RIDEGURU
This seems to be happening a lot here suddeenly. It amazes me how one person gets an idea on how to scam passengers and then other people follow along. Now almost all of our Lyft drivers start the trip before we have even gotten in the car. The other day he was a block away and had not even turned on our street. REALLY? Um we know when the trip is started and while I always tip if you are going to build in your own little tip you are probably going to get a lot less than what I would have given you. To top it off the other day a driver not only started the trip early but ended it five minutes after I was inside the building. SURPRIZE BUDDY-You screwed yourself becaus not only did I not tip you but called Lyft to have $4 refunded. You would have at least gotten a tip from me plus the entire cost of the trip if you had some integreity.
what is with the starting my trip before you are even on my street ?
Rideshare Scams
Discuss known or suspected scams in the rideshare industry. Share your experience here.
Robyn Bradley Wallen (RobynBradleyWallen)
Ride Apprentice
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The Guru Take
Quick review of Uber and Lyft Driver apps - How pickup works.
I can't comment on why these drivers are doing this, but I can shed some light on how the pickups work from the drivers' perspective.
Arrival:
Upon arrival at the pickup location, with the Lyft app the driver must tap on "Arrive" and then "Confirm arrival." This sends a message to the rider that the driver has arrived. If the app indicates that your driver has arrived before the car is at your location, you are right; perhaps the driver has tapped on the button prematurely.
Caution: It is worth noting that with the Uber Driver App, this arrival is triggered automatically. When the driver gets close to the pickup location, the app sends the message to the rider immediately. This may seem to the rider as if the driver indicated an arrival too soon.
Starting a Ride:
Once the rider is in the vehicle, the driver can click on "Pick up <name>" (for Lyft) and "Start Trip" (for Uber). This effectively starts the ride. There is one important caveat however. If the driver starts to drive, the driver app will automatically start the trip.
Caution: This sometimes can happen inadvertently (i.e. the trip starts early) if the driver has a difficult time finding the rider. I thought this was relevant in your case, if you had noticed that your driver was starting the trip too soon.
Dropping off the passenger
Dropping off is definitely a manual step, in a way that the driver has to tap (for Lyft) or swipe (for Uber) to complete the ride. Yes, a long-hauling scam can happen, where the driver would not complete a trip and continue to drive in hopes of passenger not realizing later and getting paid an increased fare. (Check out this article: After dropping off the passenger, can the Uber driver keep driving without completing the ride? ...in order "to run up the meter?")
Caution: If the driver's phone does not have an Internet signal or its battery is dead, the driver would not be able to complete the trip. The trip will be completed once the driver is back in the range of the signal or the phone is recharged. (Relevant article: Can the driver complete and end the ride if he has no cell phone signal?)
Closing Remark
In any case, I believe you are doing the right thing by reporting these infractions to Lyft and getting a refund. Many of these scams are attempted by the drivers, and while the GPS and record keeping of Lyft make it easy to dispute these attempts, they often do go unnoticed and end up working in the drivers' favor. (Taking Lyft tand Uber is almost too easy that riders often do not check the receipt or review the charges.)
Lastly, here's one more article that may be relevant ot you:
Comments
With Lyft, I have to confirm my arrival. I do do that the moment I have "arrived" at the marker and where I have been asked. In many cases, I would have to move the car again to actually do the pickup. This usually isn't a problem because there is another step I need to do before I actually "start" a trip. i.e. perform a pickup.
The clock or "waiting" does start as soon as the driver is near you. That does go against the wait time. 2 minutes for Uber. I can't remember for Lyft. This isn't anything we can avoid. It's all automatic.
I have inadvertently started trips, because the app thinks that I have. There is a decently high threshold for a driver app for the trip to start automatically, but it does happen when we had to circle the block or whatever. I think Uber and Lyft both do this now, and it's because many drivers were forgetting to start a trip and losing out on fares.
When you say that they're starting the trip before getting to your location, how are you verifying their location? With Lyft the driver starts the trip after they input that they "arrived" at your location, and the system will question them if they're not showing nearby.
More often than not I "arrive" at a location, however the timer counts down even if I need to circle the block because you're requesting a pickup in a no-stopping area, bus lane or other hazardous location. If you're in a downtown area, the pickup timer can certainly time out before they return, and the driver may be starting the ride rather than cancel on you.
Despite speculation, the easiest way to find your answer is to directly question your driver.
In my case I am talking about from my home. The other day I was standing in my driveway because the app always thinks I live in the parking garage behind my house. The trip was started before the driver even turned on my street. He waited at the light at the top of my street with the trip started. He was not having trouble finding me so this was definetly done on purpose and he was the same person who long hauled me. I am a pretty savvy person and I never make anyone wait. I also never EVER rely on the automatic pick up location and always put it in manually. Further is I am out somewhere not only do I check the address but if it is a diffiuclt place to find I will text the driver right away with very specific directions. This has happneed with more than one driver who has in no way had trouble finding me but it seems to be way too common here. We are not as busy of a city as some and I think drivers get frustrated because there are slow…
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In my case I am talking about from my home. The other day I was standing in my driveway because the app always thinks I live in the parking garage behind my house. The trip was started before the driver even turned on my street. He waited at the light at the top of my street with the trip started. He was not having trouble finding me so this was definetly done on purpose and he was the same person who long hauled me. I am a pretty savvy person and I never make anyone wait. I also never EVER rely on the automatic pick up location and always put it in manually. Further is I am out somewhere not only do I check the address but if it is a diffiuclt place to find I will text the driver right away with very specific directions. This has happneed with more than one driver who has in no way had trouble finding me but it seems to be way too common here. We are not as busy of a city as some and I think drivers get frustrated because there are slow times but taking it out on loyal customers is not a good way to do business. I understand the apps pretty well and I know about the automatic starts etc but these drivers are most definetly doing it on purpose and it is annoying. The latest incidents have all been with Lyft drivers.
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What has Lyft said about it?
Maybe you should try Uber... then again, they are probably all the same crooked drivers.
Absent proof of driver fault, I think it's rude to call drivers "crooked" without affording them the opportunity to present their side of the story.
I've had people accuse me of starting trips early, when in reality they were just being auto-notified by Lyft that I was almost there. I did nothing wrong, it was simply rider ignorance and paranoia. Yes, you heard a ping, but did you read the message received or did you just jump to conclusions?
I've been seen a few scam attempts by drivers. One in particular is similar to yours. I followed the driver's location on the Uber app, and he had arrived at my location. I swear I saw the vehicle, with its license plate and all, but he kept on driving.
Then what do I notice in the app? That the trip had begun! and I wasn't in the car yet!! The driver obviously started the ride WITHOUT ME IN THE CAR. I immediately killed the trip in my app and filed a complaint with Uber.
They refunded me, but they told me the reason was that someone else got on my Uber. I am pretty darn sure that it was the driver who just didn't want me as a rider.
I spoke to a few people about this, and at first I thought maybe he didn't like me based on some visual queues. However, they all thought if that was the case, he could have canceled the ride (and maybe even seek for a no show, if he is unethical.)
Then it dawned on me. He probably didn't like my destination. That was the only way for him to see it.
Would starting the trip down the street make that much of a difference to the fare? Since Uber and Lyft give the price upfront, it's probably not likely that the driver did it on purpose unless it adjusted the price at the end of your trip.
No probably not but when it becomes a pattern with several drivers my radar turns on. I know things happen and it is not always the drivers fualt but when soemthing happens several trips in a row you wonder. I have to admit I was a taxi rider for many years so sometimes my taxi radar gets the better of me.
This has never happened to me, probably a shady driver or something.
It's a game of cancellation chicken. Yeah, if the driver doesn't like you for any reason instead of simply cancelling on you, they try to cancel and also collect the no-show fee. or just the start the etrip without the rider and complete it immeditely. Then you can make a claim to Uber.
I heard from someone that the Lyft trip automatically begins automatically once iet's been 5 minutes since arrival.
Nah, I don't think that's true.