Felt like an UberFool using UberPool

October 25, 2016, Manila

I usually have a very good experience using Uber, until I tried out UberPool for the first time which is a very deceiving carpooling service.  Only use UberPool if you do not mind your travel time to increase as much as three times.  I heard others had it worse having their total trip time reach as much as 3 hours due to being matched with another rider whose location is very out-of-the-way or priority.

My Bad UberPool Manila Experience

I needed to go to HealthFirst Clinic, Greenfield District at Shaw Boulevard from Sta. Mesa area so I first checked the trip time using Waze.  The app calculated that I will arrive in 25 minutes with the traffic.

Booking with the Uber App, it showed me 2 rates:  My own UberX car will cost me 247 PHP and if I share my ride with others using UberPool it will cost 146 PHP.  The savings looked appealing so I checked further to see how UberPool carpooling works.

My impression of UberPool is that an Uber private car will pick you and another rider along nearly the same pickup points and proceed to the destinations that are ideally along the way making it an efficient carpooling service.

According to the Uber Philippines website:

• UberPOOL allows you to share your ride and split the cost of your trip with another Uber rider headed in the same direction. 
• The average time added to an uberPOOL trip is less than 5 minutes. Each uberPOOL rider can bring one additional passenger along.

Below is my trip map, the green dot is my starting point and the red dot my destination.  I highlighted the other passenger’s route with a red line causing my entire trip to be almost thrice the distance.

Instead of having an expected travel time of 25 minutes or a little over.  It became 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Definitely not headed in the same direction as their website states.  Deception!

The other passenger’s destination was very out of my way.  It would have been better if I was dropped off first at my destination since the gap is closer instead of prioritizing the other passenger first.

I looked around the internet seaching for more UberPool reviews.  I wasn’t the only one having this awful experience in the Philippines but in the U.S. and in Singapore as well.

Uber Philippines complaint from Francis Robert Bonifacio

Uber Singapore complaint from ‎Jesley Neo Yen Hiah October 25 at 10:55pm

Uber United States complaint from Bekim Asani October 28 at 8:49am New York, NY, United States

Hugo TamOctober 28 at 10:59am

I shared this bad uberpool experience and I got the advice to bring this trip miscalculation to Uber Support.  Instead of getting help and some form of compensation for the trouble, all I got from them was “hey since it’s Uberpool, your fare is not that high.  We’re sorry but we won’t do anything, just deal with it” kind of response. I think those who work for UberX aren’t happy either getting the blow of a 1 star review.

First reply from Uber people Support

what really pissed me off was the response “But your fares are not beyond the estimated level” and just saying sorry without considering the unecessary, really beyond acceptable travel time.

What’s more annoying is the typical corporate bullshit promise they have below when they are not even acknowledging the real problem of UberPool properly.

“It was not ideal according to the GPS”

just deal with it!

I sent a reply mentioning how it is unacceptable to have your travel distance increase by almost three times and the travel time amounting to one hour and 20 minutes.

Uber Support second response

Within the expected range? Unable to adjust fares for heavy traffic?  Appreciate your patience and understanding?

Again, another corporate template reply without acknowledging the problem with their UberPool system.  Sorry but deal with it.  I got really angry and sent another reply to stop using these empty corporate responses without taking action.  They finally tossed a small bone by giving a 50 PHP credit.  Unacceptable and bad Uber customer support.  Went through the trouble of a bad carpooling match and an unhelpful, arrogant customer support who just kept marking my ticket as RESOLVED even though I am not truly satisfied.

Conclusion

I think Uber founders are still testing their carpooling algorithm at YOUR time and expense.  They don’t really care if you get inconvenienced with the obvious setbacks.  They are becoming an arrogant company operating here in the Philippines.  Hopefully another ride sharing company like Lyft would compete and give a better service than Uber.

How was your experience with UberPool?  Share in the comments below

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