# High Strangeness around a recent cancellation



## Monster87 (Sep 16, 2016)

A week or so ago, I had a cancellation while on a Lyft ride, and it makes me wonder if the high passenger cancellation rate I see on the Lyft app really is passengers. Here's the scenario:

I was driving in the afternoon rush hour in North Dallas on Preston. Sitting at an intersection (2nd car from light), I get a request from a pax at the same intersection I was sitting, but diagonal away from me. I couldn't move over to turn into her building parking lot, so I had to overshoot by 200 feet to come back around to her building by another road. I called the pax to let her know what was going on (just in case she was watching on her map). The pax says it's no problem and starts to tell me where to pick her up from her building. During the phone call, her ride cancels. I assume she accidentally hit the cancellation while talking on her phone, and tell her I can still take her home if she sets up another request. She tells me she didn't hit the cancellation button, and that the app now shows a different driver. Neither one of us knows what's going on, but I let her know the other guy will come grab her, and I end the call. All this took place over about a minute.

Had I not been on the phone with her, it would've seemed just like any other pax cancellation. In reality, Lyft - using parameters unknown to me - chose to take me off a ride and put someone else on it after I had been on the ride for a minute and a half. There were no network issues with my phone. I get a ton of pax cancellations with Lyft here in Dallas and almost none with Uber (my uber rating is lower than my lyft rating but both are around 4.8).

I've felt for a long time that Lyft had to be gaming their algorithms when it suits them (for example, 2 hours of peak driving left in the week and two drivers are near a pax, one needing 2 peak rides to hit the 20% bonus and one nowhere close). I find it hard to believe all these SV Wharton boys wouldn't think themselves the most clever of them all to save the company profits by tweaking the algorithm -- after all, has any rideshare company ever made their ride selection criteria public?

I've come to the conclusion that Lyft is the shady bastard that'll shank you the first chance they get, but really want to be your friend in the mean time. I know Uber is a shady bastard, but they seem to be relatively up front about it.

*** I've had other suspicious events happen, but nothing as definitive as this occurrence.


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

Monster87 said:


> A week or so ago, I had a cancellation while on a Lyft ride, and it makes me wonder if the high passenger cancellation rate I see on the Lyft app really is passengers. Here's the scenario:
> 
> I was driving in the afternoon rush hour in North Dallas on Preston. Sitting at an intersection (2nd car from light), I get a request from a pax at the same intersection I was sitting, but diagonal away from me. I couldn't move over to turn into her building parking lot, so I had to overshoot by 200 feet to come back around to her building by another road. I called the pax to let her know what was going on (just in case she was watching on her map). The pax says it's no problem and starts to tell me where to pick her up from her building. During the phone call, her ride cancels. I assume she accidentally hit the cancellation while talking on her phone, and tell her I can still take her home if she sets up another request. She tells me she didn't hit the cancellation button, and that the app now shows a different driver. Neither one of us knows what's going on, but I let her know the other guy will come grab her, and I end the call. All this took place over about a minute.
> 
> ...


They both do many things.


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## ScottyBob (Feb 11, 2016)

However there are some glitches in the matrix

I got a hail only a few blocks from me and when I arrived the pax spotted the trade dress and came up to me. she showed me her app and had a completly different driver. Had her cancel the ride and I ended up getting the fee despite the fact I never showed up as her driver on her app. go figure


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

ScottyBob said:


> However there are some glitches in the matrix
> 
> I got a hail only a few blocks from me and when I arrived the pax spotted the trade dress and came up to me. she showed me her app and had a completly different driver. Had her cancel the ride and I ended up getting the fee despite the fact I never showed up as her driver on her app. go figure


" Ghost in the Machine"


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## BostonBarry (Aug 31, 2015)

Monster87 said:


> A week or so ago, I had a cancellation while on a Lyft ride, and it makes me wonder if the high passenger cancellation rate I see on the Lyft app really is passengers. Here's the scenario:
> 
> I was driving in the afternoon rush hour in North Dallas on Preston. Sitting at an intersection (2nd car from light), I get a request from a pax at the same intersection I was sitting, but diagonal away from me. I couldn't move over to turn into her building parking lot, so I had to overshoot by 200 feet to come back around to her building by another road. I called the pax to let her know what was going on (just in case she was watching on her map). The pax says it's no problem and starts to tell me where to pick her up from her building. During the phone call, her ride cancels. I assume she accidentally hit the cancellation while talking on her phone, and tell her I can still take her home if she sets up another request. She tells me she didn't hit the cancellation button, and that the app now shows a different driver. Neither one of us knows what's going on, but I let her know the other guy will come grab her, and I end the call. All this took place over about a minute.
> 
> ...


Lyft isn't gaming anyone. The passenger you were on the ride with cancelled (accidentally or intentionally).

As for gaming the algorithm to prevent bonuses, I broke my own rule "Don't leave Power Driver bonus rides for Sunday" and still needed 32 rides. On average I do 2-3 rides/hour on Friday and Saturday and the most rides I'd given in a day before this was 30 (in 14 hours on a Saturday). I hit the 32 rides in 12.5 hours with 5 Line matches. If Lyft wanted to prevent me from getting the bonus I certainly wouldn't have received matches in my Line. And one of my last rides of the day was 30 minutes north, if it weren't for that ride I probably would have finished an hour sooner.


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## Adieu (Feb 21, 2016)

Oh of course.... Except when youre short on PDB in the wee hours (or on peaks sunday just before noon) you get humongous long hauls....at places where any monday morning attempt to grab a long haul on COMPLETED pdb is hopeless, cuz its shortie central...

Repeats time and again.

Btw the less you stand to gain the easier PDB is to hit....if its a fat payout on the line, they WILL try to trip you up


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## Danny3xd (Nov 7, 2016)

Can you copy & paste that to support and ask, Monster?

I would they would want a happy pax and driver far more than a few dollars. It's just not a sustainable business model otherwise. And perhaps we all have been assuming the many cancellations were normal?

In my case, I'm always 10/20 minutes away.

But would be greatly interested in Lyft's reply.


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## Monster87 (Sep 16, 2016)

BostonBarry -- Certainly you could be right. All I can say is I've been on this Earth more than a few years, and the surprise in the girls voice when she saw the changed driver on her app was real. It's a greater stretch to believe she accidently cancelled, accidently requested, and accidently accepted a ride in the space of a 15-20 second early portion of a phone call. Remember, I wouldn't have been able to call her unless I was the driver of record at the beginning of the call.

Danny3xd -- I've found that asking Lyft support about an issue is simply asking them to copy and paste their public webhelp interface for me. I can count on one hand the number of times I've received personal responses on an issue with fingers to spare.


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## dirtylee (Sep 2, 2015)

Lyft is shadier than uber. They are just really good at hiding it.


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## BostonBarry (Aug 31, 2015)

Monster87 said:


> BostonBarry -- Certainly you could be right. All I can say is I've been on this Earth more than a few years, and the surprise in the girls voice when she saw the changed driver on her app was real. It's a greater stretch to believe she accidently cancelled, accidently requested, and accidently accepted a ride in the space of a 15-20 second early portion of a phone call. Remember, I wouldn't have been able to call her unless I was the driver of record at the beginning of the call.
> 
> Danny3xd -- I've found that asking Lyft support about an issue is simply asking them to copy and paste their public webhelp interface for me. I can count on one hand the number of times I've received personal responses on an issue with fingers to spare.


In my many years on this earth I've found more often than not that people who inconvenience someone, intentionally or accidentally, would rather feign innocence and ignorance than accept responsibility for their error. Even if they don't care what you think of them, they are satisfying their own self-image.


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## the ferryman (Jun 7, 2016)

I've read recently where they will rematch a pax to a closer driver - for each party's benefit and convenience of course. Call it an upgrade!


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## BostonBarry (Aug 31, 2015)

the ferryman said:


> I've read recently where they will rematch a pax to a closer driver - for each party's benefit and convenience of course. Call it an upgrade!


That's uber, op said this was a Lyft ride.


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## AllenChicago (Nov 19, 2015)

the ferryman said:


> I've read recently where they will rematch a pax to a closer driver - for each party's benefit and convenience of course. Call it an upgrade!


Where did you read this? I recently had a friend get in my car, request a ride, and it summoned another driver. He cancelled. We started driving to Ohare airport. He requested a ride again, hoping to get me. NOPE! Lyft once again connected him to another driver, even though I was in ONLINE mode and he was in the seat next to me as we zipped down the expressway. He cancelled again.. and gave up.

We were both in disbelief. I felt like a real shithead. Angry at Lyft for having such a crazy matching algorithm, and embarrassed that Lyft would shaft me like that, in the midst of a good friend.

On the bright side, my friend paid me in cash, and Lyft got $0, zip, nada, out of it.


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## CatchyMusicLover (Sep 18, 2015)

Monster87 said:


> . Remember, I wouldn't have been able to call her unless I was the driver of record at the beginning of the call.


I've more than once gotten a call from a cancellation who then rerequested, got another driver, and still somehow managed to call me instead of their new driver. the system glitches out sometimes


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## ScottyBob (Feb 11, 2016)

A lot of people believe that Lyft has a "shit list" Algorithm. I'm really starting to believe that they have not only that, but a couple of different boxes they can put you in.


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## Adieu (Feb 21, 2016)

ScottyBob said:


> A lot of people believe that Lyft has a "shit list" Algorithm. I'm really starting to believe that they have not only that, but a couple of different boxes they can put you in.


Lyft has a "suspicious regular match" list... more than 2 incentive-qualifying rides given to the same customer in a brief period (somewhere between 2 hours or a day likely, but possibly as long as a week...) will get you quietly un-matched from said pax forever

They can ping out till hell freezes over or their pax account gets locked for "suspicious activity" (cancels), they will NEVER get you again.

No its not for an accidentally given bad rating.

ALSO, DISTANT DESTINATION PAX "DROPPED OFF" ON MINIMUM FARES DURING 1-ride GUARANTEE HOURS IMMEDIATELY GET "SOFT" DE-PRIORITIZED... it will take 5-7 attempts to reorder before they get you again.


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## Adieu (Feb 21, 2016)

ScottyBob said:


> A lot of people believe that Lyft has a "sh!t list" Algorithm. I'm really starting to believe that they have not only that, but a couple of different boxes they can put you in.


Sh!t list algorithm for minfaring guarantees overly well DOES seem to exist

Shorty central sometimes just....stops calling entirely for hours.

LTE dbs good, check map nope not boxed in, check app nope no update available, reset nope not that...

Welcome to Lyft's equivalent of the timeout. Except these guys don't tell you you aren't actually pingable.


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## kinicky21 (Sep 17, 2016)

I had a ping for a scheduled pickup the minute I logged on. Get to the pax and she was surprised because she said her original driver was 25 minutes away and he even called her to tell her he was coming so she wouldn't cancel. Then she said a few minutes later I popped up as her driver and the ETA changed to 5 minutes. I wonder if it automatically dropped him when I logged on because I was closer. Feel bad for the other guy if he was already enroute and Lyft just dumped him. I feel like this has happened to me get cancelled enroute at the fivish minute mark and email Lyft for my cancellation fee for being enroute for five minutes and on time and sure enough they said that the cancel was 4:50 in minutes or something close like that. Emailed them like five times demanding the cancel fee and finally they said we'll give it to you this time.


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## the ferryman (Jun 7, 2016)

BostonBarry said:


> That's uber, op said this was a Lyft ride.


Ah, yes - thank you.


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## Nuke (Dec 18, 2014)

Lyft has a swap feature like Uber, if you accept a ride and start driving in opposite durection after sometime the ride gets canceled without notification and goes to the next nearest driver. Pax sees on his app notification saying we found you a closer driver. Lyft never announced this feature just like the timeout. Mfs


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