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NEW YORK, New York — A week after New Year’s Eve, millennials across the nation are still complaining about the price of going out on New Year’s Eve, a holiday traditionally known for being the biggest and most widespread party night of the year.
Uber, an on-demand chauffeur company, has come under fire over the last week after their “surge” pricing reportedly duped “unknowing” customers into paying more than they originally anticipated.
“It’s cray,” 23-year-old Meghan Patrick explained. “Like, what other kind of company can just, like, charge ten times the actual price of their product and get away with it?”
Patrick, a marketing graduate currently working for Yelp, reported spending over $300 on a single Uber ride from an uptown New York City club to her one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment. After acknowledging that pricing would be “7x” (or seven times the normal amount of the ride), she took a 1:07 a.m. car through New York City after the ball dropped in Times Square just over an hour prior.
“I mean, a company can’t just take advantage of a bunch of drunk kids,” Patrick continued amidst interrupting my questions. “Like, my dad stayed at The Drake hotel in Chicago and it’s not like they were all like ‘Let’s raise the price because it’s New Year’s Eve’ and stuff.”
Surprisingly, The Drake hotel in Chicago’s normal room rate, which is $139 per night, escalated to over $500 per night on New Year’s Eve to accommodate supply and demand, a very normal and easy to grasp financial concept. When confronted with those facts, Patrick scoffed.
“That’s like a SICK hotel though,” she continued. “Like, if you can’t afford to stay there, that’s your problem.”
Patrick, whose New Year’s Eve plans included attending a sold-out party at well-known New York City club Lush also explained her reasoning for paying the $150 entrance fee for the event.
“You’re crazy if you think I’m going to miss that party. EVERYONE and their freaking mother was there,” she explained. “Yeah, it was $150 to get in, but we got appetizers and a glass of champagne with it. What else was I going to do? Sit at home and do nothing? As if.”
Defiant, Patrick is contesting the $317 Uber charge on the grounds that it was unfair to charge a higher price simply because the service was in higher demand than on any given night. Patrick also threatened to “drive drunk” if ever confronted with this pricing again, an argument many have made in favor of lowering pricing for fear drunk driving will increase if the prices remain this high.
When we interviewed her driver, John Carroll, a 24-year-old driver from Philadelphia, he reiterated that Uber was in the right when it came to Patrick’s ride.
“This is the biggest money-making night of the year for me,” he began. “What was I supposed to do? Turn down an opportunity to make seven times the amount of my normal rides? Yeah, right.”
When asked if he thought the pricing would have a negative effect on people using Uber, he responded, “If you’re stupid enough to accept pricing that high when you can’t afford it, then you’re stupid enough to drive drunk. There’s nothing I can do about that.”
Patrick had no comment in regard to Carroll’s sentiments. .
Image via Shutterstock
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Will
Will (Twitter / Instagram) is the host of The Sunday Scaries Podcast.
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Damn, Will just threw major shade on Evan Lawrence’s latest article.
Evan’s my dude. He’ll understand.
Read: “Evan isn’t a household name like deFries. He’ll get over it.”
That was my first thought as well.
The Free Market is great. It really exposes the mouth breathers in the world.
Capitalism: Separating who is smart and who is poor.
Uber (nor any company in the entire world) doesn’t operate in a free market, but a man can dream.
It is more free than their competitors, but point taken.
Sure, cabs are fucking awful. $70 for a ride home from the airport that costs me $35 on Lyft!
Lyft blows.
Would believe if the Uber driver’s name was Ahmed.
10/10
Great piece deFries. Yes, the surge pricing sucks, but if you don’t like it….don’t use it. I am so sick of everybody complaining about higher prices on the most in demand night of the year. No matter how much Uber is on a given night, it’s still cheaper than a DUI.
It’s a lot like that time when that super lonely and self conscious pharmaceutical CEO who looks like a bat that just got woken up abruptly from hibernation inexplicably raised the price of an AIDS drug by 5000% overnight which actually caused damage to people’s lives. But it’s ok Meghan, just take PT next time instead of complaining about an Uber surge, I’m sure your problems are super important and stuff but that’s none of my business…
Can we use this article to teach the Democratic Presidential candidates about capitalism and supply and demand?
We can take this article, print a thousand copies of it, roll them up like a news paper, and swat you with it. Stick to science.
It’s just a joke. Relax, it’s almost Friday.
I was just kidding too! I’ll take my laps now
Rookie move, Meghan. Should have taken the subway like the rest of us did that night, probably took you even longer to get home anyways.
Someone hasn’t seen Fruitvale Station
Stayed at the Drake once. Pricelined that bitch, $89. Great Manhattans at the bar in the basement, too.
Got it for $107 for St. Pats weekend.. Gotta love that corporate rate
Is that a picture of Riley Reid?!