Programmers say Uber Eats is systematically underpaying their workers | Hacker News Reader

Programmers say Uber Eats is systematically underpaying their workers

salon.com

41 pointssantaclaus15 comments

All of them delivery apps are scumbags, do what I do, stop using them, go old school, call the restaurant, pick up the food, the restaurant gets to keep 100%, not the 70%. And, really, no one is commuting, so there is no traffic, get your asses of the couch..really..

A company is not properly paying their drivers so we should change our behavior such that we eliminate their jobs entirely?

Yes

Yeah, and we should also organize and vote for better labor laws so we can build strong unions again.

Yes, companies that exploit workers are a disease.

Wouldn't this at least allow for an opening in the market that can be filled by an organization that doesn't exploit drivers? If we continue to support a company that could do better without placing either legal or market pressure, no one has any reason to change.

You think the company is not aware of their exploitative behavior, they get away with it because they can. And you as a consumer, can either bring it to their notice, if you have the time and effort to do so, or you vote with your wallet.

> 100%, not the 70%

Are these real numbers on the markup of e-delivery companies or just examples?

Real numbers

Most delivery apps keep between 15% to 30% of the total order.

Ooh, this resonates. I noticed Uber Eats at one point hadn't billed my card for several tips I'd given after an interface update, so I contacted support. Once I got past the usual scripted "here is how to tip", when I finally got through to someone who understood I was reporting a bug, they brushed me off insisting Uber had systems to always check they were charging and paying out the correct amount, so I must be mistaken. I gave up and switched to other apps.

A few weeks later, I eventually got a bunch of small Uber Eats charges. They ended up being all those tips I'd diligently reported to Uber, so I guess it was a bug and they just didn't want to admit it.

Contact centers for software services like this are usually implored, or given specific language on how to deal with user-reported bugs. They’re trained not to admit a bug exists because that implies that the company is at fault. In most cases, this makes sense, as a majority of “bugs” are user-caused problems. In the edge cases where there really is a bug though, users can end up in these kafkaesque dungeons of unresolved problems that they have no control over. The company still benefits in the end as they never admitted fault and the user affected will probably give up sooner than the company gets the ticket resolved.

praiseworthy and apt use of "kafkaesque"

Exactly! That's why it took me (the guy in the article) so many phone calls and emails with Uber before somebody admitted the bug - and I got it on tape (with their consent). Must have spent five hours dealing with support before they admitted it.

I would love if Uber trained and trusted their support staff to identify real bugs, and to escalate appropriately...I was so tempted to just go on LinkedIn, find some engineers, and message them directly.

I once found a bug in the Uber Eats app where it would in certain conditions place a previous order and not the one that was displayed. I put some effort in to reproduce the bug and take screenshots & write detailed steps to reproduce. I figured that at best I’d save them some time debugging this and avoid the trouble for their other customers and at worst no big deal, they’d just refund the incorrect order eventually.

Nope, the support monkeys seemed to play dumb and ignored everything I said and didn’t even want to refund me despite them essentially charging me for something I didn’t intentionally order. I ended up filing a successful chargeback and that was the end of the ride (pun intended!) for my business with this disgusting company (in addition to other previous incidents).

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