[HN Gopher] Uber Rewards is ending on November 1, 2022
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Uber Rewards is ending on November 1, 2022
Author : johntb86
Score : 55 points
Date : 2022-08-13 16:01 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (help.uber.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (help.uber.com)
| _jal wrote:
| Taxi companies never did rewards programs, and they had cheaper
| cost structures.
| hattmall wrote:
| I mean they sort of did / do. Once you use them a lot you get
| to know drivers and you call them directly and they would give
| you better prices and pickup times. Calling dispatch would
| often not even work on busy nights. Obviously this isn't for
| placed like NYC where you just get a cab off the street. But in
| a lot of places you could establish relationships with a few
| cab drivers if you used them regularly.
| solardev wrote:
| In my entire life, I don't think I've ever seen a cab driver
| more than once. How small a place do you live in?
| ryoshu wrote:
| 20-ish years ago in Orange County, CA we had a cab driver
| we would call instead of dispatch. Super chill guy and good
| conversations with prompt service.
| [deleted]
| kyleee wrote:
| You may just be closed off to the idea due to personality
| (not chatty) or due to lack of need (never needed to call
| and schedule a ride), but pre Uber (and maybe even today,
| don't know) it was definitely common
| bombcar wrote:
| Uber had rewards program?
| atlasunshrugged wrote:
| They really didn't make it that easy to use or find. I think I
| got 1-2 discounts out of it but it certainly wasn't something I
| thought about regularly (or at all except when there was some
| push notification)
| fonix wrote:
| Yea per usual you spend like $1k for $5 off or something.
| itake wrote:
| anyone know why? Aren't loyalty programs typically good for the
| company?
| yardstick wrote:
| Good for profitable companies, yes.
| itake wrote:
| I don't see the difference? Like if the program was providing
| value, perhaps in the form of retention, then the value
| exceeds the loss.
|
| They must have data that their loyalty program did not
| improve retention to justify the costs to run the program or
| (as others pointed out) they must see that force loyal
| customers to Uber One will increase their revenue/more.
| pessimizer wrote:
| > if the program was providing value, perhaps in the form
| of retention, then the value exceeds the loss.
|
| This looks like a syllogism, but it is not. If something
| provides value, it does not mean that the value exceeds the
| loss. Otherwise everything useful would be profitable, like
| my gold toothbrush.
| [deleted]
| potatolicious wrote:
| Loyalty programs also cost money in the form of the free stuff
| you give away as benefits. For a company that perennially has
| trouble turning a profit on razor-slim (and most often
| negative) margins, this would be a problem.
|
| There's also a question of if the retention ability of the
| loyalty program outweighs of the cost of benefits you're giving
| out.
|
| Additionally the shape of the business matters. For some
| industries (see: hotels, airlines) a lot of the benefits are in
| the form of things they would've lost money on anyway if they
| didn't give to the loyal customer. Upgrading room at check-in?
| That room was pretty much guaranteed to go empty that night
| anyway. Upgrading airplane seat 24h before departure? That seat
| was pretty much guaranteed to go empty if they didn't. So the
| opportunity cost of giving the user the reward is ~zero-ish.
| This is definitely not true for Uber, where free rides = lost
| money.
| atlasunshrugged wrote:
| This is a great point, I was wondering why this seemed to
| work well for airlines and not Uber. And for airlines, I mean
| it's not even 24hrs sometimes, it's literally at the gate
| when there is 0 downside for them (other than the cost of a
| slightly more expensive meal and maybe some cheap champagne?)
| bitnovus wrote:
| "...we've decided to end Rewards soon, as we shift our focus to
| our new Uber One membership program." (EDIT: received in an
| email notification)
|
| It looks like they're trying to drive loyal customers into a
| paid membership who may have been otherwise happy with the
| benefits they were receiving under Uber Gold or other level.
| adeelk93 wrote:
| First they nerfed it. Used to be able to redeem 500 points for
| $5.
|
| Earlier this year they replaced it with discounts, so 400
| points gets you 10% off. My most expensive ride in the past
| year was $30, so I view this as a 25% reduction in point value.
|
| I guess that wasn't enough?
| atlasunshrugged wrote:
| Interesting that this model didn't work for them when it seems to
| work very well for airlines which also have a pretty
| undifferentiated service (I mean, I know some are more or less
| timely or cancellation prone but generally you are getting a seat
| on a Boeing or Airbus and nearly everyone has the same experience
| up to the gate unless you have Clear or TSA Pre which aren't
| related to rewards programs).
| paxys wrote:
| Airline miles are nowadays bordering on useless for actually
| booking flights. Loyalty programs are attractive instead for
| "status", priority boarding, upgrades, free changes, free bags
| etc. Uber can't really offer any of this.
| dastbe wrote:
| airline miles have been devalued frequently over the past few
| years, along with the rest of their award programs.
| darth_avocado wrote:
| Sad. Was one of the few things keeping me on Uber eats. Now they
| have no benefits over their competitors. Doordash costs the same
| and has more restaurants. Plus the markups from restaurants in
| Uber is higher than DD. No point using them
| atlasunshrugged wrote:
| What did you think compared to Grubhub now that they have the
| year free integration for Amazon Prime customers (which I guess
| is like 1/3 of American households)? I don't use the meal
| delivery often enough to have a representative sample, I've
| gone to order a few times from them and they all just seem
| insanely priced
| spookthesunset wrote:
| The DoorDash app is way worse though. It's tracking and time
| estimates are awful, much worse than Uber.
| darth_avocado wrote:
| Unfortunately Ubereats is no better on this front. The
| shifting goalpost is a big problem. Keep changing ETA so that
| when you call customer service, they always point to the new
| ETA and claim that they are within their estimates.
| atlasunshrugged wrote:
| Agreed, when I (rarely) order from these services now I
| just usually assume it'll be 2x the time they state for me
| to actually get the order.
| MacsHeadroom wrote:
| I began screenshotting my original ETA every time years ago
| with Uber and Uber Eats for this reason.
|
| A few years back I had an ETA which remained at 15-20
| minutes for two full hours and Uber wanted to charge me to
| cancel. When it happened again I was able to show the
| original ETA was over 1.5 hours earlier than my cancelation
| time and received a refund immediately.
|
| We shouldn't have to do this though. It's an awful customer
| experience and has lead me to use alternatives whenever
| possible.
| solardev wrote:
| FYI this happens with Doordash too. The app constantly
| gaslights you on purpose to make it seem like less time
| has passed.
| neotrope wrote:
| faster ETAs improve conversion :)
| ikiris wrote:
| They aren't awful, they just lie. You just haven't noticed
| the pattern yet.
| rvz wrote:
| The Uber growth hacking pyramid scheme is complete with the
| phasing out of the rewards programme with nothing to replace it.
|
| It was a good run for the investors who suggested this growth
| hack in the early days and now they are laughing all the way to
| the bank and the users and drivers are left behind once again.
| asah wrote:
| well... we all enjoyed unsustainably cheap rides and
| unsustainably high pay. Nobody forced us. We are just sheep.
| peanut_worm wrote:
| The thresholds for the rewards were insane anyways youd have to
| make like 15 orders to get anything
| ben_jones wrote:
| Just like the Uber credit card. They've removed every benefit and
| re-issued a vanilla master card.
|
| Its a company you can't trust.
| runesofdoom wrote:
| It's a company openly founded on "we can make money if we
| ignore the law". That they weren't trustworthy seemed pretty
| obvious from the start.
| scarface74 wrote:
| You mean there was a point where you could trust a business
| that broke local laws repeatedly and never had a profitable
| business model?
| antisthenes wrote:
| It's not about trust. Uber is just realizing they don't really
| have any moats.
|
| All the gravy they collected from riding the gravy-regulation-
| skirting train was wasted on trying to build competitive
| advantages, developing self-driving and rewards programs like
| these to make it more attractive to customers compared to
| competitors.
|
| They've been selling $2 for the price of $1 and now that the
| party is beginning to die down, they're doing what any large
| faceless corp is doing - reducing the quality of the services
| they offer so they can extend their own runway.
| dehrmann wrote:
| Uber certainly has things in its past that make it a company
| you can't trust, but discontinuing a credit card with ample
| notice and reissuing it?
| mynameisvlad wrote:
| I mean, in a thread about discontinuing a rewards program
| with ample notice, it seems pretty relevant to mention the
| credit card which suffered the same fate.
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(page generated 2022-08-13 23:02 UTC)