Complaint Review: Uber - San Francisco CA

I received two unfair 1-star ratings from passengers and attempted to inquire about appealing ratings, but my inquiries about the appeals process fall on uncaring ears. All I get are excuses not answers to my questions. Support claims there is no way to appeal a rating a driver finds to be unfair. Passengers can literally threaten drivers with bad ratings if we don't let them break rules (no smoking in vehicle, no open containers) or leave bad ratings with absolutely no explanation, or for things that are out of driver control, which can result in drivers being near or at deactivation levels (I'm still safe) and Uber will not do anything about it. Lyft has an appeals process and will usually at least investigate, and recently reformed their ratings system to help drivers out, especially in regard to the fact that the majority of happy passengers don't bother to rate and the few unhappy ones always do.

Wake up, Uber! Lyft is eating into your market share in Columbus, Ohio because you are pissing your drivers off right and left. The joke among rideshare drivers in my city is that Lyft has our back but Uber has our head.

Not working with your drivers like Lyft does will cause lower driver morale, which will result in lower ratings, which will probably result in Uber big shots wondering what happened when Lyft destroys the market share like they did in Dayton (I drive there too sometimes and had both apps on for four hours, got one Uber passenger and 9 Lyft passengers.)

Uber Support, when asked if they have a process for appealing unfair ratings from passengers, can't be bothered to give a yes or no answer, but rather give some excuse-laden "we think the customer is always right and we pretend to care about you but don't really know how to answer your question so we're going to just give you some wordy response that never answers your question and maybe you'll go away if we give you the run around long enough."

Uber, yes, the passenger is entitled to their opinion, but look at my ratings. The vast majority (about 40) are 5's with a couple 4's and a 3. No 2's. The two 1-star ratings drop me to 4.74, which is still considered a high rating by Uber standards, but I'm 4.98 on Lyft, and not just because of their superior ratings system which allows drivers to appeal ratings they find unfair. 

How hard is it to have a straightforward process to appeal bad ratings like Lyft has, Uber? It's fine to put the passengers first, but when you do so at the expense of your drivers to the point they all decide to drive for (far superior) Lyft instead, who cares about both passengers and drivers enough to hear both sides out.

The two-way feedback system is also a joke. Drivers are forced to rate at the end of the ride before getting paid. Passengers often wait and watch to make sure they get "5 stars or else" and I've had passengers say they'll rate someone 1 star if the driver pulls away before rating.

Fix your flawed ratings system or expect more Ripoff Reports. By the way, like unfairly issued low ratings on your platform. these currently can't be appealed. You'll have to settle for a rebuttal (which hopefully indicates some commitment to fixing your rating system which is inferior to Lyft's.)