I shared this thread with Mr. Worrywart and he seems to feel better now.
This is the man who once advised me to peel the sticker off my apple before I ate it. I mocked him for years about it, until finally I did actually forget to take a sticker off my apple before I ate it. I will never hear the end.
His job is to be a nag and my job is to tease him about it. I dunno why this one got under my skin so much, but I’m over it.
incidentally, I now have a ride for Wednesday (not Uber) so it may be some time before I test out this service. It isn’t cheap. Cheaper than a cab yes, but still rather prohibitive for the kind of transportation I need.
How exactly does one be a good passenger? I would sit there and do nothing. Am I obligated to talk to the driver? I’m not saying I wouldn’t, but I’m a pretty introverted person. Great, now I’m stressed out that I’m going to be an inferior passenger!
Another option that might be available to you; would you qualify for paratransit service through the local mass transit agency? It might be cheaper than a cab.
You’re a grown up and you’re entitled to take a damn Uber if you want, regardless of who approves. Maybe you are too trusting. That doesn’t mean anyone else is entitled to over rule you, even you’re married to them and they are being weird.
The insurance thing - my advice is that you look up your local ordinances. Uber & Uber drivers carry some insurance. Difference cities and states are starting to make different demands, however. Contact your local Uber branch and ask them about it. Maybe contact AAA or someone in your DMV to get their thoughts.
How much and what sort of insurance is needed by Uber drivers is an evolving problem. I don’t know how things stand in Detroit.
(Drivers rate passengers on a one-to-five-star scale the same way passengers rate drivers.) There used to be no way to see your rating on the app, but as Quartz first reported, you can now. Simply open up the app, go to the profile icon in the top left, go to Help > Account > I’d like to know my rating > Submit.
If Something Bad happens, I don’t think it’s necessary for the OP’s husband to have the screenshot; presumably Uber will provide whatever information they have on the driver who took the fare.
I know, but when you’re trying to calm irrational fears, sometimes you have to use irrational solutions.
Kind of like when I used to have to leave a nightlight on for my son when he was a child. (Not saying Mr. SW is being child like. He’s just a loving husband as far as I can tell.)
New things are scary. You are taking a far far greater risk of serious injury just by being in a motor vehicle than by taking an uber. There’s nothing riskier about an uber than a taxi. It’s just new and people automatically assign irrationally higher risk to new things.
Are you supposed to tip? I understand it’s not required, but then it rarely is, unless you’re a waiter serving a table of 14 and the business states it.
If you don’t tip, do you get down rated? If I got down rated because I didn’t tip, can I down rate the driver for expecting a tip?
The rating helps with the trustworthiness, the picture and license plate help make sure you’re not getting into some random shady person’s car. If Uber says that John in a Toyota with license plate 123ABC is picking you up, but then some different guy in a Honda with license plate 678JKL pulls up and says he’s here to pick you up and wants you to get in the car, then you’ll know not to get in his car and maybe go inside for safety if necessary.
Also, you can have the app open the whole time that you’re riding, and see the little Uber car icon on the map get closer to your destination, and see the estimated time until you get there. But if you see that the little icon is going away from where you need it to go for no good reason, then you can ask to get out or call the police if necessary.
I was nervous at first about Uber, but after taking it a few times I now feel like it’s as safe as cabs or maybe safer since you do have a little more info about your driver and cab. I agree with Zsofia in that I don’t like how Uber and Lyft threw a hissy fit in Austin about fingerprints, and I wish there was a bit more standardization in what checks are done, but overall I think they’re OK.
Hey, someone who just sat quietly would probably be rated as an ideal passenger. I would say don’t eat/drink/smoke, litter, blast loud music, make out with someone in the back seat, carry on a loud, bitchy cell phone conversation for the whole trip, yammer in the driver’s ear while they’re trying to get through traffic. Plus be ready and waiting when they arrive to pick you up.
I dont think any driver would down vote you for a tip. I always told people a 5 star rating would mean more to me than any tip and some still tipped and gave me a 5.
A driver must maintain a 4.6 out of 5 star average to keep working.
A 4 star rating is practically a written warning. I had a group of 5 guys leave me a 1 rating because I would not take all 5 of them (I could only legally take 4, thats how many seatbelts I have) I contacted my rep who called the customer claiming concern, they admitted they were mad because I would not take them all) and my rep dropped the review.
When you do 8 calls in a shift 1 4 star will bring you to 4.875. A single 1 star review puts you at 4.5. They do a rolling average over like 30 days but it doesn’t take much to knock you out of a job.
I’ll be (kinda) the voice of dissent here, and note that Uber has a poorer reputation regarding driver-on-passenger assaults and how corporate deals with them than Lyft does, at least here in Chicago. There were a rash of assaults in Chicago in the winter of 2014-15; and having spoken to a few Lyft drivers on the subject, they themselves have felt safer with Lyft because corporate’s responsiveness to such issues was better. There’s also the customer service data that was leaked from Uber not too long ago.
So if Uber makes you or hubby nervous, maybe try Lyft instead.
That said, I personally feel like there are more safeguards built into the system with Uber/Lyft than from hailing a cab.
I would get a very low passenger rating, myself. Why? Because AFAIAC, once the ride is over, and I’m out of the vehicle, the interaction with Uber is completed, and I would have zero interest in responding to a request for feedback.
If I’m ever unable to drive myself, perhaps I’d better just take a cab.
Ooh, that CONFIRMS that I’m a horrible candidate for Uber riding. If I were FORCED to give a rating, it would generally be a 3 for “meets expectations.”
And since I’m not eager to make friends with my cab driver, anything they did to exceed expectations would get them marked down as “overly intrusive.” You know, unless the driver were to save my life or something. That would merit an “Outstanding.”
I would say don’t eat/drink/smoke, litter, blast loud music, make out with someone in the back seat, carry on a loud, bitchy cell phone conversation for the whole trip, yammer in the driver’s ear while they’re trying to get through traffic. Plus be ready and waiting when they arrive to pick you up.