Lyft vs Uber

I've minimal use for Uber in Singapore. Not about to use UberBlack or even UberX. What for? UberTaxi made me implode a thousand times by being mega-degrees slower than my regular taxi booking services via ComfortDelgro or GrabTaxi. Also, newbie drivers can't even read a map. Good lawwd. It can get frustrating during peak hours and rainy days, but I've never not been able to get one after 20 minutes. Not issues there. And the Uber app doesn't work seamlessly with Windows OS on the Lumia phone. It always crashes.

Uber's drivers has served me okay. In US. I've only used it extensively in King County, San Francisco and Los Angeles in the past two years. Nothing untoward has happened even though I'm still iffy about their policies on accidents and claims. BUT. In view of recent comments and courses of action I don't support, and a whole slew of bad press, I really don't mind using Lyft. As end consumer, that's still up in the air though, depending on pricing, surge wars, usability and app navigation.

By now, many articles have detailed ex-Uber users' experiences with Lyft. They even term them as "Uber refugees." Well. There isn't any obscure sense of personal loyalty to any company. Consumers interact with the drivers most. Aside from ease of booking, well-designed apps and maps, it's the drivers who build the image of that company. For now, the drivers I've met from both are pretty okay. They get the job done. Lyft's maps are really ugly though.

My biggest gripe with Lyft- there is no app built for Windows phones. The website merrily informs users that it doesn't intend to build an app for it in the future. OUCH. It doesn't seem to want to accept international credit cards. That makes life rather frustrating. Credit cards aren't a huge problem. The annoyance comes from having to switch phones to use Lyft. Very fond of my Lumia 1020 which currently holds the US number; not hot about the iPhone which ends up being the back-up. So far, the number of times I've used UberX in Seattle is triple that of Lyft. Not ready to permanently cross over to Android or Apple OS. I want to use Lyft, but it chooses its customers. Oh well.