Originally Posted by
diburning
You're not supposed to, but I think it may be allowed.
The Lyft representative's email is quite clear that they notify of surge pricing only when pickup and dropoff destinations are not entered before ordering the ride:
Originally Posted by Lyft Support Representative
If there is Prime Time you will be notified on the app when you request a ride unless you enter pickup and drop-off locations before the ride.
If you enter the pickup and drop-off locations before the ride, the Prime Time will be in the total price that is shown in the upfront pricing. You can tap the upfront price to see the Prime Time details.
That's about as clear as mud and designed to confuse the customer. The Lyft app shows Prime Times details only if the pickup and drop-off locations are not entered before the ride and an extra step, which is not obvious or intuitive, is required before the price is shown.
With Uber, I cannot order a ride without first entering the origin and destination locations, the surge pricing advisory clearly shows before the order is placed, and the estimated prices for the various types of service are clearly shown and the desired option must be selected before the order button can be pushed.
Uber charges a cancellation fee if you cancel more than 2-3 minutes (down from 5 minutes before the change) after requesting. Lyft charges a $5 cancellation fee if you cancel more than 5 minutes after requesting.
I never canceled an Uber ride in the US or in Europe. I was returning from a Latin America city where I canceled several Uber rides 10-15 minutes after ordering them when it became clear that the drivers would not be able to pick us up at the estimated time. Not once was I charged a cancellation fee.
The Lyft $5 cancellation charge notice appeared within less than a minute of ordering the ride; I noticed it as I was searching the various app's screens for the estimated cost of the ride.
Select origin, and select destination, and make sure to select the type of service you want. I'm not sure if your case was a bug, but for me, it shows me the up front cost every time, and if tapped on the price, it would tell you whether it's Prime Time (Lyft's equivalent of surge).
I entered my pickup location, my destination and the type of service. I never saw a price surge warning or a button that would disclose the price. The only thing that I found was the cancellation charge notification. I never have to go through such gymnastics or contortions to see if Uber has surge pricing in effect and the estimated cost of the ride before placing the order (after entering the pickup and drop off locations).
What I can tell you is that if Lyft can't estimate the time it takes for the driver to get to you, sometimes it can't calculate an up-front cost (this tends to happen at airports where the staging area is off-site), although I've only seen this once (albeit also at LAX). The other thing I can tell you is that LAX is almost always in a perpetual Prime Time or Surge.
I received an immediate estimate of pickup time when I placed the order. It was seven minutes. Rideshare drivers are now permitted to pickup passengers at LAX right after they drop off their previous fares; they no longer have to exit the World Way loop to the staging area before accepting new rides (
link).
This was the very first time that I encountered surge or prime pricing going home from LAX. As I wrote in my email to Lyft, Uber did not have surge pricing at the time. I never would have ordered the Lyft ride had I been advised that prime time pricing was in effect.
As far as transparency and quality of customer support goes, Lyft is thousands of times better than Uber.
I don't know what to tell you. I've never been ripped off by Uber, so I never had to contact their customer support.