Comment by cavisne | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cavisne | Hacker News Reader

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At least for me uber has huge brand loyalty, it’s sitting in the dock of my iPhone.

If I need to go somewhere, or get home, Uber has never let me down. Likewise with food delivery, I certainly have been let down on that but Uber does the best job of letting me track the order and get a refund if needed.

Sure Lyft is an alternative, I have it on my phone but simply never use it.

It’s incorrect that nothing has changed about the cost of a ride. Taxi medallions used to be 500k-1m and require essentially taking out a mortgage. Now they are worth effectively $0.

And cost was never the core issue with Taxi’s, it was the unpredictability of the cost, having to pay in cash because the drivers incentive is to skim from the owner, having to find one or call for one, having to put your trust in a random driver in a random country with no idea if you are going the right way.

Look to NYC where they seem to have set the goal of making Uber as expensive as possible (10s of dollars in random fees per ride). It’s still popular - in a city with some of the best taxi options.

> One of Ubers biggest problems is that they have zero brand loyalty

> At least for me uber has huge brand loyalty, it’s sitting in the dock of my iPhone

Hear hear. It feels to me that brand loyalty arguments are really opinions being extrapolated to the rest of the population. For example, one can reasonably argue airlines don't command any brand loyalty for the average traveler and how they are in a race to the bottom, yet many people will readily tell you how much they hate X airline or how they love Y airline. One could say the same of hotels, shampoos, socks, what have you. There always are those that don't care for the brands, and those that do.

It's easy to stick with something when it's working for you:

> If I need to go somewhere, or get home, Uber has never let me down.

The real test of brand loyalty it staying with them after a few bad experiences.

Airlines are the prime example of a race to the bottom unprofitable “bad” business.

It’s clear that airlines do not have brand loyalty sufficient to create significant margins like Apple or some such.

There's one airline in particular that I dislike simply due multiple bad experiences. I vocalise this significantly. I still book their flights if it's the cheapest: I'd argue to myself that (a) flying is a transient experience and (b) I'll use the saving for a 'free' lounge pass, taxi to the airport, etc.

I wouldn't assume that just because people vocalise brand loyalty, means that they stick with it when it's time to open their wallets.

Shrug. I hear time and again people say they make it a point to always use Lyft, even if Uber is cheaper. So it's certainly not a 100% sure thing that people will always pick the cheapest option.

I switched to Lyft a few years ago because of Uber's evil ways. I've had zero problems.

If people won't stop using a company that is so blatantly bad we're in trouble.

Frankly they're basically interchangeable. I'm not sure what you mean by a company "so blatantly bad" -- most of the drivers in SF at least drive for both Uber and Lyft. You can use either app and end up with the same driver, in the same car, offering the same exact experience at a practically indistinguishable price point. Uber at least seems to know people are mad at them and offer excellent customer service.

Now, that doesn't mean they're a good business of course -- they're probably a terrible business -- but that's a reason to use them, not to avoid them.

With that in mind, unit economics at both Uber and Lyft seem to be about the same, and both equally dreadful. Lyft never made some of the even worse investments (like trying to compete in mainland China without government support). Those days appear long behind Uber, though, for better or worse.

By bad I meant doing bad things uber has done.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bad+things+uber+has+done

That's a pretty hilarious google search string :) I wasn't sure if you were complaining about them as a service or the way they run their business. The latter certainly has plenty of fodder.

For the past 25 years there has constantly been at least one tech company which is perceived in techie forums as so bad that it's incredible anyone would voluntarily use their products.

Those companies have been Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon.

Financially you could have done amazingly well in the stock market simply by buying whatever big stock techies hate at the moment.

(Not saying Uber will necessarily continue this pattern. Even though they have the brand, I don't see how they intend to fix the enormous losses. That's very different from the optimized zero profit Amazon was making for years.)

> For the past 25 years there has constantly been at least one tech company which is perceived in techie forums as so bad that it's incredible anyone would voluntarily use their products.

> Those companies have been Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon.

That's a great point. I'd add IBM to that list and the time frame would reach back to 35 years.

Sorry for being the hn stereotype, but that's pure survivor bias. That "buy the hated" strategy would have left you with lots of worthless Unisys shares for example, they are down >> 90% from back when the GIF patent was putting them in the spotlight of unpopularity.

Switched for same reason but now Lyft is being a bit shady. Changed my home address and credit cards won’t work. Gabe then PayPal, insists on “verifying” my home address with another credit card. Why do you need it? I thought PayPal was the middle man so I don’t have to tell you these details I find privileged information.

Also had trouble getting support- no way to contact them.

unfoetunate because t works great when I had it.

Is it shady for not accepting your money because of overly stringent security reasons?

I guess that’s one way to look at it. Another would be “metrics” or whatever companies sell nowadays to make money. Isn’t a credit card with an address not enough?

Same here. Switched to Lyft a year ago and never look back.

I check my Uber, my girlfriend checks hers and Lyfts. There’s various promos so it’s changes. And now there’s Opoli but maybe only at LAX.

Here we have at least four alternatives, if not more. Never used Uber, never going to.

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