# Reviewing/protesting negative ratings??



## Phasmatrope (Mar 15, 2016)

So I've been driving for about a month, have had a pretty solid 4.9 for the entire time. I try to be accommodating for my pax, have both iPhone and Android chargers, waters, gum/mints if they like, let them play whatever music they want, put in and take out their bags for airport runs, and try to engage them with friendly conversation when they seem up for it. 

However, my score suddenly dropped back down to a 4.8 overnight. I have no real idea why-- for whatever reason, I can only see the 5-star reviews with positive comments-- but I did see a comment that said I "drove way too fast" (no idea what the pax's star rating was, hopefully it wasn't below 3 stars, but now I'm wondering). 

I'm pretty sure that this was during an airport run, where the guy said he was in a hurry. He DID ask me on the way what the speed limit was (which leads me to believe it was him), and when I asked him what it was where he was from-- New York-- he said it was 10 miles under what ours was. So frankly, if it SEEMED fast to him, that's largely due to the fact that he's simply not used to the greater speed limit. 

So, if he WAS the one to give me a negative score, that doesn't entirely seem legitimate, or fair, that my score (and potential to keep working for Lyft) would suffer for it. 

Now admittedly, I'm not entirely sure how much of our score is based on just customer reviews, or missing fares; I know that I DID accidentally miss 2 fares recently-- after I already had the 4.9-- when I'd returned home for the night, and had accidentally left driver mode "on" without realizing it. 

Either way, in light of this, is it worth writing Lyft to ask about WHY my score suddenly dropped, to see if I can get the negative score discarded?? Is that possible??


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## Andrew Thun (Oct 27, 2015)

https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/articles/213586008-Driver-and-Passenger-Ratings

There is really not much you can do, as a new driver your rating will most likely fluctuate until you make more trips. I know it's hard to ignore, but without any real feedback on each individual trip, you can't really be too sure why someone gives you a bad rating. My best advice would be to just keep driving and don't let the bad ratings go to your head. You simply cannot make all the riders happy 100% of the time. Also, some riders don't know a 3-4 star rating is "bad". A piece of advice that I have heard from another driver is to use some psychological hints to get more 5* ratings, as they exit your vehicle say something to the effect of "thanks for being a 5* rider"

Good luck out there,
Thanks for being a 5* poster on Uber People! 
Have a great evening.

LOL
Did it work?


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## Adieu (Feb 21, 2016)

They vote, you vote, they comment, YOU comment

...last 100 scores get averaged. So past 100-some rides, all non-5* drag you down, abd ONLY way to raise is to land a 5* over a bad rating 100 rated trips later


Cycling over a streak of dozens of consecutive 5*s 100 trips ago, on a weekend? BRUTAL.



...now wise up and stop giving out free crap. Better to write preemptive comments


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## Adieu (Feb 21, 2016)

"Helping" with bags is to protect your bumper/paint job
Their music can play in their headphone
Giving out food and beverages puts you at risk of 25 to life, and your face on the news...just DON'T


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## Tony Neo (Oct 25, 2015)

Not sure how many total rated rides you have seems like you got either 1 or 2 rated you a 1 star within past 2 days. I had that happen before. Just need to keep driving 100 more rides with mostly 5s to bring it back up.


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## Adieu (Feb 21, 2016)

Tony Neo said:


> Not sure how many total rated rides you have seems like you got either 1 or 2 rated you a 1 star within past 2 days. I had that happen before. Just need to keep driving 100 more rides with mostly 5s to bring it back up.


More like 100 rated trips totally wipe out any trace of the previous rating, whether good or bad


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## TomDewey (Jan 30, 2015)

Phasmatrope said:


> So I've been driving for about a month, have had a pretty solid 4.9 for the entire time. I try to be accommodating for my pax, have both iPhone and Android chargers, waters, gum/mints if they like, let them play whatever music they want, put in and take out their bags for airport runs, and try to engage them with friendly conversation when they seem up for it.
> 
> However, my score suddenly dropped back down to a 4.8 overnight. I have no real idea why-- for whatever reason, I can only see the 5-star reviews with positive comments-- but I did see a comment that said I "drove way too fast" (no idea what the pax's star rating was, hopefully it wasn't below 3 stars, but now I'm wondering).
> 
> ...


Find better things to worry about instead of nonsense.


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## BostonBarry (Aug 31, 2015)

If they left a negative comment or flag you, you'll see that on your weekly feedback summary on Friday. A 4.8 is perfectly fine, no danger, just keep providing a good ride. Fortunately, Lyft only averages your rating over the last 100 ratings. I do 75+ rides a week and get rated on almost all of them (passengers don't HAVE to rate you, if they forget to do it immediately they can only do so within 24 hours) so any bad ratings will disappear for me within 2 weeks.


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## Archie8616 (Oct 13, 2015)

I am a new driver for Lyft, I was pretty much a 5.0. I picked up some college kids... One of them was eating cinnamon toast crunch cereal dry from a bowl. I didn't say anything figured nothing would happen. I drove carefully because I didn't want the bowl to go flying. Well, only after about a minute into the ride, I guess the passenger had a hole in her lip and some of it fell out, in which she was able to get it. But the thing is, you know that cereal is crammed with sugar and she just kept wiping her hands on her pants and well, that also gets on the seats. Then she finally dropped a few more but this time some of the cereal landed on my side. We were at a stop light. I said, I would appreciate if you do not eat in the car, as I'll need to clean this up once I drop you off. She said sorry, and stopped eating and put the bowl down. But when we were almost at their location, she then took a big handful and ate more and started eating again, kind of like ya, what are you going to do about it. This was not even the main Lyft Rider, she was in the back seat. Well, when they finally got out, I promptly made sure to give her a 1 star. I then had to go to a car wash to use the vacuums to clean up the sugar and cereal that were on my side and the passenger floor. I was sure that I was going to get dinged for telling them not to eat in the car, especially since they couldn't keep it contained. Well, I figured I would just call it a day. I have not driven since then, and was just wanting to see what my rating would be and yup, sure enough, Lost the 5.0 rating. It's now at a 4.95, but ya, I think this whole rating thing is not fair, and as contractors, we should have every right to dispute such ratings. I have a camera in my car and could easily defend those actions and what happened. Telling a customer what not to do in our own vehicle should not be something we have to fear for, in the event that they don't like being told what to do, and rate us negatively for it. There should be an option in the feature, to where we can turn off the rating once we've told someone...Hey you can't eat in my car, or Hey, you can't drink in my car...you can't rate them, and they can't rate you. This way, we would have some say so about those ratings when we know for sure you know there going to give you a bad rating.


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## andaas (May 19, 2015)

Do you want ants?


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## BostonBarry (Aug 31, 2015)

Archie8616 said:


> I am a new driver for Lyft, I was pretty much a 5.0. I picked up some college kids... One of them was eating cinnamon toast crunch cereal dry from a bowl. I didn't say anything figured nothing would happen. I drove carefully because I didn't want the bowl to go flying. Well, only after about a minute into the ride, I guess the passenger had a hole in her lip and some of it fell out, in which she was able to get it. But the thing is, you know that cereal is crammed with sugar and she just kept wiping her hands on her pants and well, that also gets on the seats. Then she finally dropped a few more but this time some of the cereal landed on my side. We were at a stop light. I said, I would appreciate if you do not eat in the car, as I'll need to clean this up once I drop you off. She said sorry, and stopped eating and put the bowl down. But when we were almost at their location, she then took a big handful and ate more and started eating again, kind of like ya, what are you going to do about it. This was not even the main Lyft Rider, she was in the back seat. Well, when they finally got out, I promptly made sure to give her a 1 star. I then had to go to a car wash to use the vacuums to clean up the sugar and cereal that were on my side and the passenger floor. I was sure that I was going to get dinged for telling them not to eat in the car, especially since they couldn't keep it contained. Well, I figured I would just call it a day. I have not driven since then, and was just wanting to see what my rating would be and yup, sure enough, Lost the 5.0 rating. It's now at a 4.95, but ya, I think this whole rating thing is not fair, and as contractors, we should have every right to dispute such ratings. I have a camera in my car and could easily defend those actions and what happened. Telling a customer what not to do in our own vehicle should not be something we have to fear for, in the event that they don't like being told what to do, and rate us negatively for it. There should be an option in the feature, to where we can turn off the rating once we've told someone...Hey you can't eat in my car, or Hey, you can't drink in my car...you can't rate them, and they can't rate you. This way, we would have some say so about those ratings when we know for sure you know there going to give you a bad rating.


I take pride in a high rating too, but don't fret too much about it. Lyft riders only see the rounded up/down rating. So if you're a 4.95, you actually appear as a 5 to your riders. 4.85-4.94 are 4.9 to riders, etc. Fortunately, Lyft only calculates your rating over the last 100 rated trips, so you can erase that one knucklehead pretty quickly (about 2 weeks for me). I've had the perfect 5, have dropped as low as a 4.88, but usually hover around 4.95 or higher. If you didn't know already, you can leave a comment on the rating screen which is only read by support and looked at with any issues reported. You can then email support or send a twitter message to @asklyft and they'll likely remove the rating.


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## Phasmatrope (Mar 15, 2016)

OK, I'm going to start trying that "thank you for being a 5-star rider" line.

Specifically following up on my original question of whether I should say something back to Lyft, for better or for worse, Lyft DID bring it to my attention, as I received the following note today (like a week later):

_"Follow-Up from Lyft Critical Response Line 
Hi XXX,

I am following up on feedback that we have received from a member of our community regarding your driving safety.

It was reported that you allegedly were driving above the speed limit.

As you know, safety is Lyft's highest priority, so we take reports of this nature extremely seriously. Please always be aware, cautious, and conscientious when driving.

Please note that additional reports of this nature may result in action being taken against your account.

Best,

Tess

Critical Response Representative"_

Now, being as how they brought it to my attention, I can't help but feel compelled to RESPECTFULLY state my case, i.e., 'thank you for bringing this to my attention, it should be noted that the particular passenger who asked about the speed limit was from a place with speed limit 10 miles LOWER than ours, which is probably why it seemed fast, BUT that I will certainly be more cautious in the future,' etc.

Is that a bad idea or not?? What would you do??

It just seems that there's not a lot of support/benefit of the doubt for us as drivers from pax potentially giving us ANY negative feedback, unwarranted at all... I mean, my car's slightly older, with hand-cranked windows: they could give me a negative review for that, or because they simply don't like the genre of music I'm playing if they wanted to.


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## Archie8616 (Oct 13, 2015)

Phasmatrope said:


> OK, I'm going to start trying that "thank you for being a 5-star rider" line.
> 
> Specifically following up on my original question of whether I should say something back to Lyft, for better or for worse, Lyft DID bring it to my attention, as I received the following note today (like a week later):
> 
> ...


Well, I do agree, there is not much support on our end. I HIGHLY advise that you get yourself a CAM that not also records outside but your speed limit as well. There are those that do the speed limit via GPS, and also through the OBD sensor. I'm a little over the top, as I have an outward facing cam that is connected to my OBD sensor, and I have two cams that cover the passenger that sits next to the driver and also covers my rear seat passengers. I've had to use the video evidence just once, but it was well worth it. Just using it once for your own protection is worth it. Other times, I've just recorded silly stuff, or wildlife that was interesting. If there is any question about your own protection or proving your case, video is the way to go and also making sure your mic is on.


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## Archie8616 (Oct 13, 2015)

BostonBarry said:


> I take pride in a high rating too, but don't fret too much about it. Lyft riders only see the rounded up/down rating. So if you're a 4.95, you actually appear as a 5 to your riders. 4.85-4.94 are 4.9 to riders, etc. Fortunately, Lyft only calculates your rating over the last 100 rated trips, so you can erase that one knucklehead pretty quickly (about 2 weeks for me). I've had the perfect 5, have dropped as low as a 4.88, but usually hover around 4.95 or higher. If you didn't know already, you can leave a comment on the rating screen which is only read by support and looked at with any issues reported. You can then email support or send a twitter message to @asklyft and they'll likely remove the rating.


Great advise, I didn't know about the emailing support or sending a twitter message. I see the customer feedback, but I didn't even think about making a note about how they were eating and dropped the food in the car and that I had to stop and clean up the car. Lesson learned, I'll be sure to remember that next time. Thank you.


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## Phasmatrope (Mar 15, 2016)

Well really, the issue is not about whether or not to buy a lot of expensive indoor/outdoor cameras, the issue is whether I should respectfully respond to Lyft's message about as much, clarifying that this complaint was probably because it was a person who wasn't used to the higher speed limit, but that I'll watch it in the future?


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## BostonBarry (Aug 31, 2015)

Phasmatrope said:


> Well really, the issue is not about whether or not to buy a lot of expensive indoor/outdoor cameras, the issue is whether I should respectfully respond to Lyft's message about as much, clarifying that this complaint was probably because it was a person who wasn't used to the higher speed limit, but that I'll watch it in the future?


I would, couldn't hurt. 


Archie8616 said:


> Great advise, I didn't know about the emailing support or sending a twitter message. I see the customer feedback, but I didn't even think about making a note about how they were eating and dropped the food in the car and that I had to stop and clean up the car. Lesson learned, I'll be sure to remember that next time. Thank you.


You're welcome. And be careful with video recording. Some cities/states require signage for recording, especially audio. In MA you are guilty of wiretapping if you don't get permission to record audio.


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## Phasmatrope (Mar 15, 2016)

Adieu said:


> "Helping" with bags is to protect your bumper/paint job
> Their music can play in their headphone
> Giving out food and beverages puts you at risk of 25 to life, and your face on the news...just DON'T


...

Seriously, where in god's name did you get that idea??

Maybe if I was driving in Singapore, and I was giving out illegal gum which they were then spitting onto the street, or if I was giving out apples with razors inside to children, I MIGHT have good reason to be concerned (seriously, are you serving roofies and rat poison to your passengers??).

However, we're talking about giving sealed bottled waters to drunkards, to prevent them from puking on my seats (and hell, I don't know anyone who'd consider mints or gum exactly "food" in the first place, at least in the sense that anyone would consider making a meal out of them).

I mean, has any restaurant owner in the U.S. been at risk of serving "25 to life" lately for something they've served lately??

That is probably one of the most needlessly paranoid statements I've seen in a long time.


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## Firstime (Apr 2, 2016)

There really needs to be a disclaimer on the riders rating system that anything below a 5 star can get drivers deactivated. I've only had 9pax (around 20 for uber,just started ) and my score is "pending". I usually try to slide in how the rating system works. Most don't even know about it,and are in shock that several 4 stars is not a good thing.


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## Jenny01 (Apr 12, 2015)

Phasmatrope said:


> OK, I'm going to start trying that "thank you for being a 5-star rider" line.
> 
> Specifically following up on my original question of whether I should say something back to Lyft, for better or for worse, Lyft DID bring it to my attention, as I received the following note today (like a week later):
> 
> ...


I always tend to email lyft right away when I see a negative comment that could put my account in jeopardy. Last week I saw "ran a red light" comment I was mad like hell since I knew who the rider was, some stupid ***** that wanted to be dropped inside her house garage, like she is a queen or something like that. Anyways. I took action at the next second and email to lyft saying that was an untrue comment bla, bla, bla. The answer was that among other good things was that in overall passengers love to take rides with me. So I didn't have to worry for anything. My suggestion, take action right away and go on denial mode, even if they rider is saying the truth. It's their word against yours


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## Archie8616 (Oct 13, 2015)

Jenny01 said:


> I always tend to email lyft right away when I see a negative comment that could put my account in jeopardy. Last week I saw "ran a red light" comment I was mad like hell since I knew who the rider was, some stupid ***** that wanted to be dropped inside her house garage, like she is a queen or something like that. Anyways. I took action at the next second and email to lyft saying that was an untrue comment bla, bla, bla. The answer was that among other good things was that in overall passengers love to take rides with me. So I didn't have to worry for anything. My suggestion, take action right away and go on denial mode, even if they rider is saying the truth. It's their word against yours


Curious, where are you able to see what comments are left by passengers?


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## Phasmatrope (Mar 15, 2016)

Jenny01 said:


> I always tend to email lyft right away when I see a negative comment that could put my account in jeopardy. Last week I saw "ran a red light" comment I was mad like hell since I knew who the rider was, some stupid ***** that wanted to be dropped inside her house garage, like she is a queen or something like that. Anyways. I took action at the next second and email to lyft saying that was an untrue comment bla, bla, bla. The answer was that among other good things was that in overall passengers love to take rides with me. So I didn't have to worry for anything. My suggestion, take action right away and go on denial mode, even if they rider is saying the truth. It's their word against yours


Hey Jenny-- or others-- just curious, how DO you get Lyft's support when you receive, and want to protest a negative rating??

Because I'm looking at their Help page, and it gives no such option to write them to protest ratings. There's a pull-down under "What was your question about?" for "Issue with a ride," but when the website asks, "What happened in the ride?", the only option are "Cancelled Ride," "Technical App Issue," "I Found An Item," "A Passenger Caused Damage To My Car," and "Ended Ride Too Early" (and what does that even MEAN, exactly?? When would you use it??). There is a blank " - " option, but you can't even submit a question if you choose it; the "Submit" button becomes grayed out!

I just ask because in the case of the pax saying that I was speeding, Lyft DID write me about it (and after consulting you guys, I did write them back, clarifying that the pax might not have been used to the higher speed limit, but that I would watch it). However, I saw a negative comment on my "Weekly feedback summary" the other day that I found INCREDIBLY insulting:

"Does not know how to use gps"

&#8230; I mean, WTF. The thing is in this case, is I had a new phone, so I was a little unused to it. But when the pax gets in, I always politely say something like, "give me a second, let me consult the GPS before we get going." (I might even ask them outright "do you mind my asking what side of town that's on??," because even if I don't know the street they listed by name, I'll know which general direction to head in, if I'll need to get on the freeway, etc). I'll always let them direct me too (in case they want to run a side errand, get drive-thru, etc). And needless to say, the GPS-- particularly Google Maps-- is not always 100% accurate, doesn't always account for construction/road closures, which is exactly what happened in this case. So I had to reroute us, apologized as I did, only to get that BS "does not know how to use gps" review.

So, is it worth writing them to protest?? And which link would I use to do so??

I just find it frustrating because it just takes ONE negative rating/comment like that to undermine any positive ones-- the comments like "sweet personality," "nice guy," "good conversation," etc-- and suddenly find myself unfavorably under Lyft's ratings radar.


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## Archie8616 (Oct 13, 2015)

Phasmatrope said:


> Hey Jenny-- or others-- just curious, how DO you get Lyft's support when you receive, and want to protest a negative rating??
> 
> Because I'm looking at their Help page, and it gives no such option to write them to protest ratings. There's a pull-down under "What was your question about?" for "Issue with a ride," but when the website asks, "What happened in the ride?", the only option are "Cancelled Ride," "Technical App Issue," "I Found An Item," "A Passenger Caused Damage To My Car," and "Ended Ride Too Early" (and what does that even MEAN, exactly?? When would you use it??). There is a blank " - " option, but you can't even submit a question if you choose it; the "Submit" button becomes grayed out!
> 
> ...


Not saying this works for everyone else, but this works for me. I get a request, I accept...Drive to location, notify and confirm that I'm there..I then hit the navigate button right away. I use Waze, so this way, I already know what direction I'm going in BEFORE the customer gets into the car. Now when they do get in the car, besides all the Hi, how ya doing yadda yadda yadda...I just politely confirm the address....So I see that were headed to 123 anystreet correct? There like Yup, and I'm ok great lets get going! I drive off....At this point...I just strictly go by the app. I don't say let me consult the GPS. That's like saying...Let me ask my Microwave if it's ok to cook these hot dogs...It's a machine, it has no thought process...so "consulting" a GPS is in my mind, a little on the wack side. If you still feel like you want to mention something about your GPS, and you have not done so before they get into the car, then possibly just bring something up other than the fact that you have not got their directions in yet. BUT if they did NOT give you a location, wait till their in the car, seated in via seat belt and then say in a friendly manner and with a polite smile "Ok so I don't see a location, would you like to give me an address or do you want to direct me there? This then gives them the responsibility of letting you know, where they want to go, and what I've found out, that this is a time in which they want to make a couple of stops, but they didn't want to put in a final destination as of yet. So you'll get "ah ya, sorry about that is it ok if we make a couple of stops first"? Ya sure no problem...then they may come back and say...well our final destination is such and such place....That's your cue to get that final destination address into the app. Then let them just give you directions to their in between stops. Then when your done with their little errands, or picking up other friends on the way...you already have the final destination queued up and you can look like a super star, hit the navigate button and continue on to their final destination because you already have their address setup.


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## Phasmatrope (Mar 15, 2016)

Archie8616 said:


> I get a request, I accept...Drive to location, notify and confirm that I'm there..I then hit the navigate button right away. I use Waze, so this way, I already know what direction I'm going in BEFORE the customer gets into the car.


One potential issue with the navigation/GPS I've noticed-- and maybe it's only with Google Maps, let me know if Waze has the same problem-- is that when it arrives, and switches back to the Lyft app, it can seem to skip the "Arrive" for customer step... so it doesn't seem to send the notice that I'm waiting (and more importantly, give me the option of leaving if the pax hasn't arrived by that time).

Has anyone else seemed to have this problem with the navigation?? (or could I just be hitting "Arrive" too quickly??).


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## Jenny01 (Apr 12, 2015)

Archie8616 said:


> Curious, where are you able to see what comments are left by passengers?


I got a weekly email with the 5 stars comments and the ones under *4.


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## Jenny01 (Apr 12, 2015)

Phasmatrope said:


> Hey Jenny-- or others-- just curious, how DO you get Lyft's support when you receive, and want to protest a negative rating??
> 
> Because I'm looking at their Help page, and it gives no such option to write them to protest ratings. There's a pull-down under "What was your question about?" for "Issue with a ride," but when the website asks, "What happened in the ride?", the only option are "Cancelled Ride," "Technical App Issue," "I Found An Item," "A Passenger Caused Damage To My Car," and "Ended Ride Too Early" (and what does that even MEAN, exactly?? When would you use it??). There is a blank " - " option, but you can't even submit a question if you choose it; the "Submit" button becomes grayed out!
> 
> ...


Choose any option, it doesn't matter.. What matters is the content of your email.


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## Jenny01 (Apr 12, 2015)

Jenny01 said:


> Choose any option, it doesn't matter.. What matters is the content of your email.


I would say, don't worry about those comments, like navigation feedback or stuff like that. Those are not a big deal. Just worry about the ones that go against lyft regulations. I never ask a rider which route they would like to take, i always have my GPS ready so when they get in the car, I can move. Every minute counts, and also I already checked the longest and fastest route for better earnings.


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## Adieu (Feb 21, 2016)

Cuz most of us are single/divorced guys in their30s-40s driving party kids hopped up on god knows what???

Do realize fulltimer drive 50-100 rides a week, could be up to 200+ party-bound /after party youths in your car per week. That's 800 a month, *5000* per year...BTW,some stats show up to 1/4-1/3 of college-age women get raped at some point......

Some chick wakes up in places unknown with missing underwear and no memory, and the only clue is tha she left her U/L driver a comment thanking him for the water and candies.

And if she ODs on some disco biscuit and dies?!

....prepare to get questioned by the popo.worse if you're from elsewhere, say eastern Europe. And UBER screwed if you're Muslim or black.



Phasmatrope said:


> ...
> 
> Seriously, where in god's name did you get that idea??
> 
> ...


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## elelegido (Sep 24, 2014)

Andrew Thun said:


> to get more 5* ratings, as they exit your vehicle say something to the effect of "thanks for being a 5* rider"


May a 5000 pound slab of karmic cheese fall on your Ubermobile (while you are not in it).


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