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Comment by jeff18 | Hacker News Reader

Sorry if I am missing any sarcasm, but this seems totally backwards! Taxis are famous for racial discrimination while Uber drivers accept fares sight unseen.

Also, taxis are well known (at least in San Francisco) for illegally refusing fares to distant neighborhoods. Uber drivers simply can't refuse.

Finally, flagging a taxi is nearly impossible in a remote location, but calling an Uber driver from the app will work pretty much anywhere.

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Taxis everywhere are famous for trying to ask you your destination before letting you in the cab. I always say, "hold on, I can't hear you" and quickly open the door before they can drive away.

> Uber drivers simply can't refuse.

Sure they can; I've had an Uber driver call me after accepting the fare to tell me to cancel and re-request.

Yeah, that's a trick drivers play on customers so they don't take a hit to their rating. If Uber catches a driver canceling too often, they'll boot them or freeze them from picking up more fares. (Conversely, if a customer is doing the same thing too often, a similar penalty of fees or the like will happen to them as well.)

So next time they try that, feel free to hold your ground by using Lyft instead or something. You don't have to cancel - they must, by their own rules, either cancel themselves, or pick you up.

And was your response "You cancel and take the hit if you don't want the fare" ?

I had an even sneakier issue on a full fat Uber (not X) fare where the driver called me, asked me where I was going, told me he'd be there soon (location 5 minutes away), and just never came (15 minutes). I didn't know what to do with that as I actually did want to go home so I just cancelled and re-requested.

Let Uber's customer service know. They're very pleasant and they want to make sure you're happy.

You can see exactly where the car is on your phone! I admit, not a great experience but certainly rare and obviously the sort of thing that Uber can minimize and regular taxi companies cannot.

OK, but Uber has mechanisms to abate that which most taxi systems do not.

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