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Comment by CamelCaseName | Hacker News Reader

> Any tips on how I can resolve this?

Use Lyft instead and don't support a company that treats you like garbage.

I did the same when they charged me $9.99 USD and then refunded me $9.99 CAD. (CAD is worth ~27% less at the moment)

Came here to past just that. Also since the advent of Uber, local taxi services got a fire lit under them, and now many have their own app with up front pricing and route planning.

Here in London (obviously YMMV) black cabs have an app, but they're also still routinely doing things like pretending their card machine isn't working. Not saying that people should user Uber / Lyft etc, just that all private transport is a bit shady.

> pretending their card machine isn't working

"Bummer, I don't carry cash" tends to fix this quickly.

Not really. Some drivers will insist on driving you to an ATM.

At which point you file a complaint with TFL.

I've had that experience of "broken credit card machine" in multiple countries including US, France, and Italy. That's why I use Uber when I can. I don't want to feel kidnapped by a taxi driver who insists in driving to an ATM.

This happened to me, but the ATM wasn't working. Suddenly their credit card machine started working again.

Do you think that Lyft would not do this?

OP wrote:

> I don't get how a ride hailing company thinks [it's] cool to behave like a bank.

Rather than "bank," they could have written "global corporation" without sacrificing accuracy. When you have billions of customers, each worth a small amount, problems with fraud that cost a much larger amount, and an algorithmic moderation toolset... the logical, financially-obvious outcome is treating individual customers who are inadvertently harmed by that automatic moderation like garbage.

I actually had to uninstall Lyft after they kept sending me marketing push notifications that couldn't be turned off. It's not reasonable to disable notifications for Lyft, so the whole app had to go.

on android there's usually categories of notifications

Uber does this as well. I only install it when I need a ride somewhere.

Agreed, it's not like we don't have alternatives.

UberEATS didn't honor a buy 1 get 1 free promo and I ditched them (after I spoke with customer service) along with Uber ride.

We don't always have alternatives. Lyft is not present in a lot of places, a lot of places don't have good apps for taxis, etc.

These aggregators are a plague.

Due to their scale and attacks from abusers, they won't disclose anything if you contact support.

So you're just abandoned on the wayside...

Perhaps just go back to a traditional taxi then? It might cost more, but if you need support, you call their number and get a real person rather than a robot that's sole job is to get you to give up.

> It might cost more, but if you need support, you call their number and get a real person rather than a robot that's sole job is to get you to give up.

It's been a few years, but my last experience with a taxi dispatcher was them saying "well, what am I supposed to do about it?" when mine was 45 minutes late for my pre-scheduled ride to the airport. Reaching a human isn't a guarantee of non-robotic support.

Lyft has unfortunately no where near the global presence that Uber has. In fact, I'm not even sure they operate anywhere outside of North America.

Indeed they don't.

https://www.lyft.com/rider/cities

This makes me think that if it works one way, it might also work the other way. I.e. find a way to pay them in CAD and then refund in USD.

Daily warning that not everyone lives in the USA and sometimes there are no alternatives to Uber in certain countries.

How did people move around in those countries before 2010?

By taxis that got deprecated by Uber because taxi costs more, and you are not certain which price will it be in the end, and for convenience. Now if you want to get a car to get you somewhere you have to get an Uber; otherwise you will be waiting for quite a while. It is not a reality I like, but it is a reality in some countries.

How did people move around in those countries before 2010?

Taxis. But those were put out of business by Uber.

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