Landing Gear

I will respectfully disagree with you. I had a driver recently who did not speak English. I think he might have spoken Chinese but I don't know. What I said to Lyft was, this is a safety issue. Also, when the driver mentioned LaGuardia I was upset since I was going to JFK.

carlosdca

Isn't the destination automatically populated in the app?
Why would he try to take you to a different airport if he is just following the app directions?
Weird.
Good luck and don't text and drive

tmiw

Considering that the minimum average to keep from being dropped from the platform is pretty high, drivers get a 5 unless there's a safety or harassment issue. Fortunately, neither of those have happened yet, though I also don't ride Uber/Lyft that often.

(And if one of those issues does happen, it's insufficient simply to give them a lower rating, IMO.)

davie355

I've had drivers whose app froze, couldn't receive a cellular data signal.. I think it's more common in dense areas where cell tower congestion could result in data unavailability.

So then they've had to ask me for my destination and drive in that general direction until they pick up a usable signal.

miamiflyer8

Usually is 5 stars if the car is reasonably clean and got me where I wanted to go. I deduct one star for minor things

I've only needed to rate one driver with a 1 due to him driving a longer than necessary route unsafely and having a filthy vehicle. Reported it and within minutes I got reimbursed for the ride.

Boraxo

I feel bad for the drivers who make very little and can barely afford to make a mistake as a customer can provide a low rating for any arbitrary reason. So my default rating is 5*

I generally do not micromanage the routing and am content with the uber routing. But sometimes I have better knowledge of local traffic conditions (i.e. downtown SF) and what streets to avoid. So if the driver ignores my advice then I will bump the rating down.

Any driver that has indications of marijuana or alcohol use gets a 1 rating and automatic report to Uber safety.

Finally there are the scam drivers that pretend they picked me up and then "complete" the ride or that say I no-showed. These are reported to the Uber fraud dept. Though I suppose the better course would be to give them a 1* rating and then report.

My own rating is 4.85 - it was 5 for a long time and I am not sure why it dropped. I have 5* on Lyft.


F

rdurlabhji

Default to 5 (probably rated 95+% of my rides a 5). Downgrade to 3 for poor driving, cleanliness, or rudeness. Downgrade to 1 for a combination of those or if something is particularly egregious.

Points Scrounger

It just takes a couple of drivers in a bad mood. They say it's not possible to do it now, or at least not as easily, but I believe mine correlate perfectly to being rated very low by two drivers in a row whom I didn't tip a while ago. A veteran driver told me that he understands some drivers will not give 5 stars for what they consider to be "too short" a trip.

DenverBrian

As is typical with five-option rating systems, for all intents and purposes it has collapsed to a two-option rating system. Either five stars or not.

When you rate a driver four stars on Lyft, you get a variation of "Oh, no! What happened?"

If you rate three or lower, you risk retribution.

So I only rate five stars most of the time, and four stars when the car was dirty or the driver is clueless on directions.

What Uber/Lyft really need is a simple yes/no to: "Was the experience 100% perfect?" If yes, great. If no, then allow some comment box and/or a few radio buttons for the main issues that crop up.

Five-option ratings systems are some of the most corrupted ways of measuring true customer satisfaction ever invented.

Boraxo

Even worse is the 1-10 scale used by Mercedes and BMW where 10 is the only acceptable answer.

Points Scrounger

Same thing happened to me a while back. I understand it's not as easy for them now, but there were a couple of rides where I did not leave a tip, right at that time. I believe that the drivers went back and gave me a low rating retroactively as punishment.

In your case, if that wasn't the issue then you may have just run across a couple of drivers who acted irrationally. I have heard anecdotally that some drivers will not give full five stars for what they consider "short" trips.

gaobest

If I like the experience, then I’ll tip and give 5 stars.

Otherwise, no tip and no rating.

diburning

What do you mean risk retribution? Lyft drivers don't see what you rated them.

Drivers that get me to my destination without issue get 5 stars.
Drivers that miss turns because they're bad at following GPS directions get 4 stars.
Drivers that miss multiple turns to the point where it wastes my time get 3 stars. This includes the route they take to pick me up. Dirty/smelly cars, or driver BO also gets 3 stars. Drivers that are bad at driving (ie doesn't observe rules of the road/traffic laws, and other drivers honk at them) get 3 or 2 stars depending on severity.
Drivers that circle the block across the street over and over again so that they're close enough to where I can't cancel the ride without a fee, and then eventually figures it out and picks me up gets 2 stars.
Drivers that pull over at the wrong address and expect me to walk in the rain get 1 star.

I'm often lenient in that if they have difficulties navigating to pick me up, but are nice and apologetic about it, and there are no issues during the ride, then I'll leave them either 5 stars or no rating so at least they're not punished.

yyztozag

5 stars: get my to my destination without being a jerk.
4 stars: driving too fast, smelly car, moderately rude, car is not as advertised (i.e. non-leather seats on Black)
3 stars: dropping me off at a clearly unsuitable (crowded) area that is not even where I dropped my pin.
2 stars: very rude, car reeks of cigarettes or weed, car is in terrible (stripped) condition, rolling down the window and yelling "get yo finger outta yo a$$ and start driving"
1 star: unsafe driving, TAKING OFF AS AN 85 YEAR OLD IS TRYING TO GET OUT. I usually report one stars because I mostly give that rating due to safety concerns.

Boraxo

Last week I had a driving blasting his music with too much air freshener. What rating should I give? I left no tip (unusual for me) so he has already been penalized $1