I took the Silver Line out to Wiehle, to get to the last mile to Dulles. I admittedly didn’t provide enough margin, but I could have made it if Uber hadn’t screwed me over. The driver was driving all around, showing close to me on my phone, but I couldn’t see him in a big parking lot. He kept wandering on my screen, and never called me to ask where I was. I couldn’t call him.
After the official five minutes, he canceled me, and I was screwed, missing the last flight of the day to LA. I had to rebook from DCA the next morning (no way was I going to try Dulles again), and had to use miles to avoid who knows how many hundreds of dollars in change fees and fare changes, plus a hundred bucks for another night’s stay.
And for this “service,” and to add insult to injury, Uber charged me five bucks for the driver that I didn’t cancel. And when they did so, they said if I had an issue, to go to a web site that had no information whatsoever as to how to deal with it.
Driver couldn’t find you, and you got charged? I’ll add that to the list of reasons to avoid Uber.
It happened to us in Paris as well, but at least in that case the driver had the excuse of the language difference. This driver didn’t even call.
Rand, I told my wife, who uses Uber a lot, about your mishap and she was able to explain the mistake you made. When the driver’s image appears on the app you would have been able to press it and then get an option to contact the driver by voice or text. Then you would have been able to tell the driver that you were the agitated man trying to wave him down in plain sight. Just for future reference.
Thanks, Mark, but neither he or I were in plain sight, at least of each other. I saw his car on my phone, but not in meatspace. I have no idea where he was, or why he was having so much trouble, but there is no excuse, IMO, for him to not even attempt to find out by calling me. Every other time I’ve used Uber, if they can’t find me, they call to get a better idea.
Bad UI. Why the extra step of having to tap first to see the two available actions (call and text)? The words Call and Text should be where the driver’s image is. I mean the actual words, not vague icons.
Vague icons are among many endemic user interface fails.
Last mile?
Could a person just do that infantry-soldier-laden-with-gear thing to close this distance?
The Wiehle* stop is about 7 miles from Dulles by vehicle (along the Dulles Access Road), but pedestrian access adds another 2 miles.
I suspect that if time was an issue, getting off metro at an earlier stop would be faster. Metro generally goes slower than traffic on the Dulles Access Road, so getting as early as West Falls Church might have been better (though more expensive).
* Metro is getting extended out to Dulles (at about $100 million/mile), Wiehle is where they stopped at phase 1 of the extension project.
Oops, that should be $400 million/mile…
So seven miles is a “last mile”? I guess that is a “term of art” for “the darned Metro doesn’t take you all the way there?
This last summer I was a guest of a Federal agency in Arlington, and their travel agent insisted that Reagan National rather than Dulles International was the preferred airport.
Trying to change my return flight because the meeting thankfully ended early, I asked our meeting organizer about Dulles.
Pointing at a highway sign reading “Dulles”, I asked our meeting organizer about getting to Dulles. “Oh yes, the Metro takes you there?” “It does?” “Yes, there is a shuttle (bus presumably at the Metro stop?)”
There is a bus at the station, but it leaves every twenty minutes, and I hadn’t gotten there in time for it. Ultimately, it was my fault that I missed the flight, but if Uber had come through, I’d have had a good chance to make the flight. I didn’t mention that the driver that eventually abandoned me was going to charge me $18, and when I tried again, the next one was fifty bucks. At that point, it didn’t seem worth fifty bucks to almost certainly get to the airport and miss the flight.
This is pretty much an indictment of Metro’s route planning.
There is very little other purpose for that bus but to connect the end of the Silver Line to Dulles airport, so its departures and arrivals should be synchronized with the Silver Line train.
The bus should leave Dulles so that it arrives at Wiehle station so passengers can board the train, and leave Wiehle station after waiting long enough for train passengers to board the bus. Any other trips are gravy, but those two should be required.
I always use rail when I can in time sensitive situations like that if I can, unless I’m the one driving, or it’s someone I really trust. It’s more reliable.
They charge $5 for not showing up?
I think they need some competition. If anyone here needs a ride, just mail me $2 for not showing up. No app needed; I’ll not show up anywhere, anytime, with 100% consistency, guaranteed!
They have competition I think. Lyft for one.