Uber’s star rating system allows passengers and drivers to rate each other anonymously. In some countries, Uber is barring riders from the app for having a four-star rating and that has me scared.
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Rating System
Passengers and drivers are rated on a five-star scale with five being the highest rating and one the lowest. Following each ride, stars populate on the screen (select how many the ride warrants) followed by a space for standard tip options or custom amount to tip anything additional a passenger likes. You can also leave written feedback, but Uber has made it clear to both parties that the most important part is the star rating. I currently hold a 4.8 rating so not perfect but I’m generally viewed as a good passenger; I do not drive for the service.
The star system has me scared
In Brazil, Uber began excluding riders with a 4.0 score some time ago. The company recently expanded this penalty to Australia and New Zealand riders and drivers. But unlike busy commuters in major metros like New York City, I really only use Uber when I travel with my family (for work I typically need a rental car). If I have a bad experience with a driver, they could sink my score quickly. They don’t even have to do that on purpose, by accident, a driver could mistakenly touch one or two stars and drags down my average into the danger zone.
Uber has stated less than 2% of Kiwi and Aussie riders would be excommunicated from the service as a result of this policy change. I’d also assume that a new email address and credit card may be a workaround (though you may need another device too) for riders that find themselves in this situation.
Reply All, a personal favorite podcast about technology, covered an incident of unauthorized rides in a peculiar situation. The CEO of the podcasting company, Gimlet, detailed his struggle to have the issue resolved and it outlines just how impossible Uber customer service can be to reach. I understand the advantage of being thin on customer service – but this is razor thin, to the point of insufficient. Therefore, disputing a poor rating or becoming reinstated could be near impossible.
The bottom line for me is two-fold. First, a four-star rating seems really high for casual users to be excluded from the system, a low rating could be unrecoverable. Second, it forces a culture of giving out five-star ratings unless there is a truly concerning service or safety issue.
Uber is a safety service for us
While every ride service (taxis and buses included) have safety issues from time to time – I trust Uber a lot more than getting into a cab. I can see where the driver is taking me on the map while I’m on the ride, the driver has a picture, a license on file and a record of who picked me up when.
It’s even more important for my wife and daughter who sometimes travel without me. There’s now a button within the app that allows you to reach help from Uber if something goes wrong. Not being able to have access to that safety service is a problem for myself and my family. Lyft, a strong US competitor is sparsely available elsewhere in the world. In some cases, Uber is our only option.
The service also allows us to go out from our base (hotel, Airbnb) and not worry about getting back. We have never been stuck by not being able to find an Uber, I can’t say the same for taxis or public transportation.
Ratings are no longer true
I had some three-star trips in Mexico this week, I had five-star but definitely some three-star and maybe a two-star trip. I either rated those rides at five stars or not at all. On back to back trips the morning of our departure from Mérida we had poor experiences.
My wife sat in a back seat completely soaked in who-knows-what. It drenched her pant leg an hour before we were set to fly (not a good start to a trip). The driver seemed oblivious to the fact that the seat was soaking wet and puddling up, to the point that he opened the door from his front seat by reaching his arm to the back. It probably would have been more gentlemanly to tell her it was wet (maybe the window was left down accidentally overnight) and suggest she sit on the other side, the dry side. I left him no rating.
The subsequent trip to the airport brought us a driver with over 500 five-star trips. The car was the worst we had seen. Almost all of the others were reasonably new, clean cars and while compact, sufficient for our family and any bags. This oversized Go Kart had bags filling a spare seat, at our feet and pressed into the hatchback which was not more than 12″ deep. It was hot but our driver wasn’t fazed, therefore, despite obvious overtures to turn up the air conditioning (opening and moving the vents) we were sweating all the way to the airport.
Due to the limited space for luggage and passengers, we spent an unexpectedly long time loading the car and as a result, we were late. The driver was oblivious to our concerns and took her time. When we arrived, we quickly exited the tiny vehicle and began peeling our wedged luggage out, not that the driver has to help us with our bags, but I also thought she would have made an attempt.
It was a two-star experience at best. It failed safety, comfort, utility, and pleasantness. I would want to know that other passengers had poor experiences before I did, but I skipped rating her altogether. Had I felt compelled to leave a rating, I would have left a five-star rating, not because it was true, but on the off-chance that the driver saw my star rating and decided to rate me poorly in retribution.
I’m Tipping Much More, and Often
Generally, I am a decent tipper (I am American, this is part of the culture). I have long felt that in the case of Uber, tips were unnecessary. They were at first prohibited and drivers would refuse them out of fear that I was a secret shopper and they would be reported for accepting the extra cash. Uber has since performed an about-face and I am concerned that if I don’t tip in cash they may not know that I tipped them, and this could, again potentially affect how they perceive me and how they rate me.
No, it’s not in the US yet, yes it’s still altered my behavior
This punitive approach hasn’t hit the US market yet, so what am I worried about? The punitive star system has been a big enough success in Brazil to expand to Australia and New Zealand, who is to say it won’t make it further? What if they decide to expand it up closer to 4.25, 4.5? What if I visit those countries? We have been to Australia and Brazil each within the last six years.
More than anything else, I am less enthusiastic about the service as a result. I am worried that any ride risks my score, and choose more carefully. I have canceled rides after the smallest inconvenience in a driver locating my position on the chance that it will start the ride off poorly.
In the end, I also dislike the concept of it. I don’t think there is anything wrong with eliminating the bottom 2% of your customers or drivers – in fact, I think that’s a positive development. By the Pareto Principle, that’s where a majority of rider and driver problems will originate so get rid of them. However, telling passengers and drivers that they will be doing this and how to affect the rating seems unhelpful to me.
What do you think? Is the punitive star system good for Uber, its passengers or its riders? Do you have your own suggestion for eliminating the worst in the community either with or without the star system?
I’ve always though the Uber rating system is flawed because of it’s too high expectations. Even removing passenger ratings from the equation, there’s no way to distinguish and OK ride from a great ride. If I give 4 stars it’s already a punishment for the driver, since they need to keep an average rating of close to 5. I don’t know the exact number, but an average of 4 would get a driver kicked out for sure. So it’s always 5 stars, unless there was a serious problem with the ride.
They should require an average of around 4 (instead of close to 5), so that 4 stars would be a perfectly OK score, and 5 stars would mean really great service.
And the situation is the same with riders.
That said, I believe drivers cannot see what rating you gave and how much you tipped before they’ve given their own rating. At least that’s what Uber said when tipping was introduced.
I think the rating makes sense but only if it lasts for a year or 6 months or some amount of time. If it lasts forever, which is what I believe is the current algorithm, then I think it will deter people from using Uber in the future.
If they break any traffic laws or talk on their phone I give 4 or less. Easy. I’ve only given one star once when my Uber driver fell asleep while driving on the freeway in LA and we had an accident.
Dude, drivers are not mind readers. The whole point of feedback is so that the service provider actually is aware there’s a problem. If you don’t say anything to the driver about being uncomfortable (“hey man, the back seat’s wet”, “hey, could you hurry it up? I’m trying to get somewhere”, “hey, it’s really hot back here, could you turn up the A/C?”) the driver may never know. It’s a courtesy to tell them when you’re uncomfortable, otherwise they literally have no way of knowing. And if you don’t leave them any feedback on the app, including the star rating, neither the driver nor the company has any idea that anything wrong happened! There’s no way for anyone to fix a problem that goes unreported. You should stop assuming that drivers can read your mind, and start telling them when there’s a problem. Then, if they do a poor job of fixing the problem, *leave them a low rating*, and *describe in detail why you’re leaving the low rating*. Then at least the company has a chance of making things right. You can’t just expect everything to be exactly how you want all the time without communicating what exactly it is that you want. By not giving feedback, you are contributing to the slow degradation of quality.
I had a 5.0 rating on Uber until last weekend when Uber’s app in DC wasn’t working very well. I’m not sure if the Uber driver whose app wasn’t updating properly with the GPS read/location gave me the rating or if it was the driver who cancelled/no-showed on me for a charged trip, but all it took was one or two drivers to drop my rating from a 5.0 to a 4.8X. And if the cancelled trip driver didn’t give me a bad rating, then it was the driver whom I helped to locate the third person in a pooled vehicle who gave me the bad rating despite my helping the driver/Uber (to locate the third person in a pooled vehicle) when the driver’s Uber app was offline/not connecting properly. As the saying goes, “no good deed goes unpunished.” And all this on a trip where I seemed to get along well with the driver and with the other two pool passengers.
To be clear, are you referring to UberX or to Uber Black? It’s unfair to compare the former against cabs, who have to follow different regulations in many parts of the world.
Uber’s customer service sucks because they are in an impossible situation – they are merely a “referral service” for both drivers and passengers.
The tech says more about the poor state of regulatory and cultural quality in the US than it does about the magic of Uber and it’s ilk.
Spot on
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After a 7 month investigation as it were under cover Uber unfair practices under threat
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Uber sucks. My account got hacked and it has been a week and still couldn’t get anyone to help.
“Uber’s customer service sucks because they are in an impossible situation – they are merely a “referral service” for both drivers and passengers.”
Uber is much more than a “referral service” – as an example, they offer to procure vehicles for potential drivers.
https://www.uber.com/drive/vehicle-solutions/
It’s clear that they will go out of their way to generate revenue (for them), but make minimal effort to support drivers and passengers. That is their business model.
There are many horror stories on social media that attest to this. That is their business model.
I’m a driver (4.82 rating) and a rider(4.84 rating) so I’m not perfect, but I’m nowhere near being knocked off the system. I think your post while interesting ignores some facts:
1) in the USA almost all drivers tip through the app if they tip. I have to leave a rating for you before being able to go back online after dropping you off. Yes, I can eventually find out if you tipped me by looking at my ride history, but I can’t change your rating after the fact. the fact is that tipping was not allowed because Uber started off with taxi rates, but Uber drivers had none of the overhead of a taxi so the “gratuity” was included in the fare. However, Uber cut rates to drivers in markets time and time again to the point where Uber rides in most markets were 40 to 60 percent of taxi fares. So the tip is no longer included because the fares went down, quite simple.
2) there is a double standards for drivers and passengers in terms of what ratings get you kicked off. First, in the USA, there is no magic number that will get you kicked off as a passenger, but rather Uber will respond based on a case by case basis and only when a driver complains about you. The other thing is a driver when I started in 2014 anything below a 4.7 got you at risk of being deactivated or put on Uber’s version of probation. However, due to the rate cuts Uber has lowered that to a undisclosed number but one I hear on various forums is 4.5, still SIGNIFICANTLY higher than the 4.0 it takes a passenger to get kicked off the system in the countries where Uber are using ratings to deactivate riders. So I would worry so much, and also why would Uber kickoff all but the worst passengers, after all they get paid based on volume.
To some extent I think you worry too much. I’ve been told by Uber drivers that they have to leave a rating for you before they can even see what you rated and tipped them, which Arlington Traveler’s post seems to confirm. Thus, I’d say the risk of a driver retaliating against you for a low rating or in-app tip is quite low.
Now, I do agree with your broader point that there needs to be a more effective system for both riders and drivers to dispute low ratings. At the very least both the driver and passenger need to see in real time what their last ride rating was, with some way to dispute a rating less than 4 stars through the app. And there should absolutely be ZERO tolerance for drivers stiffing passengers with low ratings if they tip through the app and not in cash.
With all due respect, and at the risk of sounding like one of the idiots who comment to make themselves feel better or to simply hear themselves talk, there’s no better way to put this than blunt. These worries you ar having are of your own making. Uber does have some issues with its system, but so does everything in this world, and a 4.8 rating puts you in no danger of losing out. Also to be blunt, people with a 4.0 rating SHOULD be banned from using the platform, out of respect for drivers and the public in general. IDK if this is true or not because I wasn’t there, but I would not be surprised if that spill in the drivers’ car was because of one of those passengers who deserved a low rating who spilled something in the car. To ban people with ratings that are flat out despicable and deserve to be condemned is long overdue. You pay less for an Uber, then treat the car with respect and don’t act like an entitled brat. Thats what these people with 4.0 ratings don’t realize. So, Kyle, you are OK and have nothing to worry about, and the people who have these low ratings SHOULD worry about it.
I agree with most of the comments above.(I am a UBER driver in the US) . First, I think it’s not as cute as you are taking it. Second. You are actually making the system worse by abstaining from rating fairly. The reason you might fell the system sucks is because maybe other riders, like you, decided not to rate. This leaves the bad driver on the platform .
The rating system cycles thought the last 500 trips. At least for the driver side, we have an opportunity to keep it above 4.7 or 4.5 . Same should apply to the rider.
Please let your driver know if there is something immediate. No driver is trying to be selfish and self absorbed. It helps us when we have feedback. Any driver who should be on the platform will appreciate it always.
*dire. I don’t why I typed cute.sorry
It takes effort for the driver to rate you low which drivers aren’t inclined to do because the rider has 48 hours to rate them back which means a retaliatory rating. If a driver rates you low, it’s almost always for a reason (slamming doors, pulling their automatic doors, leaving a mess, excessive wait, being a jerk, etc.) and it’s averaged from the past 500 rides, so a 1 star rating only drops you from a 5 to a 4.99.
You really should learn this stuff before writing articles about it.
I don’t think you are right — the score drops far too quickly.
Uber rating me makes me ask too many questions to want to use their app.
-Is my ride long enough to justify using Uber or will my driver rate me lower because he’s wasting his time on a 7 minute ride?
-Is my pickup or drop-off point easily navigable with GPS or will I be rated lowly because the driver was frustrated finding the way?
-Do I have cash on me? Do I want to risk the low rating if I don’t give a cash tip because the driver cannot see the tip through the app until well after I’m already rated?
-Am I too talkative or too boring; can I look at my phone or is that considered rude? I’m paying them to drive me somewhere, surely I can read while that happens or will I be rated lower for appearing rude to my driver?
-Will I be rated lower for political/social reasons? (I bet the MAGA hat people get some low ratings when they get picked up)
-Will I be rated lower for reasons beyond my control? (Is the driver just having a bad day and taking it out on me through the 1 star rating I’ll get?)
-Why am I paying money for a service that makes me ask myself all these things?
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I think the Uber/Lyft rating system of 1-5 stars where only a “5” is acceptable is flawed. Uber/Lyft should either go to a binary “thumbs up/thumbs down” system and rate drivers and riders on the percentage of “thumbs up” ratings (i.e. require a minimum of 60% or 70% “thumbs up” to avoid probation and/or deactivation. OR Uber/Lyft should keep the 1-5 stars but treat it like grades at school where 5 is excellent/exceptional, 4 is good to very good, 3 is satisfactory/average/unremarkable, 2 is below par, less than satisfactory and 1 is failure/terrible/exceptionally bad.