In the US we have Lyft, so not quite a monopoly. Possibly an oligopoly though. I'm building an app that pits them against each other on price to promote a competitive transportation market. In some countries Uber does have a monopoly, or has been kicked out in favor of a different monopoly...

Good luck. You aren't the first to try this. Uber's terms of service expressly prohibit displaying their prices next to a competitor's, and they've sent their lawyers after anyone who has tried. You don't make money as a marketplace by competing in the market for marketplaces -- you do it by being the marketplace and charging the rent that the market will bear.

There are also Taxis in most places.

Google Maps already does that.

Not well. It gives price ranges like "$6-$10", and with many short rides having price differences of $1-$2 its not actually useful for comparing Uber and Lyft. Plus their fare prices are often flat out wrong (as they cannot factor in account specific factors), and they link you into the native app to actually call the ride.

Doesn't Uber pay Google for that privilege? I'm in Toronto and I've only ever seen Uber fare estimates on Google Maps.

I don't know, but I've seen it list both Uber and Lyft for me.

I had the opposite experience. Uber has customer support built into the App. I was also billed twice and just followed the instructions in App that created a ticket. Got my money back in 2 days.

Same thing in my case. I had a few mishaps - one guy didn't terminate the trip once I got off, so I got overcharged, another failed to pick me up to begin with (!), but started a trip anyway, etc. In every case the issue was financially resolved in terms of hours.

Likewise, I gifted someone a $50 Uber gift card to their cell number. They never received it.

I filed a support request online and received no response. Apparently there is no phone support here either? This is in US.

Uber's US support number is 800-593-7069. You can also tweet at their twitter account, which usually gets you a quick response. @Uber_Support ‏

Its sad that so many companies require you to kick up a stink on social media before they will acknowledge your complaint.

Movistar and Vodafone in Spain have both been like that with me.

Did you complain to your consumer protection bureau?

Chargeback.

In what market are they remotely close to being a "monopoly"??

If there's a ridesharing co that is actually a monopoly it's probably Grab in SEA.

> they are a monopoly

In India, don't you have Ola?

yes, but the Ola app (last I checked) required access to all your emails and SMS messages and didn't function if these are not granted. When one of my friends contacted customer support he was told " but all your data is safe with us, why are you worried?"

(this was some time ago, I don't know what the status is today)

I use Android Pie and the only permissions they require to work is Location and Phone.

…I don't know what to say. How has nobody called them out for this yet?

This is definitely not true in iOS for the last 2 years at least.

At the very beginning of Uber it was the inverse, their customer service was top notch. I would reply to a receipt saying the driver took a longer route for instance and they would reimburse me. Now their customer service is basically inexistent.

I've found the same to be true for Uber Eats. If my order is wrong, they give a full refund no questions asked (and a meal is typically $20-25). And orders get messed up a lot (maybe 1 out of 5). Even something as small as missing ketchup, I'll get half off.

Thre's Ola and they have a fairly decent network. Though in Customer Service they are about the same. In major cities you also have competitors like auto rickshaws, buses and the like. They are nowhere near a monopoly.