Since about 4 years I try to use Uber. Doesn’t work. Twice the trip was cancelled after a long waiting period and twice I was charged the fare and then informed that the driver does not pick me up and the money was returned. Once in Spain, once in Switzerland last Saturday. Fortunately we have a new taxi service in my village. Unfortunately he is in holidays when I need a ride to the airport.
So I try Uber again, reserved the ride in advance which is a bit more expensive. I planned enough time so I could carry my bags 1.5 km to the next train station if it does not arrive. If the Uber does not arrive (as the last 4 times) that will have been the very last time I try to use Uber. Does this company exist at all?
In Spain it was a busy time and they offer way too cheap compared with taxis. But for a taxi I had to wait 45 minutes too. Waited over an hour for the Uber, then my credit card charge was reversed and the ride cancelled. Then I had to wait another 45 minutes for a taxi. But in a country like Spain taxis are over regulated; my destination was 50 meters into another province and the cab was not allowed to pick me up in another province. Now the next village in the same province was about 20 km away and they refused to go that far for a small trip. At the end the owner of the restaurant drove me home.
Lucky I employ my own driver in Spain but it was his day off.
In Switzerland it was not a busy day, but I live probably too remote. They said 15 minutes, charged me and after like 20 minutes I got back the money. Called a cab, charged me more or less double what the Uber asked for. But at least I got where I wanted to go.
I understand that it does not pay to pick somebody up too remote. So what the fuck, just rise the price you idiots! I don’t care paying double the fare but that game with charging and then cancelling is bullshit!
Addon: something like this may happen… once. But already 4 times in 4 years waiting to do my first Uber ride…
My experience is that in any big city (CH or otherwise) I called an Uber it came near instantly, trying to call an Uber on the spot in smaller Swiss cities (even Zug…) and it may as well not exist.
I live in Zürich Unterland and have never succeeded to actually ride in an Uber
I used to call German Taxis as I am just a couple of km from the border, but recently they seem reluctant to enter Switzerland.
Only in bigger cities. No public transport to where I went. I think it is only for bigger cities. And that is stupid, they could just charge a bit more, I would be OK even with double charge as they have probably to go back too.
Well, in Zug everyone has a Bentley or a Rolls Royce and a personal driver.
Uber’s business model is not to serve the customer, but to make as much money as possible from grey area regulated transportation services and exploiting their drivers.
For Uber it does not make sense to have a driver going into a remote area (even for a slightly higher fare/price) if the same driver can generate more cash flow in a densely populated area in the same time. The incentive both for the company (taking a >25% cut) and the driver is to drive in an area where more of their time is filled with rides that can be charged.
The surcharge for remote areas would essentially have to be almost the full fare for the drive to your place to pick you up. They could probably program this into their pricing model, and it might even be on their internal list of things to do some day, but for now there’s seemingly bigger fish to fry for them to generate more cash flow otherwise.
Uber Story Time
When I worked at Google a US colleague of mine had internally transferred from the security team to Google Ventures (Google’s venture capital firm) a couple years after it was founded circa 2009. I remember seeing this colleague on a weekend in San Francisco – we were kind of friends at the time – during a business trip to the US.
We rented bicycles somewhere near the Fisherman’s Wharf, drove along the coast and across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sauselito where we had lunch and then took the ferry back to San Francisco near the Ferry Building IIRC (recommended trip if you’re in SF). Google’s SF offices were just nearby on the Embarcadero, but that’s kind of irrelevant for this story … I just feel a little nostalgic right now as Google’s SF office was in the top 3 of coolest Google offices that I’ve visited (the other two are NYC and Tokyo).
Anyway, I had to get to my hotel near Union Square and he had to get back home in Oakland and I was expecting we would part ways. The friend/colleague mentioned that he was working on an investment at Google Ventures that he wanted to show me and pulled up his smartphone to fetch an Uber (which was still a start-up then, apparently one that Google Ventures was investing in).
Very slick, he tapped his phone and about 10 minutes later a black limo pulled up and drove me to my hotel and took him back home afterwards.
My memory of this was that I was only hugely impressed, finally some competitor to the sclerotic taxi mafia. Only later did I change my mind … of course the taxi companies needed to be disrupted, but maybe not by a cut-throat Silicon Valley pure capitalism company exploiting all legal loopholes to siphon off money from their non-employee status drivers and spiking ride prices when (they decide that) rides are currently scarce …
Anyway, personal opinion, just wanted to share the story …
I lived in Venezuela in the 80s. There was never a better place for taxis, everybody who had a car had a taxi. You just hold your hand up and some car stops and tells you the Bolivar Cents it would cost you to bring you wherever you want.
When Uber started I dreamed it could be that way, but then the regulation took over and now it is just a unreliable but cheap taxi service.
But that unreliable that in 4 years they cannot send me one single car for whatever I would pay for it? It makes me think that that company does not exist…
My experience with Uber was atrocious, at best. Horrible drivers … speeding wreckless driving, breaking all kinds of traffic regulations … I felt like I was in a 3rd world country (this was in the US), not to mention that the drivers did not care to stop long enough to get my luggage out from the back … may be i am spoilt with the taxi drivers here in CH … I would never order Uber. I would choose to hitchhike.
That was my experience in …3rd world countries? … call it Moscow & Kiev. Young drivers that when they ask you ‘at what time is your flight’ find that they have the perfect excuse to have fun.
I am an very fast driver, but what these guys did was at a different level – there is a merit on racing with old Ladas, Dacias and other local knockouts-- to the point that I had to buckle up. Yet, best option to reach the airport on time…
oh, and, did I tell you about my experience in an Uber in Sofia? Going to the office, on a roundabout, a car bumped into the rear right side of the Uber (where I was sitting). The Uber driver came out of the car, opened the rear left door – I thought that he was going to ask if I was OK-- but he didn’t… he picked up a baseball club that was laying under the sit, and went straight to the other car…
I miss all those wild west experiences…
My friend from Venezuela used to stop 3 taxis in Caracas to negotiate the price of the trip. Once we had a drunken driver and his “taxi” had no doors. But the trip was only a few Cents…
I could not tell Uber, as they never pick me up. Again, do they exist or is it just a joke website. Was it because I used the Website and not the app? No, last time in Spain I did use the app.
Hope they pick me up for the trip to the airport, I’ll let you know.
I have used Uber in Zurich & Geneva, both times a normal taxi turned up. I use them often in London & Malta when it’s always a normal car. Great service at a good price
One time in Dublin, my taxi driver was trying to drive fast and hit a police car.
The police asked where I was going and escorted us to the airport; only in Ireland.
I assume they booked the driver afterwards.
On my way to Luton airport to pick up a friend, i missed the bus. Another bus was parked, the driver had his feet up on the dash, smoking a roll up and reading the papers. I asked when the next bus was going to the airport. “Hop in”, he said “I’ll take you”. He slowed down at the bus stops on the way and said “nah, they don’t look like they want to go to Luton”, and drove on. He dropped me off at the airport and asked if i wanted him to wait. I didn’t take him up on his very kind offer. He had done more than enough already.
