Uber's customers don't care about the scandals

These days, consumers could list a million reasons to avoid Uber.

The ride-hailing goliath stands accused of promoting its service during a taxi strike, not standing up to the Trump administration, treating its drivers poorly, and having an insensitive CEO, among other scandals. Most recently, it’s been accused of condoning sexual harassment and using deceptive tactics to skirt regulators.

This list has pushed the #deleteUber movement into the cultural mainstream and the company has recognized a crisis. Embattled CEO Travis Kalanick is now looking for a COO to assist him.

The alleged injustices perpetrated by Uber, however, may not be enough to outweigh a key quality working in the ride-hailing app’s: service.

Being singularly “obsessed” with the customer instead of merely “focused”—as the company frequently claims to be—may end up taking a toll on workplace culture. But for the customer on the other end, it also means things run extremely smoothly.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick may have created a horrible workplace, but the product is good. Source: AP
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick may have created a horrible workplace, but the product is good. Source: AP

That’s partly because Uber customers almost always find a car nearby when they fire up the Uber app. In New York City, for example, there are over 40,000 Uber vehicles on the road, compared to only 15,000 Lyft cars. (Yellow taxis number 13,000 full-time cars, but are hailed manually so are not comparable.) For someone with the simple goal of moving from point A to B, Uber’s efficiency is hard to beat thanks to its dominance in numbers.

This efficiency makes the change to Lyft a less than ideal proposition for some people.

“I’ve started using Lyft, but it’s so much [worse],” a former Uber power user named Charles told Yahoo Finance. “The wait times are twice as long typically for me, their airport feature is not very good. Their customer service is worse too. I can stomach all that,” he said, because he’d rather not use Uber, “but it’s a different experience for sure.” Recalling a video of Kalanick arguing with a struggling and disgruntled driver, he mused, “Why does every executive have to be like this?”

While some customers “can stomach” the slightly less smooth user experience of Lyft, which includes a tip screen (Uber does not include tips or even offer a screen), Uber’s superlative level of service has kept many potential sympathizers out of the #deleteUber movement. There’s also another simple reason customers like Uber: many people perceive it as usually less expensive than alternatives like Lyft and taxis, at least when surge-pricing is not implemented.

“Uber is cheaper than Lyft,” said a current Uber user, who preferred to remain anonymous due to the rising stigma attached to the company. He is considering deleting Uber but hasn’t yet. “It also has an unsustainable business model and is probably doomed,” he told Yahoo Finance.