That’s only partially true, though - in this case, If I’d been pissed at the driver for whatever reason (let’s say, as the “brats” suggested, he was in the wrong place) I’d probably mention it to the driver when I got in, but I would surely ping Uber’s customer service afterwards and probably get, at minimum, a partial refund, without having to fight with the driver about it. That just doesn’t work with traditional taxis. Pre-uber, I’ve had a few instances of bad driving occur, and when I did, I first tried complaiing to the taxi company (who apologized, but that’s the end of it), and to the provincial “bad cab” hotline (who basically said if I wanted to press charges they’d assist, otherwise they can’t do anything, and obviously I’m not going throigh all that effort!).
If I’m left waiting for ten minutes because the driver went elsewhere, Uber can see that 1) I was where I said I was and not moving, 2) where the driver was where they said they were, and 3) if either I or the driver tried to contact each other. The existing system simply cannot offer this level of detail for dispute resolution.
The other issue is that, pre-uber, taxi companies knew you had no other options, and could be complete asshats as a result. The whole reason I joined Uber in the first place was the deplorable state of Taxis in San Francisco. If nothing else, the very existence and success of Uber has forced those companies out of their monopolistic complacency and required them to compete.
