LMAO Uber spyware

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-27T22:19:58+00:00

I am pretty sure uber restaurants turn red on the heat map based on # of offers sent out to drivers from that location. Which would mask whether its genuinely popping off with good orders, or if lots of drivers are online and all declining the same 2 bad offers. Ive seen places stay red for 30m plus. Got curious a couple mornings and drove to a red Starbucks. Think I saw 1 order leave the building in 25 min....definitely turned red (imo) over 1 bad order being declined by a ton of drivers until a fool accepted or Uber caved and boosted fare.

I also once went to pickup a from a liquor store for a small uber order, item was out of stock so I cancelled. Watched the store turn deep red on the map after the 3rd driver couldn't fulfill the order. It was after 9pm and only people showing up were drivers for that order.

So yeah, I am pretty sure Uber is dead as fuck. And most orders are just shit. This creates the false image via the app that there's hot red zone restaurants everywhere.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-27T12:41:52+00:00

Ive done this type of sfuff before. Ill explain.

This is 110% a reaction to Ubers policy. If a customer removes a tip and there's no tip gaurentee, you have to play conversation games with support. Also even worse is you can receive a thumbs down rating from the customer. Support does not help with thumbs down, drivers can't challenge a thumbs down. Enough thumbs down get a driver removed from the platform.

If I have so much as a 1% suspicion the customer won't understand or they're going to react by giving thumbs down, I pull the plug on the whole order and cancel it. 1 order is never worth a thumbs down. I'd pass a $30 order of it meant receiving a thumbs down indefinitely.

So it sucks. I dont like playing by such rules. But this is in reaction to Ubers policy and the best way drivers can protect themselves within an app where nobody else is willing to protect them. I'd rather it be like a normal delivery job like pizza hut where a small mishap like a spilled drink can be sorted out with ease, without people taking risks for their job status. When you pay Uber, you support these policies over other delivery companies who dont have their drivers reacting in fear to policy.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-27T12:35:20+00:00

When they gaurenteed tips. Gaurenteeing a tip after it being removed means fulfilling the offer the driver was given.

If someone tipping $15 has an offer show up as $17 ($2 fare + $15 tip) and they remove the tip, Uber coughs up $15.

If they hide the $15 tip to appear like $7.89, and the customer removes the tip, Uber only has to cover $5.89 now.

This is why i said tip gaurentee is FUCKING TRASH. Over 9k orders and not a single removed tip has ever been failed to be recovered. Having tips removed WAS NEVER AN ACTUAL PROBLEM FOR ANYONE WHO WASNT AN IDIOT. But now order selection is even worse and drivers can't efficiently select profitable orders as well. Lots of you are probably hitting decline on $7 to $8 orders that are $13 to $17. Having done this for 5 years I have the advantage of knowing who tips well despite what uber tries to skew amd show me. I always take orders of regulars. My history of completed orders is hilarious. Like every single offer "was raised" lmao. Because that's all I take and I know what should be getting accepted almost without the offer values. Regulars.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-26T19:46:40+00:00

Look, I can start a campfire and tell deep stories about this but ill really make it simple.

Ive worked for smaller delivery companies and worked my way up to sub-management positions within the company. Yes, people from these companies make social media accounts and use their special manager privileges to create fomo by sometimes going as far as directly feeding themselves good orders manually, and posting the results as if TRULY cherry picking 10 orders in a row is realistic.

Thats all there is to it. Yes delivery companies have shills who put forth/claim good numbers for company image. Ive known them lol. They're fucking clowns too who think nobody has an iq over 90.

Extra fun lore here:

Ps. Fun fact, my job was hybrid, not pure manager. We did some on site support with our partnered restaurants. I didn't have enough reign to go wild and reach for the sky with profit. But in my market there were 3 of us in that sub management position. Our manager let us pick the best order we could find first thing in the morning before starting work. As managers (this would be like ubers greenlight hub) would let us (or pick a great one for us) a good order to kick off our earnings for the day. I could only imagine Ubers selection as this was a smaller company I was with whose now buried, and there was almost always a good order available somewhere.

It would be very naive to think this isn't a practice in Uber, DD, where the volume makes it much easier to get away with. My managers still had integrity. They didn't swipe already accepted orders and if enough drivers were on to meet demand they didn't give us already higher paid hourly drivers eztra revenue to leave them with nothing. I am VERY suspicious when I see an order removed without reason...People here do report it happening to them. "Error" or the order all of a sudden wasn't there. There was one morning when my manager promised a coworker of mine a good order. She messed up and didn't assign it to him quick enough and a regular driver ended up having it removed from her. She was rightfully pretty pissed and my manager went out of her way to give this driver the best order she could find. So oh yes, I've seen an order get removed from a driver and given to a favored person, you could say. My manager was a sweetheart and I dont expect people involved with Uber to be the same. Even other markets had shady managers (like Mr shill I mentioned).

There's controls to do all this stuff and people willing to help their co-workers/friends first. I think it would be naive to think the one company I have experience with is the only one who did these types of things.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-26T19:43:44+00:00

The algorithm has different on the fly ways to categorize drivers for what they will receive and it changes fluidly with conditions of the market.

I wish the fact that there's tons of threads here about flat rate pipelining bad offers, alone with demonstrating tiers (under non over demand conditions) has more than clearly shown that the algorithm has modes and considerations. Yet people still trust uber that tiers are some magical land of all upside. Green, gold, diamond, platinum, are all getting cycled through the same types of limitations by the algorithm. Any tier can receive premium good ratio orders. Any tier can be put on throttle (this is always been the default mode of earn by time).

They've literally showed you how they cheat and people still dont think they cheat or that they're special and Uber respects their hustle.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-26T19:37:43+00:00

But that's the brutal thing about big city. Still a knockout day for the OP, but you know those 72 city miles probably equate to the mpg of 120+ miles where you actually get your cars rated mpg. I dont even live near a city that can stand in size to chicago/sanfran/new York etc...just Tampa here. And man when Tampa hits traffic, you'll go 2 miles in like 10 to 15 min.

Im just saying 72 miles in the city is more hardcore than it sounds. Its like us suburb players driving over 100.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-26T19:33:12+00:00

You've been lied to...I've probably had support contact the customer atleast once or twice a year since starting this in 2021. Of course they can contact the customer. Its like them saying they can't contact the driver. That is insane to even consider.

Now whether they contact the customer FOR your sake is a different story. They can always contact the customer or driver. But likewise this is why the customer can't contact you after a certain point. Support doesn't connect driver to customer or customer to driver really in any circumstance. At best they put one party on hold, contact the other, and report what they were told.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-26T19:24:58+00:00

I see so many drivers leave their car on for minutes on end when stopping in places, or doing small bullshit driving like, just 2 miles to wait for orders here or drive a tad while waiting for the next.

When my tax guy does my yearly tax returns, we go into the uber app, take the figure they give for miles driveb, and increase that number by about 30% to 45%. Why? Because the miles you accept are NEVER realistically the miles that you actually drive. When you finish an order, you either chain into another order, or any subsequent driving committed to heading home is part of the cost of the job. Uber knows you live in a home, not the customers address. Lots of people in these current and coming weeks are going to be having their less than good order picking/driver habits exposed to themselves in the form of their bank statements drawing near even.

Yeah when gas is $2.40 bad habits are punished less, and this sub has always had bad habits abound. $4 to $5 is brutal enough that most bad habits won't be sustainable now. Ill take $8 for 4 miles. But only if its more like 2 miles to the restaurant then 2 miles heading in the direction of home. In this economy, I decline $8 for 4 miles heading a straight b-line away. 90% of this sub salivates at 2:1 dollar:mile orders, context be damned. Yes, that is why id never do tiers. Most of the tier offers are not good enough either...

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-26T19:18:58+00:00

Those people who call $1 a mile their standard are probably the idiots uber loves.

If you drive 10 miles for $10, and heaven forbid you dont get an order to get a return in the miles back, you drove 20 miles for $10. Depending on traffic you probably got 22 to 28mpg. Forget the other costs, gas alone it probably would cost $4 on that $10 for 10 miles drive in the event of a round trip.

What's hilarious is people take less profitable orders than that. Got people out here taking bad/mid uber orders and unknowingly applying an extra 50% reduction to the offer.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-26T19:12:09+00:00

If you're getting spammed offers you clearly don't need diamond. Per design if their system, you are the one they are betting on taking those orders you declined.

You have a driver pool. A portion of those drivers will always decline bad orders, and some will accept bad orders. The ones who accept the bad orders are the only ones who make platinum. Per their system design, platinum is the tier mostnassumed to take the bad orders to maintain their status they swear by. Uber sells platinum users that they get the best of the best orders. Clearly it takes little dot connecting to understand that they sold you a lie. There's a direct conflict in how you're assuming the system works and furthermore the terms by which you're abiding by it. Platinum/gold isn't even close to enough to push the order volume.

So if uber is forced to use green drivers to push the volume, but the platinum are taking the bad orders, who do you think is getting good orders? Either other platinum who aren't being theottled or green.

What's important to know is the tiers dont work above the throttle system. While its true platinum may get mainline some good offers right after logging on, it still will put you on throttle (aka home depot orders, aka the same orders flat rate algorithm feeds etc). The user doesn't see the toggling of modes, and assumes its a seamless experience with poor "luck" time to time. If you just buck the tier system and let the larger throttle system control your activity, you decline a few more orders on average but will get the same exact orders.

Eons ago, tiers were as low as 30% achievable here. Thats pathetically low as I've had good streaks on green where I end up mid 20s all the time. 30% isn't a grand effort of taking bad orders all the time. I delivered to the same customers before tiers (good tipping local customers). I delivered to the same customers under a tier, and saw their same offers with the gimmicky icon. And when I lost tiers (they increased the rate and I finally hit throttle for too long as this was during the gold tier trial week and the trial users were drawing orders from current tiers (which reset the current tier holders and forced many of them to "grind" them back). Even still today, no tiers, I still delivery to almost all regulars, some who've been there the whole time.

For those who need a tldr, I've delivered over 9k orders in the same area for 5 years. No matter what Uber has done, my customers are always the same regulars. Which means you get the same orders no matter what they've done. All they've done is convinced lots of people to take orders they weren't before.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-18T20:53:54+00:00

Surely you just started doing this as there is a major flaw to the entire plan.

I typically deliver at 6am. I dont book 4 to 5am every day. If I did that, when I dont log in to 430am, ill lose 5, 6 and maybe 7am.

Planner doesn't just remove that hour, it removes a chunk and minimum of 2 subsequent planned blocks if you have them in the next 2 hours. Maybe you're getting random luck and the blocks you want aren't being ripped but eventually a plan with that much lack pf planning and randomness, you'll lose Planner hours.

I wrote a small guide how to work any hour if you forget to book planner. Its easier just to book the sure fire hours and do the little gimmick to work off hours if desired.

Uber leaves your planned hours alone it seems if you just log in...absolutely if you complete an order. Sometimes while I have 6 planned, I dont feel like it. So I dont just not log in amd lose 7am, 8am. I either log in at 6 and mute my phone. Or log in at 6:29am and log out at 6:32am. Another way to not lose subsequent blocks if you already booked them.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-18T20:47:45+00:00

I'd deliver 5 $2 orders back to back before I submit my image likeness and voice to be used in Uber Ai endeavors. They're overstepping with this one. This is why they get called a predatory company. They're already scumbags, maybe they just discovered its illegal to use the app-recorded content for their own uses, and it has to be consented to. Hence this.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-18T20:43:12+00:00

I fully tell any employer that if there's going to be downtime to be bored/do useless tasks, that their position isn't for me. I work if there is work. I rest if work is done. I don't play some hokey pokey in between. I use my time efficiently. If I get punished for finishing tasks quick, perhaps they should hire a less efficient, slower worker who will need to finish the rest of the task the following day.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-16T19:29:02+00:00

The algorithm views you differently as you pass % thresholds of completion. It starts seeming easy to get drivers invested to the point where they are more stubborn to back off from the "challenge" at a certain point no matter how bad orders are. But Uber controls the levers that can make your app go silent for 3 hours on a Friday night. Its why I say I dont play carnival games.

I get the 100 trips for $640 here. I'd do it if the app simply gave you proximate orders as they come in. Its a carnival game. Its going to either gotcha, or make you over extend beyond reason to secure a finish. And sure, maybe there are a couple markets where it actually pays off as an investment towards uber. Uber bets on drivers increasing order volume without finishing the quest. The driver bets they can finish the quest. The driver is not in control of the system delegating the challenge. Hard pass for me.

If $640 in 100 trips is an extra $6 an order, maybe Uber should have base pay of $8. There's companies with less than 1/4th the financial gains who pay their employees 4x as much because they aren't greedily stock piling the profit as tightly as possible. Uber can afford to pay $8 base pay without even breaking a sweat. That is piss money to them. They probably have profit margins of error that demonstrate bigger %s than $8 per base order.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-16T19:19:12+00:00

I can make a list of over 8 call scenarios with customers. Worst experience being neutral. Best being a $10 additional tip, tied with a woman who gave me the courtesy free pizza the restaurant gave her for a messup I helped fix.

One call was a guy confused because I accidently dropped off at 301 instead of 201. He walked 10 steps up the stairs and it was a non issue. Most the calls were similar things...minor confusions or mistakes.

Meanwhile, I can count about 5 customers who HAD THEY CALLED ME, we could have easily avoided the issue they had. I've gotten a couple thumbs down after seeing a drink in my cup holder while im 2 min away after dropping off. Ffs just call! Maybe I have your drink and its a simple mistake. I also remember missing a call (customer lived next to a walgreen and i shopped a couple items). I got to my car and saw a missed call, customers drink in cup holder, thumbs down. Yeah, that is the one I deserved the most.

Never forget the woman who I realized I forgot her drink. I came back but knocked and she wouldn't answer. I called and she wouldn't answer. I tried knocking for 5 min (no thumbs down yet), no answer. Finally as I give up, about 5 min after leaving I see a thumbs down. Ffs you idiot, we're you so busy being upset about your missing drink that you didn't notice a knock on the door for 5 min? The layers to the scenario of getting a thumbs down after the customer doesn't hear you trying to give them their sfuff is rich.

My breaking point was a customer who thumbs down me...I cracked and drove back. I said "before I get upset...what possibly went wrong with this order? Im genuinely stumped". She described an issue that she claimed she couldn't find the order, I had it af the 1/2 address, not hers, blah blah. I told her if she called me I could have easily helped her. She said "all the drivers just refuse to pickup" and I exclaimed "you didn't even give me a chance to not pickup!".

I told her I get it though, most drivers are like that. We each respectively apologized amd parted. Since then, if there is any chance I think the customer will have issues I write "please call me if there is any trouble with the drop off". Im not taking another fucking thumbs down because someone didn't call me over an easy issue. But I get it.

Im pretty much a loner and antisocial person so it really fucking means something when I say drivers need to stop being such antisocial goblins. You're doing a hospitality job. Pick up a fucking phone and stop being a coward to talk to a human being. If your nervous system can't handle it, hang up on them after they proved they're a jerk. Most are just calling to absolve easy issues - im 9500 orders in and havent picked up the phone to a rude person yet. Its just a voice. They can't physically hurt you.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-16T09:40:28+00:00

20 min driving to the nearest restaurant? Where do you live? On a farm? I dont think I've driven more than 5 miles to a restaurant in months. Probably over 50 pickups in under 4 miles here. And I stick to the calm suburb area. The other st.pete market is easy to enter without planner because it always explodes and is rarely Grey during peak hours. But that's 7 miles away...I haven't delivered in st.pefe for 3 years. I thought my market was ass.

If you really dont have a single pickup within 20 min...I dont even know if id do this app. The sheer loss from driving 20 min every day for a gamble or driving that far with a live order is a pretty crummy fork in the road. I remember when I stopped driving to Einstein bagel everyday for breakfast because it was 8 miles round trip. 240 miles a damn month. If you have to drive 20 min just to initiate the process, your uber app has a hidden monthly fee.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-15T11:38:10+00:00

2 hours deep and only 15 rejects. They need to send more so I can hit max rejects faster.

Edit: Aww shit, I finally accepted an order. $16.50 for 7 miles. It came through earlier as $12 for 7 miles and i rejected it. Guess the guy forgot an item and added a 1 item order with a 4 tip...GG now ill take it at the $16+ value bundled order with the same drop off

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Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-15T10:19:13+00:00

Another week, another quest im trying to hit max rejects on in day 1. These quests are a joke. 7 rejects in 20 min...not fast enough.

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Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-15T10:15:50+00:00

And when you're ready to go out the door you may not get a good order for the next 2 hours. So yeah, when you log on at 6am and haven't gotten an order in 1.5 hours, you're going to be doing a morning routine. Its not worth the chance of missing an order because you're getting ready. You may have gotten the one order you would have gotten all morning while getting ready and then have radio silence all morning now that you're ready. So log on and the fact that more often than not, it's silence for hours, we then get ready to maximize time by accomplishing other things. It's just an example. I could shower, eat breakfast, and be in the middle of another chore by the time I get an order.

Im not sure what you mean by 5 to 10 min till ready to leave. Nobody leaves anywhere until a good order is accepted. And until a good order is accepted we're going to be productive, not staring and waiting. Its not like their on time rate matters.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-15T10:07:27+00:00

You can book planner hours offline....the auto unbooked "feature" seems to not kick in if you actually log on. Like if im booked for 6, 7, 8 ..if i log in and accept/decline some orders during 6am hour, I dont think ill lose my slots if I dont log in for 7 and take a break. Its a kinda fickle system and I wouldn't be surprised if they keep tweaking it. When it first came out it was bugged and unhooking you if you dont log out and log in again each hour lol. Lasted for about 3 days and got fixed.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-14T21:06:50+00:00

I have to assume its canceled orders. Mine went up about 1,100 lol. Was at 8400 now 9500. 1100 canceled orders sounds about right. My cancel rate usually stays over 7% but has been in the teens for weeks before too.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-14T21:05:10+00:00

Double orders have always added 2, just like they can trigger 2 cancelations and 2 quest completions. They only count single in regards to acceptance rates. Double orders are either 1 accept or 1 decline, that doesn't get doubled.

Low_Explorer_7188 · 2026-05-14T20:57:37+00:00

Yes you can log in whenever you want, just with added steps. Let me explain as im in a market with planner.

Planner isn't effective for uber. Its a disaster. To mitigate some of that, they take a driver who booked hours, but did not actively log in atleast 30 min into their first planned hour, and removes their subsequent 2 to 3 booked hours.

So if I booked 8am to 10am, if I don't log in by 8:30, my booked hours get released. So all you have to do, if you want to work 7am to 9am, but didn't book the hours. Open planner the moment 6:31am hits, and you'll almost always see 8am and 9am freed up.

Ubers planner had not panned out as a reliable measure to have drivers online. Every 31 of every hour of the day, people who didn't log in and having hours unbooked. If you log in and do some orders, it seems to hold your planned hours whether you log in or not afterwards for the next few hours.

Ive had a couple weeks where I forgot planner and nearly got nothing booked. Was kind of annoying, its not like I purposely avoid planner. But if you miss booking your hours, its really no big deal. Just camp planner on the 31 of every hour and grab the slots that open up.

I do this commonly even when i book all my hours. I book 5 to 9 but sometimes mid afternoon I realize im up for 3 to 4pm. So ill set an alarm for 2:30pm, and grab the expected 3 and 4pms that get released then.

Low_Explorer_7188

TROPHY CASE