# Lyft Sends "You are the only available driver " message



## jlong105 (Sep 15, 2017)

After ignoring a ride 15 minutes away, Lyft resent the request with a message saying I was the only available driver. The ride was at base rate. If I am the only available driver 15 minutes away, then they should have increased the price! I ignored again and it popped up for a 3rd time. I was going to accept if only to keep my acceptance rating up, but the pax cancelled. I took equivalent to 2 hits on on my acceptance rating . That should have only been one hit. OK, this was my useless rant for the day.


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## UberDez (Mar 28, 2017)

jlong105 said:


> After ignoring a ride 15 minutes away, Lyft resent the request with a message saying I was the only available driver. The ride was at base rate. If I am the only available driver 15 minutes away, then they should have increased the price! I ignored again and it popped up for a 3rd time. I was going to accept if only to keep my acceptance rating up, but the pax cancelled. I took equivalent to 2 hits on on my acceptance rating . That should have only been one hit. OK, this was my useless rant for the day.


Yeah if you're the only driver in the area and you ignore the first ping than there should be some primetime on the ride to entice a driver to drive that far for what could be a crappy fare , even a small PT of 50% would get someone to take a chance on a ride like that


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## Ride-Share-Risk-Manager (Mar 16, 2017)

The problem with those "you are the only driver" requests is that they are never a long distance highly rated appreciative passenger. Instead they are always a high maintenance, super cheap, need a diaper change passengers who won't call Uber because they won't pay surge and who will keep pinging on Lyft to get what they want. However, the responsibility is LYFTs to say that they have no drivers in the area and stop re-pinging you. The problem is that Lyft run their company as if it is a social service where drivers should respond to every ride request without regard to personal safety or being able to make any money.


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## Jcposeidon (Oct 3, 2017)

Ride-Share-Risk-Manager said:


> The problem with those "you are the only driver" requests is that they are never a long distance highly rated appreciative passenger. Instead they are always a high maintenance, super cheap, need a diaper change passengers who won't call Uber because they won't pay surge and who will keep pinging on Lyft to get what they want. However, the responsibility is LYFTs to say that they have no drivers in the area and stop re-pinging you. The problem is that Lyft run their company as if it is a social service where drivers should respond to every ride request without regard to personal safety or being able to make any money.


Thats not true for them being high maintenance. I had this happen while waiting on a scheduled ride. I declined twice and finally took it after my other ride wasnt showing up. It acrually paid more than my scheduled ride by $10 which worked out to my advantage.


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## Woohaa (Jan 15, 2017)

"Help me Obi Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."


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## bmedle (Jul 19, 2017)

As others have said, rather than re-pinging the driver constantly, how about offering a little incentive for your time? If UberLyft offers up Surge/PrimeTime during high demand times, why not pass on the additional cost to a rider wanting a pickup in some isolated area 30 minutes from the nearest driver?

Up here in Rochester, I routinely get these pings to these outlying areas. The few times I've (foolishly) accepted them, I was treated to short rides for angry, unappreciative paxholes upset that they had to wait so long or, in one case, had to wait a few hours because there was no car even close enough to ping. One lady wanted a ride from the bar to her house five miles away. I straight out demanded a cash tip. I drove 30 minutes to the middle of nowhere to take her even further into the abyss. You need to at least reimburse me for my gas I'll be burning returning to civilization. Her two male companions were cool and gave me money, but this lady one-starred me and flagged me in every available category. (Yes, I was stupid at every turn of this transaction, so I kind of earned it.)

So, again, the smart thing for Lyft to do would be to offer extra pay to drivers taking these pings. These are costs that can be directly passed on to the pax. Hey, you're in an isolated area with (more than likely) no other transportation options, so pony up some extra dough. Nah, let's send Nastygrams and passive-aggressive vibes to the drivers instead. That'll sustain our failing business model.


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## jspec (Aug 28, 2017)

Lyft is cheap, like their pax. As usual put it on the driver, one of them will do it.


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## pvtandrewmalone (Oct 2, 2016)

This post is so spot on. We are not doing this for a social service, as Lyft's automated messages seem to imply. Those faraway pax tend to be short rides with riders that will be nice to your face then 1*. The problem is they one star everyone not realizing that cuts down the number of drivers they can be matched with.

Also, I can't stand the re-pings either. Within the last few weeks Uber is doing the same thing. So much for having a "No Thanks" button.

And I've been saying the same thing... If drivers are ignoring a ping in a remote area.... We are not just randomly "missing" it... We are making a business decision...They need to put some surge or Prime Time on it.


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## jlong105 (Sep 15, 2017)

I got another double ping last night. At first it was 12 minutes away then 9. I took it on the second ping, because I was headed in the direction. Of course, after the pick up it took 10 miles out of the way, but that was 10 paid miles and garnered a decent tip. So I guess there are some ups and downs. Conversation with the (very talkative) pax was enlightening. She said she frequently uses Lyft and has never had to give less than 4 stars. I took the opportunity to inform her that 4 stars is less than acceptable in the eyes of Lyft and explained how not leaving a rating was better than 4 stars. She was appreciative of that information and asked about changing past ratings. Overall, was glad I took the trip.


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## JimKE (Oct 28, 2016)

"You are the only available driver" is not a *drive*r problem.

It is a *LYFT* problem caused by not enough Lyft drivers and not enough Lyft pax.

With great fanfare, a few months ago Lyft expanded to more than 300 smaller markets. They can't begin to really cover those markets, and they have no riders there. And honestly, a lot of the communities they expanded to are too small to support a ridesharing operation. But they made a BFD out of their "expansion," probably to drum up investor interest rather than actually adding to the top or bottom lines.


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## PTUber (Sep 16, 2015)

Maybe it was said here but if you are the only driver that is supply and demand that supposedly controls PrimeTime doesn't it?


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## LEAFdriver (Dec 28, 2014)

PTUber said:


> Maybe it was said here but if you are the only driver that is supply and demand that supposedly controls PrimeTime doesn't it?


You would think, right?


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

The application tells you that you are the "Only Available Driver", -eh? Does not Lyft understand the fallacy of that? I am *not* available to run fifteen minutes for a minimum at base rates to haul an obnoxious passenger who already has an attitude for three dollars seventy five, no tip and one star. Since I am not available at all, I can not be the only available driver.

One poster commented that he wound up with a better job. Every once in a while, you do allright if you chase something. Bitter experience has taught me, though, that if you chased something blind or offered to do it when a certain dispatcher was on the boards, you got garbage far more frequently than you got gold. Just as you do in TNC work, you did in hacking. You got a customer with a rotten attitude who was angry at having to wait, had already blessed out the operators and the dispatcher and now that this customer was actually face-to-face with someone who was affiliated with the company, he blessed out you, as well. He did not care how far you went to fetch him. Of course, there was no tip. In fact, more than one of them tried to short you. Some of them would say something to the effect that if they kept a driver waiting, they had to pay waiting time, so since the company kept them waiting, they were going to deduct for their waiting time. They did not want to hear that you were not an employee of the company and that if they did not pay you, you were the only one that lost anything.

As a dispatcher, I would not run a driver for garbage unless he wanted it. I would do it if I could back up the driver with another call. I would take the garbage from the customer over it. I would not make my operators do it, as they were being paid only minimum wage, I did not expect them to listen to that nonsense for minimum wage.

One drawback, out of several, for a system where the passenger's first contact with a human being is the driver is that the customer has no one to whom he can complain while he is waiting. Under the "legacy" (I believe that this is the Newspeak term for that) systems, the customer could at least complain to the person on the other end of the telephone, thus the driver did not have to bear the full brunt of the customer's ire. Still, it was bad enough what the driver had to suffer.


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## pvtandrewmalone (Oct 2, 2016)

Another Uber Driver said:


> I am *not* available to run fifteen minutes for a minimum at base rates to haul an obnoxious passenger who already has an attitude for three dollars seventy five, no tip and one star.


My thoughts exactly.

If a pax gives 1, 2, or 3 stars to multiple drivers, they have no one to blame but themselves if the closest car is 20 minutes away and doesn't accept their base rate ping.

What these pax are doing is no better for the "community" than the driver who calls then cancels.


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## touberornottouber (Aug 12, 2016)

If you were the only driver and rejected the trip then why didn't Lyft offer to at least waive their commission in order to entice you to pick up their customer?


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## Ride-Share-Risk-Manager (Mar 16, 2017)

touberornottouber said:


> If you were the only driver and rejected the trip then why didn't Lyft offer to at least waive their commission in order to entice you to pick up their customer?


My friend you are thinking like a smart business person. They do not have any of these type of people at Lyft. They have inexperienced kiddies running the show who need a diaper change and a bottle.


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## jlong105 (Sep 15, 2017)

touberornottouber said:


> If you were the only driver and rejected the trip then why didn't Lyft offer to at least waive their commission in order to entice you to pick up their customer?


This would have gotten the pax picked up. I refuse to go to any Lyft over 10 minutes as the pax have been biting my ass in the ratings because of the wait.


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## pvtandrewmalone (Oct 2, 2016)

C'mon people...

25% wouldn't get the 20 minute ETA pax picked up by me, 100% might on a slow day or if I were working shore, 200% definitely would get them a ride no matter what.

If the pax app shows multiple closer drivers, the pax has probably already down-rated their local drivers, why should I be next?


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## LEAFdriver (Dec 28, 2014)

pvtandrewmalone said:


> C'mon people...
> If the pax app shows multiple closer drivers, the pax has probably already down-rated their local drivers, why should I be next?


EXCELLENT POINT! I had never even thought of this before!


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## JJS (Jan 5, 2016)

1. People do some math. figure out what it takes to turn profit
2. Establish standards based on the math you did. 
3. AR means nothing. PDB in most markets doesn't pencil out for the drivers. 
4. Stick to your standards! you are an I/C act like it!


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## ZoomZoom12 (Mar 14, 2017)

JJS said:


> 1. People do some math. figure out what it takes to turn profit
> 2. Establish standards based on the math you did.
> 3. AR means nothing. PDB in most markets doesn't pencil out for the drivers.
> 4. Stick to your standards! you are an I/C act like it!


This in a nutshell, the quicker you learn the numbers the better. Unfortunately I am driving on both platforms right now and my acceptance rate is almost never above 20 percent. I don't take anything unless its at least 1.5 or 50 percent unless its a super slow day. You may not do as much volume but you will come out ahead either way.


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## JJS (Jan 5, 2016)

My AR at the end of the week comes in about 25%. I rarely ever cancel and that is generally as a result of being mistreated by a drunk pax. I'll haul your ass but treat me with respect. 1* is used with reservation for only the best of the best.


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

jlong105 said:


> After ignoring a ride 15 minutes away, Lyft resent the request with a message saying I was the only available driver. The ride was at base rate. If I am the only available driver 15 minutes away, then they should have increased the price! I ignored again and it popped up for a 3rd time. I was going to accept if only to keep my acceptance rating up, but the pax cancelled. I took equivalent to 2 hits on on my acceptance rating . That should have only been one hit. OK, this was my useless rant for the day.


You declined the trip, which denoted that you were unavailable for it, so Lyft actually had no available drivers. The message from Lyft therefore should have been "We have no available drivers! Waaahhhh!"


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## Kodyhead (May 26, 2015)

bmedle said:


> As others have said, rather than re-pinging the driver constantly, how about offering a little incentive for your time? If UberLyft offers up Surge/PrimeTime during high demand times, why not pass on the additional cost to a rider wanting a pickup in some isolated area 30 minutes from the nearest driver?
> 
> Up here in Rochester, I routinely get these pings to these outlying areas. The few times I've (foolishly) accepted them, I was treated to short rides for angry, unappreciative paxholes upset that they had to wait so long or, in one case, had to wait a few hours because there was no car even close enough to ping. One lady wanted a ride from the bar to her house five miles away. I straight out demanded a cash tip. I drove 30 minutes to the middle of nowhere to take her even further into the abyss. You need to at least reimburse me for my gas I'll be burning returning to civilization. Her two male companions were cool and gave me money, but this lady one-starred me and flagged me in every available category. (Yes, I was stupid at every turn of this transaction, so I kind of earned it.)
> 
> So, again, the smart thing for Lyft to do would be to offer extra pay to drivers taking these pings. These are costs that can be directly passed on to the pax. Hey, you're in an isolated area with (more than likely) no other transportation options, so pony up some extra dough. Nah, let's send Nastygrams and passive-aggressive vibes to the drivers instead. That'll sustain our failing business model.


I have gotten pings 43 mins away....


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## kevink (Apr 18, 2016)

Unless there is some PT attached then Lyft can suck my D. Either the customer gets a ride and pays a little extra or they better put their walking shoes on.


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## Mista T (Aug 16, 2017)

This jackhole requested SIX TIMES in 3 minutes. I finally stayed logged off for a few.


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

Mista T said:


> This jackhole requested SIX TIMES in 3 minutes. I finally stayed logged off for a few.


Alcatel cellphone?


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## Mista T (Aug 16, 2017)

Samsung J7 running T-Mobile


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## ShinyAndChrome (Aug 18, 2017)

jlong105 said:


> After ignoring a ride 15 minutes away, Lyft resent the request with a message saying I was the only available driver. The ride was at base rate. If I am the only available driver 15 minutes away, then they should have increased the price! I ignored again and it popped up for a 3rd time. I was going to accept if only to keep my acceptance rating up, but the pax cancelled. I took equivalent to 2 hits on on my acceptance rating . That should have only been one hit. OK, this was my useless rant for the day.


argh!!! People!!!!!

Stop worrying about your acceptance rate!!!!!!!!!! STOP!! It means nothing. Base rate 15 min pickup never take it. Lyft and uber need to auto surge these long pickups otherwise it is their fault the pax had no ride, not yours.


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

ShinyAndChrome said:


> argh!!! People!!!!!
> 
> Stop worrying about your acceptance rate!!!!!!!!!! STOP!! It means nothing. Base rate 15 min pickup never take it. Lyft and uber need to auto surge these long pickups otherwise it is their fault the pax had no ride, not yours.


It's not even a question of fault/blame. In a market economy, if you want something then you pay the price someone is willing to sell for. If you offer that price then you get. If you don't offer that price then you don't get.

In these cases, Lyft doesn't get. Simple as that; economics 101.


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## JJS (Jan 5, 2016)

They made a great app to address a need. Now, they have no clue how to run the "business." Heads need to roll and someone with an understanding of basic business practices needs to run them. They are both in way over their heads and potentially could destroy both companies due to inexperienced management. Neither is too big to fail. Because they are nothing companies with very little assets and value. They have data and that is the only thing that could potentially save them. The sale of said data.


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## ShinyAndChrome (Aug 18, 2017)

The Gift of Fish said:


> It's not even a question of fault/blame. In a market economy, if you want something then you pay the price someone is willing to sell for. If you offer that price then you get. If you don't offer that price then you don't get.
> 
> In these cases, Lyft doesn't get. Simple as that; economics 101.


Agreed and this is the calculus you, I, many others use. But others still allow the "acceptance rate" metric to influence them, even though it is worth precisely $0.00. Uber/lyft wave it around to try and help encourage people to pick up pings they don't want to accept, despite having a low one not impacting anything. It's smart on their point, we need to spread the truth


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## Mista T (Aug 16, 2017)

Things worth zero:
- badges
- ratings and stars UNLESS you fall below 4.60
- acceptance rate UNLESS you are trying to hit the PDB


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## Jennyma (Jul 16, 2016)

jlong105 said:


> After ignoring a ride 15 minutes away, Lyft resent the request with a message saying I was the only available driver. The ride was at base rate. If I am the only available driver 15 minutes away, then they should have increased the price! I ignored again and it popped up for a 3rd time. I was going to accept if only to keep my acceptance rating up, but the pax cancelled. I took equivalent to 2 hits on on my acceptance rating . That should have only been one hit. OK, this was my useless rant for the day.


Turn off app


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## kcdrvr15 (Jan 10, 2017)

I still drive for lyft when business is slow. when ever I get a 10+ min request and pass on it, I will go off line for a couple of min, this gives the system a chance to either send the request to another driver or if none are available will sometimes trigger surge.


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## Jufkii (Sep 17, 2015)

I scored my 2nd 0% acceptance rate for the week with Lyft. I'm rather proud of it. Lyft can kiss my behind if the shortest ETA they'll send me is 12 minutes away.12 minutes which actually equals 15 minutes in reality.


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## MrMikeNC (Feb 16, 2017)

Seems Lyft wants the drivers to eat the cost/take up the slack for Lyft's poor business practices and failure to incentivize the drivers they have and encourage new drivers. Any message that starts with "You are on the only driver available" should _end _with "therefore you will get a X% [depending on market] for this ping". Lyft won't do that though cause the CEO is apparently really Scrooge McDuck. Oh well. Laugh and ignore such a message when it comes through/cut on the Uber app.


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## ShinyAndChrome (Aug 18, 2017)

MrMikeNC said:


> Seems Lyft wants the drivers to eat the cost/take up the slack for Lyft's poor business practices and failure to incentivize the drivers they have and encourage new drivers. Any message that starts with "You are on the only driver available" should _end _with "therefore you will get a X% [depending on market] for this ping". Lyft won't do that though cause the CEO is apparently really Scrooge McDuck. Oh well. Laugh and ignore such a message when it comes through/cut on the Uber app.


They will milk it as long as they can. As long as new drivers think acceptance is worth chasing, lyft won't change. Eventually I have to believe they will have burned through all the willing drivers and have to start surging far trips or something similar. There are only so many people in the country who will drive, right?


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## MrMikeNC (Feb 16, 2017)

ShinyAndChrome said:


> They will milk it as long as they can. As long as new drivers think acceptance is worth chasing, lyft won't change. Eventually I have to believe they will have burned through all the willing drivers and have to start surging far trips or something similar. There are only so many people in the country who will drive, right?


The problem is there's no way to warn new drivers, and Lyft knows this. They can bleed them dry before the new driver is now an experienced or rather jaded driver ready to quit/go to Uber. And when that happens they don't need them anymore anyway cause hey here's a brand new driver to start the cycle all over again. A twisted Circle of Life.

Until THAT changes no they'll never start surging far away trips or "you're the only driver around" pings. Until new drivers come in on Day 1 saying "Nastgrams about low acceptances don't work on me" "Not taking ridiculous far away pings" etc, it will continue.


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## rickasmith98 (Sep 26, 2016)

UberDezNutz said:


> Yeah if you're the only driver in the area and you ignore the first ping than there should be some primetime on the ride to entice a driver to drive that far for what could be a crappy fare , even a small PT of 50% would get someone to take a chance on a ride like that


In my cases with this, the ping comes back so damn fast I can't even turn Lyft off to miss the 2nd or 3rd pings.



PTUber said:


> Maybe it was said here but if you are the only driver that is supply and demand that supposedly controls PrimeTime doesn't it?


Yes, but I agree with JimKE in there are some markets Lyft doesn't care about, so prime will never go into activation regardless. My market is such. Can't even guess how few Lyft drivers we have here but frequently in the morning on weekends I am the only driver. They don't even recognize us as a territory, instead we are listed as drivers in a different city that "services this city". Lyft probably gives a few hundred trips a month, maybe even 1,000. Whereas Uber probably gives 20,000 a month minimum. And 20K is a tiny number of trips compared to the metro cities.

The Lyft PAXs get frustrated because the few drivers we do have often drive for both. Whenever I get a ping, switch the other app off but most of the drivers here that drive for both Lyft and Uber will accept the Lyft ping, which is always 10 or 15 minutes away and then bam, they get an Uber ping closer and just blow off the Lyft ride. So the fool like me that comes along, gets an irate passenger who takes it out on me with a bad rating. Am very tempted to just stop turning Lyft on as it is just not worth it.

Even though I don't get many trips on Lyft, the percentage of total customers that gives tips is much higher with Lyft than with Uber. Uber customers still have the mentality that they don't have to tip.


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## swingset (Feb 26, 2017)

I translate that message to "We don't pay enough to ensure uniform coverage".

Not my problem. Ignore request.


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## Uber's Guber (Oct 22, 2017)

jlong105 said:


> Lyft Sends "You are the only available driver" message


Probably the best time to ask for a raise.


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## DCNewbie17 (Aug 20, 2017)

jlong105 said:


> After ignoring a ride 15 minutes away, Lyft resent the request with a message saying I was the only available driver. The ride was at base rate. If I am the only available driver 15 minutes away, then they should have increased the price! I ignored again and it popped up for a 3rd time. I was going to accept if only to keep my acceptance rating up, but the pax cancelled. I took equivalent to 2 hits on on my acceptance rating . That should have only been one hit. OK, this was my useless rant for the day.


Uber has hit with me with the same ride a few times as well, but did not say that I was the only driver. One time, an update to my phone put my Uber settings back to default and I started receiving delivery requests. I got the same one 3 times in a row! I've had it happen on a couple of base rate pools before too.


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## Udrivingmecrazy (Sep 5, 2017)

Seriously people.. My acceptance rate is always 100%. I'll accept, but won't pickup.. Accept, Click last ride and shut off app . Oh, Don't take any calls from San Fran. Go about your daily business...


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