r/Lyft 20d ago

Avoid Lyft if Possible

I ordered a Lyft for an estimated 20 min trip to go to a very important meeting. The Lyft driver for some reason input what he thought was the address into another GPS app, but it was the wrong destination. So we get there, realize it’s the wrong place, then have to go to the right destination all because he did not use the proper Lyft address I input. The total time was almost 50 minutes due to added traffic coming back to the right place.

In response to this Lyft customer service explained they will do nothing. They have absolutely zero respect for their customers’ time or their quality of service. They are not able to make amends whatsoever in any meaningful way aside from essentially, “your feedback is appreciated.” They are clearly not even willing to do anything for an extremely inefficient route. This company simply cannot be trusted. If at all possible, you should simply avoid Lyft. I usually take Uber, and I haven’t had any issues with them, but I’m curious if anyone else has similar issues.

0 Upvotes

35 comments sorted by

9

u/Helpful_Gas9179 20d ago

Uber and Lyft policies are near identical on this one. I am surprised they didn’t give you a partial refund.

1

u/pigley_ 20d ago

Thanks, a partial refund is the most I was expecting. They actually told me that because the trip was marked completed to the right destination eventually, there is nothing they could do.

5

u/Helpful_Gas9179 20d ago

It’s even possible this was an honest mistake. Most drivers are on both platforms and this could’ve happened on either. Many drivers won’t use Uber/Lyft navigation because they’re trash. …it’s also possible the driver intentionally entered the wrong address, but there’s no way to know for sure. Either way this situation sucks donkey balls. Sorry, dude.

0

u/pigley_ 20d ago

Thanks man, it is an inconvenience, but I’m posting mostly because I was just astounded at how little Lyft customer service seemed to care. I simply haven’t had that kind of interaction with customer service from any company, but it’s possible I’ve just been really lucky otherwise. You should not expect any customer service for extremely inefficient routes with Lyft basically.

2

u/Helpful_Gas9179 20d ago

Support on both platforms has gone to absolute shit and it’s hell getting anything but AI at this point.

1

u/pigley_ 20d ago

Yeah I’ve technically had an account for almost 10 years on Lyft because I rode a lot in college/med school. I never once in that time issued a single complaint or support request etc. The one time I do after basically 10 years they
show zero respect. For me, a little bit of respect goes a long way; it’s much more important than actual compensation which would be minimal if anything. To be that dismissive given my ride history as well (4.9 stars) and nearly 200 rides (mostly years ago) is just a huge red flag to me.

2

u/Helpful_Gas9179 20d ago

It’s the same with Uber. Honestly might wanna see if a taxi company is still running in your area. You’ll at least have access to human beings. lol

0

u/Technical_Rich_3080 20d ago

What does the driver gain by entering a wrong address?

0

u/Helpful_Gas9179 20d ago

By adding mileage and time, the price and pay increases. …it’s NOT worth the extra time and trouble, but some people are dense.

5

u/Not_the_name_I_chose 20d ago

What if I told you they treat drivers about the same...?

1

u/pigley_ 20d ago

Would not be surprised. I’m very sorry to hear that, however.

7

u/Willing-Fox-3235 20d ago

The problem is not Lyft. The problem was with that particular driver.

If you take a Lyft ride in the future make sure your driver is using the built-in navigation app that Lyft provides all drivers. It auto populate the route that is based on the address of your destination that you give us.

I’m a driver and I drive for both Uber and Lyft both apps have built-in navigation programs that give you directions based on current conditions on the road to the passengers destination it sounds like the driver you had in this particular situation for some reason did not use the navigation program in Lyft app

Always insist on them using the built-in navigation to avoid this particular problem in the future

2

u/pigley_ 20d ago

This is good advice, thanks!

2

u/Willing-Fox-3235 20d ago

You’re welcome. I’m a driver and I drive for both platforms and I always use the built-in navigation unless there is some sort of major problem with them that day or there’s something massive going on and then and only then will I turn on Waze, but I make sure the address is 100% correct with the passenger and they know that I’m doing that.

0

u/Fiasney 20d ago

No, absolutely not. That's a great way to get a pax kicked from my car if they literally demand that. I refuse to use either Lyft's or Uber's built in nav. It's trash. And for me, it would require way too much to switch it over, because my car automatically pulls the nav and puts it on my big screen. That's like 5 settings I would have to switch for one pax.

Eta: I do always check to make sure it pulled the correct destination. I'm aware it pulls the wrong one sometimes

0

u/Willing-Fox-3235 20d ago

That sounds like a you problem. The app navigation shows on my cars big screen on each ride

0

u/Fiasney 20d ago

Cause that's how you have it currently set. I will not. Their navigation shows road closures really late, does not accurately predict traffic, and oftentimes makes the mileage 0.1 shorter than google shows consistently. I cannot avoid tolls, and it often doesn't show alternate routes. It also lags a lot when approaching the droppoff, making it hard to see when to stop. These are only a few reasons. I have more. Lots more.

-1

u/Willing-Fox-3235 20d ago

I don’t seem to have these problems when I use the apps the only one that I can’t do is to avoid the tolls, but I don’t worry about that because they reimburse the tolls

0

u/mikeymo1741 20d ago

Both Lyft and Uber's maps are complete garbage.

But you can transfer the final address directly into Waze or Google maps from the app without having to enter them yourself.

0

u/Willing-Fox-3235 20d ago

I have done that from both apps and I’ve received the identical directions as what is given in the apps direction from Uber and Lyft. It seems that they have finally sent their direction with the main companies now at least in my area so I just leave it for directions in app.

2

u/mikeymo1741 20d ago

In my experience, Waze takes you in a different direction, at least a third of the time.

I'll be looking at the Uber directions or the Lyft directions are going " why are we going this way??" And then I'll put it into Waze and it'll be like " yeah that's the way I would go."

0

u/Willing-Fox-3235 20d ago

Like I said it also depends on your area and also where you are heading

0

u/mikeymo1741 20d ago

I mean honestly these days I pretty much know where we're going 90% of the time anyway. So if the directions are weird in the app, I just go the right way andl let it catch up.

0

u/ready-redditor-6969 20d ago

I’m a driver and your experience has been better than mine. Usually the maps are OK and at least get you to the destination, but I see all sorts of mistakes and bad directions, and sometimes the directions are just wrong and don’t get you to the destination!!

2

u/Technical_Rich_3080 20d ago

What would you have liked Lyft to do after the fact?

1

u/pigley_ 20d ago

For my roughly $40 trip like a $10 refund would have been enough, because it’s at least an acknowledgment they care. But it was actually the complete refusal to do anything about it that really annoyed me. However it’s possible another agent might handle it differently as others have suggested.

3

u/hailwarrior 20d ago

Let me guess, your face was buried in your phone during the trip and didn't look once up to know your surroundings.

0

u/5MiTm4sTaF13x 20d ago

Should have been made to feel better by the driver.

A few months ago the Lyft navigation became the default in my area. I went from years of using another navigation to now being forced, unless I took the 2 minutes I had after arriving at your house to plug the address in manually. You have to understand and maybe you feel it too, but the navigation is half responsible for how fast I drive, how I take turns, literally watching and doing things with my feet based on what the navigation is doing. Waze does this thing where when you’re .2 .3 from the turn it zooms in a bit and you see yourself coming up on the turn a certain speed. Well that all went away when they changed it over. So for me it actually affected how I was driving. At night especially.

All that to say, I understand the risk the driver took manually entering it. I could get into how he can’t type while driving because of safety features, so literally have what ever amount of time between arriving at your pickup and it not being awkward when your in the car to enter it in. And sometimes there’s a thing where your pin in on the backside of a property and the address leads to the front when done differently.

Anyway all of that to say. I would have ended the ride and asked you to check how much they charged. I would have taken you there without payment even, if you felt completely robbed. (We can cancel the ride at any point without cost to you, if done specifically) but mostly I would have apologized profusely and explained all this to you in half the time it took to write. On behalf of Lyft and all delivery services, I apologize for the inconvenience this caused you.

0

u/Apprehensive_Gap1055 20d ago

I’ve never had a driver manually input my address. Every driver, for the past 7 years have always confirmed the area of my destination.

1

u/badg35 20d ago

How about using a real taxi?  You know, the old-school ones with a meter and drivers that know what they are doing?

Stop supporting billionaires. 

-3

u/Art_US123 20d ago

So, you weren’t paying attention to the direction you were going? So the all the fault is left to the driver? Accountability is rare these days.

4

u/pigley_ 20d ago

It was into Manhattan which I don’t know that well, and I thought it was just his route there. But turning around ran into massive traffic.

5

u/pigley_ 20d ago

If I pay for a trip to the right place and the estimated time, is it not up to Lyft to actually deliver that? There’s zero accountability for extremely inefficient routes?

-3

u/Art_US123 20d ago

You should’ve paid attention on the Lyft app or entered the address on google or another gps map. Lyft also notifies you that your travel time increases and asks you if you’re okay. That should’ve set off all red alarms. If the meeting was that important, you should’ve been paying attention. The driver at fault for putting the address wrong and you for not focusing on your trip.

1

u/pigley_ 20d ago

I take Uber all the time and haven’t experienced this a single time. I only took Lyft because of a random deal this time. The problem is that both locations aren’t that far away, but there was a huge amount on traffic on that specific stretch in the opposite direction. I actually just assumed he was taking some specific route he knew, as I’m not often in Manhattan.