# First negative experience with Lyft



## UberXinSoFlo (Jan 26, 2015)

Alright, so I thought Lyft was the ultimate solution for the rideshare community.

However, I had my first negative experience with Lyft and less than satisfied with the way they handled it.

I had a ping the other night, less than a mile away, awesome!

I pull up and there's two ladies outside. The one comes up to my window and apologizes, telling me that they decided to stay longer and will ping me later. I tell her it isn't a problem at all, just to go in the app and cancel the request. She agrees and says that she understands that there is an inconvenience fee. I say great and drive away. 

About a min or two later she still hasn't cancelled, I didn't want it to look like I was taking a ghost ride, so I cancelled it for her. 

Well, the next day there is no cancellation fee AND my acceptance rate got dinged.

I write into Lyft and they tell me that the process is automatic and since I did not wait 3 mins AND call the pax, that I do not get the cancellation fee. In addition, the CSR informs me that it is automatic and there is no way to override it.

Hmm.. that isn't good but can be avoided in a case like mine (call her, tell explain, then cancel) but very bad for.. well.. bad scenarios.. 

I asked the rep, what would happen if the pax expects me to do something illegal (5 pax in my car, open beverage, no car seat.. etc) and was upset when I told them that I can't take them.. Here is his reply:

"In these cases, I would recommend you cancel the ride and contact Lyft support as soon as it is safely possible with an explanation of the situation. While I cannot guarantee that a cancelation fee will be granted, you could request to be "unpaired" with the passenger in question, which would prevent the two of you from ever matching again."

I guess the only solution is to drive away and call the pax, have a pleasant convo with the angry guy on the other end and then hang up just to cancel on him.. 

I get that these companies are very young.. but come on.. listen to your drivers.. have a way for CSRs to escalate real issues that will actually get read.


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## Clifford Chong (May 3, 2015)

You can always raise your acceptance rate back to 100% within 5~10 rides. Don't sweat it.


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## rob_la (May 19, 2015)

Well now you know how it works, when I first started out I had an incoherent conversation on the phone with a drunk guy who was not at the pin, I drove off and cancelled the ride after 2 minutes. I did not realize if I had waited just one more minute I could have made $5, now I learned my lesson! Since then I've had lots of juicy cancellations. PS. You don't actually need to speak to the person on the phone! You just need to push call Pax and then hang up, it should register as "you called pax" even if the phone rings just once and you hang up. Obviously, you should at least try to get ahold of your pax before you cancel on them, but in your situation when you negotiate with them in person that there will be a cancel, I would wait in place and cancel/charge before you head off. Make sure the option appears to "Charge Passenger" appears before you cancel otherwise you either haven't waited long enough, aren't near the pin, or didn't call.


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## UberXinSoFlo (Jan 26, 2015)

rob_la said:


> Well now you know how it works, when I first started out I had an incoherent conversation on the phone with a drunk guy who was not at the pin, I drove off and cancelled the ride after 2 minutes. I did not realize if I had waited just one more minute I could have made $5, now I learned my lesson! Since then I've had lots of juicy cancellations. PS. You don't actually need to speak to the person on the phone! You just need to push call Pax and then hang up, it should register as "you called pax" even if the phone rings just once and you hang up. Obviously, you should at least try to get ahold of your pax before you cancel on them, but in your situation when you negotiate with them in person that there will be a cancel, I would wait in place and cancel/charge before you head off. Make sure the option appears to "Charge Passenger" appears before you cancel otherwise you either haven't waited long enough, aren't near the pin, or didn't call.


Thanks for the tip! I was wondering how long the call had to be.

The funny thing is that this is only my second cancel on Lyft. My first one was a group of drunks and wanted to fit 5 people in (thankfully, giving me a reason to cancel). I did call them and exceeded the 3 mins but don't recall having the option "cancel - charge pax or "cancel - don't charge pax". Maybe it changed or maybe I just didn't pay it any attention. I'll look for it now in the future though!

Luckily with Lyft, from my experience so far, so few need/should be cancelled. I cancelled 1-3 a night back on uber, lots of no-shows.


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## rob_la (May 19, 2015)

It think the following conditions need to be met for No-Show Cancellation Fee:

1. You pressed arrive
2. You pressed Call Passenger
3. You waited *within range of the pin* for 3 minutes from when you pressed Arrived
4. You pressed cancel, "Charge Passenger"

Now drive off. Oh and hey, you might want to turn off driver mode for a little while, nothing like getting rematched up with the irate (but late) passenger who just got charged $5, that might hurt your tip/rating and if you ignore it, your acceptance rate.


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## UberXinSoFlo (Jan 26, 2015)

Oh yeah, I learned to log off back when I did uber. I always waited for one of them to call me, never happened though 

Do you know how close to the pin you have to stay? A lot of times the pins will be on busy streets where you can't stay 3 mins, any idea if you can cancel for 3-5 blocks away?


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## rob_la (May 19, 2015)

Damn, I don't know about how close you have to be to the pin. I usually can find something close here in LA. Even a driveway will do if you just need to idle for a couple minutes. Or circle around the block? 

PS. A couple other ways to snag a cancel fee:
1. Lyft Line: Brutal cancellation policy gives riders only 90 seconds to get to your car, and I believe you don't even need to call them (but you should)! If it's in your area, get ready to cash in cancellations! No question about it: I've cancelled more lyft line rides than I've finished lyft line rides with two stops. 
2. Pax cancelled while you're more than 5 minutes enroute, and within 5 min of original ETA to starting pin. This one is pretty standard, but one useful aspect of this policy is if the rider places a starting pin far away from their actual location, just drive to the pin and wait for them to cancel, or cancel on them as a no show. They'll quickly learn to place their pins more carefully next time.


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## RockinEZ (Apr 29, 2015)

Clifford Chong said:


> You can always raise your acceptance rate back to 100% within 5~10 rides. Don't sweat it.


Uh, no Clifford...... you do understand the concept of percentages don't you.
I do know you have posted you only use deodorant every 36 hours. 
I have never gone that long without a shower......

How did the stopping to pee with a PAX in the car thing work out for you?
How about the stopping for gas with the PAX in the car?
How about canceling your Lyft account due to poor ratings?
Read your old posts

Dude... really?


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