[annon]

Perhaps the reason that the quality numbers have been mostly flat is because drivers have been pushing to get 5 star reviews.

In case you didn't know, as a customer of uber, the driver gives you a star rating just like you give the driver. A lot of people in SF have figured that out, and a lot of time I'll get an offer of "5 for 5." The drivers are letting you know that if you give them a 5 star rating they will give you one.

On top of that, drivers more and more push for a good rating, trying to make you feel bad if you don't give them 5 stars.

I can't recall these pressures in the past, and if they are working, then quality numbers staying flat actually mean they are quite down.

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That said, I am still an avid user of Uber, using it almost every day. My biggest concern is the same others have voiced, the drivers have no idea where they are in the city. I'm not talking cross streets, I'm saying a lot of time they don't even know how to get to a whole neighborhood. They also don't appear to be good 'city drivers,' and frequently seem to put bikers at risk due to that.

[justin66]

> In case you didn't know, as a customer of uber, the driver gives you a star rating just like you give the driver.

Wow. As someone who has never used Uber, this surprises me. It's repeating an obvious mistake that it took Ebay ages to correct.

> if they are working, then quality numbers staying flat actually mean they are quite down.

Exactly.

[ghaff]

And which Ebay only "corrected" by making asymetrical. I.e. they didn't really fix the original problem but simply transformed the feedback system into something better reflecting Ebay's shift in the direction of conventional online retail. It got rid of tit-for-tat but it also eliminated a feedback mechanism about buyers that was more relevant when the site more resembled a peer-to-peer buying/selling network.

[lukasb]

Why they push for five stars: apparently you get fired if your star rating falls below 4.6 or 4.7 (can't remember which.)

Source: Uber drivers, so biased, but have you ever seen a driver with a 4.5 rating?

[Matt_Mickiewicz]

I can confirm, I've heard this from drivers as well.

As an anecdote, the one time I left a 1-star review, the next day I had a 20-min wait to get a car. Not sure if it was bad luck or I was getting penalized for leaving a bad review...

[rhizome]

Yeah, well, my auto shop told me they were going to send me a survey about my visit and that, "anything less than a 10 is failure," so don't discount gaming the stats on the provider end.

[krrrh]

That seems to be part of the program for vendors like Ford, where the employee asks the customer to call them if there is anything that they can't rate perfectly so they can fix the issue for them. They use the survey as a way of flushing out issues that the customer wouldn't otherwise voice so they can deal with them. It's less about collecting stats, and more about having an extra tool to get the customer to happy.

[smokey_the_bear]

I'd heard this too, so I didn't leave reviews for my first few UberX drivers who had broken cars and didn't know the way, because they seemed like nice guys having a bad day. Then by the time I had bad drivers who weren't nice guys, I figured that was just the general quality of UberX service and still didn't leave reviews.

[modfodder]

If true, this is horrible. I give 4 stars for an average trip that gets me there on time, with little to no grief. I only give 5 stars if the driver was exceptionally nice, funny, helpful or there was something outstanding with the trip. 5 stars shouldn't be the de facto rating for an average trip.

[34626]

I suspect that some of the people claiming that Uber is going down hill are, well… not the best customers. That is, they might be total assholes. Uber tries to match 5 star cabs with 5 star customers. If you are a 4 star customer you are more likely to get a 4 star driver. The probability of getting a 4 star driver is higher today than it was a year ago, and a 4 star customer is more likely to get those drivers.

I've gotten the 5 for 5 thing a few times. I don't mind it, if it's going to be a 5 anyway.

I use Uber every day. I've had maybe two sub-par experiences with the black car—ever. A few iffy experiences with UberX but nothing bad.