The reason I voted no on this question in Massachusetts is that these ride services don't even have a customer service phone numbers. In Massachusetts many years ago they had customer service phone numbers for certain issues as well as they had physical locations. In the past few years this is disappeared and now you have to struggle to beat the system on these apps to get a hold of someone to fix an issue and sometimes even if the driver rips you off the issue is not resolved or it's difficult to resolve I'm talking about lift specifically.
I've had everything from drivers discriminating against me and someone I'm with just because of the way that we look because we dress like travelers or somebody has tattoos on their face and we look like punk rockers I've had people in the middle of Boston in the middle of the night years ago have us load our stuff into the trunk are only possessions and are sleeping gear and then they try to drive off because they don't like the way we look that's after Us loading our stuff into the trunk and luckily we were quick and grab this stuff out of the trunk and this is some Foreigner from some African country who was driving in bare feet walking around in bare feet the person actually got out and opened the trunk and then decided to try to drive off.
There's been multiple instances of extremely bad behavior that slowly over time with complaining consistently we got our money back there's two accounts I'm dealing with other people's accounts the luck has been worse mine is also been worse but with consistent complaining and filing complaints against drivers the quality of the drivers has improved. But sometimes with certain people's accounts that I do advocacy with I've had to actually get them the extra $10 a month account because the drivers are getting are so bad.
There's been cases of people I know that use a walking device or a cane and drivers will show up at the pickup spot which might be a residential home or someplace where there's walking involved like a driveway or the driver will park across the street and act all privilege like you should walk over to them and even when we pulled up the person's came the riders came and showed that the person has a cane and ask by motioning the driver to come over so the person doesn't have to walk the driver will selfishly drive away after waiting all that time simply because the rider is disabled and doesn't want to walk.
There's been instances of being charged extra money because it takes time for the person to get into the vehicle which I know Uber has fixed specifically in the past couple of years so that disabled riders don't get charged extra money but that's horrible to begin with that a driver would do that.
We've been victims of the vomit scam me specifically by myself using another person's account that was horrible to even be accused we now have to take photographs each individual person that I know in my family and in my friends I tell them to take a photograph of the back seat every time that you ride even if the driver's nice because you don't know if you're going to get accused of drinking and then spilling beer or vomiting in the back of a vehicle when you weren't doing any of those things which was especially obnoxious when it comes to me because I've worked really hard to stay in recovery and don't all the things I'm supposed to do for 25 years plus.
Drivers have a tendency to be privileged entitled impatient greedy selfish self-righteous and they have a really big attitude about the vehicle belongs to them. That's the problem with these ride services. You're in their car or a car they're renting. Which brings a whole other slew of problems if it's not a rented car if it's the person's own vehicle it can often be dirty you can tell that they have a dog or the trunk or some area is stopped up with their personal belongings or a stupid child car seat which is absolutely ridiculous. The worst example is the speaker in the trunk. Why in the world would you come pick someone up from a Walmart or a supermarket and you have a massive speaker in the back of your trunk and this is where the language barrier becomes a problem.
The language barrier becomes a problem when you have groceries you need the trunk for some reason and the person has a fucking speaker in the back of their goddamn car or their trunk is filled up and you text them and you call them and they do not respond to let you know if they have room in their trunk and then they act as if they can fit everything in there or that you should suffer and have groceries sitting on your lap which is totally unsafe if there's an accident because they're greedy and they're lazy.
Drivers were nice before 2020 but occasionally you get really bad ones but you just had to report them. Then of course we all know rides were hard to get during the pandemic and that's fine that's understandable. But in the Boston area in Massachusetts and eastern Mass ever since then there's more and more drivers it seems and they're not nice and they don't want to answer the phone and they don't want to communicate and some of them are very nice but the problem is is there's not enough communication and there's not enough advocacy for the rider. These rideshare services have become all about the damn drivers and then there's all these complaints that the company is exploiting the drivers so in the end it's all about the company not the writers or the drivers.
And I appreciate that the drivers want a unionize but until these things are fixed and there's advocacy for the riders I don't think the drivers should be able to unionize because it would only make it worse for the riders.
A language barrier is something that's new in this country as far as what's allowed in employment in people performing a service or working in a job. Years ago this wouldn't be tolerated because it does get in the way and it isn't practical and it puts the customer right inconvenience. McDonald's for instance make sure that they have kiosks available or there's a manager available so that you can talk to someone in case the language barrier gets in the way that's probably the best way to do things. But dunkin' donuts for instance there's been a horrible situation with culture clash getting in the way of even decent coffee which is what dunkin' donuts is supposed to be about. The reality is is that if you have Moroccans or Spanish people making coffee the coffee is going to be decent especially the moroccans. If you have Indians making coffee it's absolutely horrible and it's either watered down or burnt in the worst case scenario because these are all cultural problems the culture of the way they do business the culture of the way they perceive their host country or their host area of the country or simply the fact that our romantic language countries have coffee as part of their culture whereas other countries that are more Eastern perhaps do not have the same kind of product so how are they supposed to know where it fits in in the scheme of serving this kind of food?
It takes more than just driving a car just like it takes more than just having the right equipment making coffee and then ripping people off. I don't understand what the hell is wrong with people as far as coffee goes it's as if people don't have taste buds. It might be again a genetic and cultural thing it might be an Italian thing. Everyone I talk to it's old school it's Italian is totally against Dunkin donuts and says that they do not exist as far as their concerned which is funny because that's kind of an Italian thing that now you don't exist lol. Maybe we taste food differently but it is important to us it's what makes life worth living because the rest of life might be fucking miserable or harsh why put up with shitty food? There's no need for it what in the interest of political correctness? And that's exactly what these liberal areas do. They make it so that you feel guilty and you have to accept bad service in the interest of equality this needs to stop.
This is the problem with having these people unionize. They're not employees of a company that runs the vehicles. Maybe young people don't remember taxi cabs but I'd rather deal with a stinky smelly bad temperation driver in Boston because number one he might try to rip me off but at least he knows the area and if I'm smart and I know the area and I know where I get where I'm going then he can't rip me off and I'm being responsible for my choices so that problem is solved cab drivers had to know where they were going and if they took the long way that's your fault for not paying attention. But at least they do what they were going. Also the trunk should and would have been empty every single time you ask for a vehicle. I resent the fact that these ride services want you to order the XL vehicles if you have stuff you need to carry like luggage or groceries. And even if you do get an Excel a lot of times there's still crap in the trunk or if they have a minivan I don't know what's up with minivan owners but they're complete slobs and all they have is that disgusting bucket thing in the back the dips down and it's always half filled with crap and it's filthy. These are unacceptable conditions when you pay for a ride you should be paying for safety security service and an empty trunk every single time and the knowledge that at least there's a garage available from the company itself that's going to maintain the vehicles. And I am now desperately missing the fact that the police were involved with issuing those medallions for the cab drivers because at least the police are involved in maintaining at some level the taxis and the taxi companies.
Now you're dealing with people that have this fucking attitude because it's their goddamn car if it's a rented car the attitude is probably a little bit less I've noticed but if it's their personal vehicle they're complete assholes. And that might be just what we are getting because we're on the low socioeconomic level. I have noticed that students around Boston are getting Asian drivers Asian female drivers and white drivers we never get those we get foreigners my partner mostly gets men and they're mostly young guys and those are the Hot shots that have a speaker in the back of their car have only Tesla's which I can't ride in because they're destroying my back injuries and my neck injuries so we have to keep canceling every time there's a Tesla and I have really bad environmental allergies and they keep using stinky spray in their cars which should also not be allowed. The old cab drivers in the old days had a couple of those deodorizing little trees that you hang onto the mirror and that's it and that's all that should be allowed.
When these Uber drivers are spoiled around here are they always expect to get yuppies Rich homeowners or people going to the airport or they expect to get students or something. A lot of them are snobs you can't even speak English and you just got off a goddamn boat or plane and you're taking these fucking jobs and you're a fucking snob?
These people are not Americanized enough they don't take the Constitution seriously and they are bringing their poverty oppression and shittiness with them into these jobs. Now that's not to say that I haven't met 60% of the drivers as foreigners As Nice people decent people good people friendly even if they're quiet they do their job and that's fine. And it's fine if you don't want to help me load and unload the back of the trunk with groceries or whatever it is that's fine if that's your choice but don't be arrogant and obnoxious about it. There's nothing like a driver who insists on getting out of the vehicle to watch you load shit into their trunk because they're paranoid about some stupid thing in the back of their trunk that doesn't mean anything anyway but then they watch you and they don't help and you're a woman who's obviously older and they're 6'3 and big and strong that keeps pissing me the fuck off seriously. These people are arrogant entitled and privileged.
There's no oversight of the vehicles there's no oversight of cleanliness there's no oversight of any kind of making sure that the trunks are empty. And there's absolutely nothing for disabled riders as far as I'm concerned unless you're in a wheelchair and you let them know you're in a wheelchair. But they have the audacity to put down that our driver might be hard of hearing when obviously they're not hard of hearing they either have the language barrier and don't want to deal with it or they don't want the riders to talk to them which is fine but that's a false claim.
Before they get to unionize I want to see all of these ride services have a customer service phone number. And before they get to unionize I want to see oversight of cleanliness of the vehicles.
There should also be more information available to the rider such as if the driver has room in the trunk or is carrying anything that effects allergies or other medical conditions like MCS. As a writer I've had to use Google translate for the language barrier if I can do it then how come it isn't mandatory as a part of the app so that riders and drivers can communicate more easily? Why don't drivers take the time and effort to use a translation app?
You should be able to see what kind of vehicle they have and cancel without consequences due to medical or health issues or better yet be able to declare that you don't want certain vehicles based on these legitimate reasons. The main problem with electric vehicles is that many drivers don't know how to drive them properly about 80% of them don't and they ride the brakes because of the nature of the way the brakes work it's stop and go constantly which has caused motion sickness and people that are susceptible to it as well as it can be extremely dangerous for somebody that has back or neck issues especially any kind of whiplash in their past or any recent injuries. Tesla the small compact version of these cars is especially damaging and causes discomfort for anyone with back and neck issues. There should be a way to avoid these vehicles before you order your ride.
Riders should be able to inform drivers about accommodations like pulling up to anyone with mobility issues or the aforementioned issues.
It's been far too easy for drivers to play games with riders especially people working with the targeted individual or gang stalking theories. The reason this has been so easy for corrupt drivers involved in these things is because there's no customer service phone number and a lot of psychological damage is done and stress is induced in the rider before our complaint can be made. I will cite examples of this tomorrow when I edit this.
But as I mentioned that's probably a small portion of the ridership out there general ridership experiences the problems I have listed before the last paragraph. Everything I mentioned that's wrong with these rideshare services affects your normal average person not a small subgroup of people working with the ti theory. However people are not looking at also issues of potential surveillance and how it makes it so much easier for the bad guys potentially. Ride services allows the internet to get information about who you are where you're going and financial surveillance as well.
That is why these people should not be allowed to you and eyes they're not employees their private contractors and they have private vehicles and they have already way too much advantage over the rider. That's the main complaint about Ryan for service is they only serve a certain privileged part of the population that are riders. I'm going to start going back to taxi cabs.