If you’ve ever used Uber, you probably know one of their main attractions is the ease of doing everything through your phone. You hit the button on the app, the car comes and picks you up, and you are dropped off, like magic, at your destination. No fumbling for your wallet or awkwardly asking if they have a card reader.
Soon that will be all changing. Bloomberg has the details:
As part of the settlement with drivers in California and Massachusetts, Uber has agreed to notify customers more clearly that tips are not included in fares and give tacit approval for optional gratuity. Drivers can now solicit cash tips by asking passengers or posting signs in their vehicles.
You won’t be required to tip and there won’t be an option on the app, but the driver now has the ability to ask for it and give you a bad rating if you don’t tip, putting your next ride in jeopardy.
If Uber would have started like this, I don’t know that it would have blown up to the extent it did. But now that they are a staple in our vocabulary, they can kind of do whatever they want and the hit won’t be that substantial.
If I could have it my way, they would just raise the rates because you don’t want me to be the judge of your customer service. Most of the time it won’t end well. And I don’t really want to be put in an awkward position because a billion-dollar company doesn’t want to invest in their employees.