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Comment by VikingCoder | Hacker News Reader

Dear Lyft, you're screwing up your chance.

When Uber started to have a bunch of scandal, I tried to switch to Lyft. I really did. But, stuck at a hospital after an emergency room visit, trying to get home at 10pm, I sat there for 45 minutes, watching a driver go from 4 minutes away to 5 minutes away to 8 minutes away, then no driver, then a new driver is 4 minutes away, then 4 minutes away, then 5 minutes away, then no driver, then a new driver is 12 minutes away, then no driver...

Come on.

Raise the price if you have to, but making me wait while these drivers decided I was too far away?

Screw that, and screw you, Lyft.

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Lyft is screwing up in more ways than one. I only use these services when I'm out traveling. I switched to Lyft because a couple of drivers in Honolulu mentioned that they liked Lyft better. Fine, didn't matter to me. Until months later when the Lyft app started spamming me with notifications of ride credits and it wouldn't stop. Looking at their support information, the only way to get these spam notifications to stop is to completely block notifications for that app. But of course, if I do that, the notifications for actual ride information will be blocked, too. Deleted the app, will use Uber instead.

I guess this brings up the question: Is uber succeeding in its goal? Their value prop is that they can monopolize the taxi business, maybe they're actually pulling it off. Could explain why Lyft is starting to lag.

I think Uber is succeeding. But the goal is less obvious: burn cash to push through regulatory changes, loosening up the transportation market in preparation for self-driving taxis and logistics.

Imagine a new startup trying to convince you to switch your taxi for a new self-driving car? No way.

But an entrenched vendor that you have trusted for 5+ years? Ok, maybe next trip I'll accept your discount and try one of those self-driving cars.

This has happened to me on both services. It's inherent to the whole concept and has nothing to do with Lyft. If you ride enough it will happen to you to. The other day I ordered an uber, it was 5 minutes away, it drove to an entire different city, but uber wouldn't let me cancel without charging me, until 20 minutes had passed.

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