People Want Genuine Responses To Their "Am I The Jerk?" Stories

They dodged a bullet.

"So Saturday night, I was at a friend's house and the friend I rode there with left before me so I called Lyft.

My friend's house is next to the corner house and in a suburb. I've gotten Lyfts from there before and some drivers end up going around the corner, it's weird because it's only some and not all drivers.

Then they usually call me and once I explain they're like "oh ok" and come back.

It doesn't happen every time, my pin and address are entered and everything is all correct so it's not my fault or theirs but probably the system or something.

So Saturday I called a Lyft. It said she/my driver was there, I was waiting outside and didn't see anyone.

Then she called and said she was waiting outside. I said I was outside and didn't see anyone. She started arguing with me that she was outside and I need to look for -color and model- car.

I said, "Well, I don't see anything besides parked cars and there's no -model-."

She starts yelling "then you must have entered the wrong address!" and something about how she's sick of people that don't know what they're doing when calling rides.

I said "I'm on blah blah street, that's what I entered."

She said, "Oh, I think I'm around the corner. I don't feel like turning around so just walk over here" and hung up.

Right after my friend came out and said he'd give me a ride home because he was leaving anyway. So I canceled my Lyft.

I was going to cancel it anyway because I didn't feel like walking in the dark and getting into a car with someone that was already screaming at me, who knows what she'd do once I got in the car?

Lyft asked why I canceled (there are several options) and I said I didn't feel safe riding with her.

I've been using Lyft for 4 years without issue, or being screamed at, matter of fact I'm a 5-star rider so I'm not a problem customer. Lyft didn't charge me for canceling, and that was that.

I was telling this story to a coworker that drives for Uber on the side.

Basically thought he'd agree about not riding with her. He said canceling wasn't a big deal but I shouldn't have said it was because I didn't feel safe just because the driver was annoyed and yelled.

He said I was misusing a feature meant for if someone really makes someone feel unsafe not just someone yelling at you.

He said I lied about it being a safety problem since all she did was yell. Then he kept going about how I wasted the driver's time, cost her since she didn't even get the cancellation fee, and I probably got her into trouble and possibly caused her to not get as many riders.

To me it was a safety thing though, why would I walk in the dark to my Lyft? Then how she was yelling on the phone, who knows if she would have kept going off on me in the car?

AITJ?"

Another User Comments:

“NTJ.

Maybe it would've been better to state that they refused to come to the correct address and you were unable to walk to where she was. But it isn't even much of a lie to say you felt unsafe considering she was yelling at you.

I would rather not be in the car with an irate driver, whether they were angry at me or other people... Maybe this isn't exactly what that feature is intended for but regardless, I would be very uncertain about getting in the car.

But the bottom line, she didn't actually come to pick you up.

She was supposed to be your ride, which means she should come to actually pick you up (unless you're in a downtown area or airport or something where there are designated pickup areas, but you were not). And she was the person who wasted her own time and cost herself, that was not on you at all.

And if she behaves this way in a customer-facing job, she SHOULD get fewer customers. Because she's bad at her job! I don't even believe in fake American forced friendliness or kissing customers' butts all the time. I hate that about our culture. But she's very bad at her job, yikes.” Sleeping_Lizard

Another User Comments:

“YTJ. If you know the address in the Lyft system is hard to follow, it is on you to correct and prevent that. You are one rider most likely with different drivers for every trip. It's like continuing to go to a restaurant even though they get your order wrong half of the time.

Eventually, you have to learn to relay that information before the driver pulls up.

ESH. As a 2k+ trip 5-star Uber driver, I can attest that situations like these are frustrating, but I've never raised my voice at a customer. Some drivers have little to no patience for rider's mistakes or subpar mapping, which is unacceptable.

The driver was out of line.

Don't feel bad about reporting the behavior though. Punishment is what stops it from happening again.” Cecuhl

Another User Comments:

“NTJ. Nope, screw that. Let's normalize being honest with services and not lying to protect some random person's job when they screwed up.

You felt uncomfortable after they yelled at you, so why would you select anything different?

It's like the other day someone reported a company on Etsy for really screwing an expensive custom order up and getting mad at the customer for not being okay with it.

They reported the company and one of their "friends" thought they were the jerk. Or how people give an Airbnb a 5-star rating even if their stay was crap because they don't want to "hurt" the owner. It's absolutely ridiculous.” xrsman