My car is in the shop and if I could I was going to run somewhere across town, then my wife could pick me up after work. The place is about 10 minutes away.
I pop open Uber, and type in where I need to go. 10 minute ride, but it’s priced at $25 and up from there. I was like holy shit ok I don’t need to go that bad I can wait.
A few minutes later I get a push notification that said “Prices have dropped!” I click it and it opens up the exact same route but now the fare is 9 fucking dollars.
Even looking now, it’s $11-12. I’ve worked in a mobile app company before… That shit isn’t random. They appear to be testing some “fuck you pricing” and then if you don’t bite they cut it to the normal rate. Someone at the company is currently running numbers to see if they can get wealthy people to bite on the inflated pricing.
Fuck you Uber. Not like your company has a great history in the first place, so I guess I’m partially to blame.
That’s why I used to always keep at least 2 apps installed and check prices in both of them a few times ahead of my schedule. I never saw a change in price this steep. Sometimes it’s a reasonable supply/demand dynamic, common during game days around here, but you can never trust them.
Yeah I can understand surge charging during peak periods to reduce demand on their drivers, but this is a whole new level of predatory. And you know damn well the driver likely isn’t seeing any extra cash from it.