# Surge scam



## karma420 (Oct 23, 2016)

I love how I'll be driving to a surge area that is leas than 1/4 a mile away and it pulls me 10 minutes in the opposite direction with no surge.

I cancel the ride and go in to the surge and the same thing happens. I canceled the ride again and drove home. This will kill your customer base Uber.


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## steveK2016 (Jul 31, 2016)

This is not necessarily ubers fault. It happens. You get pings and not all of them will come from a specific direction you want it to come from. In fact some pax may take advantage of dropping pings outside of surge zone. 

I ignore them too when I'm in a surge zone. I hardly call it a scam....


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## CvilleUber (Aug 29, 2016)

You're getting pinged because other drivers aren't picking it up, either.

Ignore the calls you don't want (pulling you out 10 minutes without a surge is one you don't want). Don't accept.


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## Om3ga7 (Oct 10, 2016)

steveK2016 said:


> This is not necessarily ubers fault. It happens. You get pings and not all of them will come from a specific direction you want it to come from. In fact some pax may take advantage of dropping pings outside of surge zone.
> 
> I ignore them too when I'm in a surge zone. I hardly call it a scam....


THIS! ... drives me crazy on Saturday nights! I'll be in the hot zone as i like to call it and I had an address not clearly match up where the pin was showing, I just laughed and moved on to my next victim in the surge zone (It was a 3.2x at 1:50am homecoming weekend.)

People trying to be slick and send you out of the surge being el-cheap-o.


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## af_1132 (Sep 26, 2016)

In my area, when the surge hits, the riders wait to finish requesting a ride until the surge drops to something more reasonable, or drops out completely. I think that, combined with the circulating pings from far out places, leads to you getting ride requests outside surge zones.


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## Shad (Jul 9, 2014)

I've had calls that would have me drive through 2 different surging neighborhoods to pick up a ride at the airport. I'll pass, thanks.


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## Jimmy Bernat (Apr 12, 2016)

It's not a scam it's the other drivers ignoring the request


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## Shad (Jul 9, 2014)

I just feel that if they have to pull you out of an existing Surge area to service a rider, shouldn't that rider's area also be surging?


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## nyla (Oct 26, 2016)

Uber app always pings from behind essentially. It doesn't ping in the center, forward bright red, it always pulls from no surge or the palest 1.2. So, If a surge is people waiting and not enough cars then pulling me out to drive 10 to 15 minutes away for a pax where no surge would seem to screw surge pax who is supposedly waiting in the surge and of course the drivers.


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## CvilleUber (Aug 29, 2016)

It's not the app - it's people not wanting to pay the huge premium. I'm more likely to sit and wait (as a rider) at 2+... but at 1.2, I'll request rides all day.


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## Steven Ambrose (Sep 25, 2016)

karma420 said:


> I love how I'll be driving to a surge area that is leas than 1/4 a mile away and it pulls me 10 minutes in the opposite direction with no surge.
> 
> I cancel the ride and go in to the surge and the same thing happens. I canceled the ride again and drove home. This will kill your customer base Uber.


By that same token, I have been in a non-surge area and have gotten trips from surge areas. It is very, very random. Here is an example where that was the case. There were 2 stops involved.


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## Steven Ambrose (Sep 25, 2016)

Shad said:


> I just feel that if they have to pull you out of an existing Surge area to service a rider, shouldn't that rider's area also be surging?


No, you are either in a surge area or you are not. It is as simple as that.


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## CvilleUber (Aug 29, 2016)

The surge area doesn't mean there are riders there, willing to pay the surge fee. It just means there is "demand" and they want drivers to concentrate in the demand area. Most riders wait until the surge dies down - we (the drivers) really want the riders who are willing to pay a 4x. If I'm riding - I will never, ever pay even 2x - because I know the surge will go away (in most cases). So nobody wants to pay in the surge areas, so pax outside still need rides and all the drivers have "chased the surge"


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## BRLA (Nov 4, 2016)

What bothers me is that the surge changes every few seconds. It's like they know when you get to the surge area, and when they get you there, they take it away. It's hardly worth chasing. On the other hand, I often turn the app off when it's not surging because the base fare is hardly worth the time and gas. If everyone did that, maybe it would surge more often. It's hard to make minimum wage before expenses with base rate.

Question: since we don't get the surge if we're not already in the surge area, does Uber keep the entire surge price for themselves when we accept a fare in a surge area when we're outside it?


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## phillipzx3 (May 26, 2015)

Good ol' chasing of surge while at the same time complaining of the rates cab charge.

Priceless.


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## j13gregor (Aug 1, 2016)

I have accepted many red pings that seemed to me to be very much in the surge area and the ride was billed at normal rates. I don't trust the color code anymore. It seems pretty random, except for downtown at bar close, a Bucks game letting out, etc.


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## BRLA (Nov 4, 2016)

j13gregor said:


> I have accepted many red pings that seemed to me to be very much in the surge area and the ride was billed at normal rates. I don't trust the color code anymore. It seems pretty random, except for downtown at bar close, a Bucks game letting out, etc.


You also have to be in the surge area at the time or you will only get base rate.


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## shiftydrake (Dec 12, 2015)

phillipzx3 said:


> Good ol' chasing of surge while at the same time complaining of the rates cab charge.
> 
> Priceless.


Yeah us taxis are terrible...........*laughing*


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## BRLA (Nov 4, 2016)

shiftydrake said:


> Yeah us taxis are terrible...........*laughing*


Uber paid him to say that.


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## karma420 (Oct 23, 2016)

Steven Ambrose said:


> By that same token, I have been in a non-surge area and have gotten trips from surge areas. It is very, very random. Here is an example where that was the case. There were 2 stops involved.


This actually happened to me on a Friday. The application wasn't showing surge at all but it gave me a x1.7.


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## Jobiwankanobi (Oct 24, 2016)

Just started driving. will be in surge but get no requests or requests outside surge. surge is very hit or miss seems to me. not worth chasing and base fare and commission sucks. i will keep driving for lyft. customers better. incentives better. luckily lyft is good in my area.


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## shiftydrake (Dec 12, 2015)

BRLA said:


> Uber paid him to say that.


Yeah I don't drive for Uber....never have never will......you have no idea


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## Steven Ambrose (Sep 25, 2016)

karma420 said:


> This actually happened to me on a Friday. The application wasn't showing surge at all but it gave me a x1.7.


Could you have been in a boost area?


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## steveK2016 (Jul 31, 2016)

BRLA said:


> What bothers me is that the surge changes every few seconds. It's like they know when you get to the surge area, and when they get you there, they take it away. It's hardly worth chasing. On the other hand, I often turn the app off when it's not surging because the base fare is hardly worth the time and gas. If everyone did that, maybe it would surge more often. It's hard to make minimum wage before expenses with base rate.
> 
> Question: since we don't get the surge if we're not already in the surge area, does Uber keep the entire surge price for themselves when we accept a fare in a surge area when we're outside it?


Surge is, theoretically, based on demand. You are not the only driver to see the surge and want a piece of that action. That's the intent of the surge, to increase supply to a high demand area. So when you chase that surge with your other 20 Uber brothers, the demand shifts and the supply increase, decreasing the Surge.

Of course they know when you get to the surge area, the whole point of the surge was to lure you INTO that area. If you happen to be the first of the group to get there, you get the fare. If you end up on the tail end of the group, you don't or have to settle for the 1.1 and 1.2 scraps.

It doesn't matter where you are when you receive the request. If the request is in the surge zone, you get paid the surge price. I was once just outside of the surge zone but it was a hot surge (Adele concert ending at Philips Arena in Downtown Atlanta) that it pulled me from outside of the surge all the way to the core of it at 2.8.


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## HazardousDescent (Jul 25, 2016)

steveK2016 said:


> Surge is, theoretically, based on demand. You are not the only driver to see the surge and want a piece of that action. That's the intent of the surge, to increase supply to a high demand area. So when you chase that surge with your other 20 Uber brothers, the demand shifts and the supply increase, decreasing the Surge.
> 
> Of course they know when you get to the surge area, the whole point of the surge was to lure you INTO that area. If you happen to be the first of the group to get there, you get the fare. If you end up on the tail end of the group, you don't or have to settle for the 1.1 and 1.2 scraps.
> 
> It doesn't matter where you are when you receive the request. If the request is in the surge zone, you get paid the surge price. I was once just outside of the surge zone but it was a hot surge (Adele concert ending at Philips Arena in Downtown Atlanta) that it pulled me from outside of the surge all the way to the core of it at 2.8.


Correct, but you also miss out on a known surge (bar crowd areas) if you're there too early. Once all the drivers are gone and the rider requests are still increasing, it will start and you have to decide to take x1.5 now or wait 5 minutes for x3 or more. I've been cancelling the low numbers, once I'm in the area and it's up, and confident a higher request will come in.


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## UberXTampa (Nov 20, 2014)

Surge basically is the negotiation between pax and drivers where almost always the pax wins!

By driving to a surge area, not only you ruin it for any driver that is more likely to get a surge request, but also lose your negotiating power. When you see a surge somewhere, you shouldn't drive to it. Uber regularly sends me requests from 20+ minutes away. If surge is that strong and drivers are so few, no matter how far, you will get the ping. 

So, we need to stop driving to a surge area. Surge is How Uber dangles a carrot in front of the drivers.


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## yojimboguy (Mar 2, 2016)

BRLA said:


> You also have to be in the surge area at the time or you will only get base rate.


More precisely, I think, is that you will get the surge rate in effect at the time you make the pickup. And while you're on the way to the pickup, the surge price may lower or disappear altogether.


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