Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/28/uber-dick-move.html
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I’m not the greatest ethical consumer by a long shot but I continue to be happy that Uber has never seen even one red cent of my money.
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Yeah! Those people! Blaming others! For their own… hey wait a minute…
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He can get all the “leadership help” he wants, but he’ll likely never be willing to face the reality that he has to stop exploiting everyone around him in order to find his own Zen. …something about a camel going through the eye of a needle…
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I am shocked, shocked that a devoted follower of Ayn Rand like Kalanick would prove to be in severe need of an empathy transplant and in general a horrible human being.
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Why is this flagged? Is there some hidden subtext I’m missing?
It’s not an offensive post.
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NFI. If it’s any help, there’s been some weird flags thrown recently.
Maybe Kalanick has got an account here and is getting pissy about people calling him an asshole. 
ETA: Also, never given Uber a penny and very glad the total dick in charge has never seen any of my cash.
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Yeah, it’s just the old joke about the New Yorker cartoons.
But I did notice more flagging than usual lately.
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Why is this flagged? Some E-PR firm being a bit heavy-handed?
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Besides the guy being an arse, and apology not accepted due to company policies and practices, I am surprised by the apology. It sounds personal. That’s more than I could say for any other issued statement of any other business-owning asshole, billionaire or not, lately. Or even: ever.
(But my Glob, what an asshole.)
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Uber should ban dicks like that from using the service.
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I’ll second that, for anyone who wants to flag me too.
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This was clearly a false-flag operation,
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Am I the only one who thinks it looks like he’s playing with his dick for most of the ride?
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It’s a lot less surprising if you compare it to the apology style used by a celebrity checking into rehab. It is conceptually very similar, to the degree possible without veering straight into farce by trying to claim that he’s addicted to being a jerkass.
More broadly, perhaps I’m just uncharitable; but how much credit to you expect to be given for the realization that you need to ‘grow up’ and ‘get leadership help’ when you describe yourself as a ‘serial entrepreneur’ and are old enough to be starting to go grey?
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I am signed up for both Uber and Lyft. After this latest debacle, I’ll be driving Lyft more…
Edit:
I am not defending the guy that went bankrupt on 97K, he did that on his own. But these ride sharing services push that you can do it full time and make good money. That might be true if you are the first one in, but if Uber/Lyft has been in an area for awhile, then it’s a part time gig at best. I don’t trust either company, but I find Lyft to be slightly less evil these days.
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I switched to Lyft a few weeks ago…it was right before all the controversy came down and I had just been approved. Once the controversy happened (one of the first ones…first recent ones)…I made the decision to get off of Uber.
I make less, but the people are less of assholes…and I’m not feeling like punching some dickhead at the end of the night!
As for the guy that went bankrupt? He did this on Uber’s terms. Uber pushed for people to go out and get these Uber Black cars and made several ‘promises’ that they were going to easily make up the money. Hell, even today they have partnered with car companies and rental companies where with almost no credit, you can buy a $14k car for what will be $60k by the time you are done. Or rent a car for about $500 a week.
This guy went through a program like this…he got the car that Uber wanted him to get, promised that they were going to limit the number of cars allowed in the program ensuring that his demand would stay high. INSTEAD, they increased the number of cars greatly, and far more than the market needed, took a 25% cut after telling these folks it was only a 20% cut. They decreased the mileage and minutes paid. And then told them they needed to accept Uber X in addition to Uber Black or they would be cut from Black. Black is almost twice the rate. And now being told they have to give the SAME rides to someone paying half of this.
Fuck yeah, I’m going to defend this guy. He had 30 seconds to make his case. And yet folks are getting their entire knowledge and judgment against this guy for these 30 seconds. And the CEO knew this…and still lied to his face despite being the person that OK’d the rates.
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I agree that Uber is the most responsible for the guy going bankrupt. However, did he have a chance to get out before the crash? When he saw that it wasn’t working, did he say “This blows, I’m gone” or did he decide to stick it out “just in case”? He sounds like he choose the latter and it hit him. If new facts come into play (like Uber pressuring him or he just didn’t have anything else), than I will change my mind about the situation.
I would still punch the Uber CEO in the face since he seems to have learned how to lead from Drumpf.
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