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The Ride Request Couldn't Be Completed.. During a Guarantee Hour..WTH?!?

2K views 25 replies 6 participants last post by  BaitNSwitch 
#1 ·
June 10, 2016

I opted in to the "Hourly Guarantee" this morning for the first time in my 7 months of driving, because Chicago drivers were offered a last minute special of $30 for 2 rides, for certain hours this weekend. (Previously it's been $17 for 2 or 3 rides an hour)

I had just completed my 1st ride during the 6pm hour and got a PING for ride number 2 at 6:45pm. "James" was only 3 minutes away, so I promptly accepted. Immediately the screen blinked and a white box appeared that said, "The ride request could not be completed. You will not be charged for Non-Acceptance."

Has anyone ever seen this before? My cynical side says that this was Lyft's pre-programmed way to keep me from earning the $30 guarantee for the 6pm-7pm hour.

I always wondered why we have to "Opt In" to be eligible for the hourly guarantees. Connecting the dots, I think that "Opting In" could flag you in the Lyft computer to be passed over, for the ride that would fulfill your hourly guarantee, if another driver is in the area. Not every hour, but sometimes.

This event reminds me of when a friend showed me how slot machines are directed by software to be more generous, or stingy, during certain times, in certain parts of the room, at the casinos.

-Allen
 
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#3 ·
Sounds like he cancelled before you could accept it and the system glitched. I have had that happen to me, but it's been awhile.

I hit all my 2 per hour tonight and they owe me money.
Way to go, Sure! The Lyft gods were smiling on you this evening. When the guarantee says 4pm to 8pm, does that mean it runs through 8:59pm, or 7:59pm?
 
#6 ·
SURE, Thank-you for the advice, and for explaining how the Guarantee cut-off time works. I will drive in closer to Chicago and try to make a couple of the guarantees tomorrow, following your guidelines. Out here in the Palatine/Arlington Heights area, Saturday's are dead.
 
#9 ·
I opted into those two. But it's so hard to get 2 per hour. It's making me not want to bust my ass for them.

$33 from 12 - 2 am tonight, and tommorrow night. $30 all day tomorrow. With traffic and stuff, how do you guys get 2? I get 2 some hours, some hours only 1.
Lyft line with a match and you have your 2. Also hope you get short trips.
 
#20 ·
For this weekend, (Fri/Sat/Sun) Chicago Lyft has the $33-$35@hour special again. I'm at 100% acceptance this week, due to not having any long-distance requests to ignore. Opted-In again. This is an interesting experiment, to see if the normal patterns change when you're on the guarantee. Like I said before, there's A REASON why you have to opt-in.. and it's not a blanket guarantee for ALL Chicago area drivers, as you would expect.
 
#23 ·
Interesting, they didn't send me that guarantee.

Could it be Ratings based? driver activity based? Allen what's your rating, if you don't mind?
Passengers tell me that they're honored to be with a 5.0 driver, but the weekly report has me at 4.97. Perhaps the passenger app rounds it up. At any rate, as long as they tip, I'll keep being a nice guy! ;)

Here is an e-mail I received from Lyft support today that explained how the Hourly Guarantee hours are paid. It's not as simple as I thought! But, at any rate, I got an extra $25 added to this week's paycheck. :rolleyes: (BTW.. Lyft Support is doing a superb job of responding quickly and thoroughly as of late..)

"Jun 29, 1:04 PM PDT

Hey Allen,

You're welcome! I'm happy that I could help. I'll try to explain a little more for you and I'll provide a link for a little more information.

The Average Hourly Guarantee guarantees that you'll earn an average amount. So for certain hours, you were guaranteed to earn $30 per hour.

We take the hours that you qualified and total your earnings for those hours - in this case it was $27.75 for 2 hours total. We average these earnings, so we divide your earnings by the hours you worked ($27.75/2 = $13.875).

This means your average earnings were $16.125 less than the guaranteed amount of $30 ($30-$16.125). We then take the Lyft fee of 20% (.20x$16.125 = $3.225) from this bonus amount ($16.125-$3.225=$12.90) and get $12.90, so this is your bonus earned per hour.

Since you qualified for 2 hours on June 26th, your total bonus is $25.80 ($12.90x2). You can read more about this in our Help Center at Average Hourly Guarantees.

I hope this helps explain a littler further. Feel free to ask me any questions!

I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July weekend, too!

All the best,

Emily,
Lyft Support Representative"
 
#24 ·
But in those 2 hours you need to have a minimum of 4 rides to qualify for the guarantees.

Interesting, I always thought it was done on a per hour basis. Either way, I'm not complaining, last weekend for pride the guarantees were pretty decent. Despite the 2 /hr requirement.
 
#25 ·
I asked for an "exception" because my acceptance rate was under 90% that week. That 2 rides per hour requirement makes attempting to hit the guarantees stressful here in the suburbs. Missed several hours of guarantees because a PING would come in at 12 minutes past the top of the hour. It took me 15 minutes to reach the passenger and another 20 minutes to get them to the destination.
 
#26 ·
I start from the suburbs and make it into the city. I know for sure if I get a suburb ride it's most likely going into the city = meaning it will be ateast 40 -45 minutes meaning it will only be one ride.\

The only exception is Evanston. Evanston has short rides via NU students.
 
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