# The Surge: Is Uber Scamming Its Riders Too?



## DrivenToDistraction (Sep 3, 2015)

Last night I found myself near Chicago's United Center as a Blackhawks preseason game let out. The street was clogged with cars, the sidewalks were teaming with people.
I signed in. The immediate area was surging at 1.5X with surrounding areas at 1.4 and 1.3.
Within five minutes I received and passed on two pings from riders way far away and out of the surge areas.
I accepted a request from a neighboring surge area a few blocks away. That PAX was a no show and I cancelled after 8 minutes and exchanging texts. (This is the first time I've done this and apparently I'm not getting paid for it as it doesn't show up anywhere....but that's a story for another time.)
I returned to the top surge area and found a sweet, and I mean a sweet place to wait practically in front of the arena. There was a limo idling in front of me.
I waited. And waited. No pings. Still people streaming out. No ping. I figured "Oh, I know why! There's probably 20 other Uber drivers vying for the same riders," but when I opened the rider app I saw that I was one of only 3 drivers in the area, the limo in front of me being one of them.
Eventually the limo pulled out and headed north. No one had gotten in his car, so I assume he just got tired of waiting and went to look for a more lucrative area, or perhaps he'd received a ping from elsewhere.
After between 20 and 30 minutes in the area I left too. I hadn't received one ping, and no other drivers showed up on the rider app.
I experienced something similar to this a few weeks ago after a musical festival. Given my recent education in how Uber scams its drivers, I can't help but wonder if it is scamming riders as well.....engaging surge pricing even when demand doesn't warrant it simply because they can get away with it. I'm sure if any Blackhawks fan had walked out and found surge pricing in effect (assuming they were savvy enough to even know where to look,) that they would have just figured "Well, sure, there must be hundreds of people looking for rides."


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## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)

You think to much of pax, they see a 1.1x surge and take a taxi even though it is still 50% cheaper at a 1.5 surge. They only see surge and don't take a ride unless they absolutely have to or are to drunk to think clearly.


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## SECOTIME (Sep 18, 2015)

3x surge = $2.25 per mile + 13 cents per min in my area.. so $2.38... Cab is $2.40 and a usually a longer wait.

Anything under 3.1x surge and people should just relax.. it's still cheaper. 3.1x and up is only slilghtly more than a cab.. but feel free to wait an hour or so if you want to save $5


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## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)

SECOTIME said:


> 3x surge = $2.25 per mile + 13 cents per min in my area.. so $2.38... Cab is $2.40 and a usually a longer wait.
> 
> Anything under 3.1x surge and people should just relax.. it's still cheaper. 3.1x and up is only slilghtly more than a cab.. but feel free to wait an hour or so if you want to save $5


Exactly but people see surge and feel they are being ripped off, no matter the x.


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## ChicagoHeat12 (May 6, 2015)

limepro said:


> You think to much of pax, they see a 1.1x surge and take a taxi even though it is still 50% cheaper at a 1.5 surge. They only see surge and don't take a ride unless they absolutely have to or are to drunk to think clearly.


This is absolutely true. They have weird logic.


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## DrivenToDistraction (Sep 3, 2015)

Um, I think perhaps folks are missing my point? Perhaps I should have been more clear. There were a grand total of three drivers in the area. None of us were pinged in a twenty minute period, during which Uber, by raising its prices, was telling its riders and potential riders that demand was outstripping supply and therefore prices had to be raised. Which was a lie.


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## Emp9 (Apr 9, 2015)

limepro said:


> Exactly but people see surge and feel they are being ripped off, no matter the x.


this is correct and why it would make sense to just raise the damn rate 40-50 cents and less surge(no artificial surge) ask 10 pax what the uber rate is you and only 1 will know. i have tried this myself, they mostly dont have any clue the rate.


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## ATL2SD (Aug 16, 2015)

Put a decent flat rate out there then & eliminate the surge all together. Surge is joke in most market's anyway. Riders & driver's are being gamed by Uber's surge manipulation, imo.


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## DrivenToDistraction (Sep 3, 2015)

Hell, for starters I'd just like to see Uber take an honest 20% of the fare, like they claim they do, and not the 30% to 50% that they actually do. Two pay periods ago they took 28.5% of my total fares, this last period they took 34.5%. ****ing lying thieves is what they are.


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