# Why I'll Never Do Another College Town, or "How Uber Ends Up With Holes On Map"



## CNJtrepreneur (Mar 25, 2015)

Well, they told me but I didn't listen.

I've heard from quite a few local drivers (Uber and taxi) that our local college town (New Brunswick) is a real pain in the ass late at night.

But, considering that it's lit up 1.5X - 2.8X most of the night (while the surrounding area is blank), I decided to give it a shot. Spent 90% of my night in there, got about a dozen fares.

Well, I'll skip the tales of waiting for 10 minutes while a drunk kid is dragged out of the house to the car, or having 4 friends come and drag another one OUT of the car, because he wanted to take a nap (yes, in my backseat), and the jackass who complained about the bumpy ride at the last block (half the town is torn up with construction, roads have patches on top of patches, you feel them even at 5 MPH). I'm sure you guys have heard them all.

The end result was that from that ONE NIGHT, my rating dropped by 0.2 points. From 4.95 to 4.78, BAM. And according to the Excel calculation, that took 2x 1-star ratings (or 4x 4-stars, which is unlikely in my experience).

And, I E-mailed Uber asking them to take a look at the ratings for that night, and received a reply that they will not adjust ratings for any reason.

So, now I have an explanation of why the local college town is surge-lit ALL NIGHT.

If the local population is a bunch of assholes = risk to your ratings, AND the company will not undo that damage, then the ONLY solution to mitigate that risk is *not to take it in the 1st place*. As much as I'd like to work in an area that's 15 minutes from my house, and has 1.5X+ surges constantly, there's no way I'm going to wreck my rating just by dealing with ungrateful assholes.

Sorry, Uber, but your "no exceptions whatsoever for any reason" policy, even when the driver can pinpoint the exact ride that went wrong, is going to lead to permanent red lights on the map. If there was a way to mitigate the 1-star ratings, I would take the risk and mitigate the consequences. But Uber is simply leaving me *no choice* but to ignore the area.

Do I expect a company policy change based on the rant of 1 rider? No. Do I think some new driver might find this information useful? Hope so.

I could be wrong. What's your opinion? Would you work a high-payoff, but high-risk area? Or is the long-term damage not worth it, given other options within a reasonable drive further out?

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Keywords: Uber New Brunswick, Uber Edison, Uber Piscataway, Albany Street, Amtrak, Easton Avenue, Commercial Avenue, Rutgers, Cook, Douglass, Livingston.


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## CNJtrepreneur (Mar 25, 2015)

LAndreas, I do understand the balance. I just wanted to point out that Uber's policy of not removing unfair ratings WILL lead to "holes" on the map, where drivers are less likely to go. It's a strategy thing, really.


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## CNJtrepreneur (Mar 25, 2015)

Well, given a choice of 1.5X in the college town 15 minutes from my house, but with ratings risk, and driving another 20 mins and hitting the airport or North NJ, with the same surges, after that wild night, I'll take the longer ride. Thankfully, New Jersey has enough population density to flash surges in most major towns, so I have options. Just sayin', it sucks for everyone in that town, and it sucks due to nothing more than obstinate policies.


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## Casuale Haberdasher (Dec 7, 2014)

CNJtrepreneur said:


> Well, they told me but I didn't listen.
> 
> I've heard from quite a few local drivers (Uber and taxi) that our local college town (New Brunswick) is a real pain in the ass late at night.
> 
> ...


POST#1/CNJtrepreneur: Ahoy & Welcome
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Island on Florida's Wild SouthWest Coast.

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Addition of Learned Input from others 
in THIS thread. Keep up the Good Work.

Mentoring Bison fondly remembering
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Bison getting hungry!


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## CNJtrepreneur (Mar 25, 2015)

LAndreas said:


> You'll learn in due time not to obsess about your ratings. Search the forum for "Uber ratings" and "grading on a curve", or look up the thread posted by DesertDriver recently.
> This is not a likability contest. If you suck less than the worst 10% of drivers in your market, your rating is immaterial.


One of the best pieces of advice I've seen on this forum. Thank you!


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## Million Miler (May 2, 2015)

Kinda like eBay… no matter what your listing sez… "used, beat up, no returns" the buyer will always get the opportunity to return whatever they bought if they don't like what you sold them or eBay will pull your ability to sell. I pretty much quit selling on there because of two transactions… the seller (or in uber's case the driver) is always wrong I guess.


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## KGB7 (Apr 23, 2015)

I never go in to College Park, Univ of MD, because i know there are too many drunks coming out of bars. But that town is lit up higher then any part of tri-state area, when it surges it always goes to x3.2.


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## D Town (Apr 8, 2015)

SMU kids can be a snotty, drunken, waste of time but so far I've found that to be true only 25% of the time and they don't seem to hit my rating so I don't mind driving there when its surging sometimes. A&M kids on the other hand...f*** that place. Just driving down the street with those kids around is a hazard. I've never been cussed at by another driver for NOT running over people crossing the street until that evening followed by being left to wait 8 minutes for a pickup - they sent me a text at 5 minutes just as I was about to cancel saying they were headed right down so I was nice and gave them an extra 3 minutes which STILL wasn't enough for them so I took my no show fee and left. Sad. The kid I drove there was actually a pretty cool guy. Too bad his class mates were morons. University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has some of the nicer kids but the campus is a friggen hazard. Kids are stepping blindly off curbs EVERYWHERE with their eyes so glued on their phones they have no idea how close to death they've really come. I was convinced I wasn't getting out of there without killing anyone. My God how do kids reach adulthood?


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## Emp9 (Apr 9, 2015)

First off no one would obsess over ratings if it didn't lead to deactivation. The OP is exactly right I even experimented the last 2 weeks I avoided uni's I have several in my area. Not only did my avg $ per trip go up. My rating went from a weekly 4.7 to a 4.9. And while I did stay above ground working some college areas weekly before. I would have drawned if it was exclusively. No one successfully works the college crowd. They are snotty and never impressed. You can connect or not connect they say yeah you got a 5 buddy and turn around and its a 4 if you are lucky.


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## Fauxknight (Aug 12, 2014)

The OSU crowd isn't bad, the secret is to only do the earlier rides, after 10pm or so is when the assholes come out. At that point you want to be off campus, which unfortunately is difficult because the main bar/event area is right there and nearly every ride in town is headed that way.


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## Oh My (Dec 26, 2014)

Yeah, the ratings thing is such a wonderful concept.

There's a large "neighborhood" on the north side of Chicago that I just go offline when driving through now. Nothing but hoodrats of all shades thinking they hired a 99 cent limo there. 

The lil ***** that made me wait to the 5 minute mark after driving almost 2 miles in bumper to bumper traffic to pick her up, had that ghetto scowl on her face, replied "nnnt" through her nose when I greeted her and confirmed her name (I don't know how they make that noise, it must mean "hello" in female ghettoese), wants to commandeer my car with her shortcut route when there's no traffic around her destination........BUT when she told me to turn right when I knew we needed to turn left one block from her drop off...I diplomatically put her in her place. 

Multiply this inconsiderate BS predominate over and over again by ALL in ONE geographic area and they will be ignored. They are not worthy of my service.


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## Kalee (Feb 18, 2015)

Oh My said:


> Yeah, the ratings thing is such a wonderful concept.
> 
> There's a large "neighborhood" on the north side of Chicago that I just go offline when driving through now. Nothing but hoodrats of all shades thinking they hired a 99 cent limo there.
> 
> ...


This actually made me chuckle out loud. Thank you for that.


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## Oh My (Dec 26, 2014)

Kalee said:


> This actually made me chuckle out loud. Thank you for that.


"Nnnt". So I was made aware of a comment she made and the obvious 1* star that day was returned to her in kind.
In a nutshell, she was EMBARRASSED about her own assinine, incorrect directions in the drop off neighborhood "I" used to live in and walked away from the car with her tail between her legs and rating me with some snarky borderline racist comments (if I were black, she wouldn't have said what she did in those rating remarks) and that made her feel better. So her neighborhood is HIGHLY populated with taxi drivers living there and this ***** can go hail one. Problem is, it's hard to get a cab there. Isn't it ironic? They don't even serve their own. They start up that cab for the day and high tail it outta there.


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## Oh My (Dec 26, 2014)

This was her to a T. They're mad at the world the second they leave their porch everyday but they're going to rate YOU?!


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## Kalee (Feb 18, 2015)

Oh My said:


> This was her to a T. They're mad at the world the second they leave their porch everyday but they're going to rate YOU?!


LOL. I've tried picking up pax from "underserved" areas but it always came back to bite me in the ass. The underserved are undeserving.

Whenever you accept a ping and the pax first name begins with "Le", "La", and/or ends in "eisha", you might consider cancelling.


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## 20yearsdriving (Dec 14, 2014)

LAndreas said:


> If you drive Uber to earn high ratings (and be loved by your pax), don't go into those surge areas at night (and if you don't naturally connect with young people, not even during the day).
> 
> If you drive Uber to make money (and treat it as business), then surges are the only real way to go with the Uber X category, so you should figure out a way to deal with the clientele that comes with a good surge payday.


Bingo!!!


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## Oh My (Dec 26, 2014)

Kalee said:


> LOL. I've tried picking up pax from "underserved" areas but it always came back to bite me in the ass. The underserved are undeserving.
> 
> Whenever you accept a ping and the pax first name begins with "Le", "La", and/or ends in "isha", you might consider cancelling.


Do not pick-up "Tamale" on the gay strip either. If they can't give their real name, I ain't picking them up. This isn't a celebrity limousine.

I really don't shy away from the silly ethnic/ebonics names depending on the area but if it's something like [email protected], then no.

However, these people are the ones that will call you within a minute of accepting the ping asking "where you be" snd that's an immediate cancel. Already pushin' and shovin' before they got in the car.


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## 20yearsdriving (Dec 14, 2014)

Is there any normal customers at all ?


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## Oh My (Dec 26, 2014)

20yearsdriving said:


> Is there any normal customers at all ?


My experience, with Uber anyway, it's almost a perfect 50/50 split.


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## 20yearsdriving (Dec 14, 2014)

Oh My said:


> My experience, with Uber anyway, it's almost a perfect 50/50 split.


Hope good prevails


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## Taxi Driver in Arizona (Mar 18, 2015)

College kids are the demographic most likely to puke in your car. I avoid ASU like the plague.


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## Uber Chick (Aug 22, 2015)

Confessions of a Fubar driver:
***PING***
La'Keisha @ 123 ABC street, 4 min........
OK, since it's only 4 min..... accept.
Arrive @123 ABC street right next to pin....no La'Keisha there.... in fact it's a vacant lot.... ???
Text La'Keisha: "Hi, this is Uber... here to pick you up"
Nothing for 2-3 min... re-check the pin placement....
Text again: "Where are you? Uber here @123 ABC street..."
Wait 5-7 min total... smoke a cig/or whatever, jog around car, contemplate....
Check car/pin location AGAIN...
Ready to hit the Cancel/No Show button then.....
La'Keisha calls: "Where you is? Come pick me and Ta'Quesia up at XYZ Lane next to Po Boys Shack on da strip! We'z need to pick up Tyrone and my cousin, Shim. You'z don;t mind... hee hee! And if you'z can stop at tho Stop-n-Shop ... we'ze need some pork rinds and some Ripple... hee-hee! You'z so funny....."
"Uh-hem...." CANCEL!


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## Oh My (Dec 26, 2014)

Uber Chick said:


> Confessions of a Fubar driver:
> ***PING***
> La'Keisha @ 123 ABC street, 4 min........
> OK, since it's only 4 min..... accept.
> ...


Ha ha. Love it. Obviously I'm not the only one around here with the balls to tell it like it REALLY is. And you're female!


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## mikeuberman123 (Jul 10, 2015)

rule number one stay away from f****** college students

remember to stay away from Asian community Chinese communities your ratings will go down cuz you can't communicate with them


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## glados (May 23, 2015)

A US Uber CSR said xyr was getting paid $15 / hr and was expected to do 8-10 tickets per hour. Add 15% loading for payroll tax and admin, and you end up with a cost of $1.73 per ticket.

Uber doesn't want support tickets and they won't do ratings reviews due to the time & cost it'll take.


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## Uber Chick (Aug 22, 2015)

glados said:


> A US uber CSR and xyr was getting paid $15 / hr and was expected to do 8-10 tickets per hour. Add 15% loading for payroll tax and admin, and you end up with a cost of $1.73 per ticket.
> 
> Uber doesn't want support tickets and they won't do ratings reviews due to the time & cost it'll take.


Hey glados! Since I'm kinda new to this, can you please explain these "tickets"?


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## glados (May 23, 2015)

Uber Chick said:


> Hey glados! Since I'm kinda new to this, can you please explain these "tickets"?


Tickets as in support emails


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## Uber Chick (Aug 22, 2015)

mikeuberman123 said:


> rule number one stay away from f****** college students
> 
> remember to stay away from Asian community Chinese communities your ratings will go down cuz you can't communicate with them


Hey Mike.... I know about students. I play their little game and it seems to work, most of the time. And being in a college town its impossible to bypass them. When fall season comes around it will be booming with college pre/post-football stuff going on and I plan on making $$ on surges..... 3 to 4x! 
As for the english impaired, they usually put in destinations cuz they're unable (or challenged) to tell you where to go. "No hablas engles" This makes it simple and I prefer it..... no conversation, just music.......smooth jazz!


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## mikeuberman123 (Jul 10, 2015)

Good luck with that


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## groovyguru (Mar 9, 2015)

Oh My said:


> Yeah, the ratings thing is such a wonderful concept.
> 
> There's a large "neighborhood" on the north side of Chicago that I just go offline when driving through now. Nothing but hoodrats of all shades thinking they hired a 99 cent limo there.
> 
> ...


99 cent limo. LoL!!!


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## Oh My (Dec 26, 2014)

Uber Chick said:


> Hey Mike.... I know about students. I play their little game and it seems to work, most of the time. And being in a college town its impossible to bypass them. When fall season comes around it will be booming with college pre/post-football stuff going on and I plan on making $$ on surges..... 3 to 4x!
> As for the english impaired, they usually put in destinations cuz they're unable (or challenged) to tell you where to go. "No hablas engles" This makes it simple and I prefer it..... no conversation, just music.......smooth jazz!


It no longer matters that they don't speak English and can enter their destination on the app anymore. In $hitcago they can now order a Spanish speaking driver and verbally order their own Julio around like a slave. Watch this unfold.

Next up? Black or female driver only button.

There are so many drivers here now you can select whoever you want. Being gay I've yet to find a good looking blue eyed, masculine, English speaking Western European guy with good bone structure and a nice ass for an Uber driver but I know my day is coming someday soon.


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## mikeuberman123 (Jul 10, 2015)

You like playing SHORT Trips have fun with that I'll stick to where my odds are higher on bigger trips and without surges surge equals bad ratings  I learn that my first day


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## mikeuberman123 (Jul 10, 2015)

6 years veteran


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## Oh My (Dec 26, 2014)

mikeuberman123 said:


> You like playing SHORT Trips have fun with that I'll stick to where my odds are higher on bigger trips and without surges surge equals bad ratings  I learn that my first day


You've got some REALLY bad moobs. Hope you're wearing a bra under your shirt while driving.

Ron Jeremy is just GROSS. Even in his prime.


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## ginseng41 (Nov 30, 2014)

I'm in a college town too. My rating hovers around 4.8 and I almost exclusively drive drunks, or soon to be drunks. I think it must depend on the market, though the girls really like having a female driver


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## Uber Chick (Aug 22, 2015)

ginseng41 said:


> I'm in a college town too. My rating hovers around 4.8 and I almost exclusively drive drunks, or soon to be drunks. I think it must depend on the market, though the girls really like having a female driver


Hi! Do you ever have 5 or 6 drunk girls trying to get a ride by all piling in your back seat? I said ok last week cuz it was for a short distance, but then I realized I was hurting myself if I was involved in an accident, someone was hurt and that the girls were just being cheap! One girl did give a me $1 tip... whoopee!!! I will never do that again!


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## ginseng41 (Nov 30, 2014)

It happens constantly. Just say no. I only have 4 seat belts and it's a $1,000 fine. If they look annoyed at having to order a 2nd, cancel and leave


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## Uber Chick (Aug 22, 2015)

Yep, I bet that $1000 fine comment gets them back to reality!


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## ginseng41 (Nov 30, 2014)

Unfortunately, it doesn't. Most of the drivers will pile in 7.


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## HERR_UBERMENSCH (Jun 3, 2016)

glados said:


> Tickets as in support emails


I called support once and got a voice that sounded like Glados, acted like her too.


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## agtg (Jun 8, 2016)

groovyguru said:


> 99 cent limo. LoL!!!


Dollar Store Chauffer!


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## gofry (Oct 20, 2015)

Fauxknight said:


> The OSU crowd isn't bad, the secret is to only do the earlier rides, after 10pm or so is when the assholes come out. At that point you want to be off campus, which unfortunately is difficult because the main bar/event area is right there and nearly every ride in town is headed that way.


During the day, the OSU (Ohio State in Columbus) area is a complete waste of time. Very, very short rides (grocery shopping, late for class, haircuts, etc.).


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## Squirming Like A Toad (Apr 7, 2016)

I'll take that action myself. Students going to and coming from the same places, lots of stacked pings, no waiting or deadhead. It's nice when the ride is short enough that you are making a lot more per mile due to the minimum fare.


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