# Lyft Power Zones - a deception.



## stpetej

I've been driving Uber for 10 months and just added Lyft 2 weeks ago. I wondered why, after driving a packed event for nine hours (gridlock, blocked streets, suicidal pedestrians, drunken pax, you know of what I speak), my pay was so low. Definitely not worth it. In so many ways.

I go to the LYFT website and notice one line about the fact that "eligible drivers" will be paid the power zone rates. What is an eligible driver? One who can see above the steering wheel? No recent felonies? Okay, perhaps I missed this caveat before and it's my fault, but this was news to me. I read all the info snippets and watched the videos, but eligibility for power zones never came up. I wasn't sure if they were referring to geographic areas or specific drivers. So I checked my area and it qualifies. Hence, it must be that I wasn't an eligible driver.

So I called Lyft "support". The lady with whom I spoke said that I was not eligible because I had not responded to LYFT's opt-in power zone email. It's my fault. (BTW, who would have opted OUT ?!) I haven't seen any such email so asked her when the aforementioned email had been sent. She responded there was no way of knowing. I want to be certain I understand this; I'm eligible once I opt-in via phantom email and no further action is required on my part, right? Wrong. According to Support Lady, one must also opt-in to each ping. While DRIVING.

I foolishly persisted and asked why those power zone texts and pop-ups kept showing up ON MY PHONE if I wasn't eligible. Silly me. She said they are sent to everyone, regardless of eligibility. REALLY?! With no disclaimers along the lines of "oh, but you're not necessarily going to get paid...".

Seeking confirmation of this nonsense, I made the comparison to Uber; so it's not like an Uber surge where every driver (is supposed to) receive the increased rate? Support Lady informed me that "we are not Uber". Well, duh. But just as evil.

I then asked how LYFT determined which drivers are eligible. Do we all get these emails? She didn't know. Attempting to vent my frustration, I asked Support Lady to take a look at how many trips I drove during nine hours in a combat zone. She informed me they have no records of my trips. Not true, but I just dropped it. Active case of the crazies now popping up in my head.

I've designed software systems for several years. So I know for a fact that LYFT could easily restrict the power zone notifications to drivers who will actually receive the published rates. Or LYFT is counting on uninformed/ignorant drivers such as myself to just show up, assuming all those pop-ups and texts were true. How naive. Rider pays maximum rate, uninformed driver gets minimum pay and LYFT pockets the rest.

Being slightly deranged and quite persistent, I called again an hour later and spoke with three more support representatives. First one informed me that she could indeed see my rides and I am eligible for power zone pay (yay!), but she couldn't read the power zone details because they are written in Spanish. She would create a ticket and send it to "corporate" in an attempt to get me paid the power zone rates. Cool so far. BUT she had to transfer me to a different support line where I would speak with an English-speaking rep assisted by a Spanish-reading rep for details. Okay. Sounds bizarre, but that seems the norm. Spanish-speaking rep at next number gets across to me the fact that she doesn't speak English and transfers me back to previous line.

Gentleman who answers has a different (third) story. He tells me that I have been sent several opt-in emails and simply haven't responded. Told him, nope, no emails. Puts me on hold and comes back with a new version of the truth; a driver must be at 90% acceptance rate in order to receive opt-in email which will enable him/her to receive power zone pay. Which loops back to the question of why is LYFT sending power zone promotion texts and pop-ups to drivers who have no chance in hell of actually getting paid these rates? And why has LYFT not published the 90% acceptance rate threshold policy? Simply put this is WRONG. But wait! Everything will be just fine because he is going to create a ticket and send it to corporate...


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## negeorgia

Not my experience at all. If the app shows an active power zone, I get the bonus. No opt in email and no 90% acceptance rate.


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## stpetej

Wow, that's interesting and I appreciate your feedback. I received so much conflicting information from Lyft, but they all mentioned the opt-in email. Only the last guy said I had to be @ 90% acceptance rate.

Perhaps it's a requirement for new drivers only. Bottom line is I was paid base rate only after all that work in power zones. So I'll avoid them for awhile. Thanks again!


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## Mista T

Power Zones are equivalent/comparable to Boosts on Uber. Just be there and do the ride at the right time, collect extra $.

Attached are my PZ offers for this week. Amazingly pathetic. You aren't missing anything, if you were in my market.

Also, PZ offers vary. They send a cluster of offers to, say, 1000 drivers. The next 1000 drivers get a different set of offers. And so on. So drivers have different incentives, trying to spread out the crowds by time and geography.


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## negeorgia

stpetej said:


> Wow, that's interesting and I appreciate your feedback. I received so much conflicting information from Lyft, but they all mentioned the opt-in email. Only the last guy said I had to be @ 90% acceptance rate.
> 
> Perhaps it's a requirement for new drivers only. Bottom line is I was paid base rate only after all that work in power zones. So I'll avoid them for awhile. Thanks again!


Yeah the app should show the power zone border. The ping should show the bonus. If you don't see a bonus on your ping. You don't get it. Uber on the other hand, sometimes glitches the boost on the ping, I always look at the 'stop new requests' page and verify boost amount. It has always had it even if the ping did not.


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## Leo1983

stpetej said:


> I've been driving Uber for 10 months and just added Lyft 2 weeks ago. I wondered why, after driving a packed event for nine hours (gridlock, blocked streets, suicidal pedestrians, drunken pax, you know of what I speak), my pay was so low. Definitely not worth it. In so many ways.
> 
> I go to the LYFT website and notice one line about the fact that "eligible drivers" will be paid the power zone rates. What is an eligible driver? One who can see above the steering wheel? No recent felonies? Okay, perhaps I missed this caveat before and it's my fault, but this was news to me. I read all the info snippets and watched the videos, but eligibility for power zones never came up. I wasn't sure if they were referring to geographic areas or specific drivers. So I checked my area and it qualifies. Hence, it must be that I wasn't an eligible driver.
> 
> So I called Lyft "support". The lady with whom I spoke said that I was not eligible because I had not responded to LYFT's opt-in power zone email. It's my fault. (BTW, who would have opted OUT ?!) I haven't seen any such email so asked her when the aforementioned email had been sent. She responded there was no way of knowing. I want to be certain I understand this; I'm eligible once I opt-in via phantom email and no further action is required on my part, right? Wrong. According to Support Lady, one must also opt-in to each ping. While DRIVING.
> 
> I foolishly persisted and asked why those power zone texts and pop-ups kept showing up ON MY PHONE if I wasn't eligible. Silly me. She said they are sent to everyone, regardless of eligibility. REALLY?! With no disclaimers along the lines of "oh, but you're not necessarily going to get paid...".
> 
> Seeking confirmation of this nonsense, I made the comparison to Uber; so it's not like an Uber surge where every driver (is supposed to) receive the increased rate? Support Lady informed me that "we are not Uber". Well, duh. But just as evil.
> 
> I then asked how LYFT determined which drivers are eligible. Do we all get these emails? She didn't know. Attempting to vent my frustration, I asked Support Lady to take a look at how many trips I drove during nine hours in a combat zone. She informed me they have no records of my trips. Not true, but I just dropped it. Active case of the crazies now popping up in my head.
> 
> I've designed software systems for several years. So I know for a fact that LYFT could easily restrict the power zone notifications to drivers who will actually receive the published rates. Or LYFT is counting on uninformed/ignorant drivers such as myself to just show up, assuming all those pop-ups and texts were true. How naive. Rider pays maximum rate, uninformed driver gets minimum pay and LYFT pockets the rest.
> 
> Being slightly deranged and quite persistent, I called again an hour later and spoke with three more support representatives. First one informed me that she could indeed see my rides and I am eligible for power zone pay (yay!), but she couldn't read the power zone details because they are written in Spanish. She would create a ticket and send it to "corporate" in an attempt to get me paid the power zone rates. Cool so far. BUT she had to transfer me to a different support line where I would speak with an English-speaking rep assisted by a Spanish-reading rep for details. Okay. Sounds bizarre, but that seems the norm. Spanish-speaking rep at next number gets across to me the fact that she doesn't speak English and transfers me back to previous line.
> 
> Gentleman who answers has a different (third) story. He tells me that I have been sent several opt-in emails and simply haven't responded. Told him, nope, no emails. Puts me on hold and comes back with a new version of the truth; a driver must be at 90% acceptance rate in order to receive opt-in email which will enable him/her to receive power zone pay. Which loops back to the question of why is LYFT sending power zone promotion texts and pop-ups to drivers who have no chance in hell of actually getting paid these rates? And why has LYFT not published the 90% acceptance rate threshold policy? Simply put this is WRONG. But wait! Everything will be just fine because he is going to create a ticket and send it to corporate...


First mistake was asking a Lyft employee. I as a driver had to update them on policy on multiple occasions. They're the cheapest help Lyft could find so they share a brain cell. But good luck. Lol. 
I had them place a note on my account that they are not to use the word "dynamic" in any correspondence with me lol. That seemed to stop all replies.


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## chitown73

Lyft's power zones, Primetime and power drivers bonus are ALL B*S. Lyft will offer 10% power zones while Uber has 20-60% boost zones, and don't forget that Lyft is going to take 25% from that extra dollar you just earned on the min fare ride. 
Primetime is also b*s - that's why they use only a few shades of pink (now orange) to represent an almost infinite number of possible percentages. During high demand the app could say 25-600% Primetime and you could be in the darkest colored zone and still get a 100% Primetime bonus. At least with Uber you know exactly what percentage the surge is.

PDB - they say that only certain drivers will qualify for that weeks bonus. And that just because you might "qualify" that doesn't mean that you'll be eligible for that particular week.
And even if you do qualify, you still need to meet their ridiculous requirements such as accepting 90% of ALL trips even when they bombard you with f'd up 20+ mins pickups.


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## Drivincrazy

And Line ride requests...No Thank You.


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## Sariandan

My problem with power zones is that they are almost two hours away for me. From what I understand, you are only eligible for power zones in your region (I could be misunderstanding, but I only see the ones in my region (Charleston). But, the city of Charleston is the only place they appear. Like I said, I live two hours away from Charleston. But, I live 10 minutes away from Savannah.

I asked Lyft support how to change my region. They said that since I would have to submit new paperwork (not true), which would be an inconvenience for me, they suggest that I stay in my current region. I explained, again, about how far I was from Charleston and how close I was to Savannah and they told me that I should move to Savannah if I want that to be my driving region.

To be clear, for Uber, my region includes Savannah. To drive in Savannah, I just have to go there, no extra paperwork. In fact, it takes more to drive in SC, because the vehicle inspection is required, as is the display of trade dress, both of which are not needed in Georgia.

In short, Lyft basically said that if I want power zones, I need to move my residence 10 minutes further south or drive two hours to Charleston. Effing window licking good!


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## Tokichop

I started Lyft about a week ago, after 3 days I wrote them an email complaining about this request from 12 miles away to take this kid to 7 Eleven at 1:00 A.M (and back) and he made my car smells like Willie Nelson’s your bus. Two days later got an email showing the power zone 2 minutes from my house


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