Uber Travel Still Bug Filled And Near Impossible To Use For Rail Tickets

[Capvermell]

I only just came across the previous now closed discussion at www.railforums.co.uk/threads/uber-retailing-national-rail-tickets.237691/page-2 and also only just spotted the Travel option in the Uber App having only taken about one Uber ride in the last three months after taking them almost once or twice a week from Oct 2020 to Oct 2021. The reason I almost totally stopped using Uber for taxi/private hire journeys is because I kept on being stranded at Horley or Three Bridges station in more recent months at 2am in the morning or later waiting up to 90 minutes to find an Uber driver who would actually pick me up rather than accept the ride and cancel it a few minutes in to their already supposedly being on their way to me. This problem seemed to grow very rapidly as flights out of Gatwick opened back up to normal levels meaning that Uber Drivers hanging round the airport area considered my £20 to £25 fare to be not worth taking compared to the £70 plus ride to London they were clearly hoping to get.

But anyway the 10% Uber Rides Cashback was an attraction of Uber Travel (although currently seems to only be offered until the end of March but may be extended again) but the App is simply more or less impossible to use to buy the rail ticket you want. For instance from Ockley it won't sell you a Zones 1-6 Travelcard and for many journeys it won't offer a return fare at all but only two single fares that cost more money than the super off peak fare. Also for reasons best known to it it only seems to want to route Super Off Peak Return tickets from London Victoria to Ockley via Horsham (it is happy to route the outbound journey directly without changing via Dorking and Sutton) and once the Horsham route back isn't available in the later evening after 9.14pm it then also tries to start surcharging direct journeys from Victoria to Ockley via Dorking without changing at Horsham. It also seems to think that Super Off Peak Return tickets on the 2325 from London Victoria to Ockley should be more expensive because they arrive at Ockley after midnight at 0057. It doesn't seem to know that rail tickets are valid for journeys until 0359 hours the following day. After a lot of calls to the normal Uber Rides support line on 0808 189 7190 I was eventually told there is a separate support line for Uber Travel on 0800 066 8258. This says that the service is powered by Omio using the same guy who does the IVR for the Uber Rides and Eats support line so why isn't it just an Option 3 on the main Uber 0808 189 7190 phone support line.

The Filipino guy working for Omio on behalf of Uber today actually spoke very clear and good english and was clearly very intelligent and also very polite (not true of many of the Uber Rides phone line support staff in my experience) but said he couldn't resolve the technical issues or sell me the correct ticket I needed at the correct price but could only report back my concerns to Uber,.

So basically 6 months plus in this service is almost impossible to use because of massive unresolved technical gremlins meaning the service can't sell you ticket including a Travelcard and frequently only wants to sell you more expensive tickets than a Super Off Peak ticket that should actually be valid at the times of day I want to travel.

Quite how Uber and Omio expects customers to use the Uber Transport part of its App to book rail tickets without resolving all of the very large number of gremlins that still afflict it seems unclear.

 

[alistairlees]

For instance from Ockley it won't sell you a Zones 1-6 Travelcard

I tried a journey from Ockley to London Victoria on 8th March (out at 09.30 and back at 14.30) and was correctly offered a Travelcard for £21.30, as well as other fares. What exactly were you trying?

and for many journeys it won't offer a return fare at all

I have sometimes seen this too. Do you have an example here?

but only two single fares that cost more money than the super off peak fare.

Any examples would be helpful

Also for reasons best known to it it only seems to want to route Super Off Peak Return tickets from London Victoria to Ockley via Horsham (it is happy to route the outbound journey directly without changing via Dorking and Sutton)

There are no Super Off-Peak Returns from London to Ockley though, as far as I can see. Do you mean from Ockley to London?

and once the Horsham route back isn't available in the later evening after 9.14pm it then also tries to start surcharging direct journeys from Victoria to Ockley via Dorking without changing at Horsham. It also seems to think that Super Off Peak Return tickets on the 2325 from London Victoria to Ockley should be more expensive because they arrive at Ockley after midnight at 0057. It doesn't seem to know that rail tickets are valid for journeys until 0359 hours the following day.

I can replicate that - something odd there, for sure.

 

[Capvermell]

I tried a journey from Ockley to London Victoria on 8th March (out at 09.30 and back at 14.30) and was correctly offered a Travelcard for £21.30, as well as other fares. What exactly were you trying?

If I try a journey from Ockley on Monday March 6th on the 0926am train (previously I would have taken the 1026am train when only able to use my Network Card) with a Senior Railcard (just qualified for one two weeks ago after turning 60) and returning on the 2328 from Victoria to Ockley I am only offered a mysterious "Round Trip" ticket (I would say this is two Super Off Peak Singles each way) at £16.80.

If I change the return trip to the 2241 from Victoria arriving at Ockley at 2351 I am now offered a Super Off Peak Day Return at £7.10 with an Off Peak Day Travelcard for £6.95 more (£14.05 total) which is correct. The problem is that I can't buy this on the final return from Victoria at 2328 that day (normally its 2325 although the train has kept on leaving three minutes late over the last few weeks so perhaps Southern have now permanently retimed it) and can only buy the Round Trip ticket at £16.80 rather than a Super Off Peak Return at £7.10 as should be the case.

But the problem is that I am almost always coming back after a trip to London on the final train of the day from Victoria that arrives at Ockley after midnight and which Uber Travel therefore wrongly thinks can't be done as a same day Super Off Peak Return ticket but only as two Super Off Peak Singles. So this means I can't use Uber Travel to buy either a Super Off Peak Return Ticket or an Off Peak Travelcard (annoyingly again GTR cheats us out of a Super Off Peak Travelcard at Ockley, even though we can buy a Super Off Peak return ticket to Victoria) and get the 10% Uber wallet credit as I would have to return much too early on the 2241 train to do so. Returning on the 2325 or 2328 is bad enough as it is given that logically speaking the heavily revised timetable implemented on September 5th on our line merging semi fast Horsham trains with slow Epsom trains ought to have given us the benefit of the last train of the day at 2341 rather than the previous 2325. But for some perverse reason Southern's train planners decided to make the service interval on the final train of the day only 44 minutes (or 47 minutes next Monday for whatever reasons).

I have sometimes seen this too. Do you have an example here?

Any examples would be helpful

There are no Super Off-Peak Returns from London to Ockley though, as far as I can see. Do you mean from Ockley to London?

I can replicate that - something odd there, for sure.

It now turns out all of the other problems I have been experiencing are because Uber Travel wrongly thinks that the railway ticket day ends at midnight rather than 4.30am with the result that it tries to sell me two separate singles on different days and doesn't offer me a Travelcard option.

This is a really bad fault by Uber Travel as most customers going out for the evening will want to come back on the final train of the day and nearly all final trains of the day from London reach their destination stations further out of London after midnight. Also on the line to Gatwick and Three Bridges picking several of the final trains of the railway day arriving after midnight will cause this problem.

So there is just one simple problem Uber Travel needs to fix and that is knowing that the railway ticket day ends at 0430am next day and not at midnight on the same day.

But until they do I can't use their App to buy my railway tickets.............

 

[MrJeeves]

I have sometimes seen this too. Do you have an example here?

It won't show me any train options at all for Gatwick Airport to Basingstoke...

 

[Capvermell]

It won't show me any train options at all for Gatwick Airport to Basingstoke...

It initially doesn't seem to show any rail journey options but if you wait 10 to 15 seconds or so or go to the coach option tab and then go back to rail you will see that the rail ticket journey options are then populated.

Oddly I see that if you return from Gatwick to Basingstoke on the 2302 train arriving at 0106 you are offered a 30 day Off Peak Return and a same day Off Peak Day Return even though that doesn't happen going back to Ockley from Victoria.

 

[Capvermell]

I have just realised that I can of course buy my Super Off Peak Return ticket from Ockley to London Victoria or an Off Peak Travelcard and earn the 10% Uber Cash credit using Uber Travel by just selecting 2241 as my return train as these tickets are not train specific and so I can then in fact also travel on the 2325 (which for a short while is the 2328 but goes back to 2325 a few days later) using the ticket Uber will sell me by selecting the 2241 as my return train option.

But its still entirely wrong that Uber is not showing return ticket prices and/or omitting Travelcard options entirely if returning on the 2325/2328 train that gets back to Ockley after midnight.

 

[MrJeeves]

It initially doesn't seem to show any rail journey options but if you wait 10 to 15 seconds or so or go to the coach option tab and then go back to rail you will see that the rail ticket journey options are then populated.

For me it just says no routes available no matter how long I wait!

 

[Capvermell]

For me it just says no routes available no matter how long I wait!

View attachment 130280

Strange as it shows them on my Uber Travel App after waiting a few seconds and/or switching to the coach tab and back and also shows return journeys on trains arriving in to Basingstoke after midnight

 

[Capvermell]

Finally booked my first rail tickets today with Uber Travel by booking the last train back to Ockley from Victoria that gets in before midnight rather the final train getting in after midnight that Uber wrongly tries to sell as one of two single journeys rather than as an Off Peak Return. However as this is an Off Peak Return and not a train specific ticket this doesn't matter re ticket validity on that final train of the day.

Anyway in the week or two since I looked at booking with Uber Travel but was put off by the surcharged last train problem they have deleted the option of ticket delivery by email and now only offer ticket on departure from a Southern ticket machine. I selected this and picked up the tickets from the single ticket machine at Ockley by inserting my credit card and then entering the ticket on departure ticket code. The tickets printed out by the machine look like other tickets purchased directly from it other than that they say ToD CTR in the bottom left. The actual ticket is a South Western Evening Out Return from Ockley to Maze Hill with a Senior Railcard for £8.90 valid on trains getting in to london terminals after 2pm. However Uber should give me 10% credit against it for future Uber taxi rides with them.

So while incorrectly pricing the return on trains getting in to Ockley after midnight is annoying it can be worked around by selecting the last train getting to Ockley before midnight. Also I have no idea why Uber Travel had stopped offering etickets and whether it is only a temporary or a permanent change...

Just to add that in recent days I needed to make journeys from Ockley to Whitechapel and from Ockley to Bruce Grove on the London Overground. Both these stations are in Zone 2 and on www.southernrailway.com and other rail ticket sites the return fare that includes a dagger symbol Evening Out Return that allows travel by underground to reach the final destination is £8.90.

However if I try and look up this journey on the Uber Travel App although Whitechapel station is listed it is unable to list the fare and only shows "No Routes Found" so the journey cannot be booked at all. And in the case of Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road that are Elizabeth Line stations but not mainline rail stations the station simply does not show at all in the Uber Travel App just like an underground only station such as Pimlico. Having said that on checking today I still get No routes found from Ockley to Whitechapel Overground but I do get a journey shown to Bruce Grove at the correct fare of £8.90 with a Senior Railcard for quite a number of return journeys but then on the 20:34 departure getting to Ockley at 22:51 the return fare shoots up from £8.90 to £17.15 whereas returning from Bruce Grove at 19:34 and arriving at Ockley at 21:51 the correct £8.90 Evening Out Return fare is shown. This is because Uber is now calculating the later return journeys as two Evening Out Singles instead of as an Evening Out Return. I don't know why Uber is getting the fare right on some return journeys to Bruce Grove but not all of them but won't show journeys to Whitechapel at all but it may be to do with Bruce Grove also having mainline rail services as well as Overgound services from the station.

But anyway something very wrong still with the rail ticket aspect of the Uber Travel App where it can't show journeys to many London Overground or Elizabeth Line stations at all and also starts calculating a return fare with two single journeys on some but not all returns journeys at a lot more cost without any apparent reason for doing so.

I emailed the CEOs of Uber and Omio about this issue and have had a phone response from someone on the Uber high level escalation team in Ireland who assures me that they are looking in to the issue. Although meanwhile I had an automated style message from another part of Uber to my online feedback through their App telling me that showing these correct fares may be a feature enhancement that they hope may be added at some point in the future!!!

Anyway definitely keep an eye on what return rail fare Uber Travel is trying to charge you as it may well not be the cheapest one available from individual rail operator sites such as www.southernrailway.com. On the plus side the ability to be sent an e-ticket as well as collect a ticket from rail ticket machines has now returned and I think its short term removal was actually much wider than just Uber rail ticketed journeys and also seemed to be affecting rail ticket booking at www.southernrailway.com at that time too.

Just to add that in recent days I needed to make journeys from Ockley to Whitechapel and from Ockley to Bruce Grove on the London Overground. Both these stations are in Zone 2 and on www.southernrailway.com and other rail ticket sites the return fare that includes a dagger symbol Evening Out Return that allows travel by underground to reach the final destination is £8.90.

However if I try and look up this journey on the Uber Travel App although Whitechapel station is listed it is unable to list the fare and only shows "No Routes Found" so the journey cannot be booked at all. And in the case of Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road that are Elizabeth Line stations but not mainline rail stations the station simply does not show at all in the Uber Travel App just like an underground only station such as Pimlico. Having said that on checking today I still get No routes found from Ockley to Whitechapel Overground but I do get a journey shown to Bruce Grove at the correct fare of £8.90 with a Senior Railcard for quite a number of return journeys but then on the 20:34 departure getting to Ockley at 22:51 the return fare shoots up from £8.90 to £17.15 whereas returning from Bruce Grove at 19:34 and arriving at Ockley at 21:51 the correct £8.90 Evening Out Return fare is shown. This is because Uber is now calculating the later return journeys as two Evening Out Singles instead of as an Evening Out Return. I don't know why Uber is getting the fare right on some return journeys to Bruce Grove but not all of them but won't show journeys to Whitechapel at all but it may be to do with Bruce Grove also having mainline rail services as well as Overgound services from the station.

But anyway something very wrong still with the rail ticket aspect of the Uber Travel App where it can't show journeys to many London Overground or Elizabeth Line stations at all and also starts calculating a return fare with two single journeys on some but not all returns journeys at a lot more cost without any apparent reason for doing so.

I emailed the CEOs of Uber and Omio about this issue and have had a phone response from someone on the Uber high level escalation team in Ireland who assures me that they are looking in to the issue. Although meanwhile I had an automated style message from another part of Uber to my online feedback through their App telling me that showing these correct fares may be a feature enhancement that they hope may be added at some point in the future!!!

Anyway definitely keep an eye on what return rail fare Uber Travel is trying to charge you as it may well not be the cheapest one available from individual rail operator sites such as www.southernrailway.com. On the plus side the ability to be sent an e-ticket as well as collect a ticket from rail ticket machines has now returned and I think its short term removal was actually much wider than just Uber rail ticketed journeys and also seemed to be affecting rail ticket booking at www.southernrailway.com at that time too.

 

[Capvermell]

Just to report as an update that the bug in Uber Travel with Super Off Peak Returns from Ockley to London Victoria not being priced correctly and treated as two singles if the return train from Victoria arrived at Ockley after midnight (i.e. 2325 getting to Ockley at 0037) has now been fixed and the 2325 is now shown as an available Super Off Peak Return journey option by Uber Travel. Previously to travel on this train at the Super Off Peak Fare you had to tell Uber Travel you were returning on the 2241 train from London Victoria but as the Super Off Peak ticket issued was not train specific you could still travel on the later 2325 service.

However not yet fixed in general is the inabiity of Uber Travel to price journeys from Ockley to most destination stations on the London Overground such as Highbury & Islington or Whitechapel where either No routes found is reported for most Zone 2 London Overground stations (eg Whitechapel) or for Highbury & Islington station I am mysteriously only offered the 0730 from Ockley changing on to the 0807 to Vauxhall at Epsom and then from Vauxhall to Highbury & Islington by the Victoria Line but this is the only outbound journey of the day offered. Similarly coming back from Highbury & Islington to Ockley the only journey offered on Thursday 6th April is the 1712 Victoria line departure to Viauxhall and then the 1744 Southwestern to Leatherhead and the 1832 Southern departure from Leatherhead to Ockley. But no other return journeys are offered, even though many other possibilities are available. Yet www.southernrailway.com shows hourly journey possibilities available each way

So clearly something still very wrong somewhere with Uber Travel's ability to access journey times and/or fares calculation data for London Overground stations.

So here is another example of the bad IT design of the Uber Travel App for buying rail tickets when later today I want to buy a rail ticket from Ockley to Little Kimble to go to see the Point To Point races there. Of course due to the rubbish service we enjoy from Southern on Saturdays pr Public Holidays (that is no service south of Dorking through to Horsham and vica versa when Saturday is clearly the most popular day for evening leisure travel up to London) I wouldn't be able to make it as far back as Ockley anyway but would at least be able to get back to Horley or Horsham (which are en route if routing down to Horsham and up to Victoria and then up to London Victoria via Gatwick and then to Marylebone on the tube or vica versa) and get an Uber or a taxi home from there.

But no on consulting Uber Travel I find I get the message "No routes found" for Saturday 8th April for the sole reason that yet again Southern is diverting trains from Horsham to Victoria on Saturdays or Bank Holidays to London Bridge due to signalling upgrading works and the Uber Travel App is so poorly designed it only checks for journey possibilities to Victoria from Ockley via Dorking and Epsom and if it isn't possible to get to London that way it just comes up with "No routes found". As with the London Overground destination not possible problem this then simply leaves you unable to buy your ticket using the Uber Travel App and also unable to earn £2.33 Uber Cash cashback on the £23.25 Off Peak Return fare with a railcard in this case.

By contrast the correct £23.25 ticket can be purchased via www.southernrailway.com and numerous other rail ticket selling websites as well as from the ticket machine at Ockley Station.

If Uber and its rail ticket platform supplier Omio, are, at all serious about selling rail tickets then these are major design issues with their rail ticketing platform that they very urgently needs to address and resolve rather than continually ignoring my feedback about these defects by keeping their combined corporate heads firmly buried in the sand as they currently seem to prefer to do......................

Progress today as on finding a non working ticket machine at Ockley (screen was black and would not respond) and then encountering a Southern OBS who was clueless about to sell me an Evening Out return to Highbury & Islington (he could manage to find the Evening Out single) I tried Uber Travel and found this ticket option was now available to buy.

So I assume this means that the issue in buying rail tickets using the Uber Travel App to London Overground station destinations has now finally been resolved.

However there was no eticket option available and only one to collect from a ticket machine. However I assume today's lack of eticket availability is a Southern specific problem as it also seems to be true of ticket purchases on their own website today that don't provide a 10% Uber Cash credit incentive...