Originally Posted by
diburning
This is a problem that I've been having as well. I've complained to Lyft only for them to not respond to me at all. If I requested a ride and cancelled after 10 minutes, I have to pay a fee. This should be a two way street. If a driver wastes 10 minutes of my time before cancelling, I'd expect a $5 credit.
Although I would prefer to have a bidding system, as the California model has shown, it reflects poorly upon the rideshare company, and frustrates riders, possibly causing the system to break down eventually.
What I'd want is a system where the platform is operated not-for-profit, so possibly a local town/city/state government can handle it, which would probably speed up the background checks, etc. That way, the drivers get more of what the riders pay for the service, and everyone is happy. Maybe even integrate the taxis into the system so that they're not playing giving an unfair advantage to one group or another.
I don't have high hopes of that happening, so in today's reality, both drivers and riders need to watch out for scams enabled by the platform operator.
If you get charged a cancel fee you can just contest it and they will credit you back right away but it's still a pain to deal with requesting the credit and having to wait on another driver.. I know sometimes there are accidents or road work that holds up a driver, but I think if the Uber is more than five or ten minutes late you should get a credit off the ride.
I like the idea of a bidding system. The driver knows up front how much they'll make and there's times when I'm not in a hurry that I don't mind waiting for a cheaper ride while someone that needs an Uber right away can get one if they are willing to pay a premium, and there's times, especially after a flight or if I"m out late and just want to get back to my hotel or home to go to bed ASAP that I'd have no problems paying a few dollars more to get there faster.