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San Francisco BBB Gives Uber, Lyft a Failing Grade

TMCnet Feature

October 13, 2014

San Francisco BBB Gives Uber, Lyft a Failing Grade

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By Michael Guta
TMCnet Contributing Writer

Whenever a new company comes along and disrupts the way things have been done for decades, it is met with great animosity by established companies, even though consumers are better served. Taxi services have been around for several hundred years, and in London where the black cab is ubiquitous, a proclamation by Charles I in 1636 started the industry by allowing 50 hackney carriages to work for hire in the city. In all that time many fads have come and gone, but the entry of Uber and Lyft is causing as much of a ruckus as when horse carriages had to change to automobiles. Suffice it to say they are not liked by traditional taxis, and when the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern Coastal California Better Business Bureau (BBB) announced it gave both companies an “F” rating, they wasted no time in letting the world know about it.


The Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association sent emails to different media outlets regarding the number of complaints the BBB received in that region regarding Uber, because it is having the biggest impact on taxi services. The BBB started tracking Uber in 2012 and has received more than 90 complaints, which is not a lot considering how many people use the service.

The biggest complaint the company received had to do with billing issues, especially during the company’s surge pricing model, which dramatically increases the price during periods of peak demand. The difference during these peak hours could be as much as two and half times or more, which has resulted in many consumers complaining about this particular aspect of Uber’s platform.

Uber operates in 220 cities around the world, and as more consumers use this service instead of traditional taxis, it will undoubtedly get more complaints. But that’s the nature of the beast when you have to deal with customers in any type of business. To make this point clear, the company pointed out that traditional taxis have received more than 1,733 passenger complaints in one year about a wide range of issues including speeding, smoking, not accepting credit cards, charging additional fees and other issues.

The BBB gave Lyft an “F” with only five complaints, but the Yellow Cab Cooperative in San Francisco also received an “F” with the same number complaints as Lyft. So no one was spared during this process, which only goes to prove that perfection is an illusion when it comes to customer service.




Edited by Rory J. Thompson


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