The Corner Penthouse

My family started using Uber for our twice-monthly supermarket shopping trips since late November, after dealing with an All Island Taxi driver who extorted us for money after bringing us home. She refused to open the trunk, so we could unload our groceries, unless we paid her first! Putting aside the fact that extortion is illegal - I should have called the cops and had her arrested - we had been using All Island Taxi four times a month (to and from on two monthly trips), so we have a history stored in All Island's system that shows we pay our fares. There was no need for her illegal behavior, and it was downright insulting to two loyal and regular customers.

While the Uber drivers have been better, and the prices have been somewhat lower coming home (it's more expensive going), there is one thing about Uber that I do not like, and feel the need to warn other about: WAIT TIME FEES! Read on to find out more...

A "Wait Time" fee is a fee that Uber automatically charges "based on the time driver-partners spend waiting after they have arrived at the pickup location". The thing is, Uber doesn't actually know what is going on at the pickup location, and automatically assumes that if the GPS shows that the driver is in the vicinity of the pickup location, that he/she is actually waiting there for the rider, even though that has NEVER been the case for my family.

Every time we have used Uber, we have been at the pickup location BEFORE the drive got there, but that hasn't stopped Uber from charging us the Wait Time fee. If the driver has to wait behind other cars to get to the pickup location, as was the case on a January 5th pickup at 3:12 PM at the McDonald's in Oceanside, NY, where the drive-thru lane had a line going out to the street, the "Wait Time Fee Meter" will start running. We had no control over the driver's inability to get to us standing on the curb at the restaurant's entrance, yet we were charged a $0.87 Wait Time fee.


More often, we get charged a Wait Time fee for the two to three minutes it takes for us to load our groceries into the car at the supermarket. It would go quicker if the driver would help, but most don't even offer. Grocery-loading is expected when a pickup is at a supermarket, and not something we should be charged for. The taxi companies don't charge for this very minimal idling time. On January 5th at 5:07 PM, we were charged a $0.76 Wait Time fee.


If the Uber system worked fairly, the driver would be able to note in the app that we are at the car, and prevent the Wait Time meter from running. Instead, the app triggers the meter when it senses that the car/device is not moving. That is an inaccurate way of doing things that favors Uber because it triggers these fees. Even if the fees are low, it's the principle of the matter.


While the two Wait Time fees on January 5th were under a Dollar, there have been some in the past two months that have been around $2.00. In the past, I have been able to successfully get these Wait Time fees credited back. (By using this page.) Unfortunately, there must be a limit to how often you can do this, because I could not get either of the January 5th fees refunded.


For both trips, it says "We've reviewed your price - Although we can't refund you in this case, your feedback helps us give better service to customers in the future." Talk about a useless message. Tell us WHY you can't refund us. I'm sure that it's because Uber is tired of me disputing its unwarranted Wait Time fees. At least have the balls to say as much!


I wonder if Lyft has these scummy Wait Time fees...