Review: Uber Premium Taxi Service

[noopster]

Originally Posted by nareshov

I've taken the UberPOOL a few times when not in a hurry or when commuting back home. But yesterday's experience was new.

Sorry to hear that- at least no harm was done. This is the main reason I hesitate to travel by Uber Pool. Am finicky enough about the driver's hygiene and behaviour as it is, to extend that to fellow occupants would be too much!

Also, I notice that the saving from pooling are never that significant, maybe 100/- or a little more, so it's just not worth the hassle. Will stick with regular Uber for now.

One (unrelated) pro tip: if you get surge pricing on the lower segments, try booking a higher category- these are usually (but not always) surge-free. Effectively you may end up paying a little more for an infinitely more comfortable UberBlack or UberSUV

[shankar.balan]

I would never use UberGo, UberPool etc - at least here in India.

UberGo in my experience has been pretty dirty and unhygienic with some really sadly maintained cars and smelly interiors and smelly drivers. UGH!!

UberPool is NOT an option that I would even consider because in my opinion there is nothing worse than sharing a long cab ride with some other chap with whom you may not see eye to eye or even worse, someone with poor personal hygiene.

And in my experience as an Uber user across various cities in the world, I ve not seen the UberGo option itself available outside of India.

I vastly prefer to use UBERX, UBER XL and perhaps UBER BLACK though UBER BLACK doesn't appear to be an option here in India since the last several months.

[nareshov]

Originally Posted by noopster

Sorry to hear that- at least no harm was done. This is the main reason I hesitate to travel by Uber Pool. Am finicky enough about the driver's hygiene and behaviour as it is, to extend that to fellow occupants would be too much!

Agreed. It could've easily got out of hand, but I wanted to be in control and called it off stepped out we could.

Originally Posted by noopster

Also, I notice that the saving from pooling are never that significant, maybe 100/- or a little more, so it's just not worth the hassle. Will stick with regular Uber for now.

True. I looked at UberPOOL as something that'd make me feel like a better citizen of the city, too much risk for that.

Originally Posted by noopster

One (unrelated) pro tip: if you get surge pricing on the lower segments, try booking a higher category- these are usually (but not always) surge-free. Effectively you may end up paying a little more for an infinitely more comfortable UberBlack or UberSUV

Yep - I would follow this until surge pricing was disabled in Bangalore. It's quite hard to find a cab sometimes during peak hours because of no surge pricing.

[dark.knight]

Having been traumatised by the way autos either refuse or over-charge for times when I don't drive to office myself, I decided to grudgingly take the Uber-route.

A few weeks of experience tells me this is not entirely flawless either.. there is always one thing or another wrong in every journey. The car is either badly maintained or the driver is rash, or the driver blasts music and doesn't know the routes around town at all. One thing is uniform in UBER, none of their drivers can actually drive - the amount of jerk that happens with every clutch-release or acceleration is ridiculous. In comparison when I drive, one can hardly realise if a gear-shift ever happened.

In summary :
*Cost vs. autos : 9/10.. small difference for a better vehicle to travel in, barring Indicas of course.

*Comfort : 4/10 owing to terrible driving by most drivers, it far from a premium experience

*Convenience : 5/10, too much work of having to guide them and at most peak hours forget getting cabs instantly.. a 20-30 minute wait is a minimum plus the app is least informative in all respects.

Vehicles you should hope to get in order of comfort in Uber-GO :
1) Verito (good suspension)
2) Xcent (massive legroom and pin drop silent)
3) Dzire (old 4.2 meter version only.. superbly soft rear seats)
4) Etios - Good space but kind of creaky and rattly
5) Punto - this is a rare one but its great for short journeys, since rear seats aren't the best for sitting.

Uniform driver rating - 0/10

[slicvic]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

A few weeks of experience tells me this is not entirely flawless either.. there is always one thing or another wrong in every journey. The car is either badly maintained or the driver is rash, or the driver blasts music and doesn't know the routes around town at all. One thing is uniform in UBER, none of their drivers can actually drive - the amount of jerk that happens with every clutch-release or acceleration is ridiculous. In comparison when I drive, one can hardly realise if a gear-shift ever happened.

Looks like you have been using Uber Go.

Thats only an alternative for autos.

You get what you pay for.


Try using Uber Black. The drivers in that class are so much more courteous and knowledgeable.

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

doesn't know the routes around town at all.

I don't use taxis too often, but this is common as all drivers agreeing to drive for Uber (and Ola) come from small towns. I couldn't believe when a driver asked me the directions to the train station in Chennai. (How can a driver not know the directions to the train station? ) I myself didn't know it and just entered my destination in the app and he followed it.

You should just enter your location in the app and tell the guy to follow the route on navigation. He can use follow the voice guided navigation (from google) and not ask you directions.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

You should just enter your location in the app and tell the guy to follow the route on navigation. He can use follow the voice guided navigation (from google) and not ask you directions.

Doesn't help, the app i.e Google Maps is the worst way to get from point A to point B, it overlooks every shortcut possible and takes the car right into the worst choked roads in the city. That "app" is as good as useless if one is all too familiar with the city.. otherwise it should only be a last resort.

I've discovered that its a gamble, some drivers are senseless and some are good. Uber is expensive compared to driving myself but it does give me some relief from the traffic a couple of days a week when I really don't feel like tackling the rush hour myself. The only part where I cringe is how the drivers handle the clutch.. its like they have zero driver training and just know how to clunk away from point A to point B.

[Rehaan]

Uber has been doing a good job of hiding the surge pricing multiplier from their users recently - with their latest 'fixed pricing shown upfront' app update.

You'll notice this if you travel the same route daily.

In my experience, it only notifies you of "surge" with an old-school pop-up, if the surge is > 4x

Overall I think they'll be scaring away less people this way for two reasons:
1) You have no frame of reference. If you wanted to go somewhere, and it cost Rs. 200, you'd say ok. If you were told it usually costs 100 but you're being charged double - you'd be less likely to agree!
2) You are made to invest into the process, choose a location, enter a destination, etc before it tells you the pricing. Earlier, the surge would be shown upfront, allowing people to leave the app without having invested any time into the process.

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Uber has been doing a good job of hiding the surge pricing multiplier from their users recently - with their latest 'fixed pricing shown upfront' app update.

You'll notice this if you travel the same route daily.

In my experience, it only notifies you of "surge" with an old-school pop-up, if the surge is > 4x

Overall I think they'll be scaring away less people this way for two reasons:
1) You have no frame of reference. If you wanted to go somewhere, and it cost Rs. 200, you'd say ok. If you were told it usually costs 100 but you're being charged double - you'd be less likely to agree!
2) You are made to invest into the process, choose a location, enter a destination, etc before it tells you the pricing. Earlier, the surge would be shown upfront, allowing people to leave the app without having invested any time into the process.

Same with Ola, the upfront charges hides the surge pricing.
A regular route which used to cost me 200/- earlier was shown to be over 500/- yesterday.

[Rehaan]

A few days back, Uber showed me the price as Rs. 168, and ended up charging me Rs. 210 at the end! I didn't deviate from the route at all... weird.

Anyway, posting here to point out the latest feature - quite a useful one, especially for nuclear families.

Now, Request Rides for Others

• Make sure you have the latest version of the Uber app
• Place your pin on your friends’ pick-up location and request
• Pick your friends’ contact information from your address book
• Select the preferred payment method
• On confirming the request, the rider will get an SMS with details about the trip they are taking and the driver phone number, so they can contact them directly

[AkMar]

So yesterday I had the first below par experience with Uber. Wife booked an Uber Go, and I met her en route to proceed home. The car was a Honda Amaze diesel. It was well maintained, clean & fairly new. No complaints there. The driver (wrong word actually, but more on it later) was courteous, offered us some mint candies.

However, his driving was Travelling in that car was not for the faint hearted. He was driving very roughly. Hard acceleration, hard braking, incessant honking, cutting lanes - you name it, he did it. He was honking if the car ahead left even slightest gap in front of it. In spite of telling the guy to drive smoothly (aaram se, bhai) multiple times in the trip there was no change in the driving. Looking at his driving, we decided to take JVLR instead of Aarey even though JVLR would take more time. This guy driving in single lane Aarey would have been a disaster. We were tossed around the rear seat every now and then. There were a few emergency brake applications which were completely avoidable. After dropping us at our destination, he zoomed off. When alone, his driving was even worse. We rated him 2 stars & also reported rash driving through app.

Coming back to the person driving. He seemed to be the owner of that car, the kind of folks who have a good job + drive for Uber during leisure time. This was evident from the car (top end), overall appearance & his personal cell phone. No regular cab driver will carry a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge as personal phone! In There was a vague reference to having stayed in USA for a few years. I was really surprised to see that owner himself was driving so recklessly.

[noopster]

One thing I have realized that in the internet age there is very little left to hide. The rating system is a very effective deterrent to bad driving, at least. My suggestion to those reporting negative experiences is to tell the drive, politely yet firmly, to drive safely/slow down/obey traffic rules if he is not. The implied threat of a low rating usually works- if it doesn't rate the drive poorly and specify the reason at the end of the trip.

With hygiene issues, all you can do is report it to Uber. These days the app has feedback categorised under multiple factors so you can provide it at the touch of a button.

Also remember that you as a passenger are rated too by drivers! So be polite, friendly and professional at all times.

[nishantbhatia84]

Originally Posted by noopster

With hygiene issues, all you can do is report it to Uber. These days the app has feedback categorised under multiple factors so you can provide it at the touch of a button.

Also remember that you as a passenger are rated too by drivers! So be polite, friendly and professional at all times.

I agree! Uber is extremely particular about driver ratings and will not hesitate in suspending a driver account if the driver ratings go below a certain threshold - I've actually seen this happening. That said, they do take driver feedback for passengers seriously as well - a consistently low rating or a report of misbehavior with the driver can result in a temporary or permanent ban of that rider!
All I would say is: It's best to inform the driver of any concerns on the spot - 90 percent of the times this will help.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by nishantbhatia84

I agree! Uber is extremely particular about driver ratings and will not hesitate in suspending a driver account if the driver ratings go below a certain threshold - I've actually seen this happening.

That ratings system has become an eyewash now, it would've helped initially but not anymore.. well it does but let me expand on what the ratings really are and how we should interpret them each time.. these are strictly my experiences and I've taken a lot of rides :

1) 4.1-4.4 : The driver will be terrible 99% of the time, he'll be a boor, or blast the worst music possible through the speakers at full volume, or drive by using one hand to talk over phone or cant read the GPS to save his life.

2) 4.5 : The driver will be below average, most of them may be nice, but sorely inexperienced, might need a bit of help with directions and might even enter one-ways from the opposite direction by mistake if you don't monitor them.

3) 4.6 : Most of these ratings are safe, but riders are usually too generous with giving high marks. Most of the time you'll have a relaxed ride with this rating.

4) 4.7+ : 99+% you're guaranteed of a proper Uber experience, a chauffeur experience so to speak, they'll pull up the front seats if you're sitting in the back, greet you when you enter and wish you when you exit, do not talk much and do as told.. many times they're dressed in full white.

Mathematically, the odds of having a superb ride in UberX (yes all the ratings above apply to UberX not UberGo which is a notch lower) is when the driver has a score of roughly 94+/100, that means any score from 82, up until 92 is a gamble.. this clearly shows the ratings aren't as accurate as needed to be.

Solution? Though a bit cumbersome to rate, the new tally should be based on 10 points where under 7 is bad, 7-8 is average and 9+ is excellent. Also it must be a rule of thumb that drivers switch off the stereo by default when a passenger is entering, and ask permission if necessary to have it on.

Passenger ratings must be scrapped, they chose to be in this field of earning and I do not think they have a right to rate those that pay them (just clarifying that my score is high but it still irritates me to no end). Any rider misbehavior though can be immediately pointed out by the driver through the "issues" section perhaps, so that the rider is banned. Also riders must be a bit more stringent with ratings, short of a perfect experience, I rate between 3-4 always. Any back-talking and I'm happy to give a 1.

[Arjun Reddy]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

A few days back, Uber showed me the price as Rs. 168, and ended up charging me Rs. 210 at the end! I didn't deviate from the route at all... weird.

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Had you booked and cancelled any of your trips previously? Über is now charging Rs 50 for every cancellation. This will be automatically added to your fare the next time you Uber. Check in Your Trips, it should reflect your charges every time you have cancelled.