# Uber's Hourly Guarantee? A Guaranteed Rip-Off.



## Guest (Feb 8, 2015)

I gamed the guarantee program perfectly this week. Played by Uber's rules and met all the minimums plus some. Was looking at a huge bonus.

That is until yesterday Friday late afternoon. Started receiving a bunch of pings for distant pickup locations - I'm talking 20 to 25 minutes dead travel.

No way. Had to ignore/refuse the requests. It was busier than hell where I already was.

So guess what. Saturday I start getting more long distance pings. Ignore. I pulled over and ran some quick math.

Refusing all of these ridiculous pings had totally aced me out of the bonus. Need 90% acceptance.
No way to recover. 

I wonder why this odd situation started just before Uber was about to pay up big time on their guarantee deal?


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## Tx rides (Sep 15, 2014)

mike888 said:


> I gamed the guarantee program perfectly this week. Played by Uber's rules and met all the minimums plus some. Was looking at a huge bonus.
> 
> That is until yesterday Friday late afternoon. Started receiving a bunch of pings for distant pickup locations - I'm talking 20 to 25 minutes dead travel.
> 
> ...


I am not an Uber driver, but I am an observer. Tonight, out of curiosity, I opened the passenger app. I am located in a very very remote area. It showed a driver to be four minutes away. Believe me, with not a single car on the road, he would be at least 15-20 minutes away, on dirt and private roads. The rate to take me from here to the airport was $28. It would take at least 30 minutes to get me to the airport. Is anyone in Austin really that desperate? :-(


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## 3MATX (Oct 6, 2014)

it wouldn't surprise me at all if uber gave you those pings intentionally to negate your guarentees. The only true way to play ubers game is not by their rules. You have to work only when you know that your reward will exceed your risk. So far in 2015 I have only seen one opportunity such as this and it was only for one ride. The idea of profiting by driving for uber is dead at the moment. Rates will need to rise to slightly above $2/mile to make it economically viable to take the risk of driving people for moeny when your insurance policy does not qualify and will not pay in the event of any accident your fault or the other drivers.


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## fork2323 (Aug 27, 2014)

I had the same crap last night.. pings non stop. I started accepting them then canceling.. you can boost your average of acceptance especially by using the rider ap to request a ride, accept it on driver ap then cancel it from your passenger ap.. I also have had passengers at the end of the ride request another one then cancel it to get my acceptance rates up.. there is also an option in the cancel ride section to click Rider Requested Cancel.. use that one after you accepted the ride.


mike888 said:


> I gamed the guarantee program perfectly this week. Played by Uber's rules and met all the minimums plus some. Was looking at a huge bonus.
> 
> That is until yesterday Friday late afternoon. Started receiving a bunch of pings for distant pickup locations - I'm talking 20 to 25 minutes dead travel.
> 
> ...


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## toi (Sep 8, 2014)

What you do is accept the ping and drive to it very very very very very very slow. U r getting paid for time


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## Big Machine (Jun 19, 2014)

3MATX said:


> it wouldn't surprise me at all if uber gave you those pings intentionally to negate your guarentees. The only true way to play ubers game is not by their rules. You have to work only when you know that your reward will exceed your risk. So far in 2015 I have only seen one opportunity such as this and it was only for one ride. The idea of profiting by driving for uber is dead at the moment. Rates will need to rise to slightly above $2/mile to make it economically viable to take the risk of driving people for moeny when your insurance policy does not qualify and will not pay in the event of any accident your fault or the other drivers.


Welcome to the forum, Jessie Ventura


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## Blizmo (Dec 13, 2014)

yeah i got those too on friday night. 22, 25 and 19 miles away. all back to back . screwed me for sure. what a waste.


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## fork2323 (Aug 27, 2014)

I'm making more money doing Postmates, Just did 3 jobs back to back that drove me home, and all payed more than uber even before they all added a tip.. then I turned On ubber and did 1trip.. a stinky guy with bad vibes.. then turned off. don't want to mess up my guarantee cash on the last night


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## frndthDuvel (Aug 31, 2014)

fork2323 said:


> I'm making more money doing Postmates, Just did 3 jobs back to back that drove me home, and all played more than uber even before they all added a tip..


How does your car smell? You never have to pay for parking? People do not meet you at the curb?
You advance price of alcohol?


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## fork2323 (Aug 27, 2014)

frndthDuvel said:


> How does your car smell? You never have to pay for parking? People do not meet you at the curb?
> tiptip,getting
> You advance price of alcohol?


 car smells fine, trunks work and Windows too. just got a 12 pack and slipped it on Postmates debt card they give you. Have not paid parking yet. delivery at door is fine as they tip you in ap. just made $46 on 4 short trips in 2 hours. all mine with no uber bullshit of trying to figure out my rate. my own music, no drunk people in my car, no waiting for them to show up, every run paid more than bullshit uber minimim $2.40.. Evry run I accepted was $6+ then a tip on top.. it's great to see the exact pick up And drop off location and exact price I'm getting , not including ttip, before I accept the trip. I can choose rides going the way I'm headed. no more bullshit playing guarantee game trying to pick people up and having to accept every ride. freedom from stupidity.


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## lu181 (Nov 3, 2014)

mike888 said:


> I gamed the guarantee program perfectly this week. Played by Uber's rules and met all the minimums plus some. Was looking at a huge bonus.
> 
> That is until yesterday Friday late afternoon. Started receiving a bunch of pings for distant pickup locations - I'm talking 20 to 25 minutes dead travel.
> 
> ...


You gamed nothing you are doing exactly what uber wants. With every price change they do a temporary guarantee to keep fools happy long enough to get new driver on the road they know they will lose some drivers when guarantee goes away. If people would stop being fools and stop driving at these crap rates you would have 2.50 a mile and actually turn a profit


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## Oc_DriverX (Apr 29, 2014)

Saturday night I ended up doing a lot more rides and miles than I would have desired. I just seemed to get dragged back into busy areas.

Friday night, the game worked for me. Just as in most games, there is a certain amount of variance in the results.


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## frndthDuvel (Aug 31, 2014)

fork2323 said:


> car smells fine, trunks work and Windows too. just got a 12 pack and slipped it on Postmates debt card they give you. Have not paid parking yet. delivery at door is fine as they tip you in ap. just made $46 on 4 short trips in 2 hours. all mine with no uber bullshit of trying to figure out my rate. my own music, no drunk people in my car, no waiting for them to show up, every run paid more than bullshit uber minimim $2.40.. Evry run I accepted was $6+ then a tip on top.. it's great to see the exact pick up And drop off location and exact price I'm getting , not including ttip, before I accept the trip. I can choose rides going the way I'm headed. no more bullshit playing guarantee game trying to pick people up and having to accept every ride. freedom from stupidity.


Thanks for the reply. That sounds better than when I went to Postmates meeting. However I do not have a trunk, so food odors would be a bummer. And I still do not see how one can get around lunch time downtown without possibly having to pay for parking. Did you check ID delivering the alcohol?
I hope it continues to go well for you.


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## fork2323 (Aug 27, 2014)

frndthDuvel said:


> Thanks for the reply. That sounds better than when I went to Postmates meeting. However I do not have a trunk, so food odors would be a bummer. And I still do not see how one can get around lunch time downtown without possibly having to pay for parking. Did you check ID delivering the alcohol?
> I hope it continues to go well for you.


I don't do downtown LA, I keep it to Westside, better tips, lots of parking. ap is more popular over there... if you have no trunk, where do you put luggage for airport runs? I also have hot/cold bags that keep the food smell contained.


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## frndthDuvel (Aug 31, 2014)

fork2323 said:


> I don't do downtown LA, I keep it to Westside, better tips, lots of parking. ap is more popular over there... if you have no trunk, where do you put luggage for airport runs? I also have hot/cold bags that keep the food smell contained.


The coverage area for Postmates was mostly downtown in the SD area,with little easy and no free parking.. Postmates did not even cover the college area where one could assume beer runs on a Fri/Sat night might be steady. 
Kia Sorrento ,rear seats(XL) fold down. I have had some airport runs request an XL just so they know a Prius won't show up and not have room for their luggage.


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## Guest (Feb 9, 2015)

lu181 said:


> You gamed nothing you are doing exactly what uber wants. With every price change they do a temporary guarantee to keep fools happy long enough to get new driver on the road they know they will lose some drivers when guarantee goes away. If people would stop being fools and stop driving at these crap rates you would have 2.50 a mile and actually turn a profit


Since you mention making $2.50 a mile my best guess is that you are one of those hot-shot limo guys slumming on an uber site.

If you think that we are all "fools driving at crap rates" then why are you here?

Go back to limo driving and stop worrying about what we're doing. Oh ..but I forgot ...can't do that because you're all going out of business.


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## lu181 (Nov 3, 2014)

mike888 said:


> Since you mention making $2.50 a mile my best guess is that you are one of those hot-shot limo guys slumming on an uber site.
> 
> If you think that we are all "fools driving at crap rates" then why are you here?
> 
> Go back to limo driving and stop worrying about what we're doing. Oh ..but I forgot ...can't do that because you're all going out of business.


No limo driver here the 2.50 number was just the rate I drove at when I started driving uber. And no not everyone is a fool driving uber just those doing it at a loss. Some people need uber even Crap pay is better than no pay i can understand people in those situations. Most drivers are doing uber to supplement income for myself I was just adding to retirement account mostly and fun money. Sorry if I offended you but it is foolish to work for free.


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## Dany (Oct 30, 2014)

Well written!


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## Spanky (Jun 28, 2014)

Just got my partner statement picked up an exta 250 in guarantees. You got to figure out how to work it I your area.


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## player81 (Jan 31, 2015)

toi said:


> What you do is accept the ping and drive to it very very very very very very slow. U r getting paid for time


Unfortunately, if the driver cancels after the estimated arrival time, there is NO cancellation fee. You only get the fee After 5 minutes and Before the "estimated arrival time" expires. That happened to me during rush hour. I emailed the rep and they manually applied the $5 fee but I'm sure there are some jerk reps that won't do that. I wouldn't put driving slow for a cancellation in my tool box but if it has been working in your market go for it.


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## The Kid (Dec 10, 2014)

Spanky said:


> Just got my partner statement picked up an exta 250 in guarantees. You got to figure out how to work it I your area.


Screen shot please.


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## toi (Sep 8, 2014)

player81 said:


> Unfortunately, if the driver cancels after the estimated arrival time, there is NO cancellation fee. You only get the fee After 5 minutes and Before the "estimated arrival time" expires. That happened to me during rush hour. I emailed the rep and they manually applied the $5 fee but I'm sure there are some jerk reps that won't do that. I wouldn't put driving slow for a cancellation in my tool box but if it has been working in your market go for it.


The point is to use up as much time as one can to go a customer who pinged you from a galaxy far away


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## The Kid (Dec 10, 2014)

Uber has changed the rules in LA to stop the guarantee games. They no longer ping the closest car, they ping the guy 15 min away that has been sitting for 30 min. Then send him downtown. My hiding places no longer work.


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## player81 (Jan 31, 2015)

toi said:


> The point is to use up as much time as one can to go a customer who pinged you from a galaxy far away


I see your point. You don't even want or need the cancellation fee, you're just trying to goad the customer into killing the ride so you can stop driving. The guaranteed minimum will make up for the lack of cancellation fee. Nice strategy. Wonder how long before they kill it.


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## Fred Lead (Oct 28, 2014)

The other day I had a ping that was 33 minutes away, which is two cities away. When Uber gives an estimated time you have to add 5 minutes so it would be closer to 40 minutes away, plus the pax might make me wait. Considering this pax might be going two blocks there is no way I would go out there. What boggles me is I talked to an Uber rep at some meet and greet and he said 15 minutes by Uber estimate was the maximum distance a ping could come from, so they obviously changed the rules just as these new guarantees came in. 

This new guarantee is almost impossible to get now. You have to work 8 hours of a 10 hour window (2pm-12am), maintain 90% acceptance rate, and get at least 1 trip per hour. Now every yahoo that stopped driving a week or two ago is online so every time you move the pin on the rider app eight more cars show up. That makes it impossible to get one trip per hour for 8 hours. The trip you might get is at least 10 minutes away and who knows where they're going. That also kicks out anyone that isn't driving full-time from even considering the guarantee and regular fares are ridiculously low. 

In my market right before these new guarantees there was a guarantee for $12 off peak hours and $18 on peak hours. That didn't really matter, though, because they don't count it on an hour-by-hour basis, they take the total per hour for the week, so "Winter Warm Up Regular Hours February 9th Payments ---->Congrats, you earned $13.77 per hour during regular hours. Since you grossed more than $12 per hour, you will not receive any additional payment. Uber On!". Some hours I got one $4 minimum trip and thought it would be bumped up to $12 for that hour, but that's not so.


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