearly.

I don't know how the Uber drivers think they make money. I paid $12 for a 20 minute trip. If Uber takes 25%, that only leaves him $9. I feel like I need to start tipping these guys.

Toronto airport taxi services (a separate entity here - like limos but $5 cheaper) have lowered their rates slightly as a response to Uber - or at least that was the reason a driver gave me a couple of weeks ago.

I entertain clients a lot & I drink so Uber is great. More reliable than taxis & cleaner cars with drivers that you can actually talk to. Just try to get a taxi for pickup in suburban Las Vegas at 11pm - but an Uber driver is max 10 minutes away.

As for the prime time premium, we were at a studio in the alphabet part of the East Village at midnight on Halloween. Taxis were unobtainium but would have cost max $35. Our Uber to Hell's Kitchen was $80 & he arrived in 10 minutes. The streets were chaos - a really cool event actually. I'm glad I saw it but equally glad we had Uber to get to our hotel.

Ian

I use it all the time when I travel, super convenient and never a bad experience. Way better than a taxi.