I am about 4 weeks in as a driver. I have a 4.87 rating. I have all 5 stars and 1 stars. The 1 stars are from the college students at a catholic school. It turns out they give 1 stars so they can get a refund and essentially a free ride. I drive a Ford F150, I keep water, treats, hand sanitizer, Kleenex, baby wipes, and paper towels in the truck for the passengers. I have had absolutely no complaints from any of my passengers. I get lots of compliments on my truck, my amenities, conversations, music, and friendliness.
I keep an umbrella handy for rainy days, I circle around the block prior to picking up to ensure a right side pick up.
I literally treat every passenger as if they have just gotten a premier car service.
With all of that said, Uber allows these college kids to rate me with a 1 star and gives me no ability to dispute their ratings.
I know I am ranting but the only thing I can think of doing is denying passengers based on their affiliation with their college.
Thoughts, suggestions?
Do not worry do not base one bad ride on making money i accept all rides. Let it go do your job. Your doing great. Send uber a message letting them know what happened.
Oh! Those catholic kids. If you can’t walk on water, you don’t get 5 stars! There is no way to tell who gives what rating.
College students will do that so they can get their ride for free. I got a 1 star from a couple of college students but I don’t let it bother me.
It happens in my town too! All the time. I just move on. Uber won’t defend us drivers so why worry. I can’t refuse all college kids just bc of a few spoiled rotten brats who want a free ride!!
If you’re just getting started, don’t worry too much about bad ratings. First, I’ve read that both services give you a little leeway when you’re first getting started. Second, it’s a math issue. If you do five rides and you get 4 five-stars and 1 one-star, you automatically have a near 4 average, which can seem scary. The thing to remember, though, is that, as long as you keep driving, your ride count will get higher and that one-star rating will get way less significant. Just keep doing your best (and, honestly, you’re already going above and beyond, based on your description) and your average will come up. It’s really just a matter of time.
To hell with em. You can dispute with uber but there’s no point in letting entitled idiots ruin your time. I provide nothing to my pax except a clean car(clean-ish), an extra phone charger cable, and my award winning bubbly personality. You do whatever makes you happy and the good ratings will overwhelm the few shit ones you’ve received.
I drive an F-150 as well and I used to get frustrated with the ratings as well as I would get 5 
from my older passengers and low from my younger passengers… it is an entitlement thing I think… don’t worry about it… your rating is based on last 
rides… keep doing your thing and it all works it self out in the wash… here is a pick of me getting back to a 5 rating… in 48 hrs it went back to 4.97… it happens that fast as I gave 100 rides in 4 days… one person that is either having a bad day or the 
on turned them the wrong way or they are just spiteful…
The good thing is you will never have to pick up the person who gave you a 1 star ever again. And if they do that to everybody, they will run out of drivers available to them. You are doing good.
We can blame college students, young people, etc. but fact of the matter is that people can just be dicks and give low ratings for free rides or just to be assholes. Just trust that you’re doing a good job and continuing doing what you do to see your ratings go back up!
My rating is important because nights like tonight I have had 6 rides in 3 hours.
Omaha is not as big as some cities where 50 to 60 rides a night is normal.
20 rides on a weekend is great here.
I would not want 50 rides a night i don’t even want 50 rides in a week… If you did 50 rides a night you would put way to many miles on your car you can’t make money buying new car all the time…
My one star was from when they had those basketball tournaments. I picked up some routy people and when they saw my camera asked if it was recording. I said always from the time I leave the house to when I return. I also said when people start to misbehave in my car I press this button which saves the footage for me for future concerns. At that time I pressed the button. they all shut up and behaved. Unfortunately the little fuckers gave me a one star. 
I thought I was the only one hustling in a F150. I get lots of compliments on my ride too. I use to worry about ratings. That lasted a few weeks. Then I realized what a lot of people pointed out that some people are just jerks.
Like any business you have to take the good with the bad. Eventually that 1 star will fall back off and you’ll be fine. Shake it off don’t let it get to you and do whatever you makes you feel better about. If it’s fighting with Uber on it then do it. Who cares what the others say.
look this rating thing is not fair …I give everybody good treatment and sometimes i make a mistake and my 5 stars are at 85% that not that good. I don’t know how drivers have a 4.8 0r 4.9 … hey drivers let us know what your rating is… mine is a 4.7…whats yours
I do all the same things mark, so its really annoying when an unjustified <5* pops up. personally im sitting at 4.99 after a few months at 5.0. so i feel your pain uber does ask them to say why if its <5* so if they chose something like unclean car or rude driver etc… those can be disputed if u have a interior dash cam. but ive never seen or heard a passenger refuse a ride because the driver was 4.8 vs 4.9 or 5.0. nice to have that perfect 5.0 (annoying when you lose it tho) but its a numbers game and the general public is not 100% wonderful appreciative customers. I know i cant maintain a 5.0 or 4.99 across 1 or 2k rides. but it was nice while it lasted across a few hundred.
I drive my 2013 F-150 up here in Michigan. Currently sitting at a 4.97 after two months. Got a 4-star from a pax just because we got stopped by a train. I am driving in a college town and never had a student give a 1-star just for a free ride. Gets lots of compliments on the truck, and extra room. I don’t do any of the extra amenities.