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Re:Tell HN: Uber has blocked my account for years, won't tel... by VWWHFSfQ on Monday December 19, 2022 @09:34AM (#34052475)
I enabled 2FA on my account and then lost my phone and couldn't find where I saved the backup codes. I tried to contact their support to see what my options were but that was completely useless. Bots and canned responses. No humans whatsoever. After many, many emails I finally got (what I think) was an actual human to reply and all they sent me was their support article on how to change my password. I tried to explain why that doesn't work but they had no idea what I was talking about and they just sent me the same support article again. Uber accounts are tied to your phone number, so I pretty much lost access to Uber completely unless I feel like changing my phone number. Maybe I'll try my old Grand Central/Google Voice number but I doubt that will work since they probably think it's a bot number.

I bet if I include words like "attack" or "sexual assault" in the email then I'll get past their first-line bot response filter. But I don't care about it that much. Fuck 'em.

In any case, I use Lyft exclusively now. Which is fine because I've found that pretty much every Uber driver is also a Lyft driver.

Re:Tell HN: Uber has blocked my account for years, won't tel... by JCM9 on Monday December 19, 2022 @09:42AM (#34052551)
Yeah, I knew this whole space was a race to the bottom the first time when a driver turned up with two phones with one running Uber and the other Lyft. When I asked them how they choose they just said which ever wants to fight harder for their business today and pay them the most. The drivers have zero loyalty to these companies.
Re:Tell HN: Uber has blocked my account for years, won't tel... by preinheimer on Monday December 19, 2022 @09:54AM (#34052743)
Which is exactly how much loyalty the drivers owe the companies!
Re:Tell HN: Uber has blocked my account for years, won't tel... by themaninthedark on Monday December 19, 2022 @10:20AM (#34053061)
Wait, who is it a race to the bottom for?

The drivers were sold that they are contractors who make their own hours and don't have a boss.

It makes perfect sense that they are trying to get the best rate, anything else would be leaving money on the table right?

Re:Tell HN: Uber has blocked my account for years, won't tel... by sebastien_b on Monday December 19, 2022 @11:41AM (#34054162)
>The drivers were sold that they are contractors who make their own hours and don't have a boss.

Which was total BS from the start - when they do choose to work, they’re told (by a boss) when/where they do their work. Hardly “own hours and own boss”.

Re:Tell HN: Uber has blocked my account for years, won't tel... by themaninthedark on Monday December 19, 2022 @06:32PM (#34059407)
Oh, I completely agree. Whenever I look at the *-share economy, it looks like the idea is "We take the dollar and share the pennies with you".
Re:Tell HN: Uber has blocked my account for years, won't tel... by gadders on Monday December 19, 2022 @10:28AM (#34053174)
>> The drivers have zero loyalty to these companies.

Good for them. As the saying goes in boxing - if you want loyalty, buy a dog.

Re:Tell HN: Uber has blocked my account for years, won't tel... by Gud on Monday December 19, 2022 @11:31AM (#34054006)
How is this a bad thing?
Re:Tell HN: Uber has blocked my account for years, won't tel... by jandrese on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @12:39PM (#34083782)
This is exactly what contractors are supposed to do. The whole point of contracting is that it is a market for labor. The only bad part of the story is that the guy needed two phones, he should have been able to do it all on a single phone.
Re:Tell HN: Uber has blocked my account for years, won't tel... by Aardwolf on Monday December 19, 2022 @10:00AM (#34052829)
Then again, in case of 2FA maybe you wouldn't want there to exist ways around it, or someone could impersonate you to get your credentials?
Re:Tell HN: Uber has blocked my account for years, won't tel... by VWWHFSfQ on Monday December 19, 2022 @10:04AM (#34052883)
nah. We live in the real world where people make mistakes and need help to fix them. I would be fine with some kind of a KYC process to recover the account, but they have no such thing. Or I wasn't able to get to it at least.