# Does Uber’s Surge Pricing Take Unfair Advantage of Drunk People?



## Hal Green (Sep 19, 2014)

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox...it_take_unfair_advantage_of_drunk_people.html

s Uber's Surge Pricing Take Unfair Advantage of Drunk People?
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By Alison Griswold








Is it up to Uber to stop drunk customers from ordering pricy cab rides?
Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images
Uber is facing renewed outrage over its surge pricing after one woman's account of her Halloween-night cab ride went viral. On Saturday, Gabrielle Wathen took to crowdfunding site GoFundMe to raise the money for a 20-minute ride that, after 9x surge pricing, had cost her $362.57. According to an account Wathen posted alongside the receipt on Instagram, she decided to take an Uber home on Halloween after having a few drinks. The next morning-which happened to be her 26th birthday-she woke up to complaints about Uber charges that she didn't remember.
"I feel taken advantage of and cheated by the Uber name," Wathen wrote on her now-deleted GoFundMe page. "$367 for a 20 minute ride should never be justified, even on Halloween. Please donate even just $1 if you think this is utter and complete bullshit and also hilarious and very, very depressing at the same time." In a post for _Baltimore City Paper_ on Tuesday, Wathen expanded on her point:
I understand how surge pricing works, and I understand I agreed to the charge-and requested Uber Black, which is more expensive than the UberX I would have normally requested, since it was the only one available-but, dead sober or not, I know I wasn't the only person who felt outraged that a company they trusted, and probably had good experiences with up to this point, would ask their users to agree to something as outlandish as $362 for a 20-minute ride.
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We don't know if Wathen was drunk or "dead sober," though on her crowdfunding page she said she'd suggested taking Uber to "avoid drunk driving." But for the sake of argument, let's say she or any of the other people that ordered an Uber that night was less than sober when they agreed to 9x pricing. Does that mean Uber's surges were taking unfair advantage of drunk customers?
Not really. Surge pricing, as we've explained before on _*Slate*_, is not random price gouging. Quite the opposite-it is linked directly to supply and demand. Surge pricing on Uber is also old news: It's been around and enraging riders for several years. That Uber decided to jack up prices on a rainy Halloween night when demand must have soared isn't a bit surprising-what would have been shocking is if it had kept rates at their normal levels.
The point is that while 9x fares leading to $360-plus cab rides might seem gross and expensive, they shouldn't be catching customers off-guard on Halloween. And as Uber emphasized in a statement, its app ensures that price surges are "repeatedly communicated and approved before any trip is confirmed." The rules shouldn't change just because prospective riders are drunk. If someone sends a slew of drunk texts and winds up with huge overage charges, we don't blame the mobile carrier. And when alcohol drives shoppers to hefty impulse purchases, we don't blame the stores. Why is Uber any different?
It would be another story if on Halloween a driver had picked up an inebriated customer and taken advantage of it by randomly hiking that one fare. But that isn't what happened here-and if anything, Uber's algorithmic method for determining surges should reassure riders that this _won't _ever happen. So yes, $362.57 is an absurd amount for a 20-minute cab ride, and it's totally fair if that's off-putting to a lot of people. But there were definitely others who were willing to pay it. If there weren't, Uber wouldn't have been charging so much.


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## fargonaz (Oct 30, 2014)

I sure hope so. Regardless of what the progressives think, you can't save everyone from themselves.


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## UberRey (Sep 1, 2014)

Should 711 quit selling Doritos to stoners? Should bars quit serving alcohol to college girls? Should automobile companies stop selling cars that go faster than 60MPH? This is America. We have the freedom to make good and bad choices... and to suffer the consequences of those decisions. No nanny state needed here.


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## UberRey (Sep 1, 2014)

I drunkenly ordered a private leer jet to fly me to Maine for Lobster. I am PISSED about the $5000 bill I woke up to today!


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## scrurbscrud (Sep 11, 2014)

UberRey said:


> I drunkenly ordered a private leer jet to fly me to Maine for Lobster. I am PISSED about the $5000 bill I woke up to today!


That would have probably been a good deal! And a HELL of a lot of drunken fun too!


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## scrurbscrud (Sep 11, 2014)

Uber screwed up on so many levels on Halloween it wasn't even funny. Ridiculous guarantees were NOT required for drivers. There were so many freakin' NEW drivers out it was indeed scary. Drivers KNOW that on certain occasions there will be surge and WILL come out for the business regardless. I think they gouged unnecessarily to pay those ridiculous guarantees. *And pissed off a LOT of people in the process.*

None of that would have been necessary on Uber's part. They could have easily had enough drivers, NOT promised guarantees and kept the surge prices in the 4-5 range and everyone would have been just FINE.


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## UberRey (Sep 1, 2014)

scrurbscrud said:


> That would have probably been a good deal! And a HELL of a lot of drunken fun too!


Good point. Bad example.


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## scrurbscrud (Sep 11, 2014)

And again for the record, I AIN'T driving drunks home in the middle of the night without SURGE. No one in their right mind will do that for the absurd fares that Uber/Lyft pay for standard rates. After 10p.m. it's either 2X or home, period.


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## Realityshark (Sep 22, 2014)

Uber is a equal opportunity ruthless evil corporation who will take advantage of anyone. They **** over their drivers by lying about all the money the drivers will make by dropping fares. They lie to the drivers about guarantees. They lie to their drivers about cancellation charges. They bait and switch all the time. It's actually refreshing to know that they will gladly screw over their customers as well. Uber could have actually been a decent company. They could have tried to be a role model to other start ups. They could have been a company that people would be proud of to work for. Instead they have just become a group of greedy lying snakes who will take advantage of anyone they possibly can.


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## pUBERty SUCKS (Nov 2, 2014)




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## Realityshark (Sep 22, 2014)

UberRey said:


> Should 711 quit selling Doritos to stoners? Should bars quit serving alcohol to college girls? Should automobile companies stop selling cars that go faster than 60MPH? This is America. We have the freedom to make good and bad choices... and to suffer the consequences of those decisions. No nanny state needed here.


Stop selling Doritos to stoners? Don't even joke about that! That's not funny.


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## johnny danger (Nov 4, 2014)

When anyone gets behind the wheel of a car in a drunk state the chance of a fatal accident increases a whole bunch.....drunk pax + uber price surge= LIFE ..... PRICELESS


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## UL Driver SF (Aug 29, 2014)

johnny danger said:


> When anyone gets behind the wheel of a car in a drunk state the chance of a fatal accident increases a whole bunch.....drunk pax + uber price surge= LIFE ..... PRICELESS


Pretty much this.

A DUI in Ca will run you between 12-15 grand. That's just the regular DUI. Have an accident where someone is injured? It is elevated to a felony. Oh and that can be a single car accident where you are the one injured. Multiple vehicle accident with injuries? Now you are in multiple felony territory. That's before the civil suits.

Kill some one? You could get 2nd degree murder. I remember the case that started that in CA. It was ugly and the guy who died, died in front of his family and it was a very ugly death that included fire.

If they charged every drunk passenger $200.00 for a ride home it would still be the deal of the century.


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## johnny danger (Nov 4, 2014)

UL Driver SF said:


> Pretty much this.
> 
> A DUI in Ca will run you between 12-15 grand. That's just the regular DUI. Have an accident where someone is injured? It is elevated to a felony. Oh and that can be a single car accident where you are the one injured. Multiple vehicle accident with injuries? Now you are in multiple felony territory. That's before the civil suits.
> 
> ...


WOW!... I live in Phila. and you pretty much have to run into a patrol car to get a DUI and even than you have a chance to get it downgraded. It's tougher in the suburbs... The situation in CA ,that should call for a 24/7 surge...


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## DjTim (Oct 18, 2014)

johnny danger said:


> WOW!... I live in Phila. and you pretty much have to run into a patrol car to get a DUI and even than you have a chance to get it downgraded. It's tougher in the suburbs... That should call for a 24/7 surge...


I agree with you in a large city. Chicago, I bet you could get away with driving drunk from the north to the southside without seeing a cop. You would get a ticket from a speed or red light camera before getting a DUI. In the suburbs, it's much different. Late night drivers are stalked for that elusive "DUI" ticket that will net that suburbs thousands of dollars.


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## UL Driver SF (Aug 29, 2014)

johnny danger said:


> WOW!... I live in Phila. and you pretty much have to run into a patrol car to get a DUI and even than you have a chance to get it downgraded. It's tougher in the suburbs... The situation in CA ,that should call for a 24/7 surge...


Guy I know got a DUI. He is a...to the ****ing penny fact...kinda guy. All told in fines, classes, time, cost of inconvenience, etc....his cost was $16+k not including the restrictions on his DL.


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