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Does it mean anything? My driver pointed mine out to me the other day. He said Uber is now deactivating people. Is that true.
What's it like to have a low rating as a rider/passenger on an Uber/Lyft?
Posted 5 years, 4 months ago
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Posted By
KirstenGH
65
Ride Apprentice
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The Guru Take
Two impacts to the rider for having low ratings
There are two primary areas where riders can feel the impact of having low ratings.
1. Uber has has announced "ratings-based rider deactivations" as part of its safety policy, which claims to warn and potentially ban users who consistently receive low ratings. This was announced in Q2 of 2019, and we have yet to see what the threshold is and whether they will strictly enforce this. (at time of this writing in July of 2019).
2. The rider ratings are displayed when the driver receives the request (i.e. ping). Some drivers will decline and do not accept the request if the rating is below a certain number. Obviously this threshold depends on the driver and how busy it is, but many have shared that it is about 4.60 and as high as 4.80 when they start declining requests. (What's a typical passenger rating for Uber? Is 4.50 good?)
Other: There have been other unconfirmed factors as well. For example, if your passenger rating is low, you may not have access to certain features such as “scheduled trips” or it may hurt against you when there is a dispute between you and the driver.
ippei
1202
Uber Driver, CEO of TaxiFareFinder and Unleashed, LLC
Comments
Uber claims they are sending warnings to passengers with low ratings giving them a chance to make their ratings better. They have not said what they consider low for passengers. Drivers are deactivated at 4.6. As a driver along with many other drivers will not accept request from low rated passengers. I usually dont pick up passengers lower than a 4.50. It also depends where I am and time of night I may not accept request below a 4.8. Ratings are the only thing drivers have to protect themseves. There are plenty of stories out there about drivers being a problem there are many where drivers get attacked. We really dont have anything to keep us safe. I also think that along with drivers being rated unfairly passengers are being rated low unfairly also. I hesitated the night I got the request for the rider with a 4.5. I was in a decent area and decided to accept. He was very sweet but liked to give navagate. I have no problem with that. He even tipped 20.00 cash. Other drivers don…
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Uber claims they are sending warnings to passengers with low ratings giving them a chance to make their ratings better. They have not said what they consider low for passengers. Drivers are deactivated at 4.6. As a driver along with many other drivers will not accept request from low rated passengers. I usually dont pick up passengers lower than a 4.50. It also depends where I am and time of night I may not accept request below a 4.8. Ratings are the only thing drivers have to protect themseves. There are plenty of stories out there about drivers being a problem there are many where drivers get attacked. We really dont have anything to keep us safe. I also think that along with drivers being rated unfairly passengers are being rated low unfairly also. I hesitated the night I got the request for the rider with a 4.5. I was in a decent area and decided to accept. He was very sweet but liked to give navagate. I have no problem with that. He even tipped 20.00 cash. Other drivers dont like when a passenger navagates. The ratings system is deeply flawed for both rider and passenger. Lyft's rating system is based off 100 rides Uber is 500. It takes awhile on Uber for your ratings to increase but will decrease faster with just a few low ratings. Drivers believe Uber will not deactivate any passengers with low ratings. This was just put out there to pacify drivers. I still see ratings 4.1, 4.4. As long as I see a rating under under 4.5 I will not accept its too risky.
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Fair enough. Valid
Yeah, I heard that you now can be deactivated but I think it’s only in excessive cases.
As you may have guessed, Uber won’t push away paying customers that easily. Perhaps only when they feel that customer will cost them more in legal fees or something.
If you want to raise your ratings dont slam the drivers door and tip the driver. Even if its $2/$3. I dont rate passengers low for these reasons but many drivers will. However if your driver goes out of their way for you you should be tipping. If driver takes you to a city they cannot pick up in such as NY (unless they are a NY driver)tip them as they are coming back empty or in awful traffic. Gas has risen, driver rates have been cut, bonuses $ quest have been dropped. Passengers fares are still cheap and have not increased. A small tip greatly helps drivers out. Obviously if your driver sucked dont tip:) Unless a passeger slams the door purposely I dont agree with giving a low rating as I am sure it was an accident. If a driver is so worried about their door get out open it and shut it for passenger. A passenger doesnt get in and out of our vehicle everyday. They may not realize how nuch force is needed or how little.
How does tipping help our ratings?
I thought 1) drivers cannot tell if the riders tipped or not. (at least not until later) and 2) I thought they had to rate the passengers immediately after the ride. Doesn't this mean they rate passengers before they know the drivers tipped?
Slamming the door is something I hear all over the place as a common complaint. Are there really that many people who do this? Are they doing it intentionally or just ignorantly?
I’m thinking it’s the latter but I feel riders need to be educated or drivers are too sensitive about it. Also, people don’t know how much power it takes to close the door of a car of a particular model. I’m often about not penalizing people if they have good intent but still make a mistake. I wonder if this makes sense.
Hailey, I've been arguing in FB groups and forums. No, riders dont always know how hard or how lightly to shut our doors. They dont get in and out of our model car all the time. My kids slam my door all the time. When I had my Focus out riders always slammed it . I have my Honda Pilot on the road now no one ever slams it. I am pretty sure they dont mean to slam it. You can tell if someone is annoyed with you and they slam it. My 1 and only Uber ride I slammed his door. Not purposely by accident. I felt so bad I know better:) Good thing I gave him a cash tip:) Kept my 5 star rating as a rider. Lol over time if your door is slammed it can cause issues. If you are that concerned open the door for the rider and shut it. Put a sign up. But stop taking a star away for slamming doors:)
Remember this was being tested in Australia last year.
https://ride.guru/lounge/p/6-month-bans-coming-for-passengers-with-low-ratings
No, it doesn't matter. Keep being a horrible person, and you will be fine. Uber leads by example.
Yeah you might get deactivated. Also a lot of drivers just won't pick you up with a low rating. Why bother.
I have been driving for a year - I’m a Diamond Uber driver with a 4.98 average, a Lyft driver with a 5.0 average and I don’t even know how to find a passenger’s rating on either ! Must be a big city thing! Out here in the boonies I take everybody everywhere!