# Stop falling for the Hourly Guaranteed Scam!!



## Uber15 (Jul 12, 2015)

I see so many drivers rushing over to an area because they were sent a notification for guarantees. Stop falling for it people. You should know from the beginning Uber is being deceptive when you see their guarantees are in 'gross fares'. They're inflating the number so it looks better and it doesn't hurt them since they are taking back their share.

Why does Uber have to advertise it this way unless they're trying to trick those new drivers that hasn't gotten burned before. It's like saying I'll give you $20 an hour for working. But um, I'll take my cut at the end. So you'll get $15. $20 sure sounds better than $15. (I see Tony Soprano offering a job and after the score, he takes his cut along with all his lieutenants and you end up with $100 for a $100k score)

Plus Uber doesn't care about drivers getting burned from these guarantees because we're not really partners. We're customers to them and misleading advertising is a way of business. Their business model also doesn't really look at retaining experienced drivers. They're always looking for more and more drivers. I get soooo many texts and emails from uber to refer more drivers when we already have a surplus of drivers.

Uber just had a guarantee for the July 4th weekend at the beach. When usually there might be 20 cars, the first night there were over 90!! The guarantee was 1 trip per hour but people couldn't even get that with so many cars on the road.

Plus all these new drivers don't live at the beach, which means they had to on average drive 3 hours to get here and find a place to sleep. It's not cheap to get a room at the beach when you're comparing it to the money you're going to make. Most of the new drivers left after the Friday night but after what expense and time? 6 hours of driving to and from plus gas and hotel room. All that before you make a dime.

Because of influx of drivers at the beach, there was no surge all night. When the bars closed, surge went up to 1.2 when on it normally would spike to 4.9.

The funny thing was that there were several parts of the state which was surging max 4.9 all night long because of the lack of drivers in those areas. I'm sure some of the veteran drivers that stayed behind were making bank that night.

The way it's guaranteed is misleading so don't get excited about it and work the way you want to work. Most Friday/Saturday nights I always make more than the guarantees they offer so it's useless noise coming from uber that just wants to crowd the streets of a certain region with new drivers.

So before you act on the next guarantee please read the following so you have a clear picture of what you'll get.

You think that for each hour that you don't make that amount, uber will make up the difference but that's not how it works.

Let's say the guarantee is for 4 hours for$30 each hour and for the first three hours you only made $10 each hour.

So you think uber will pay you $60 more to make up for those hours but let's say that on the last hour, you got a really good fare for $100. Now uber will pay you $0. Because you made total of $130 in the 4 hour guarantee block and their guarantee is for $120 in 4 hours.


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## PorkRollUberAndCheese (Mar 13, 2015)

Uber ran a guarantee in Jersey. Although the first night was tough because of rain, the second and third nights, almost every single driver reported getting their guarantee plus they were busy the entire night so it was easy to make the requirements.

So, yeah. 

Plus your logic makes no sense. The guarantee states that Uber believes demand will be great enough you'll make X Amount of dollars. If you don't, they'll cover it. It's not a guarantee of free money, it's a guarantee of work.


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## rman954 (May 31, 2016)

I didn't get it. Where was it exactly? I did get a text from them telling me to go to the airport as only 1 other driver was there... FLL airport that is.


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## Undermensch (Oct 21, 2015)

PorkRollUberAndCheese said:


> Uber ran a guarantee in Jersey. Although the first night was tough because of rain, the second and third nights, almost every single driver reported getting their guarantee plus they were busy the entire night so it was easy to make the requirements.
> 
> So, yeah.
> 
> Plus your logic makes no sense. The guarantee states that Uber believes demand will be great enough you'll make X Amount of dollars. If you don't, they'll cover it. It's not a guarantee of free money, it's a guarantee of work.


I second this.

The first complaint, that math is hard, is silly. Stores don't advertise prices with tax included, they want to show the best number. Uber shows you a number, the best number they have and the only one that applies to all drivers (both the 20%'ers and the 25%'ers). You are scamming yourself if you fail to adjust that number by your commission rate.

The guarantees are a double-edged sword though, for sure. They will attract drivers en masse, which means that you won't get the same rides as you normally do (there will be little surge and chances of getting long rides are lower). But if the guarantee rates is adequate for you, then work it. Rack up short rides as quickly as possible. Hit the number of rides you need for the guarantee period, then go hide in an area that qualifies but that gets no rides. Stay online. Watch movies, knit, do something so you don't fall asleep, but don't drive anymore. This will increase your pay per mile, lower your costs, and get you exactly what they promised on the hourly pay after commission.

You can also be He-Man and try to beat the guaranteed rate, but it's nearly impossible to do with the number of drivers that are attracted to the guarantee.


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## elelegido (Sep 24, 2014)

Uber15 said:


> I see so many drivers rushing over to an area because they were sent a notification for guarantees. Stop falling for it people. You should know from the beginning Uber is being deceptive when you see their guarantees are in 'gross fares'. They're inflating the number so it looks better and it doesn't hurt them since they are taking back their share.
> 
> Why does Uber have to advertise it this way unless they're trying to trick those new drivers that hasn't gotten burned before. It's like saying I'll give you $20 an hour for working. But um, I'll take my cut at the end. So you'll get $15. $20 sure sounds better than $15. (I see Tony Soprano offering a job and after the score, he takes his cut along with all his lieutenants and you end up with $100 for a $100k score)
> 
> ...


I find these revelations most disturbing.


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## PorkRollUberAndCheese (Mar 13, 2015)

elelegido said:


> I find these revelations most disturbing.


These aren't revelations. This is someone whining about trying to game the system instead of working.

The final paragraph is all you need to know: Uner promised you $120 over four hours but you made $130 so Uber is screwing you, maaaaaan.

No, you just made over $32 an hour for 4 hours worth of work.

Uber is not in the business of giving you free money. They want you on the road. If you're on the road, they'll get you the work. If you don't get the work, they'll cover. That's how the guarantee functions. But the key word is WORK. You can't sit at home and putz around, you need to figure out where to go and what to do to make the requirements.

This freaking Tolstoyesque screed is just the product of someone being lazy, ironically.


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## westLAjohn (Jul 7, 2016)

In los angeles, we get $30/hr guarantee promotions between a certain set of hours, such as 5pm-11pm Tues.-Thurs. . Usually they give it to you after you've gone a week w/o driving. I guess they try to lure you back w/ this promo. But it's rigged. They use a different algorithm for those people doing the $30/hr promo. The conditions are like this: you have to due 1.5 trips per hour; 80% acceptance rate; and 25% completion rate; and all the trips have to ORIGINATE in what uber calls Core-LA (an arbitrary area of los angeles where most stuff happens) Sounds simple, but it's really not. When you do this promo, Uber will use a different algorithm to connect you w/ riders. In other words, they wont give you shit. I've done this promo twice now in my 8 weeks of driving for uber, and when i do it you receive about a 1/6th of the request that you would normally receive. I shit you not, i've gone an hour in hollywood w/o getting any pings. Normally i cant go more than 3 mins w/o getting a ping in hollywood. You see the 1.5 trips per hour is calculated by dividing the # of trips (that originate in core-LA only) by the # of hours online . So uber has you online for hours and they dont give you enough rides so that you wont reach that 1.5 trips per hour rate. Also, the mofos seem to only pair you w/ riders who have their destinations outside of the core-LA area. Hmm, interesting. I've never received so many long ass trips as i did when i did those hourly guaranteed promos. What a disgusting company uber is.


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## AllenChicago (Nov 19, 2015)

Since Uber/Lyft have experience and history in most markets, they know how many drivers to offer a "guarantee" to, in order to get the number they need. How much $$$ the guarantee should be. And, what the passenger demand will be for those hours.

The guarantee is like a Golden Goose for Uber drivers in Chicago who are fortunate enough to receive the offer. However, the guarantee from Lyft in Chicago is worse than bad. Need 2 rides @ hour to get the measly $22 guarantee, and it's only from 6am-9am weekday mornings. Duh!


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## ikabod (Nov 24, 2014)

UberWine promo, a few months back sounded awesome. $20 an hour. The fine print.... Must have the app on from Friday 1pm to Sunday 5pm..... So if your doing this part time.. and you work.... You get crap.


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## UberPissed (Aug 13, 2014)

I never do the guarantee. You have too many requirements. I'm not gonna take a ping 18 minutes away to chase a $27 gross fare gurantee, and make $10 hour and get screwed on the guarantee because my acceptance rate was .01% off from the requirement.


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