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Another sketchy practice: if you get Uber Cash through a card like Amex, when you go to use it the price for the ride is automatically $15-$20 more than someone

Another sketchy practice: if you get Uber Cash through a card like Amex, when you go to use it the price for the ride is automatically $15-$20 more than someone who doesn’t have an Uber Cash balance. I’ve checked this side by side with colleagues at the airport getting ride quotes to the same hotel. When you have Uber Cash they will quote you more. You can find numerous Reddit threads on the topic as well. This feels very illegal to me, but not a lawyer.

radicaldreamer 1y ago
Send in a complaint to your state attorney’s general
vecinu 1y ago
I notice this with my Uber cash credit I get from my AMEX Gold card. The prices are always higher.
c420 1y ago
Here's a story today about this practice: Bay Area traveler says Uber gift cards boosted fare https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43751945 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43751945
OptionOfT 1y ago
https://www.nysun.com/article/dynamic-pricing-at-major-grocery-chain-can-vary-prices-depending-on-your-income https://www.nysun.com/article/dynamic-pricing-at-major-groce... The less they know about you the better. Good reason to not have Gift Cards inside of the applications.
NoTeslaThrow 1y ago
I have heard a lot of people speak about dynamic pricing, but I have yet to hear any benefit to the consumer or society as a whole. Basically any possible pitch for it is worse in every way than simple downward wealth redistribution.
- paxys 1y ago
  Going by pure economic theory "dynamic pricing" actually benefits both buyers and sellers in a marketplace. There are plenty of cases where it makes sense – lunch menus at restaurants, grocery store coupons, retail bargain bins, dollar menus, happy hour deals, senior/youth/student discounts, even surge pricing in Uber & Lyft. Of course like with every aspect of economics how something is implemented matters a lot more than how it sounds on paper. Especially in the case of rideshare/food delivery, where the middleman has all the data and makes all the decisions.
  - NoTeslaThrow 1y ago
    Well that's certainly AN economic theory, but it feels a little polyannish/unreasonably hopeful. Like most of american macroeconomic discourse.
    - kevin_thibedeau 1y ago
      [flagged]
    - mcmcmc 1y ago
      Where exactly does macro come into play here?
  - jowea 1y ago
    Wouldn't perfect individualised dynamic pricing mean that the seller (Uber in this case) would get to capture the entire consumer surplus? Is that good?
    - nothrabannosir 1y ago
      Ideally the remedy is competition.
    - pbh101 1y ago
      Yes but also that some people would be getting a service that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford. But there’s little/no incentive for a pure seller to do that, although for a marketplace like Uber there is more possibility for that, in order to maintain liquidity on the other side of the transaction. I listened to an interview where Uber CEO Dara K note there is always an incentive pool, and based on the market it is either riders or drivers who are getting the incentive money at any given time.
dheera 1y ago
I remember the days when Uber prices from SF to anywhere on the peninsula would suddenly spike exactly a minute or two after each Caltrain departed. If you just missed the train you paid a lot more. And then the many times that Lyft violated the triangle inequality in pricing: Ride from A->B followed by a ride from B->C was often cheaper than a direct ride from A->C, if you knew how to pick B correctly. I once confused the hell out of a driver when I got out and got back in the same car at some nondescript spot.
- lurk2 1y ago
  > If you just missed the train you paid a lot more. That doesn’t strike me as malicious. If you just missed the train, other users probably did, too. How did you find the price differentials with Lyft?
  - dheera 1y ago
    > That doesn’t strike me as malicious. If you just missed the train, other users probably did, too. You may not have started with malicious intent but you may have unintentionally created a malicious algorithm that learned to squeeze profits off of lower income people who normally take the train to save money but just missed it.
    - lurk2 1y ago
      When the train leaves, some people miss it. They then use the app to hail a ride. The increased demand leads to a corresponding increase in price. This is how surge pricing works. What you seem to be suggesting is that this is inherently predatory, but it seems more likely that it’s just the result of a large number of people requesting rides at the same time.
      - dheera 1y ago
        What I am suggesting is that whether or not the people are predatory, they created a system that is mathematically predatory. In the pre-Uber world taxis would line up, the fare wouldn't be any different whether or not it is just after a train left, and more drivers would just know that there is higher demand at that location at certain times, without fare surges. I do love being able to hail rides with a phone app, but I detest this fluctuating pricing. It reminds me of why I like train travel in other countries but not so much in the US: In almost all of Europe and Asia, train tickets are fixed price based largely on distance travelled and class of train. In the US, Amtrak plays the idiot capitalist game of predatory money grabbing you if you need to make last minute emergency travel plans or changes.
delfinom 1y ago
Hahaha. Play with any Uber promo code they may give you via physical mailer or otherwise. Open Uber in two browsers. Apply the promo code in one, don't in the other. Watch as they increase the service fees when using the promo code to basically equal the other non-promo order.

radicaldreamer 1y ago

Send in a complaint to your state attorney’s general

vecinu 1y ago

I notice this with my Uber cash credit I get from my AMEX Gold card. The prices are always higher.

c420 1y ago

Here's a story today about this practice: Bay Area traveler says Uber gift cards boosted fare https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43751945 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43751945

OptionOfT 1y ago

https://www.nysun.com/article/dynamic-pricing-at-major-grocery-chain-can-vary-prices-depending-on-your-income https://www.nysun.com/article/dynamic-pricing-at-major-groce... The less they know about you the better. Good reason to not have Gift Cards inside of the applications.

NoTeslaThrow 1y ago

I have heard a lot of people speak about dynamic pricing, but I have yet to hear any benefit to the consumer or society as a whole. Basically any possible pitch for it is worse in every way than simple downward wealth redistribution.

paxys 1y ago
Going by pure economic theory "dynamic pricing" actually benefits both buyers and sellers in a marketplace. There are plenty of cases where it makes sense – lunch menus at restaurants, grocery store coupons, retail bargain bins, dollar menus, happy hour deals, senior/youth/student discounts, even surge pricing in Uber & Lyft. Of course like with every aspect of economics how something is implemented matters a lot more than how it sounds on paper. Especially in the case of rideshare/food delivery, where the middleman has all the data and makes all the decisions.
- NoTeslaThrow 1y ago
  Well that's certainly AN economic theory, but it feels a little polyannish/unreasonably hopeful. Like most of american macroeconomic discourse.
  - kevin_thibedeau 1y ago
    [flagged]
  - mcmcmc 1y ago
    Where exactly does macro come into play here?
- jowea 1y ago
  Wouldn't perfect individualised dynamic pricing mean that the seller (Uber in this case) would get to capture the entire consumer surplus? Is that good?
  - nothrabannosir 1y ago
    Ideally the remedy is competition.
  - pbh101 1y ago
    Yes but also that some people would be getting a service that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford. But there’s little/no incentive for a pure seller to do that, although for a marketplace like Uber there is more possibility for that, in order to maintain liquidity on the other side of the transaction. I listened to an interview where Uber CEO Dara K note there is always an incentive pool, and based on the market it is either riders or drivers who are getting the incentive money at any given time.

dheera 1y ago

I remember the days when Uber prices from SF to anywhere on the peninsula would suddenly spike exactly a minute or two after each Caltrain departed. If you just missed the train you paid a lot more. And then the many times that Lyft violated the triangle inequality in pricing: Ride from A->B followed by a ride from B->C was often cheaper than a direct ride from A->C, if you knew how to pick B correctly. I once confused the hell out of a driver when I got out and got back in the same car at some nondescript spot.

lurk2 1y ago
> If you just missed the train you paid a lot more. That doesn’t strike me as malicious. If you just missed the train, other users probably did, too. How did you find the price differentials with Lyft?
- dheera 1y ago
  > That doesn’t strike me as malicious. If you just missed the train, other users probably did, too. You may not have started with malicious intent but you may have unintentionally created a malicious algorithm that learned to squeeze profits off of lower income people who normally take the train to save money but just missed it.
  - lurk2 1y ago
    When the train leaves, some people miss it. They then use the app to hail a ride. The increased demand leads to a corresponding increase in price. This is how surge pricing works. What you seem to be suggesting is that this is inherently predatory, but it seems more likely that it’s just the result of a large number of people requesting rides at the same time.
    - dheera 1y ago
      What I am suggesting is that whether or not the people are predatory, they created a system that is mathematically predatory. In the pre-Uber world taxis would line up, the fare wouldn't be any different whether or not it is just after a train left, and more drivers would just know that there is higher demand at that location at certain times, without fare surges. I do love being able to hail rides with a phone app, but I detest this fluctuating pricing. It reminds me of why I like train travel in other countries but not so much in the US: In almost all of Europe and Asia, train tickets are fixed price based largely on distance travelled and class of train. In the US, Amtrak plays the idiot capitalist game of predatory money grabbing you if you need to make last minute emergency travel plans or changes.

delfinom 1y ago

Hahaha. Play with any Uber promo code they may give you via physical mailer or otherwise. Open Uber in two browsers. Apply the promo code in one, don't in the other. Watch as they increase the service fees when using the promo code to basically equal the other non-promo order.