May 11, 2017 1:40 a.m.
I took a week off from my day job and decided to use some of that time (okay, a fair amount of it) to make some money with Uber and Lyft. Wednesday night, right after I had dropped off some very drunk Wash U students at their dorm on Shepley, I got a Lyft ping.
Because Lyft is more strict about their acceptance rate, and because I had to cancel or miss a couple of Lyft pings earlier in the week (I forgot I was signed in on Lyft while doing Uber rides until it started dinging at me), I decided I had better take this one. Unfortunately, the pickup location was at the Embassy Suites at the St. Charles Convention Center.
Immediately, the passenger called me wanting to know when I'd be there. I explained that I was coming from Clayton, and that I'd be there as soon as possible. He said, "okay, it's a round trip to the address I put in and then back to the hotel for the second stop." I told him that was fine, but that I couldn't look at the address he put in because I was, you know, driving. He asked me to call him when I got there. So I did.
Mind you, it was about 1:40 a.m. Fine, whatever, I didn't have anything else happening the next day. So I drove out to St. Charles, pulled up to his hotel, and indicated I had arrived. Then, per his request, I called him.
Literally four minutes and 57 seconds after I tapped "arrive" this 22 year old douchebag arrived at my car. He said, "I just need to go to Wal-Mart."
Fine. Whatever. At least the location he entered was on St. Charles Rock Road, and it was a round trip. So that would be good for maybe $20 or so. Plus, he said he could make a few more stops if that would make it worth my while.
We got to Wal-Mart, and I told him I'd park near the door. He said okay. So I parked and waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
At the 45 minute mark, I called him through the app. The person who answered was a female who it seemed I had woken up. She was pissed. I would also be pissed if some Lyft driver called me at 2:45 a.m. on a Wednesday night/Thursday morning. That's not important, though. What I want you to take away from this is that the passenger didn't even have his phone on him.
It was at this point that I looked up the Lyft policy for the length of stops - so you all know, it's supposed to be 10 minutes or less. If it'll be longer, the passenger needs to request another ride.
Because he didn't have his phone on him, and because I try not to be the kind of guy who gives people the benefit of the doubt when they're phoneless and from out of town and at the Rock Road Wal-Mart at nearly 3 in the morning, I decided to go into the store and find out what the hell happened to this kid.
He was checking out with a full cart of groceries, and chatting with a new friend he made - someone I can only describe as what meth would look like if it were a person.
I told him "dude, stops are supposed to be ten minutes or less, otherwise you need to request a new ride." At least I think that's what I said. I was bordering on a rage blackout. I do know what he said to me, though.
"Oh, you can go."
I can go? I drove 20 minutes to get here to pick your ass up and take you to Wal-Mart where you took your sweet time shopping for groceries - by the way, who shops for groceries when they're staying at a hotel? - and now you're saying I can go?
He immediately turned to Mr. Meth and said, "hey man, can you give me a ride back to my hotel?"
I have no idea what Mr. Meth's response was, as I walked away at that point.
Here's the kicker, though - he had the audacity to give me a bad rating and complain to Lyft because I wasn't friendly.
