# Lyft dispatching multiple drivers on some rides?



## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

I reluctantly accepted a ping for a somewhat long ride, almost an hour long, since it was slow.

Less than a minute after accepting, I get a phone call from pax asking where I was. I told the pax I'm on my way, I just now received the ride less than a minute ago. Pax says the app told her the driver arrived already! I thought the pax was just a confused newb so I didn't give it any thought and told her I'll be there in a couple minutes and that was that.

Just as I was getting ready to hang up, I get a Lyft in-app message (they've changed it so it does it in-app vs texting you, but message is identical) saying unfortunately your ride with so and so has been canceled. I can tell based on the message whether it was canceled/switched by Lyft or by pax, this one was by Lyft.

Very sus.....

When there are a surplus of nearby drivers (flooded with ants right now everywhere), maybe they dispatch a couple in case one wants to cancel or gets there much faster? Clearly the switcharoo strategy is (among other reasons) to speed up pickup time reliability reputation to the pax so that they can improve their brand as a faster, more reliable service vs Uber. Maybe this is one of the tricks they're using? Unsure what criteria, maybe on high-value/commission (to them) rides? New pax? Frequent pax? ....


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## The Entomologist (Sep 23, 2018)

This is old news, they started doing this 3 years ago if not more.


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

Doing what?


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

Here's the app notification they're doing now vs the text messages they used to do (with a period of no notifications at all in between)


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## Amos69 (May 17, 2019)

Just search "The old Switcharoo" herre on this board.

Common practice for Gryft and also done by Goober from time to time


(In my case two years ago, I got switcharood by Goober twice as much as Gryft)


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

*Not talking about switcheroos*. Talking about dispatching multiple drivers at the same time to one ride. At the same time. BOTH DRIVERS ENGAGED IN MAKING PROGRESS TO PAX AT SAME TIME


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## 25rides7daysaweek (Nov 20, 2017)

NewLyftDriver said:


> Here's the app notification they're doing now vs the text messages they used to do (with a period of no notifications at all in between)
> 
> View attachment 629271


Well at least they are letting you down easy 
(unfortunately) and acting like they gaf


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## EagleWolfSparrow (Aug 7, 2021)

All SMS Lyft Message means LYFT System cancel, They don't want Driver get mad so sometimes they show it as "Pax Cancel".

Also PAX is doing something "Smart" They usually use BOTH APP, Uber Lyft. And then whatever arrive first, they cancel the other. Other some KAREN will call / Text driver asking driver to CANCEL so they don't need to pay cancellation fee. Drivers who want to keep their valuable time and keep driving will most likely cancel for pax like this...


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

Read the post and screenshot. This was not a pax cancel


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

NewLyftDriver said:


> This was not a pax cancel


Gr*yft* will take a job from you, give it to another driver and not immediately give you another job. This is the "*Snatch*eroo", a corollary of the Switcheroo, but not quite the same thing. Gr*yft* will tell you that it does this because a driver who is closer pops up and you are "not making sufficient progress toward the rider". This, of course, is a lie at least as often as not; likely more often than not. Several drivers have complained that Gr*yft* took a job from them when they were two blocks or less from it, so they sat across the street, waited, and X minutes later, the new driver appeared and fetched the customer.

This is hypocritical and a double standard. Gr*yft* can take any job from you that you have accepted, at any time and with no limit, but, you can not throw back too many jobs at Gr*yft* after you accept them.

The situation described by Original Poster has caused me to self-waitlist from Gr*yft*. Several weeks past, I accepted a job four minutes from me only because it had a pretty good ride bonus. Generally, I have a two minute limit on Gr*yft* jobs due to the Switcheroo.. I was two minutes from it when Gr*yft* put the grift on me and took it away from me. I got a message similar to what Original Poster shows in the screenshot. I knew it was not a passenger cancel, but a "*Snatch*eroo". Gr*yft* doubled on the grift by moving my PPZ several blocks north. At that point, I logged OUT. .Since then, I have accepted one Gr*yft* ping. I did this only because the F*ub*a*r* application was acting up. I needed one more job to go home, so I did a Gr*yft*. Recently, I did log IN to my Gr*yft* account to update insurance and safety inspection. It is good to have it as a backup. I will have to do a Gr*yft* job, a poster has put up a topic on this board that informs us that in his market, when you start a job, it does not show the destination address any more. Once I see what is occurring, it is back to self-waitlist.




Amos69 said:


> Switcharoo" Common practice for Gryft and also done by Goober from time to time (In my case two years ago, I got switcharood by Goober twice as much as Gryft)


F*ub*a*r* quietly ended the Switcheroo in this market several years past, shortly after it started it.


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

I'll repeat, this is NOT REFERRING TO THE STANDARD SWITCHAROO. ----NOT---- REFERRING TO THE STANDARD SWITCHAROO. Dispatching MULTIPLE DRIVERS to a trip AT THE SAME TIME. Repeat again,* ------NOT THE STANDARD SWITCHAROO-----. *Let me clarify, *NOT standard switcharoo.*


Have I made it clear yet, this is *NOT the standard switcharoo*


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

Another Uber Driver said:


> This is the "*Snatch*eroo", a corollary of the Switcheroo, but not quite the same thing.


(underscore emphasis added)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^Take your own advice.\/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/


NewLyftDriver said:


> Read the post and screenshot. This was not a pax cancel





NewLyftDriver said:


> I'll repeat, this is NOT REFERRING TO THE STANDARD SWITCHAROO. ----NOT---- REFERRING TO THE STANDARD SWITCHAROO. Dispatching MULTIPLE DRIVERS to a trip AT THE SAME TIME. Repeat again,* ------NOT THE STANDARD SWITCHAROO-----. *Let me clarify, *NOT standard switcharoo.*
> Have I made it clear yet, this is *NOT the standard switcharoo*


The only application of which I am aware that will *offer* a job to multiple drivers simultaneously is Curb, formerly Taxi Magic. In fact, when Uber launched Uber Taxi in this market, it stressed that it did not offer a job to multiple drivers simultaneously. Despite the foregoing, it only actually assigns one driver to the job.


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

I REPEAT, I am WELL AWARE of what a switcheroo is, *THIS THREAD IS NOT ABOUT A STANDARD SWITCHEROO*

This thread is *NOT*, I REPEAT *NOT*, about a standard switcheroo.

I understand you are not likely to have seen this, which is why I created a new thread to discuss it. Just because you are not aware of it does not mean it is not a new tactic being tried out by Lyft.

Can I make it any clearer? *This thread is ///////NOT/////// ABOUT STANDARD SWITCHEROOS*


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

The *following* threads are about STANDARD SWITCHEROOs









Switcheroos need to STOP


At the very, VERY, VEEEERRRRRYYYY minimum the driver needs to be given an option to decline the switch without penalty. Additional information on the trip is also necessary. If you've earned gold/platinum in CA, that means the switched trip should be provided with at least as much info as the...




www.uberpeople.net












Switcharoo's - why?


What is the reason behind Lyft doing a switcheroo on you? Past 2 days, this is happened a number of times, and it feels like more often than not, it ended up being an undesirable ride for one reason or another. Maybe it's just selective memory on my part. The last one I remember last night was...




www.uberpeople.net


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

NewLyftDriver said:


> I REPEAT, I am WELL AWARE of what a switcheroo is, *THIS THREAD IS NOT ABOUT A STANDARD SWITCHEROO *This thread is *NOT*, I REPEAT *NOT*, about a standard switcheroo.


If you actually would read what I have posted, you would see that I have acknowledged that more than once. It is a corollary of the Switcheroo; I call it the *Snatch*eroo. Lyft is not sending two drivers to the same job. It is snatching the job from you and giving it to another driver.


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

Nope. The other driver already supposedly arrived by the time I made less than a minute of progress. Meaning the other driver was dispatched before me, or same time as me, and both of us were engaged in actively making progress to the pax at the same time


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## New2This (Dec 27, 2015)

NewLyftDriver said:


> Nope. The other driver already supposedly arrived by the time I made less than a minute of progress. Meaning the other driver was dispatched before me, or same time as me, and both of us were engaged in actively making progress to the pax at the same time


The Community thanks you for your service.


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

@Another Uber Driver you remind me of uber in-app text support. As soon as you recognize a few keywords, you will copy&paste your page long rant about that topic


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## Diamondraider (Mar 13, 2017)

NewLyftDriver said:


> Nope. The other driver already supposedly arrived by the time I made less than a minute of progress. Meaning the other driver was dispatched before me, or same time as me, and both of us were engaged in actively making progress to the pax at the same time


This is likely a latency issue with the app that day. It appeared you still had the ride, but it had already been snatched. 

I discovered the latency when driving and the CTB maps and app messaging would still reflect a promotion that was already over. Despite many screen shots, I lost every battle with Cust service because it was clearly a latency problem (your carrier/your phone)


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

Pretty sure that's not it, doesn't even sound like the same issue. I was actively on a ride, and the pax even called my phone. How would she have been able to call me, just randomly guess a number out of thin air?

Then, how would her app have told her that the driver was already there, when I was over a mile away?


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## Gone_in_60_seconds (Jan 21, 2018)

NewLyftDriver said:


> Here's the app notification they're doing now vs the text messages they used to do (with a period of no notifications at all in between)
> 
> View attachment 629271


Yes, got burned by that when they first changed it. What a crappy company to allow drivers to drive to the pax and then only realized that the ride was cancelled with no text message notice!!!


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

I better be very careful talking negatively about supreme leader, I have extremely strong suspicions with very good reason to think that Lyft employees are actively monitoring this forum and finding out which UP account correlates to which Lyft account.

Also, trying to get Lyft support to correct any mistakes especially when regarding to pay is futile, you are just going to frustrate yourself more and waste a bunch of time because these guys are completely powerless to help, while at the same time empowered to DGAF and do not appear to have any obligations to meet any problem solving quotas or driver / customer satisfaction. They appear to be given free rein to tell you to **** off and disconnect you anytime from a chat session without resolving any issues or addressing the problem.

It's hard to imagine how any support can be worse than Uber, but Lyft text support is so much worse than Uber. Uber's phone support is actually not half bad half the time. Text support is horrific, and seems to be primarily based out of India whereas the phone support seems to be primarily based out of the Philippines.


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

Some (rather, most) of those Uber text support Indian guys have an extremely short temper and bad attitudes, and are quick to tell you to **** off. Not to mention switching different support reps every few minutes, even within the same chat session. Oftentimes you will have to repeat describing the entire issue all over again from scratch within a 30 minute period in the same session.

I highly suspect that these are the same pool of hot tempered phone support reps who have experience working in the scam call centers in India, that you may have seen or heard YouTube video recordings of. Where they start out the scam call being polite and nice, but upon any resistance they will get extremely hostile


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## Gone_in_60_seconds (Jan 21, 2018)

NewLyftDriver said:


> Some (rather, most) of those Uber text support Indian guys have an extremely short temper and bad attitudes, and are quick to tell you to **** off. Not to mention switching different support reps every few minutes, even within the same chat session. Oftentimes you will have to repeat describing the entire issue all over again from scratch within a 30 minute period in the same session.
> 
> I highly suspect that these are the same pool of hot tempered phone support reps who have experience working in the scam call centers in India, that you may have seen or heard YouTube video recordings of. Where they start out the scam call being polite and nice, but upon any resistance they will get extremely hostile


The non existent customer service is intentional. They hope that you will give up and save them money. The CSR are allowed to ignore your emails and chats when they don't like your question. I wonder if they treat the paying pax the same way? I had only seen this in Lyft as they only have support by chat and email, no telephone.


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

Both Lyft and Uber's text support have been hostile and very quick/hot tempered many times in the past, where if you try to continue resolution on an issue that they close your session out on, they will oftentimes insta-end your session without even a word. Just quickly end your session as fast as they receive the message from you. Like the guy at the other end is eagerly waiting for your message to pop up so s/he can quickly click [END SESSION] button.

Extremely infuriating especially when you consider you're messing with someone's livelihood. No HR department would ever behave in such a fashion

In comparison most of Uber's phone support is very well mannered and patient.


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## KK2929 (Feb 9, 2017)

NewLyftDriver said:


> Here's the app notification they're doing now vs the text messages they used to do (with a period of no notifications at all in between)
> 
> View attachment 629271


-------------------------------
NewLyftDriver -- there is nothing in that notice that indicates the ride was cancelled by the passenger.. 
Lyft, also, does not send multiple drivers to a pickup. Do you actually think that they would do that when short of drivers?
The passenger cancelled the ride.. She had been notified that the driver was there, meaning that another driver was given the trip, did not want it and cancelled after he had arrived and looked at the destination. The Lyft system sent the trip to you after the cancellation.. 

You do not want trips that are 60 min ???? Why not ????


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

You're wrong on multiple levels. I know a lot more about this than you.


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## KK2929 (Feb 9, 2017)

NewLyftDriver said:


> Both Lyft and Uber's text support have been hostile and very quick/hot tempered many times in the past, where if you try to continue resolution on an issue that they close your session out on, they will oftentimes insta-end your session without even a word. Just quickly end your session as fast as they receive the message from you. Like the guy at the other end is eagerly waiting for your message to pop up so s/he can quickly click [END SESSION] button.
> 
> Extremely infuriating especially when you consider you're messing with someone's livelihood. No HR department would ever behave in such a fashion
> 
> In comparison most of Uber's phone support is very well mannered and patient.


-------------------------------------
Uber and Lyfts current operating theory is that drivers should be intelligent enough to figure out their problems and not bother customer service with questions that are explained in the operating manual. 
They are indirectly encouraging drivers to use the data provided and solve their own problem.. It is the new way of doing business.. Little contact between the company and the workers. Apparently, it is working.. Drivers have to go to forums like, UberPeople to get the answers from other drivers, which often are not the correct answers but Uber CSReps do not know the answers either. 
Uber and Lyft are constanty demanding coutesy and respect, no matter what the circumstance. Anyone violating that working atmosphere will disappear. 

When Uber had a Green Lite office in West L.A., the Rep that I talked to was NOT a driver and had NEVER been a driver. Uber did on the job training for her and she used keywords to look up answers in their system. 
I, however, do not believe that Customer Service Reps are ever rude or use vulgar language. They just put you on hold and never come back or you are contacted by another agent..


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## Guido-TheKillerPimp (Jan 4, 2021)

NewLyftDriver said:


> I'll repeat, this is NOT REFERRING TO THE STANDARD SWITCHAROO. ----NOT---- REFERRING TO THE STANDARD SWITCHAROO. Dispatching MULTIPLE DRIVERS to a trip AT THE SAME TIME. Repeat again,* ------NOT THE STANDARD SWITCHAROO-----. *Let me clarify, *NOT standard switcharoo.*
> 
> 
> Have I made it clear yet, this is *NOT the standard switcharoo*


We get it. Lyft most likely does it, and uses the identical message. In other words, what's the diff?


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## The Entomologist (Sep 23, 2018)

Oh for God's sake, Lyft has been sending multiple ants to pax since 2017, they are so desperate for anyone to pick their base rides to walmart that they don't take chances, if multiple dumb asses fall for it, there are more odds one of them will pick the ride as the other 3 will probably end up canceling or riding away until it cancels by itself.


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## KK2929 (Feb 9, 2017)

NewLyftDriver said:


> You're wrong on multiple levels. I know a lot more about this than you.


-----------------------------
If your comment is meant for me , your response is typical for someone that has all the answers.
Why do you post on the site if you know everything ?
I do not see everything as a conspiracy to try to cheat me.. 
Also, why do you think that you have inside knowledge about the Lyft operation? Unless you have worked in the Lyft office, your knowledge is as limited as the rest of us drivers. 
You joined UBERPEOPLE three months ago and have posted 2176.. When do you have time to drive for Lyft ?


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