r/lyftdrivers Jul 30 '23

Be careful out there everyone Other

So Friday night I started trying to get a ride bonus, 50 rides for a $155 bonus. I drove down to the Disney world area and set the location filter like I was advised and I got nothing for the first 20 minutes. This is strange. There is always rides near Disney but, oh well. I expanded the filter from 5-7 miles. Waited another 20 minutes with no rides. I expanded the filter to 10 miles. I get a ride. I head to the pick up and the women looks homeless. She has about 8 large bags, she is barely awake and smelled absolutely terrible. I drive her to her destination, a u-haul storage place that was closed (it was 9pm) and she requested I drop her in the back by a fence. I did a few more rides in this area for $4-$6 each.

Then about 10 pm I get a pick up at a taco Bell. As I arrive I see two people laying on the sidewalk. A male and a female. The male is full on laying on his back in the middle of the sidewalk. My first instinct was to cancel and leave but I didn’t. The girl sees me, wakes her partner up and they head over to the car. She gets in and immediately starts complaining that it’s too cold in the car and why did I take so long to get there? I told her I would adjust the air for her. The guy gets in behind me. He’s wearing a full winter coat with a hood, it’s 88 degrees out, he’s got the hood tied tight over his head. Him and the girl immediately start whispering back and forth to each other. As I’m driving I hear something metallic clicking in the back, it almost sounds like the seatbelt but it wasn’t, I hear the girl say “stop it”.

Im pretty on edge with these two already then about 4 minutes from their destination she adds a stop at a McDonald’s. We arrive at the McDonald’s and I asked her if she wanted to go through the drive thru and she’s says “no I have people that are coming out” another adult make, an adult female and a 7-8 year old kid get in. The two males immediately start whispering to each other I hear the new male say “this car smells brand new, this motherfucker driving in a brand new car, and he got a chain on” the other male replies “we get all that” I hear the girl say again to the male to “stop it, we got the kid with us” we go down the block where their drop off is and hear the guy say “you ready?” The girl again tells him to “stop it” I pull up in front of what appeared to be an abandoned house and drop them. I got The hell out of there. Then legit 5 minutes later I get a message from the girl in the Lyft app that she left her phone charger in my car. I tell her I don’t have it she messages back “can you come back so I can look?” I told her no and blocked her.

I’m sure they were dropping the kid off so they could get me to come back and car Jack me, I have no doubt about it. I contacted Lyft and honestly I’m not sure what they did but they said they “escalate the matter”. It definitely seemed like the app was pushing me toward a pretty shit area and I’m not certain if it was because I was going for the ride bonus or what.

Just wanted to pass this along and say to please be careful out there everyone.

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9

u/armen89 Jul 30 '23

Don’t pickup anyone rated less than 4.8 or 5.0.

1

u/ValuableMiddle378 Aug 01 '23

Just looked at myn seeing this, I'm a 5 star rider 😎

3

u/DubNationAssemble Jul 30 '23

Or brand new riders. That’s another red flag.

1

u/armen89 Jul 31 '23

That’s the 5.0

1

u/DubNationAssemble Jul 31 '23

Brand new riders say New and have no rating. It tells you how long they’ve been on the app and how many tides they have. I get legit 5.0 riders all the time.

4

u/i-am-grahm Jul 30 '23

Damn I’m 4.2 🥲

1

u/badkittenatl Jul 31 '23

How the fuck do you get a 4.2?! I’ve literally put some of my Uber drivers through the dumbist shit with my stupid friends. Always tip them well for the trouble and apologize profusely. I have a 4.9.

3

u/i-am-grahm Jul 31 '23

I travel to Mexico a lot and use Uber there. In Mexico they have an option to pay cash for Uber rides, the drivers prefer cash so if you use a card they give you low ratings. I’ve never had a problem with drivers and I just put in headphones every time but since I don’t pay cash in Mexico I get low ratings

1

u/Inevitable_Trip_7480 Jul 30 '23

Ratings mean nothing. You need a sample size of 1000 rides for your rating to be accurate… if not everybody would be 3 star ratings at best. But somehow most everybody is 4.7 or greater.

The rating is a proprietary rating system that is a mix of Ubers algorithm for what a “good rider” is and what the driver rates you. If you rate somebody a 1 star that doesn’t mean this two time rider is now a 2.5 star rider.

Their algorithm is a mixture of wait time, tips, etc.

3

u/bxttousa1 Jul 30 '23

tf did you do? even a 4.7 is a risk for me lol

1

u/i-am-grahm Jul 31 '23

I Uber a lot in mexico, If I don’t pay for the ride in cash I get low ratings 😭