Yes exactly. If Uber did this sort of thing as a matter of course, people would be up in arms about it.

This is one advantage to there being 1-2 huge brands (Uber and Lyft, Amazon and Walmart, etc.) vs a smattering of tiny businesses (e.g. taxis). Misdeeds by huge brands give people something to point at, and complain about, and hold accountable. Whereas systemic misdeeds by individuals who are part of a smattering of tiny companies results in people saying, "Eh this is just how it is, learn to live with it."

But Uber does scam you as a matter of course, they've just hidden it in such a way that you're willing to accept it because it's a slight inconvenience that extracts extra money from you, rather than making you go out of your way to do something.

How does Uber scam me?

But I agree with your second sentence. I would much rather pay a few extra pennies/dollars than have to go out of my way. It's a better world where there's a reliable company that's accountable, then having to argue and negotiate with every single driver about whether they're credit card machine actually works, or how much extra I have to pay with a CC, or whether they're taking the right route, etc., because there are no standards or accountability, and every driver is unrelated to the previous drivers I've had and communicated my preferences to.

Your operating theory is that “misdeeds” have dropped due to the present oligarchy of massive conglomerates engaged in anticompetitive practices?

Yes. The reputations risk on a company level from a local taxi company is much lower than Uber.

Have you ever had to worry about paying a penny more than you were quoted by the Uber app? Have you ever had to worry about whether you could use your credit card?

And anti competitive how? The taxi companies were horrible and they deserved to die

We are in a thread of people sharing stories about being ripped off by Uber.

And yes it’s happened to me too it’s super common.

And how were you ripped off by Uber? I take Uber on average 15-20 times a month. The amount shown has always been the amount I paid and I definitely didn’t have to worry about them running up the miles or getting dropped off and them holding my luggage hostage and saying they don’t take credit cards or demanding a tip.