# Is This Normal? New Driver Rating Woes



## MissouriTiger (Jun 3, 2019)

Hello friends,

I have been driving Uber for 1-week in the St Louis area. I drive a spotlessly clean black SUV with leather seats, with strawberry scent, free ice water, cell phone chargers available, I'm very friendly/courteous, very safe driver, doing everything I can to make people happy, and have received several 5 and 10 dollar tips, as well as numerous smaller tips. But... despite bending over backwards for people, I now have a 4.6 star rating after 50 trips. Here is what happened...

On day 1, a rider gets in and says her boyfriend will be here very soon, he's putting in laundry. So, I didn't click the pickup until he arrived at my car. Then she needed to charge her phone, but I didn't have an iphone charger. I didn't even know iphones use a different charger that android phones. Somebody gave me a 3-star rating that night, and I'm sure it was her. That brought my rating down to 4.85, and Uber sends me a message telling me "Your rating is low." Are you serious? 4.85 is equivalent to 97% on a college exam! That = A+ even at Harvard, but Uber calls it a low rating.

On day 4, I pick up two intoxicated ladies from a million dollar house in Ladue (most affluent part of St Louis). We arrive at the destination and she says "We need to change the destination." They wanted me to drop her off and take the other lady home, which I said I was happy to do, but I didn't know how to change the destination, so they had to request a 2nd Uber and then I took the 2nd lady home. These were only $5.00 trips. Somebody gave me a 1-star rating that night bringing my rating down to 4.6. I wonder who? I have since looked this up on the Uber website, and the rider has to add a 2nd destination, not the driver. (This morning I have printed this out and will keep it in my car from now on to show riders.)

On day 6, my rating had risen from 4.6 to 4.74, until 3 very stinky people got in my car. After accepting free ice water they inform me that they need to do a round trip. I politely explained that I'm a new driver and I don't know how to do that, but I will try. She says "I have seen other Uber drivers do it." I said, "When we get to the destination I will try my best to figure out how to do it." It turned out to be a short $3.00 trip to a convenience store, and of course I couldn't find a way to make the app do a round trip, but I offered to wait while they shop in the convenience store and request another Uber, and I would probably get the request, so they wouldn't have to wait for another driver. I even declined a ride request while standing there in the convenience store telling them this. I noticed they were acting funny, but I didn't think too much of it. A few minutes passed and I still didn't get the request, so I went back into the store and he said somebody else got the request, but he wouldn't look me in the eye. I told them to have a good night and left. Then sure enough, someone gave me a 1-star rating and my score dropped back down to 4.6. I wonder who that was?

Is this normal? It looks to me like this is how it's going to be, every 2 or 3 days someone is going to give me a 1-star rating, because they didn't get every detail exactly as they wanted it, or they didn't get 2 rides for the price of one. The saddest thing is that I have given every rider 5-stars. It makes you sick to your stomach to have someone give you 1-star after you have given them 5-stars and been so polite and courteous to them.

What should I do to change this and am I worrying too much about this rating?

Sorry for the long post, but this is important to me.


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## TemptingFate (May 2, 2019)

Just drive and ignore the stars.


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## Mikeoftulsa (Dec 10, 2018)

when you are new, a low rating hurts more. after 500 trips/ratings, a 1 star might knock your rating down .01 - .03. Just get more rides and roll with it. It does suck when you get 1 stars for stupid reasons.


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## BigRedDriver (Nov 28, 2018)

MissouriTiger said:


> Hello friends,
> 
> I have been driving Uber for 1-week in the St Louis area. I drive a spotlessly clean black SUV with leather seats, with strawberry scent, free ice water, cell phone chargers available, I'm very friendly/courteous, very safe driver, doing everything I can to make people happy, and have received several 5 and 10 dollar tips, as well as numerous smaller tips. But... despite bending over backwards for people, I now have a 4.6 star rating after 50 trips. Here is what happened...
> 
> ...


When they have to re-book they likely have to pay the booking fee again. Still, I never change the destination, I make the passenger do it, I do not want to appear like I'm committing a fraud.

I've heard others say they text back and fourth with the rider, then (I think I have this right), at the final dropoff, will contact Uber and have them change the final total, using the texts as proof. I've never run across this need however.


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## 911 Guy (Feb 8, 2018)

The sooner you stop caring about ratings, the sooner they will improve. It's the Ratings Paradox.


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## Don'tchasethesurge (Dec 27, 2016)

Smh ?‍♂ you are paid to drive people from point a and b. Stop offering water... anyways ignore the rating. Don’t matter! It will irmprove with time! Learn how to shuffle !


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## BigRedDriver (Nov 28, 2018)

Mikeoftulsa said:


> when you are new, a low rating hurts more. after 500 trips/ratings, a 1 star might knock your rating down .01 - .03. Just get more rides and roll with it. It does suck when you get 1 stars for stupid reasons.


We all have gotten 1 Stared for stupid reasons. It still smarts when I get one, but then the very next trip I get a tip and my ouchy feels sp much better.


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## Mikeoftulsa (Dec 10, 2018)

BigRedDriver said:


> We all have gotten 1 Stared for stupid reasons. It still smarts when I get one, but then the very next trip I get a tip and my ouchy feels sp much better.


yep, had it happen to me saturday night. knocked me from a 4.91 rating to a 4.90. Still annoyed.


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## BigRedDriver (Nov 28, 2018)

Mikeoftulsa said:


> yep, had it happen to me saturday night. knocked me from a 4.91 rating to a 4.90. Still annoyed.


But that's an excellent rating. I'm 4.94 on Uber after 1220 trips. Don't worry about them, it's typically dorks that do it anyway.

The only thing I offer my riders is a cord and a safe ride with a HOT GUY!


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## Mikeoftulsa (Dec 10, 2018)

BigRedDriver said:


> But that's an excellent rating. I'm 4.94 on Uber after 1220 trips. Don't worry about them, it's typically dorks that do it anyway.


1500+ trips for me. I wish rating a trip was required on the pax side. I want a rating closer to 5.0


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## grayspinner (Sep 8, 2015)

No free water. 
No round trips that won't exceed the minimum fare. 
(and don't end the round trip at the exact same location, end it a little bit after you drop them off) 

Don't be so accommodating. Your profit is your first concern - don't wait while people shop. 

Don't end a ride and wait without pay so a pax can request you for a crap return ride. Only wait if it will be highly profitable for you. 

Don't accept pings if the passenger rating is lower than 4.76.

You are paid for the time and miles you drive - while it is smart to have pax make destination changes in the app (it protects you from fraudulent pax) it isn't necessary in order for you to be paid. 

Get a dashcam


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## R3drang3r (Feb 16, 2019)

MissouriTiger said:


> Hello friends,
> 
> I have been driving Uber for 1-week in the St Louis area. I drive a spotlessly clean black SUV with leather seats, with strawberry scent, free ice water, cell phone chargers available, I'm very friendly/courteous, very safe driver, doing everything I can to make people happy, and have received several 5 and 10 dollar tips, as well as numerous smaller tips. But... despite bending over backwards for people, I now have a 4.6 star rating after 50 trips. Here is what happened...
> 
> ...


Welcome to the wonderful world of rideshares.
What I do when I have somebody like that is I don't end the ride and just allow the app to keep running. Pretty much like a taxi meter just let it keep running. The app will continue to calculate the ride based on mileage and time and charge the passenger the additional fee. As long as you're not going to far that'll work just fine.

The people we Haul around for the most part are a bunch of ingrateful @@@@@"s. You can be driving a beautiful new vehicle. Immaculately clean on the inside and out. Have great amenities. Be courteous, and polite. Drive them safely from point A to point B, and they'll still find a reason to give you a poor rating.
We've all been there and experienced what you are experiencing. You're not doing anything wrong.



BigRedDriver said:


> The only thing I offer my riders is a cord and a safe ride with a HOT GUY!


Love it
??????


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## MissouriTiger (Jun 3, 2019)

So are you saying that if I take 1 passenger to the requested destination, and then proceed to take the 2nd passenger to another location, I will be paid fairly for the entire trip, even if only one destination was entered in the app by the rider?


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## R3drang3r (Feb 16, 2019)

MissouriTiger said:


> So are you saying that if I take 1 passenger to the requested destination, and then proceed to take the 2nd passenger to another location, I will be paid fairly for the entire trip, even if only one destination was entered in the app by the rider?


Yup, as long as you don't end the ride. It will keep calculating and adding the miles and time. I've done it on more than one occasion no problems.


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## BigRedDriver (Nov 28, 2018)

R3drang3r said:


> Yup, as long as you don't end the ride. It will keep calculating and adding the miles and time. I've done it on more than one occasion no problems.


ALWAYS BACK IT UP WITH AN AFFIRMATIVE TEXT FROM THE PAX THOUGH. AND YES, MY KEYBOARD IS STUCK ON CAPS!


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## R3drang3r (Feb 16, 2019)

MissouriTiger said:


> So are you saying that if I take 1 passenger to the requested destination, and then proceed to take the 2nd passenger to another location, I will be paid fairly for the entire trip, even if only one destination was entered in the app by the rider?


I picked up two women one day that wanted to go to a store at a completely different location. They had no idea how to add a stop in the app and neither do I. I drove them 12 miles off Route to the store. Waited 20 minutes while they shopped. Then resume the ride to their destination.
The app calculated every single mile plus the additional time, including the waiting time. I received a nice $40 tip for my troubles.


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## OldBay (Apr 1, 2019)

BigRedDriver said:


> The only thing I offer my riders is a cord and a safe ride with a HOT GUY!


Your AC doesn't work?



MissouriTiger said:


> Hello friends,
> 
> I have been driving Uber for 1-week in the St Louis area. I drive a spotlessly clean black SUV with leather seats, with strawberry scent, free ice water, cell phone chargers available, I'm very friendly/courteous, very safe driver, doing everything I can to make people happy, and have received several 5 and 10 dollar tips, as well as numerous smaller tips. But... despite bending over backwards for people, I now have a 4.6 star rating after 50 trips. Here is what happened...
> 
> ...


I think you are lacking in intuition / tech / navigation skills. They will come in time, but you need to be careful you don't get deactivated first.

If I were you, I'd be very careful the next few weeks, only pickup professionals during business hours. Drive nicer neighborhoods. Don't try to force trips, be ready to cancel or shuffle. Drive away from drunks....anyone who looks like they are 21 or younger.... Anyone who has an "alternative" look. Women who have been drinking. People in the hood. Anyone with children and no car seat. Angry men who try to open the front pax door without asking if its ok. If they call to ask where you are, cancel? Do they have special requirements? Cancel.

Just drive away. Dont engage. Cancel or shuffle.


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## Illini (Mar 14, 2019)

Forget the water and strawberry scent. Most of all, forget the rating. Don't worry about it until Uber deactivates you for a low rating. Concentrate more on learning how to use the app. Good luck!


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## nonononodrivethru (Mar 25, 2019)

MissouriTiger said:


> Hello friends,
> 
> I have been driving Uber for 1-week in the St Louis area. I drive a spotlessly clean black SUV with leather seats, with strawberry scent, free ice water, cell phone chargers available, I'm very friendly/courteous, very safe driver, doing everything I can to make people happy, and have received several 5 and 10 dollar tips, as well as numerous smaller tips. But... despite bending over backwards for people, I now have a 4.6 star rating after 50 trips. Here is what happened...
> 
> ...


Easiest way to deal with this is go with the flow.
Quick stops? No problem. This is usually a convenience store. Don't worry about adding it in the app. Round trip? When they get back in the car, just ask them to edit the destination back to their original location. Add a stop? They can either add another destination after the first stop or they can add a stop via the app.

If you go with the flow, passengers tend to give 5 stars. If the stop is just a little out of the way of the destination or on the way, just go with it. Most passengers are too good natured to try to defraud you of the 6 block detour to drop their friend off.


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## FLUBBER (Aug 14, 2018)

Join LYFT. Ratings are based on the last 100 rated rides with LYFT compared to 500 rated rides on UBER. Only about 60%-70% of rides are rated be aware so it takes more than 100 on LYFT or 500 on UBER. A 1* just takes forever to disappear on UBER. I try to hit 25 to 30 rides a day. 1* on LYFT disappears in a week for me maybe a little more depends how many rides are actually rated. Also in the examples you gave with LYFT you can feel free to rate them poorly or make a report of a possible issue and LYFT will sometimes even reverse an unjust rating where UBER will never reverse a rating. I drive both but after 1 year on UBER and how poorly they handle rider incidents I've chosen to only take an UBER ride if I absolutely need to and only if LYFT is slow.


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## MissouriTiger (Jun 3, 2019)

I really appreciate all the suggestions. I feel bad now, because I kinda thought those people were trying to scam me for 2 rides for the price of one. I now realize they thought I was trying to scam them. I didn't know we were paid for actual miles driven. I thought we were paid mileage based on the estimated distance to the destination. I honestly didn't know that I could keep driving farther than the original destination and get paid for it. Now that I know I hopefully don't have to worry about any more 1-star ratings for a while. I hope.


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## FLUBBER (Aug 14, 2018)

BigRedDriver said:


> ALWAYS BACK IT UP WITH AN AFFIRMATIVE TEXT FROM THE PAX THOUGH. AND YES, MY KEYBOARD IS STUCK ON CAPS!


I've tried to use the in app texts as well to back me up. However in the 2 times I needed to tell UBER to review the messaging from the ride UBER told me they are unable to do that or access the text history. That's probably a lie they just don't want to but now i do the text confirmation of special agreements and then I screen capture it so i can upload to UBER if needed later.


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

MissouriTiger said:


> Hello friends,
> 
> I have been driving Uber for 1-week in the St Louis area. I drive a spotlessly clean black SUV with leather seats, with strawberry scent, free ice water, cell phone chargers available, I'm very friendly/courteous, very safe driver, doing everything I can to make people happy, and have received several 5 and 10 dollar tips, as well as numerous smaller tips. But... despite bending over backwards for people, I now have a 4.6 star rating after 50 trips. Here is what happened...
> 
> ...


Uber Psychological Manipulation.

Keeps You Pliable.


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## Ballermaris (Apr 11, 2019)

Ignore those things, it will drive you nuts. Focus on the here and now and work just get through the next trip without the ratings affecting you.


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## Classified (Feb 8, 2018)

MissouriTiger said:


> I really appreciate all the suggestions. I feel bad now, because I kinda thought those people were trying to scam me for 2 rides for the price of one. I now realize they thought I was trying to scam them. I didn't know we were paid for actual miles driven. I thought we were paid mileage based on the estimated distance to the destination. I honestly didn't know that I could keep driving farther than the original destination and get paid for it. Now that I know I hopefully don't have to worry about any more 1-star ratings for a while. I hope.


You do know if you click the address, you can change the destination address,

Or the other way is ask riders to do it in their app, but I find it quicker and easier if I do it,


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## nonononodrivethru (Mar 25, 2019)

FLUBBER said:


> Join LYFT. Ratings are based on the last 100 rated rides with LYFT compared to 500 rated rides on UBER. Only about 60%-70% of rides are rated be aware so it takes more than 100 on LYFT or 500 on UBER. A 1* just takes forever to disappear on UBER. I try to hit 25 to 30 rides a day. 1* on LYFT disappears in a week for me maybe a little more depends how many rides are actually rated. Also in the examples you gave with LYFT you can feel free to rate them poorly or make a report of a possible issue and LYFT will sometimes even reverse an unjust rating where UBER will never reverse a rating. I drive both but after 1 year on UBER and how poorly they handle rider incidents I've chosen to only take an UBER ride if I absolutely need to and only if LYFT is slow.


Don't drive for Lyft. They never surge. You'll make 30% less.


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## gambler1621 (Nov 14, 2017)

Here are my suggestions, KC is similar to STL.
1. Get rid of water. You are not a vending machine and your car is not a trash can.
2. You should strive for "no scent" or very very light scent. I use a quick shot of free breeze a couple times a day.
3. Put the chargers away and only offer to long ride or airport pax. They will get stolen or broken if you don't keep track of them.
4. Click arrive on Lyft when car comes to stop on (automatic on Ubet).
5. NOTHING enters car until all pax are present, ready, clean, & reasonably sober.
6. Cancel as no show at exactly 5 min., no exceptions. Tell pax that other people are waiting for rides.
7. No visibly intox pax. Cleanup fee has been recently lowered to $20.
8. Pax always changes destination to prevent fraud. Tell them you don't get paid properly if they don't. It is also a safety issue for you. Tell them U/L recently took the ability for you to do it away.
9. On stops or round trips, all items leave the car with the pax. No anchors. 2-5 minute wait, then you end ride and leave.
10. NEVER pick up a pax with rating below 4.70, or over 7-10 min away.


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## grayspinner (Sep 8, 2015)

Your third group may have been trying to scam you (convenience store ride)

Regardless, when pax have a short trip somewhere that's a quick stop & a short trip back, it is generally in their benefit and your loss.

If the total ride is not at least 3 miles, it'll be a minimum fare. The quicker and shorter a minimum fare, the more profitable it is.

OP - the second and third trips you described, sounds as if the entire round trip would have been a minimum fare - THAT'S why they were pissed - they didn't want to pay two minimum fares for their round trip.

Had you waited and driven them home, you would have made the same as you did ending their trip at the store. YOU make significantly more money refusing to do round trips that won't exceed what you would make on two minimum fares. Even if this means you get a 1* (once you have more rides, occasional bad ratings are no big deal).

Note - on lyft, long round trips with the exact pick up and destination location, along the same route sometimes are not paid properly, which is why you should end the trip near the pickup point, but not at the exact address.

Take a ride as a pax and use that time to familiarize yourself with the pax app. Changing the destination in the app for pax is not hard at all - you swipe up from the bottom of the app and next to your destination address it says something like change or update - press there to update the address.

It protects you from pax fraud to have them change it in the app. I tell pax to 'please update it so my GPS updates - I don't want to mess with my GPS while I'm concentrating on driving'. If they are having trouble, I will pull over and show them how to do it in the app if needed - that way they learn how and I'm protected. I do stereotype - there are people less likely to be fraudulent & those I don't worry about as much.

Being careful which rides you accept is one of the best ways to keep your rating high. Don't take low rated pax. Don't take trips that are likely to not be profitable (this is market dependent and takes good business knowledge to determine - understanding your costs of operation & the difference between revenue and profit help a great deal).

Also - you can (and should) cancel any pax that are difficult from the start. Bad gut feeling-cancel, too drunk to walk - cancel, coming to your car after 4min & 45 seconds - lock your doors and slowly pull away, cancel at 5min 1sec with 'rider not here' and get your cancel fee...

And for the love of all that's good and holy, NEVER take kids without carseats, allow more pax than you have seat belts for, allow open containers or unaccompanied minors in your car. And 1* pax who deserve it.

Also too - DON'T TAKE X TRIPS IN YOUR SUV!

Do yourself a favor and only take xl and higher platform rides.


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## ANT 7 (Oct 14, 2018)

Don't worry about your rating util 200 trips or so.


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## Seamus (Jun 21, 2018)

BigRedDriver said:


> The only thing I offer my riders is a cord and a safe ride with a HOT GUY!


Its against the TOS to drive around with another man in the car with you!


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## MissouriTiger (Jun 3, 2019)

Once again, I appreciate all the great advice!

I don't believe Uber will let me use my SUV for XL. It's a 2008 Kia Sorento with 40K miles. Customers have complimented how nice my car is, but Uber considers 2008 too old for XL. And it only carries 4 pax, so I can't do the van trips either. So naturally, it won't be economical for me to do this long term. After expenses I'm probably below minimum wage, but at least I have money coming in while I'm between jobs. Plus, I have no health insurance, and the healthcare.gov website won't let me sign up.


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## McGarnagle (May 23, 2019)

MissouriTiger said:


> Plus, I have no health insurance, and the healthcare.gov website won't let me sign up.


did you have health insurance that was recently cancelled? If so you can sign up outside the typical sign up window.


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## FLUBBER (Aug 14, 2018)

McGarnagle said:


> did you have health insurance that was recently cancelled? If so you can sign up outside the typical sign up window.


If driving is your only source of income it does not matter if you made 40k or 60k your expenses and mileage should almost completely offset gross income $ for $ or at least below poverty guidelines. Most state welfare free insurance is based on net income so if that fits you medical might be free.


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## Munsuta (May 4, 2019)

I just got 1 starred for lightly swerving to avoid a animal that ran into the road. The thing about this gig is that you will never be able to please everyone. So stop worrying about your rating, it really doesn't matter at the end of the day.


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## McGarnagle (May 23, 2019)

FLUBBER said:


> If driving is your only source of income it does not matter if you made 40k or 60k your expenses and mileage should almost completely offset gross income $ for $ or at least below poverty guidelines. Most state welfare free insurance is based on net income so if that fits you medical might be free.


True but you need to sign up through the same website and the same rules for applications apply. You either need to sign up during the designated time or you need to have a life event (like getting married, having a baby, or losing health insurance) that allows you to sign up outside of the sign up period. He is stating he cannot sign up (most likely because it's outside the sign up window). I am saying there are exceptions (like losing your insurance) that allow you sign up outside that sign up window.


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## Fuzzyelvis (Dec 7, 2014)

MissouriTiger said:


> Hello friends,
> 
> I have been driving Uber for 1-week in the St Louis area. I drive a spotlessly clean black SUV with leather seats, with strawberry scent, free ice water, cell phone chargers available, I'm very friendly/courteous, very safe driver, doing everything I can to make people happy, and have received several 5 and 10 dollar tips, as well as numerous smaller tips. But... despite bending over backwards for people, I now have a 4.6 star rating after 50 trips. Here is what happened...
> 
> ...


You need to learn how to use the app.

Pax are assholes. And stop with the ice water. It doesn't help. Just makes them even more entitled.


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## FLUBBER (Aug 14, 2018)

Fuzzyelvis said:


> You need to learn how to use the app.
> 
> Pax are assholes. And stop with the ice water. It doesn't help. Just makes them even more entitled.


When I first started I did the water, candies, magazines and more. I agree with Fuzzy Elvis, they get more entitled or even want more. Plus take or steal everything if it's not nailed down and toss wrappers and bottles on the floor. I got sick of wasting money and realized you don't need to do any of that to get 5* ratings. Now there is never anything at all in my car except my phone and 2 chargers. If a PAX makes any negative comments to me about not having water or candies or strawberry scent I tell them why. Then I grab a starburst chew from my door to enjoy myself. Now they can smell that strawberry scent LMAO.


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## Scooby-Doo (Apr 21, 2019)

MissouriTiger said:


> Hello friends,
> 
> I have been driving Uber for 1-week in the St Louis area. I drive a spotlessly clean black SUV with leather seats, with strawberry scent, free ice water, cell phone chargers available, I'm very friendly/courteous, very safe driver, doing everything I can to make people happy, and have received several 5 and 10 dollar tips, as well as numerous smaller tips. But... despite bending over backwards for people, I now have a 4.6 star rating after 50 trips. Here is what happened...
> 
> ...


There is nothing you can do. Other than just be you and try not to throw your self at people. You know the ones who care and the ones that don't bother because reasons of their own. I'm surprised Uber did not show you how to operate the App? All the best with it!


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## TheCount (May 15, 2019)

Mikeoftulsa said:


> when you are new, a low rating hurts more. after 500 trips/ratings, a 1 star might knock your rating down .01 - .03. Just get more rides and roll with it. It does suck when you get 1 stars for stupid reasons.


After 500 rated rides the worst drop you can get from a single rating would be if you get a 1* and a 5* drops off, which reduces your overall rating by 0.008 which might not even change your rating since it's rounded to the nearest .01.

For example, suppose you have 475 X 5*, 16 X 4*, 7 X 3*, 0 X 2*, and 2 X 1*. That's 4.924 which rounds off to 4.92. Then you get a 1* replacing one of the 5*s. Now you're at 474 / 16 / 7 / 0 / 3, which is 4.916, which still rounds off to 4.92.



MissouriTiger said:


> So are you saying that if I take 1 passenger to the requested destination, and then proceed to take the 2nd passenger to another location, I will be paid fairly for the entire trip, even if only one destination was entered in the app by the rider?


Yep, as long as you end the ride at the second destination.

I do this routinely, only exception being if I accepted a stacked ping before they asked. I do request them to update in the app (just tap on "destination" and change it). But even if they can't figure it out, you'll get paid for actual distance and time.

I don't get too exercised about pax not knowing how to do stuff on the app. They probably only use the app a few times a year - quite a few are first-timers - compared to us doing 10+ rides a day.



MissouriTiger said:


> I really appreciate all the suggestions. I feel bad now, because I kinda thought those people were trying to scam me for 2 rides for the price of one. I now realize they thought I was trying to scam them. I didn't know we were paid for actual miles driven. I thought we were paid mileage based on the estimated distance to the destination. I honestly didn't know that I could keep driving farther than the original destination and get paid for it. Now that I know I hopefully don't have to worry about any more 1-star ratings for a while. I hope.


You'll still get them. Don't fret too much. Everything could be perfect and a song come on they don't like and they'll 1* you for it (actually happened to me). Uber doesn't care they'll just send a canned rehash of the "how ratings work" article.


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## homelesswarlock (Dec 20, 2018)

MissouriTiger said:


> Hello friends,
> 
> I have been driving Uber for 1-week in the St Louis area. I drive a spotlessly clean black SUV with leather seats, with strawberry scent, free ice water, cell phone chargers available, I'm very friendly/courteous, very safe driver, doing everything I can to make people happy, and have received several 5 and 10 dollar tips, as well as numerous smaller tips. But... despite bending over backwards for people, I now have a 4.6 star rating after 50 trips. Here is what happened...
> 
> ...


Only take 4.90 rated riders and above. Ignore all 5.0 because they might be completely new accounts.

Ratings like 4.90+ is significant because a pax with
40 rides and and 1 star= 4.90
60 rides and 1 star = 4.93;
120 rides with 1 star = 4.97;
240 rides with 1 star= 4.98
480 rides with 1 star = 4.99









Pax like this: 1 out of 7 rides they will screw up or throw up.


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## Ubermcbc (Sep 25, 2016)

MissouriTiger said:


> Hello friends,
> 
> I have been driving Uber for 1-week in the St Louis area. I drive a spotlessly clean black SUV with leather seats, with strawberry scent, free ice water, cell phone chargers available, I'm very friendly/courteous, very safe driver, doing everything I can to make people happy, and have received several 5 and 10 dollar tips, as well as numerous smaller tips. But... despite bending over backwards for people, I now have a 4.6 star rating after 50 trips. Here is what happened...
> 
> ...


The more you try to bend over, the more people will take advantage of you. They take it as a sign of weakness. Stop offering them any free stuff. Forget about the cold water, don't even offer hot water. Always keep your option open for another job. Rating is not the only thing that may deactivate you. False accusations can happen anytime.


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## FLUBBER (Aug 14, 2018)

Ubermcbc said:


> The more you try to bend over, the more people will take advantage of you. They take it as a sign of weakness. Stop offering them any free stuff. Forget about the cold water, don't even offer hot water. Always keep your option open for another job. Rating is not the only thing that may deactivate you. False accusations can happen anytime.


I uploaded dashcam of last 12 months of rides my entire ride history to dropbox sorted by day and file name syntax is set by the camera makes it nice and easy to find any date or time you want to look at. The last false report that came in on me I asked UBER for time of ride so I could send them the link to the specific file. They refused to tell me citing rider privacy. I sent them the master link to 12 months of rides and told them feel free and look as they know the time of ride and I don't they don't even need to tell me. They refused citing rider privacy lol. What a joke hiding behind privacy when it's not even a valid excuse. If they don't want to review dashcams to defend ourselves they should just say so in the first place. Dashcam is good to protect you from criminal complaints the police will happily look at it at least.
Forget the 1* ratings and take the false reports is nothing you can do about it except drive until you can't and as UBERmcbc said get another job lined up as back up. You could get lucky and drive for a couple years or be done in 2 months depends on who gets in your car.


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## Mikeoftulsa (Dec 10, 2018)

TheCount said:


> After 500 rated rides the worst drop you can get from a single rating would be if you get a 1* and a 5* drops off, which reduces your overall rating by 0.008 which might not even change your rating since it's rounded to the nearest .01.
> 
> For example, suppose you have 475 X 5*, 16 X 4*, 7 X 3*, 0 X 2*, and 2 X 1*. That's 4.924 which rounds off to 4.92. Then you get a 1* replacing one of the 5*s. Now you're at 474 / 16 / 7 / 0 / 3, which is 4.916, which still rounds off to 4.92.


Recently had a pax give me a 1 star. It dropped me from 4.91 to 4.90.


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## touberornottouber (Aug 12, 2016)

Yes, this is normal. In fact you are lucky they also didn't do three reports for various things like "safety", "professionalism" and "car quality". A lot of passengers love to do this as soon as you tell them "NO" for anything. If you are really unlucky sometimes after you say "NO" they will contact Uber/Lyft and report that you were intoxicated or that you sexually harassed them. This then results in your account being deactivated.


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## zigo230 (Aug 7, 2017)

Mikeoftulsa said:


> Recently had a pax give me a 1 star. It dropped me from 4.91 to 4.90.


After 1,300 rides i was sitting at a 4.96. Sometime last week after giving several perfectly good, safe rides, someone gave me a 1-star. It dropped me to a 4.95. As a natural human reaction i got pissed... and called Uber to find out what kind of feedback the rider provided to give me a 1-star?? The Uber rep thanked me for calling, said the ratings are given in anonymity and they cannot be reversed. She said they would not even know which rider gave the 1-star which i find hard to believe.
But whatever, i recalled that i had a few elderly passengers that week and I think one of them accidentally tapped the 1-star thinking that was the best rating,,,instead of a 5. It happens.


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## Mikeoftulsa (Dec 10, 2018)

zigo230 said:


> After 1,300 rides i was sitting at a 4.96. Sometime last week after giving several perfectly good, safe rides, someone gave me a 1-star. It dropped me to a 4.95. As a natural human reaction i got pissed... and called Uber to find out what kind of feedback the rider provided to give me a 1-star?? The Uber rep thanked me for calling, said the ratings are given in anonymity and they cannot be reversed. She said they would not even know which rider gave the 1-star which i find hard to believe.
> But whatever, i recalled that i had a few elderly passengers that week and I think one of them accidentally tapped the 1-star thinking that was the best rating,,,instead of a 5. It happens.


got another 5 star that offset the 1 star the next day so I'm back up where I was lol.


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## Ubermcbc (Sep 25, 2016)

Mikeoftulsa said:


> got another 5 star that offset the 1 star the next day so I'm back up where I was lol.


Hmm. That can't be right. So your rating is based on LIFO? i am sure everybody is on FIFO. Lol.


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## Mikeoftulsa (Dec 10, 2018)

The newest 5 star replaced an old 1 star and so i ended up back where I originally was.


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## R3drang3r (Feb 16, 2019)

zigo230 said:


> After 1,300 rides i was sitting at a 4.96. Sometime last week after giving several perfectly good, safe rides, someone gave me a 1-star. It dropped me to a 4.95. As a natural human reaction i got pissed... and called Uber to find out what kind of feedback the rider provided to give me a 1-star?? The Uber rep thanked me for calling, said the ratings are given in anonymity and they cannot be reversed. She said they would not even know which rider gave the 1-star which i find hard to believe.
> But whatever, i recalled that i had a few elderly passengers that week and I think one of them accidentally tapped the 1-star thinking that was the best rating,,,instead of a 5. It happens.


You are number one Uber driver??



Mikeoftulsa said:


> The newest 5 star replaced an old 1 star and so i ended up back where I originally was.


It takes a lot of five star ratings to knock off a one.
What I don't understand is I see the same unchanged numbers for weeks. During that time I received a significant amount of rides that result in tips. Most Riders that take the time to give you a tip will also rate you a 5.
The question is where do all those fives go?
Yet you get one rating below a five and Bam your numbers change instantly.

This is Uber's cyber whip that they think will motivate drivers to do better. It has the complete opposite effect on me. I've reached a point where I don't even want to turn the app on and drive anymore.


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## FLUBBER (Aug 14, 2018)

Ubermcbc said:


> Hmm. That can't be right. So your rating is based on LIFO? i am sure everybody is on FIFO. Lol.


I thought we were all on the FUBAR system ?


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## Ubermcbc (Sep 25, 2016)

> The question is where do all those fives go?


You don't know that? The drivers who are about to get booted from guber's platform, get a anonymous call so they can buy those 5 stars in order to have a privilege to be a guber driver. You don't have to pay any cash. Just a promise that you will do minimum 100 trips a week.


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## R3drang3r (Feb 16, 2019)

Ubermcbc said:


> You don't know that? The drivers who are about to get booted from guber's platform, get a anonymous call so they can buy those 5 stars in order to have a privilege to be a guber driver. You don't have to pay any cash. Just a promise that you will do minimum 100 trips a week.


Do what???


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## pizzaladee (May 23, 2018)

R3drang3r said:


> You are number one Uber driver??
> 
> 
> It takes a lot of five star ratings to knock off a one.
> ...


You notice the 1 because it is replacing a higher number from 500 rated rides ago. All of the new 5s you get are replacing 5s from 500 rides ago, so you don't notice any change in those numbers.

Uber is not being shady with your 5s, you just don't understand how the ratings work.


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## R3drang3r (Feb 16, 2019)

pizzaladee said:


> You notice the 1 because it is replacing a higher number from 500 rated rides ago. All of the new 5s you get are replacing 5s from 500 rides ago, so you don't notice any change in those numbers.
> 
> Uber is not being shady with your 5s, you just don't understand how the ratings work.


Please enlighten me then.

Up to the first 500 it's very simple to understand it's based on math how they achieve your rating. Now I have absolutely no idea what Uber is doing.


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## pizzaladee (May 23, 2018)

R3drang3r said:


> Please enlighten me then.
> 
> Up to the first 500 it's very simple to understand it's based on math how they achieve your rating. Now I have absolutely no idea what Uber is doing.


Your newest rated ride is ride number 1. The rating from that ride replaces ride 501. More than likely they will both be 5* and you don't notice a change in the numbers.

If rating 1 is different than than 501, you notice the change, and then it takes 500 more rated rides to replace that new rating. Each new rating replaces the rating from 500 trips ago.

I'm not trying to be a jerk about this; just trying to explain how it works.


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## DriverMark (Jan 22, 2018)

About a year ago I had a PAX snap the end off the crapple charger.... mean iphone charger I had. I've never replaced it and don't plane to. 

My standard line now is: "Sorry, had someone snap the end off the iphone cord I had and I haven't had a chance to replace it yet".
PAX usually say something like: "Dang, that sucks. Why would people do that?"

You will learn some standard lines to deal with things passengers ask. Instead of just "No" ...... engage them and get them on your side.

Like.... "Do you have water?"
Me: "No, sorry. I used to carry it but I found people would take a few sips and instead of taking the open bottle with them, leave it in door. And then a later pax would try and use it. Instead of risking "double dipping", I stopped carrying water."

This gets the PAX on your side. That you don't carry water for their benefit. And they appreciate it.


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## SuzeCB (Oct 30, 2016)

zigo230 said:


> After 1,300 rides i was sitting at a 4.96. Sometime last week after giving several perfectly good, safe rides, someone gave me a 1-star. It dropped me to a 4.95. As a natural human reaction i got pissed... and called Uber to find out what kind of feedback the rider provided to give me a 1-star?? The Uber rep thanked me for calling, said the ratings are given in anonymity and they cannot be reversed. She said they would not even know which rider gave the 1-star which i find hard to believe.
> But whatever, i recalled that i had a few elderly passengers that week and I think one of them accidentally tapped the 1-star thinking that was the best rating,,,instead of a 5. It happens.


Phone/app support can't reverse downrates. Only a GLH can.


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## R3drang3r (Feb 16, 2019)

pizzaladee said:


> Your newest rated ride is ride number 1. The rating from that ride replaces ride 501. More than likely they will both be 5* and you don't notice a change in the numbers.
> 
> If rating 1 is different than than 501, you notice the change, and then it takes 500 more rated rides to replace that new rating. Each new rating replaces the rating from 500 trips ago.
> 
> I'm not trying to be a jerk about this; just trying to explain how it works.





pizzaladee said:


> Your newest rated ride is ride number 1. The rating from that ride replaces ride 501. More than likely they will both be 5* and you don't notice a change in the numbers.
> 
> If rating 1 is different than than 501, you notice the change, and then it takes 500 more rated rides to replace that new rating. Each new rating replaces the rating from 500 trips ago.
> 
> I'm not trying to be a jerk about this; just trying to explain how it works.


Thank you I appreciate the explanation.


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## Fuzzyelvis (Dec 7, 2014)

Scooby-Doo said:


> I'm surprised Uber did not show you how to operate the App?


Are you? Are you REALLY?



R3drang3r said:


> You are number one Uber driver??
> 
> 
> It takes a lot of five star ratings to knock off a one.
> ...


It takes ONE five star rating to knock off ONE one star rating. It just has to be the first and last rating of the last 500. It just takes a long time to cycle through the 499 other ratings to get to that 1 star (if its the only one).

When most of your ratings are five stars anyway, then all you're doing most of the time is replacing a five that drops off with a new five, so of course nothing changes most of the time. For instance, if 90% of your ratings are 5 stars, nothing will change 90% of the time. And for another 5% or so you STILL won't see a change because it takes a few 3 or 4s dropping off to make a difference. That also means that most of the time you won't even notice a 3 or 4 as your rating won't change. What will happen is you get three or four of those in a night and your rating does change and you assume somebody gave you a one.

This is why I don't try to figure out who gave me a crappy rating. If you have a horrible passenger and you know that you're going to exchange one stars then you can probably guess what happened, but when your rating changes and it seems out of the blue there's no point in worrying about it.


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## R3drang3r (Feb 16, 2019)

Scooby-Doo said:


> I'm surprised Uber did not show you how to operate the App? /QUOTE]
> I went up to YouTube to watch videos on how to operate the app. Nobody teaches you how to do anything. Uber has no indoctrination.


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## SatMan (Mar 20, 2017)

FLUBBER said:


> I've tried to use the in app texts as well to back me up. However in the 2 times I needed to tell UBER to review the messaging from the ride UBER told me they are unable to do that or access the text history. That's probably a lie they just don't want to but now i do the text confirmation of special agreements and then I screen capture it so i can upload to UBER if needed later.


Yep always take a screenshot of everything.











MissouriTiger said:


> Hello friends,
> 
> I have been driving Uber for 1-week in the St Louis area. I drive a spotlessly clean black SUV with leather seats, with strawberry scent, free ice water, cell phone chargers available, I'm very friendly/courteous, very safe driver, doing everything I can to make people happy, and have received several 5 and 10 dollar tips, as well as numerous smaller tips. But... despite bending over backwards for people, I now have a 4.6 star rating after 50 trips. Here is what happened...
> 
> ...


I suggest using your downtime to read more threads here on UP.net.

You might want to start with this one.

https://uberpeople.net/threads/new-drivers-and-veterans-advice-for-the-chicago-market.297692/


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## Disgusted38 (Dec 18, 2018)

R3drang3r said:


> Yup, as long as you don't end the ride. It will keep calculating and adding the miles and time. I've done it on more than one occasion no problems.


Me too. I just let it ride until they are out of my car. It catches up on the app.


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