Glenn Andert’s blog

I   WAS   an avid fan of Uber, that is until I read this:

http://mobile.theverge.com/2014/8/26/6067663/this-is-ubers-playbook-for-sabotaging-lyft

In short, they are paying their own contractors to turn in bogus ride requests to Lyft, in an attempt to slow down their competitor Lyft. But don’t take my paraphrase, read the article yourself.

Personally, I think this is disgusting. Uber is using rape-and-pillage tactics to slow down a competitor. That was standard operating procedure back in the Middle Ages. Haven’t we progressed past that?

I wrote to Uber support, expressing my dismay. I got back the copy-paste response “We appreciate the feedback and will be passing it the team.” That’s customer support parlance for “delete, case closed”.

The worst part is that the people at the bottom that actually do the driving are the ones that suffer – spending their time and money responding to fake calls that don’t produce a fare and waste their fuel and time.

My “want” is for the world to respond like this:

– How can Uber drivers trust Uber? They should defect to Lyft.

– Do Uber employees really want to work for a rape-and-pillage company? They should quit, and find another employer.

– Do the VCs that voted with their $1,500,000,000 dollars in investment actually want to fund this kind of business practice? They should exercise their considerable control to stop this.

I will be doing my part. On my next business trip, I’ll be using Lyft, not Uber.