Uber has among the worst customer support policies I have seen - but alas they are a monopoly and there's no end in sight. I think they should be regulated.
Recently, I raised an issue when I got billed twice for the same ride. In India, they have no phone support, just email. Instead of checking transactions on their end, they wrote back to me asking me to submit my bank statement so that they can verify. I was quite surprised that customer support could just ask for people's bank statements.
In the US we have Lyft, so not quite a monopoly. Possibly an oligopoly though. I'm building an app that pits them against each other on price to promote a competitive transportation market. In some countries Uber does have a monopoly, or has been kicked out in favor of a different monopoly...
I had the opposite experience. Uber has customer support built into the App. I was also billed twice and just followed the instructions in App that created a ticket. Got my money back in 2 days.
At the very beginning of Uber it was the inverse, their customer service was top notch. I would reply to a receipt saying the driver took a longer route for instance and they would reimburse me. Now their customer service is basically inexistent.
Thre's Ola and they have a fairly decent network. Though in Customer Service they are about the same. In major cities you also have competitors like auto rickshaws, buses and the like. They are nowhere near a monopoly.
Your sample size is a little limited to conclude that the brand is tarnished, especially when we look at the size of IPO between Lyft and Uber. Although your perspective might mean a potential trend that the business should be taking into account.
I have this pet theory that every company that becomes publicly traded on financial markets becomes "evil" because the focus is taken away from customers, and towards keeping shareholders happy. Let's hope I'm not proved wrong, again.
How is that “evil”? Isn’t that the crystallization of the teleological purpose of a company?
The ideal company works to maximize shareholder value. And not just short-term value, but the amortized value of the company in perpuitity. This in turn maximizes employee value and customer value.
Let’s take a company that has great products and gives away everything for free. In the short-term, this might look like maximizing customer value, but soon, the conpany will go out of business. You could construct a similar example in which employee wages were maximized.
The ideal situation is that the company pays employees as little as possible and charges customers as much as possible. In this way, the company is on the efficient frontier. Companies then compete on employee wages and product cost. This creates a Nash equilibrium in which no party can benefit from doing anything differently.
This is the highest and most noble calling of the markets and creates the abundent and efficient markets of today (unless of course, the government steps in to fuck everything up).
PS: I know I am going to get downvoted, but I would appreciate a comment instead of a downvote.
Give me 18 billion dollars, and I'll pay people to drive other people around.
"How will we make money?" What? This is Silicon Valley, nobody makes money, we just burn capital ($18B) from people who invested in one good thing 20 years ago until we can sell the remaining capital ($7B) to braindead retail investors for 10x it's value.
The company only has a year and a half of runway left, so we have to move quick.
Try it. I don't think you will be successful. I think you underestimate the amount of money it took Uber to get the network effect in each city to have enough drivers. At this point it's easy to keep it up.
I'm seriously considering dumping Uber after they charged me for a ride pass while my app was neither open nor was there even a ride pass available for purchase in my area at the time. Most of my friends are moving back to lyft at this point to be honest.
I mean, what else would they do? They want to maximize their returns so the most important part of the mission will be to clean up public and financial image.
I've been through this with other companies preparing for IPO.
[+] [-] jeswin|7 years ago|reply
Recently, I raised an issue when I got billed twice for the same ride. In India, they have no phone support, just email. Instead of checking transactions on their end, they wrote back to me asking me to submit my bank statement so that they can verify. I was quite surprised that customer support could just ask for people's bank statements.
[+] [-] FriedPickles|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wanone|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fancyfish|7 years ago|reply
I filed a support request online and received no response. Apparently there is no phone support here either? This is in US.
[+] [-] temp1928384|7 years ago|reply
If there's a ridesharing co that is actually a monopoly it's probably Grab in SEA.
[+] [-] saagarjha|7 years ago|reply
In India, don't you have Ola?
[+] [-] aboutruby|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] distant_hat|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marcrosoft|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] asafira|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Gpetrium|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] keyle|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tyingq|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mruts|7 years ago|reply
The ideal company works to maximize shareholder value. And not just short-term value, but the amortized value of the company in perpuitity. This in turn maximizes employee value and customer value.
Let’s take a company that has great products and gives away everything for free. In the short-term, this might look like maximizing customer value, but soon, the conpany will go out of business. You could construct a similar example in which employee wages were maximized.
The ideal situation is that the company pays employees as little as possible and charges customers as much as possible. In this way, the company is on the efficient frontier. Companies then compete on employee wages and product cost. This creates a Nash equilibrium in which no party can benefit from doing anything differently.
This is the highest and most noble calling of the markets and creates the abundent and efficient markets of today (unless of course, the government steps in to fuck everything up).
PS: I know I am going to get downvoted, but I would appreciate a comment instead of a downvote.
[+] [-] cm2012|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rhizome|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] plink|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ac29|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] imustbeevil|7 years ago|reply
Give me 18 billion dollars, and I'll pay people to drive other people around.
"How will we make money?" What? This is Silicon Valley, nobody makes money, we just burn capital ($18B) from people who invested in one good thing 20 years ago until we can sell the remaining capital ($7B) to braindead retail investors for 10x it's value.
The company only has a year and a half of runway left, so we have to move quick.
[+] [-] xiphias2|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jsonne|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bamboozled|7 years ago|reply
I've been through this with other companies preparing for IPO.
[+] [-] rhizome|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] escapecharacter|7 years ago|reply