I don't have a problem with surge pricing, but what I do have a problem with is when a driver cancels my ride so they can get a higher surge rate. Example, I was in LA trying to go from Downtown to Venice, I got an Uber for 1.75x normal rate. Waited about 10 minutes while watching the driver head in a different direction on the map, and then all of a sudden, they cancel. I go back to reserver another driver, and what do you know, it's now 3.25x rate.
That shouldn't be allowed. You should be locked into the first rate that you request a driver at. If the driver cancels, and the area now has a higher surge rate, Uber should recoup the difference in cost from the drivers next trip because they fucked a customer over.
Yeah, that's completely horseshit. At a minimum the rate ought to stay locked in for you by virtue of the agreement to take your fare, and the difference should come from the offending driver's next fare as a disincentive.
You always have the option of not choosing Uber.... You can even start a blog and inform others of this practice. Finally, you can complain to everyone you know and encourage people not to use Uber...
Or just ask the government for more legislature I guess...
Or, a customer service flaw that disincentives use of Uber's service due to the unreliability of their contractors could be addressed by Uber, as a cost to those unreliable contractors, as I suggested. What part of my post (or any other posts I've made on this topic, for that matter) suggests I feel government legislation would be appropriate here?
EDIT: Furthermore, this is already something Uber does with their star rating system. This would just be a logical extension of that.
Did you file a complaint with Uber? As far as I'm aware, what that driver did is a violation of Uber policies (both canceling without a good reason, and waiting 10 minutes before said cancellation). I think that Uber should proactively check up on all driver cancellations, but they probably only check up on complaints, so go ahead and complain when that happens.
If people complain when their drivers cancel, drivers won't cancel anymore (without a valid reason). The only way they can get away with it is if you say nothing.
I wrote a really long complaint email and they "resolved" it by crediting my account with $20 credit. I ended up paying like $110 for that ride. It would have been about half at the 1.75x rate, and about a third without the surge pricing.
Uber never tells customers when they penalize drivers, so I hope you aren't assuming that the $20 credit was the sole response to your complaint. I expect that the driver was disciplined in some fashion, and that if they accrue repeated complaints for canceling they would be suspended (similar to how drivers that get repeated sub-5-star ratings do).
That shouldn't be allowed. You should be locked into the first rate that you request a driver at. If the driver cancels, and the area now has a higher surge rate, Uber should recoup the difference in cost from the drivers next trip because they fucked a customer over.