Originally Posted by
davie355
China:
Shanghai - People's Uber (a Buick sedan) - Maglev station to Fudan University's main campus. 55 minute ride at 6pm rush hour: a slow, but never standstill, trek. RMB 48. Driver had glitches with the Uber app on his phone; we had to cancel and restart mid-trip.
Beijing - People's Uber (a Toyota Corolla, I think) - JW Marriott hotel to PEK airport. Driver texted me for my exact location; he said he tried to call but could not reach me. (I had an American cell phone.) Driver refused to go to PEK, and I was charged a cancellation fee (which was waived after I emailed Uber to explain the situation).
Beijing - Uber Black (Audi A6) - JW Marriott hotel to PEK. Driver agreed to go to the airport without hesitation. 41 minute ride at 12:15pm; some early snags in traffic gave way to a breeze to Terminal 3. RMB 151; compare to the RMB 80 taxi fare in reverse (which was in considerably heavier traffic).
Shanghai - UberX - Uber driver called me immediately after accepting the ride asking where I was; when I asked why they didn't just look at the app, they said that the app was often wrong and they didn't trust it. The driver insisted that I give them the address instead of using the address that I typed into Uber (it was the same address) and insisted to use Baidu Maps instead of the map on Uber (which was Google Maps, and surprisingly the only place I've seen Google Maps work in mainland China, but I suppose the Chinese government has succeeded in brainwashing its people into believing that Baidu is superior to Map service, and indeed in provides some services useful to Chinese drivers that I don't think should be available such as where police cameras are hidden). Other than that, uneventful ride.
Guangzhou - - People's Uber - Took an Uber from the train station to Crowne Plaza Guangzhou Zengcheng. Ride was about 100 RMB. Got an email the next day that they nearly tripled my fare, stating that my ride actually had a flat rate. I fought this and eventually Uber agreed to refund the additional charge as I had no way of knowing about the flat rate as it wasn't reflected in the fare estimate.
Shenzhen - People's Uber - I called an Uber from my hotel and watched it get to about a block away and stop. It sat there for a couple minutes and cancelled my ride. I requested a second Uber (same driver accepted) and asked the hotel to call them and tell them how to get to the hotel, however, concierge told me a minute later that the driver claimed he did not know how to get to the hotel despite being only a block away. He cancelled the ride again. I was charged 2 cancellation fees, but these were easy to get removed by contacting Uber Support. At this point, a taxi rolled into the hotel so I took it instead.\
Bali - UberBlack - Driver took nearly 30 minutes to get to my hotel but seemed to know where to go and how to get there (was staying at the IC in Bali). Didn't call me or anything when he arrived but I assumed he had arrived because the car didn't move. When I came downstairs, he was chatting with someone from concierge. I asked him to take me to Uluwatu Temple, and he offered to wait for me there at the Uber rate of 36000 IDR per hour and take me back. He said he was operating on one of the Uber hourly guarantees but he doesn't get much business but keeps the app on and gets paid 30000 IDR per hour whether he gets rides or not. He said he was normally a driver for day-hire but when no one hired him for the day, he turned on the Uber app. At the end of the ride, he gave me his business card and offered his services for $50 per day, but I had to decline as I had already joined a tour.