# Passenger donated $0.00 for 90.8 miles



## Linus (Aug 10, 2014)

I am a Lyft driver in Phoenix and received a request and subsequent call from a passenger stating that she was outside of the pick up area but assured me she was going on a far round trip and asked if I'd be willing to go get her.

She was 24 miles away so I drive the 30 minutes to get her and 90.8 miles to her destination and back. It was a 127 minute trip. All told it was a 3 hour and 138.8 mile trip for me when you include going to her house and coming back home.

I confirmed with Lyft today since it's been more than 24 hours since the ride that she did not pay me any money AND I'm pretty sure she rated me badly because my rating suffered that night and I know the few other rides I did went well.

I contacted Lyft and vented and said I demanded that her account be terminated but I doubt she'll be affected in any way. I also told them that I considered what she did was theft. I am extremely pissed off about this.

Has anyone else had this happen and did anything come out of it?


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## Jeeves (Apr 10, 2014)

Welcome to the forum. That is horrendous! 140 miles, 3 hours, $0. Lyft has to do something for you. Since Ive been doing Lyft it's not donation based. Hopefully someone around from a city with similar policies here has some reassuring info for you.


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## SCdave (Jun 27, 2014)

Let Lift know that you are on multiple Driver Forums and that you will be posting this on all of them if it is not resolved immediately.

Start your email with "Please, I really need your help on this one". Then be nice but straightforward that it is their responsibility to compensate you for this fare and you will be notifying the 1000s of other Lift Drivers you communicate with on Driver Forums if Lift does not get back to you with an appropriate resolution.

Good luck and let us know what happens.


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## Linus (Aug 10, 2014)

Just a little background. I've given over 200 rides with Lyft and probably close to a thousand when I was driver Uber (I turned in my Uber phone last week due to the pay cut). 

I've had people donate less but nothing this severe. I did email Lyft a couple of hours ago and am waiting to hear a response. 

This is the only forum I'm on at this point and would be grateful to know of any other forums that are out there that you know of.


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## SCdave (Jun 27, 2014)

Linus said:


> Just a little background. I've given over 200 rides with Lyft and probably close to a thousand when I was driver Uber (I turned in my Uber phone last week due to the pay cut).
> 
> I've had people donate less but nothing this severe. I did email Lyft a couple of hours ago and am waiting to hear a response.
> 
> This is the only forum I'm on at this point and would be grateful to know of any other forums that are out there that you know of.


You don't have to say "which" forums to Lift. Just say 1000s of drivers and multiple Forums that you frequently post on for "both Lift and Uber". You can also say that you were considering quitting for Uber (or have quit) because you liked the Lift Platform better but you now think you have made a big mistake.

And if you don't get compensation from Lift for this, let us know and all of us will support you. Give Lift a chance first to resolve this.


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## chi1cabby (May 28, 2014)

http://www.reddit.com/r/Lyft/

Facebook pages:
*Freedom to Speak Drivers Board (Unfiltered and No Big Brother, Secret Group, 99 members)*
*That's mostly AZ drivers.*

*Lyft Love (closed group, 1225 members)*

*If you wanna join em, lemme know, I'll add you as a member through your FB account.*


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## puber (Aug 31, 2014)

You are in an illegal business. That's why you drive for "donations".
Think of many other ways you can get screwed doing this!
You're lucky she didn't rape you or steal your wallet


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## ElectroFuzz (Jun 10, 2014)

Linus said:


> I contacted Lyft and vented and said I demanded that her account be terminated but I doubt she'll be affected in any way.


If this was her first ride she now has a ZERO donation score.
That means she won't be able to get a ride anymore, in effect she is banned.

Unless she already had 9 rides (or more) that she paid the full fare on
her ability to get a ride is basically close to zero.

The majority of drivers have the donation score set at 90%
Check yours and make sure it's set on 90%


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## Uber_Suv (Aug 24, 2014)

she'll just open another account. So easy these days. What she did was despicable and deserves her house to be egged.


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## BeachBum (Aug 6, 2014)

Linus said:


> Has anyone else had this happen and did anything come out of it?


I live in an area that's donation only and I've been stiffed twice by lyft riders. When lyft started here they were offering 25 free rides worth up to $25 each. Business was popping for a couple of months with lyft picking up the tab for all the free rides.

Problem was, the riders were mostly high school kids and unemployed people; the type of people that would never use lyft if they had to pay for it. Somehow word got out through social networking that after your free rides ran out, you could just zero out the amount you owe and ride for free.

Lyft told me they were sorry for my loss and that they would deactivate the riders. Now it sounds like the riders know they get only one chance to zero you so they're getting everything they can on that last free ride. Sorry you got burned. Of course you know where she lives...


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## Linus (Aug 10, 2014)

I sent a request to join Lyft Love but I couldn't find the 'Freedom to speak'group.


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## Worcester Sauce (Aug 20, 2014)

Linus said:


> I am a Lyft driver in Phoenix and received a request and subsequent call from a passenger stating that she was outside of the pick up area but assured me she was going on a far round trip and asked if I'd be willing to go get her.
> 
> She was 24 miles away so I drive the 30 minutes to get her and 90.8 miles to her destination and back. It was a 127 minute trip. All told it was a 3 hour and 138.8 mile trip for me when you include going to her house and coming back home.
> 
> ...


"Donation"???? What the hell is that about (afraid to ask)?


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## Chicago-uber (Jun 18, 2014)

Oh my god...I would probably burn her house down if someone stiffed me like that ... 

I'm just kidding, but I would be pissed beyond imagination.


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## Sydney Uber (Apr 15, 2014)

One way to build a valuable, high-value client base! Give 'em an option to pay nothing.


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## Swed (Jul 20, 2014)

So you were completely stiffed? That is horrible. I've not had much action/ luck with Lyft, but this post is enough for me to stop using it. Sorry that happened to you, but thanks for staring this post,


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## TrafficSlayer (Aug 16, 2014)

Lyft has "donation" markets and "fare" markets. If I were in a donation market, I wouldn't drive for them!


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## Swed (Jul 20, 2014)

I'm in a fare market i just checked, but not happy that this happened to this poor guy.


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## Sydney Uber (Apr 15, 2014)

[QUOTE Traffic Slayer, post: 32097, member: 1170"]Lyft has "donation" markets and "fare" markets. If I were in a donation market, I wouldn't drive for them![/QUOTE]

i'm Trialling a donation based rideshare outfit here in Sydney. it's starting to lose its gloss. Firstly there are some folk who really believe that the less they pay you, the more you are sharing in this new sharing economy. So they deduce you gotta be happy about that!

then there are the vast majority of riders Who have no idea what it costs to run a high mileage vehicle. This ignorance is shared by the technology company who try and strongarm drivers to respond to rider requests over 10 mins away in gridlock traffic with no guarantee of the monetary return at the end of ride due to the donation basis.

Then there's the false claims that its a "rideshare" outfit putting "freinds on the way" together. The expectation to the riders is that you provide a cheap cutprice taxi service, with The driver having no influence of the route to be taken and the costs that need to be compensated.

The jury is still out whether this mob will grow up, look into their crystal ball and develop a sustainable suite of services to a client base that matters.


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## LAuberX (Jun 3, 2014)

Linus said:


> I am a Lyft driver in Phoenix and received a request and subsequent call from a passenger stating that she was outside of the pick up area but assured me she was going on a far round trip and asked if I'd be willing to go get her.
> 
> She was 24 miles away so I drive the 30 minutes to get her and 90.8 miles to her destination and back. It was a 127 minute trip. All told it was a 3 hour and 138.8 mile trip for me when you include going to her house and coming back home.
> 
> ...


I'm glad I don't drive for Lyft.


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## TrafficSlayer (Aug 16, 2014)

LAuberX said:


> I'm glad I don't drive for Lyft.


You're in LA, it is a fare market there, no chance of being stiffed.


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## driveLA (Aug 15, 2014)

wow thats horrible. i thought you were able to set the minimum percent for rides on lyft though. plus isn't there a limit of 50 or so mile trips? thats what i was told by the lyft mentor when i signed up.

i had told him that i had drive from LA to San Diego on Uber and he said that kind of ride would not be compensated past the 50 mile mark if i had done it on Lyft.


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## TrafficSlayer (Aug 16, 2014)

driveLA said:


> wow thats horrible. i thought you were able to set the minimum percent for rides on lyft though. plus isn't there a limit of 50 or so mile trips? thats what i was told by the lyft mentor when i signed up.
> 
> i had told him that i had drive from LA to San Diego on Uber and he said that kind of ride would not be compensated past the 50 mile mark if i had done it on Lyft.


He told you wrong: 100 miles or $500

http://community.lyft.com/2014/07/29/go-earn-increased-ride-limit/


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## champ.49er (Aug 4, 2014)

I'm so sorry for your experience. Reading this post actually has me fuming and I'm not the victim. Unfortunately, you work in a donation based area. You did the right thing by contacting Lyft, so the only advice I would give you is to maybe stop driving for Lyft until your area becomes a fare based area. I'm not sure if this is your main source of income and just a part-time gig, but people now a days are just downright bad.


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## Linus (Aug 10, 2014)

I did hear back from Lyft and I am surprised at their response and hope that they are being sincere. Here is part of the email that I sent to Lyft:

"I hope Lyft will do a serious review of their donation policies. As drivers we provide a service to people. I do this full time to make a living. I love the freedom of it and meeting new people. However, this isn't a charity and there has to be a threshold somewhere that protects drivers so the passenger knows that yes, it is a donation but if your ride is over X amount of miles, you will be charged. It's only fair."

Here is the response from Lyft:
"Randy,
Thanks for following up with us. I know this is an extremely unfortunate situation and I want to assure you that this passenger will no longer be using the Lyft platform. Furthermore, I have excluded her rating of you from your account. We are currently working with local regulators to switch from a donation based model to a fare based one to avoid situations like this in the future. No one said changing the face of transportation would be easy, but it takes drivers like you that are willing to fight the good fight to make it happen.

I think changing it to have a minimum charge if the ride goes over a certain amount of mileage or time is a good idea and I will definitely pass that along to our engineers. 

Again, I do apologize for this passenger's behavior and want to reiterate that they are no longer able to request rides using Lyft."

Yeah, it wasn't enough to not pay me, she also had the gall to give me a bad rating and review. Unbelievable.


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## TrafficSlayer (Aug 16, 2014)

Linus said:


> I did hear back from Lyft and I am surprised at their response and hope that they are being sincere. Here is part of the email that I sent to Lyft:
> 
> "I hope Lyft will do a serious review of their donation policies. As drivers we provide a service to people. I do this full time to make a living. I love the freedom of it and meeting new people. However, this isn't a charity and there has to be a threshold somewhere that protects drivers so the passenger knows that yes, it is a donation but if your ride is over X amount of miles, you will be charged. It's only fair."
> 
> ...


They have to justify it to themselves somehow. But the line you got from Lyft about working with regulators on the donation/charge basis are complete BS. Uber operates in the same markets and does not have any markets with a donation model.


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## pissedoff (Aug 23, 2014)

Is it just me, or does the response from Lyft sound like Charlie Brown's teacher and parents?


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## BeachBum (Aug 6, 2014)

Worcester Sauce said:


> "Donation"???? What the hell is that about (afraid to ask)?


Here in VA, to be considered ride share vs commercial transportation, we can only accept donations. Lyft seems to be pretty good about weeding out riders that don't make the suggested donation and drivers can set the app to only accept riders that pay at least 90% of the suggested donation.

The problem is, riders that have taken 25 free rides will show as having paid 100% of the donation and will probably be rated 5 stars, so there's nothing to tip you off that you're about to get stiffed*. 
*
I've never had a problem with an Uber fare stiffing me, don't know if they're set up different here or the riders are just higher quality.


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## TrafficSlayer (Aug 16, 2014)

BeachBum said:


> Here in VA, to be considered ride share vs commercial transportation, we can only accept donations. Lyft seems to be pretty good about weeding out riders that don't make the suggested donation and drivers can set the app to only accept riders that pay at least 90% of the suggested donation.
> 
> The problem is, riders that have taken 25 free rides will show as having paid 100% of the donation and will probably be rated 5 stars, so there's nothing to tip you off that you're about to get stiffed*.
> *
> I've never had a problem with an Uber fare stiffing me, don't know if they're set up different here or the riders are just higher quality.


Uber operates as a fare service in all markets, no donations on uber. And trust me, uber riders are not "higher quality" people. I've done 1400 combined rides. In that 1400, I've had 1 Puker, 3 ejections, and called the police twice. The Puker was a Lyft, the 3 ejections and 2 calls to the police were Ubers.


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## Baron VonStudley (Jun 20, 2014)

I can't believe I can still be shocked by this but we drop to new lows. I have been stiffed quite a few times. And the same scenario where I had to drive 20 minutes opposite where I live to get someone at 4 am from an emergency room. Normally I would have canceled and gone hone to bed but I'm not that much of a bastard to leave someone stranded at the ER. Took. About 30 minutes for the guy to come out and which door to find him and drive him 15 miles again opposite of where I live. I ended up getting home almost 6 am and put 50 plus miles on the car and he zeroed it out. I do t know if there is any satisfaction for you you know where she lives can steal her garden gnome or mail and cause her some inconvenience?


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## Barbara Bitela (Jul 14, 2014)

driveLA said:


> wow thats horrible. i thought you were able to set the minimum percent for rides on lyft though. plus isn't there a limit of 50 or so mile trips? thats what i was told by the lyft mentor when i signed up.
> 
> i had told him that i had drive from LA to San Diego on Uber and he said that kind of ride would not be compensated past the 50 mile mark if i had done it on Lyft.


I don't know about Lyft, but if that happened with uber, uber would pay me. They may not pay me what the total SHOULD be but they most certainly would throw down at least $50 for my time, gas and trouble.


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## ElectroFuzz (Jun 10, 2014)

Baron VonStudley said:


> I can't believe I can still be shocked by this but we drop to new lows. I have been stiffed quite a few times. And the same scenario where I had to drive 20 minutes opposite where I live to get someone at 4 am from an emergency room. Normally I would have canceled and gone hone to bed but I'm not that much of a bastard to leave someone stranded at the ER. Took. About 30 minutes for the guy to come out and which door to find him and drive him 15 miles again opposite of where I live. I ended up getting home almost 6 am and put 50 plus miles on the car and he zeroed it out. I do t know if there is any satisfaction for you you know where she lives can steal her garden gnome or mail and cause her some inconvenience?


Funny to hear this.
I only got stiffed one time on Lyft and it was a guy who needed to get to the closest 
Emergency Room.
He decided that half fare was good enough.

Of course the OP story is pure criminal.


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## TrafficSlayer (Aug 16, 2014)

Barbara Bitela said:


> I don't know about Lyft, but if that happened with uber, uber would pay me. They may not pay me what the total SHOULD be but they most certainly would throw down at least $50 for my time, gas and trouble.


Keep on dreaming on that one! I drive for both and in my experience, lyft is much more driver friendly than Uber! Under cares about one thing: uber.


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## Barbara Bitela (Jul 14, 2014)

TrafficSlayer said:


> Keep on dreaming on that one! I drive for both and in my experience, lyft is much more driver friendly than Uber! Under cares about one thing: uber.


I understand, but did you try?
See, I can lose like a man, so I fight the right battles. If I go in and know it's a long shot I'm not surprised if I lose. I am VERY used to "no' because of other businesses I run, but sometimes, I get a yes! Why not at least try and KNOW you tried?


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## TrafficSlayer (Aug 16, 2014)

Barbara Bitela said:


> I understand, but did you try?
> See, I can lose like a man, so I fight the right battles. If I go in and know it's a long shot I'm not surprised if I lose. I am VERY used to "no' because of other businesses I run, but sometimes, I get a yes! Why not at least try and KNOW you tried?


Try??? That was a theoretical discussion! Uber doesn't have donation markets. But I do know this, I had to threaten to sue them just to get them to honor their minimum fares on surge. It took me 5 days and several e-mails plus screen shots to prove to these assholes that a 3x surge should be a minimum $12 instead of the $10.40 that was calculated. Last time Uber lowered rates in my market do you know what the notice they gave was??? 8 stinking HOURS. Not even a full day. Don't delude yourself into thinking that Uber cares one second about their drivers. I still drive for them because there is a way to profitably game their system, until that ends or I find something better, I will be with them, but I will not ever defend their actions. If drivers did what Uber told them to do, they'd go broke. One of the famous promotions they do in my market is text to all drivers a competition to see who can get the most rides in a specific 12-hour period, with a $100 bonus to the one who gets the most. What does this encourage drivers to do? Take short rides at $4 each, work 12 hours straight and take every ping. What does this get the drivers who chase the $100?? Well, if you can manage 35 rides in 12 hours at $4, that gets you a whopping $84 before gas and depreciation and taxes, and a chance that you might be the one driver who gets the $100 at the end of the day, so if you win, you get around $130 for the 12 hour day, if you lose, you get $30. Tell me again how benevolent they are!


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## Barbara Bitela (Jul 14, 2014)

TrafficSlayer said:


> Try??? That was a theoretical discussion! Uber doesn't have donation markets. But I do know this, I had to threaten to sue them just to get them to honor their minimum fares on surge. It took me 5 days and several e-mails plus screen shots to prove to these assholes that a 3x surge should be a minimum $12 instead of the $10.40 that was calculated. Last time Uber lowered rates in my market do you know what the notice they gave was??? 8 stinking HOURS. Not even a full day. Don't delude yourself into thinking that Uber cares one second about their drivers. I still drive for them because there is a way to profitably game their system, until that ends or I find something better, I will be with them, but I will not ever defend their actions. If drivers did what Uber told them to do, they'd go broke. One of the famous promotions they do in my market is text to all drivers a competition to see who can get the most rides in a specific 12-hour period, with a $100 bonus to the one who gets the most. What does this encourage drivers to do? Take short rides at $4 each, work 12 hours straight and take every ping. What does this get the drivers who chase the $100?? Well, if you can manage 35 rides in 12 hours at $4, that gets you a whopping $84 before gas and depreciation and taxes, and a chance that you might be the one driver who gets the $100 at the end of the day, so if you win, you get around $130 for the 12 hour day, if you lose, you get $30. Tell me again how benevolent they are!


I understand. I didn't say they are benevolent, it's money. It's information. I'd email them and tell them your story. they should hear it.


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## jmana (Sep 2, 2014)

SCdave said:


> Let Lift know that you are on multiple Driver Forums and that you will be posting this on all of them if it is not resolved immediately.
> 
> Start your email with "Please, I really need your help on this one". Then be nice but straightforward that it is their responsibility to compensate you for this fare and you will be notifying the 1000s of other Lift Drivers you communicate with on Driver Forums if Lift does not get back to you with an appropriate resolution.
> 
> Good luck and let us know what happens.


Have you been to the driver forums lately?? If you were to post something like this you wouldn't get any sympathy, in fact you'd be attacked by all the Lyft brown nosers. Seriously, you can't post any issue there without being called a complainer and being negative. In fact they will boot your ass out of the driver lounge if you post too many issues, it happened to me!


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## TrafficSlayer (Aug 16, 2014)

Barbara Bitela should join a few of the Kool Aid drinkers lounges. She'd fit in a lot better there.


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## KrisThuy (Aug 6, 2014)

wow i would not drive for something im not sure im gonna get paid or not

sorry to read ur experience


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## TrafficSlayer (Aug 16, 2014)

Barbara Bitela said:


> I understand. I didn't say they are benevolent, it's money. It's information. I'd email them and tell them your story. they should hear it.


If they actually cared about driver earnings, they'd allow tipping through the app. They don't even do that!


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## OldTownSean (Aug 14, 2014)

Is she in the Phoenix area? If so, post her address here. If it's on my side of town, I'll egg her for ya.

EDIT: I see you are in the Phoenix area.

Post her address plz. Even if no one actually eggs her you may save one of us from getting her.


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## Doodle (Jul 17, 2014)

LOL. I'm not even from Phoenix, but this infuriates me so much that I'm willing to take a Lyft to her place to steal her mail or egg her for you when I am visiting Phoenix next week.


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## jmana (Sep 2, 2014)

It's a good thing this never happened to me, because if it had and I had the person's address, I'd send a bill for services rendered to the person! And if she didn't pay up, I think I'd have to leave a surprise for her on her front porch


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## Emmes (Aug 27, 2014)

That's a pretty shitty thing to do to someone. Not once while driving for Lyft was I ever stiffed for a ride. I made pretty good money at first, then they hired about 1000 drivers for Indianapolis and my fares for a weekend went from $300 to $19 and I decided to go with Uber. I've had ONE weekend under $100, but it was because I wasn't in the mood to work. When I drive, I do fairly well. Some weekends are better than others, but I do get paid. I'm sorry this happened to you.


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## John12 (Aug 27, 2014)

Is San Francisco a donation based market or fare based market?


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## chi1cabby (May 28, 2014)

John12 said:


> Is San Francisco a donation based market or fare based market?


All of CA is fare based.


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## John12 (Aug 27, 2014)

chi1cabby said:


> All of CA is fare based.


Ok thanks


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## Baron VonStudley (Jun 20, 2014)

we have had regulation passed since July 21, 2014 in Columbus and still am donation based. I want this to go way away


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## Linus (Aug 10, 2014)

Sorry for the delay but I haven't been on here in a bit. I don't have the address anymore but her name is Jenna and she lives in Maricopa. The pin showed she was at Wild Horse Pass Casino but she called me to tell me that she can't request a ride in Maricopa so she always calls the driver to let them know where she is.

Lyft told me they deactivated her account but you never know.



OldTownSean said:


> Is she in the Phoenix area? If so, post her address here. If it's on my side of town, I'll egg her for ya.
> 
> EDIT: I see you are in the Phoenix area.
> 
> Post her address plz. Even if no one actually eggs her you may save one of us from getting her.


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## OldTownSean (Aug 14, 2014)

Linus said:


> Sorry for the delay but I haven't been on here in a bit. I don't have the address anymore but her name is Jenna and she lives in Maricopa. The pin showed she was at Wild Horse Pass Casino but she called me to tell me that she can't request a ride in Maricopa so she always calls the driver to let them know where she is.
> 
> Lyft told me they deactivated her account but you never know.


Thanks for the heads up and if you do come up with that address please share.

Maricopa is a bit out of my wheelhouse though as I live in Queen Creek


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## moniker (Aug 23, 2014)

donation? I have been trying to figure out why 5 drives are missing from Friday night on lyft. can people actually just not pay? I wont be doing anymore lyft driving, was just doing it becuase I need work so badly. done.


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## SoBeUBER (Aug 27, 2014)

The Lyft Donation model is pure insanity....


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