Uber launches on demand Mariachi band for $100
blog.uber.com
blog.uber.com
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Still waiting on that. Every marketing stunt they do backfires on me, because I see a company being distracted from their main product.
Every ride I've taken with Uber has been exactly the fee presented before getting in the vehicle and with no tip expected. I'm not sure how much more transparent that needs to be. If you are referring to people who unexpectedly paid more on NYE, I can only sympathize a little. It's NEW YEARS EVE!!
I never claimed to be talking about what the public wanted- I was just stating my own opinion.
I just tried the Uber app again, in case I'd missed a development. Nope- I "Set pickup location", then only have the option to "Request pickup here". It doesn't ask me where I'm going, let alone tell me how much it'll cost.
Yes, in an ideal world, they would estimate the cab price. But in an ideal world, iPods would come preinstalled with music and plane tickets could be purchased 5 mins before the flight at the same price. But these things just don't make business sense. I have a strong hunch that the time and effort put in by Uber to predict prices would only marginally increase their revenue, and certainly wouldn't increase their profits.
I was under the impression that this was not the case with Uber- that they specifically reached out to black cab companies to partner with them and establish rates. I may be wrong, but it's a real shame if I am.
Eh? At what point do you give it a destination so that it can present you with an estimated price?
The only time it displays an estimated price RANGE is during surge pricing.
Fast forward a couple of years, add in a ban (semi-optional) on visual advertising a la Sao Paulo, mix with freebee creative advertising, season with flash mob and suddenly our future could become extremely odd and confusing. Anyone who's not a fan of absurdism will have a hard time living in a metropolitan city.
The look on the guy's face as the band steps out of the elevator? That's one of my favorite things to cause to happen to other people - it's just plain fun all around.
Anyhow, my best friends were throwing this weekend house party where all the local freaks, geeks, and hipsters would be in attendance. So when my best friend called me to convince me to come in for the party that weekend, for whatever reason, I had this dumb idea. Perhaps this was a harbinger of the pre-dot-com opulence to come and the idea, of course, was on a much smaller scale but nevertheless, for no reason whatsoever except that I had for the first time in my life a bunch of cash burning a hole in my pocket, I suggested we get a mariachi band for the party. My friend looked into it. He found a group. He told me the amount for the basic band. I forget what was going to cost $250 extra to bring along as a musician (maybe an extra trumpet) but it all seemed very worth it. We needed the proper instrumentation represented.
When the band arrived with the party in full swing, they were pretty freaked out, since, this was not the normal kind of gig they played; no, not collage parties. So the woman dealing with the thing asked for half the cash up front. She also upped the price a bunch from the initial agreed upon amount but I didn't care. I was really just looking forward to seeing them play near the tapped keg around a bunch of mystified acquaintances. Now if I could have only gotten this done for $100, I would have filled the whole house with competing acts that night. Great work Über and thanks for bring back a fond memory.
$100 here only gets you one song, though. This is a very good marketing idea, but not a cost effective way to hire a band for a real gig.