Hacker News Reader

Comment by sen | Hacker News Reader

My wife’s Uber account (for both rides and food) is banned for life because she had a sleazy driver aggressively come on to her and when she went to get out of the car he said “I know where you live now” and drove off. She complained to Uber, they did nothing other than say “the driver left negative feedback on your ride” and her account got instantly banned. Follow up calls to them just said she “broke terms and conditions and there’s nothing they can do”.

For perspective, she had a similar sleazy taxi driver years ago, who she complained about to the taxi company. He was fired immediately and the taxi company offered to help my wife with going to the police if she wanted to (and offered the in-car video).

Thankfully we still have taxis locally, but the drivers have told me their numbers have dropped and Uber is winning.

View on HN

Wow, that's great to hear the taxi company stepped up, but I'm completely shocked by it! In the decade of taxi experiences prior to Uber/Lyft/ridesharing almost every taxi experience was absolutely awful. Driving erratically, on the phone, can't (or won't) take cards, won't take the route I said, literally kicking me and my spouse out of the cab and yelling at us for saying they needed to make a left turn instead of right (we lived in the area and knew where we were going). I'm convinced that a taxi driver has to literally kill someone before any action will be taken against them. I've found that Uber/Lyft usually tends to side with the rider but, like you shared, that's not always the case. The mutual rating system is a net plus IMO. Every cab company is different I guess, but I will never set foot in a cab again out of principle.

I've found the taxi drivers here to be really good. Most are older career-driver types who are really nice and know the city back to front, unlike the Uber drivers who are looking at their GPS more than the road or take wrong turns repeatedly.

I think location matters lots, the last city I lived in I avoided taxis at all costs because I found them to be more like you're saying... aggressive, clueless, dirty, etc.

The house always wins.

It's past time to nerf these yahoos. Civilize them. Impose tort, fair and impartial judiciary, right to appeal, property rights, and accountability & transparency.

I'm not on any side, but I would love to make an observation.

> she had a similar sleazy taxi driver years ago, who she complained about to the taxi company. He was fired immediately

This actually scares me more than Uber banning your wife. I'm not saying you or your wife lied, but it's sad how just a complaint by a woman can ruin any man's life. (I'm assuming your wife didn't have any evidence and the taxi company just fired the driver due to her complaint.)

I think you missed the part where the poster says the taxi company "...offered the in-car video."

You missed the part about the video surveillance

Presumably they watched the aforementioned video recording of his behavior before firing him

Reply on news.ycombinator.com