David J. Danto
Principal
Consultant, Collaboration/ AV / Multimedia / Video / UC
Dimension Data
Director of
Emerging Technology
Interactive
Multimedia & Collaborative Communications Alliance
eMail:
David.Danto@DimensionData.com 
Follow Video &
Technology Industry News: @NJDavidD
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Updates:
1)
Since
the incident described below Uber has made no attempt
to contact me or reply to any of the emails sent to their Corp HQ, their NY
operation or personally to their founder.
None of the issues raised below have been addressed in any way. In addition, Uber
was recently
documented promising one thing but doing something else by CNN and a
competitor. Their people actually made
over 5,000 prank phone calls to competitors requesting but then then cancelling
rides. If you like your Uber experiences it is likely
that you just haven’t had your bad one yet.
Give it time.
2)
After posting
and tweeting the update above I finally received a
reply to my email with an apology from Uber-NY, offering me a $15 credit. They provided no explanation of how it could
have happened, didn’t address any of the issues I raised, and didn’t say
anything was done to prevent them in the future. Not a $15 I’m going to spend…
UBER – Just Say no
PSST
– Hey kid, come try this…everybody is doing it…
Us frequent travelers tend to stick with what we know works. The thinking is that there will be no new
challenges, no new unknowns and no new difficulties. But every once in a while something new does come
along that everyone seems to be trying. iPads, four wheeled spinner bags, Waze – these are all
things that someone had to try for the first time before they became the norm
of our traveling routine. That is what I
was thinking when I finally capitulated to the peer-pressure to try Uber. If you haven’t heard of it (what rock are you
under) Uber (according to
Wikipedia) is a “venture-funded startup and transportation network company
based in San Francisco, California, that makes mobile apps that connect
passengers with drivers of vehicles for hire and ridesharing services.” Basically a passenger opens a smart phone
application, requests a car and one shows up.
What could be easier?
I tried very hard not to succumb to the peer pressure. My local New Jersey car-service is usually
very reliable for airport rides, my firm’s Manhattan office is very close to a
NYC Taxi stand, and my home airport (Newark) always has a sanctioned cab ready
to go. (Sure the cabs at EWR are filthy,
broken-down wrecks driven by third-world rejects and dispatched by a crew that
could be beaten by kittens in a battle of wits – but they’re always there.) Why
would I need anything else? Then last
week happened. I was already scheduled
to lead a team video call at 9am for about two hours – which I was going to do
from my home office – but I was then asked to meet with a potential new client
in Manhattan. That meant I would have to
do a morning rush-hour commute to our Manhattan office, do my call, then head to
the client. It was going to be a very
hot and humid typical New York August day.
If I took the subway from my office I’d arrive a sweaty mess. Even if I walked the two blocks to the taxi
line I’d get more disheveled than I wanted to be for a first impression. So it seemed like the ideal time to finally
cave to the pressure and have a car come and get me. That morning, before leaving my house, I took
the plunge.
I’ll
tell you what, you can have your first taste on me…
Rather than admit to any of my colleagues that I was finally giving in
to the peer-pressure, I did a Google search and easily found a $30 off your
first ride code to use to sign up for the service. I then loaded the iPhone app and verified my
mobile number and email. Everything went
smoothly. I could easily see all the
available cars close to my home, and the many of them near my Manhattan
office. This was going to be an easy,
convenient, free experience – just a breeze (which I guess as a frequent
traveler, New Yorker and cynic should have been my first warning that something
was terribly wrong…)
See
how good it makes you feel…
When my call ended
(at about 10:45am) I opened the Uber app and requested a car to pick me up on
the 33rd street side of 1 Penn Plaza – there couldn’t be a more central
building in New York. After
thinking about it for a few moments the app found me a car and said it was six
minutes away. It even gave me the car’s
identification and the driver’s name. A six minute ETA – wow! I headed down to the lobby as giddy as a boy
about to try his new toy truck for the first time.
Just
ignore any people that give you warnings…
As I got to the
lobby the ETA was shrinking – 5 minutes, 4 minutes, 3 minutes - but then for
some reason it went up to 5 and then 6 again. At 11:38 (making this car a
half hour late already – but the trusty app still said it was six minutes away)
the driver called and told me 33rd street was closed and he couldn't make it
there. Mind you, I had been watching traffic go by on 33rd street for a
half hour. At that moment yes, there was a truck backing into Madison
Square Garden, but the street was only "closed" for about 2
minutes. I asked the driver to wait
till the street was open again – and he said he couldn't. So instead I
told him to swing around to the other side of the building – on 34th street -
and I'd walk (inside the building) to the other entrance. Fifteen minutes
later and still nothing, so I used the trusty reliable Uber app (the one still
saying six minutes away) to call the driver.
He told me he was just turning onto 34th street at that very
moment. Great, that’s only one minute
away even if you’re a snail.
Nothing. No sign of a driver or
car. He then called me five minutes
later and told me "he wasn't being allowed to turn onto 34th
street" and asked if I would walk a block or so to meet him. So the call five minutes ago where he was
“just turning” onto the block was clearly a lie. I told the driver that if I had wanted to
walk in the heat I would have just taken a taxi at the stand two blocks away –
which is what I wound-up doing anyway.
Don’t
worry, there are no serious side effects…
The whole point of actually trying Uber that day was to prevent me from having
to walk in the heat before my now very late meeting with the new client I was
trying to impress. Now late and furious I ran to the taxi stand in and
waited in line for the next taxi. I wound up reaching my meeting
disheveled, sweaty and about 45 minutes late. I lost the business.
This episode raises serious questions about Uber and the smart-phone app
it uses:
- How could a six minute ETA be
provided when a car clearly couldn't make anything close to that?
- If there was a traffic problem in the
area why did the app still show 3-6 minutes for a half an hour without any
automatic indication that something clearly was wrong - What mechanism is
in place for their app and system to realize that a car is horribly late
and has missed a commitment by a wide margin?
- How can a driver tell me a street I
have been watching with moving traffic for thirty minutes is
"closed"? Where are their drivers really when they accept
a request?
- Why does their app show little cars
and their positioning when that information clearly can't be true?
- How does Uber get away with promising
service it clearly can't deliver?
This
stuff won’t cause you any problems…
After researching Uber for this blog I’ve learned that the fantasy ETA I
experienced is only the tip of the iceberg for this service. I had heard about the price gouging they
defended as Storm
Surge Pricing, but I hadn’t heard about the extortion
tactics their drivers use to get good ratings or the crazy machinations
their drivers have to go through to get
accurate information. Where is
mainstream media’s coverage of this clearly unreliable and dangerous
service?
So despite my seasoning as a business traveler I was duped into
believing hype about a new service and have learned better of it. If this blog helps even one person learn a
lesson then my experience and lost client was worth it. What is that lesson – why of course:
Just Say No To Uber
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This
article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own,
personal opinions. David has over three decades of experience providing problem
solving leadership and innovation in media and unified communications
technologies for various firms in the corporate, broadcasting and academic
worlds including AT&T, Bloomberg LP, FNN, Morgan Stanley, NYU, Lehman
Brothers and JP Morgan Chase. He now works with Dimension Data as their Principal
Consultant for the collaboration, multimedia, video and AV disciplines. He is
also the IMCCA’s Director of
Emerging Technology. David can be reached at David.Danto@Dimensiondata.com
or DDanto@imcca.org and his full bio and
other blogs and articles can be seen at Danto.info. Please reach-out to David if
you would like to discuss how he can help your organization solve problems,
develop a future-proof collaboration strategy for internal use, or if you would
like his help developing solid, user-focused go-to-market strategies for your
collaboration product or service.
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