Uber (spammers) glitches, annoyances, forced password reset, vaguely failed and maybe cancelled order

 I'm isolating in a hotel due to covid, so I thought I'd try having some food delivered via Uber Eats.

I previously noted how my Uber (spammers) account was "temporarily disabled", along with disastrous basic usability issues, but the app continued to work: 

[0] https://wibblement.blogspot.com/2021/12/uber-spammers-account-temporarily.html

This time, it failed to recognise my password at all, forcing a reset via SMS+email.  Instead of giving an accurate error message saying they were forcing a reset, they engaged in the increasingly common trick of pretending the mistake was at my end, and making me pretend I'd forgotten my password by clicking on a link "Forgot password?", instead of just admitting they are forcing a password reset.

Several SMSs and emails later, I have set my password, again, to what it was before.  It is now restored to a state ready for Uber spammers to forget it again, and force another reset, in the near future.

Now, was this about everyone being rubbish at authentication, or about getting something to eat?  Something to eat!  So let's order some food:

Chatty bastards.  If you're this incompetent, please don't do this over-familiar error message thing, it just makes it even more annoying.

Trying again, it eventually managed to add it to the basket, and I was on to the address.

The address selector has very fixed ideas, and when I tried to enter an address to improve on its suggestion, it jumped to the other side of London.  You would have to video-record this to get a proper, it's just weird.  I eventually managed to add my room number and name in some field that I think will work, somewhere else.

It now goes onto a very annoying animated screen.  Instead of sitting still, and moving when it has new information, it flashes and skids manically the whole time.  It's now impossible to get any work done, while this is in the field of vision, so it has to be put out of the field of vision.  I'm reminded of a video by Huberman, where he says something like "the brain loves motion".  Is this what they tell "designers"?  It's is a bit like saying the nervous system loves having your skin burned and scraped off with a knife.  I mean, you're going to notice, and you're going to pay a lot of attention.

While getting rid of this infuriating flashing and skidding thing that's distracting me, sorry, the motion that my brain "loves", I noted:

• it's in some kind of bizarre 12-hour time format, probably due to Uber's a merkin heritage.  When it says 5:55, it means the estimated delivery time of the order is 17:55.
• the unnecessary on-screen movements are annoying

The window then briefly said something about a delivery guy trying to call me, do I want to call back.  While showing this message, it displayed the inadequate address that the Uber address picker had insisted on choosing earlier, after it won its fight with me.  It was basically just a postcode and street name (when I tried to improve on the address earlier, that's when it jumped to the other side of London).  It then changed, suddenly, to simply "No orders yet, When you place your first order, it will appear" :

as tho nothing had ever happened.  Nothing about the order having been cancelled, no trace of there ever having been an order, no acknowledgement that someone hungry is trying to get some food, and they have just failed.  

The disappearance without trace reminded me of my first Uber lift, when all records of the ride disappeared within seconds of the ride completing, also described at [0].

And another pretense, like the forgotten password pretence.  Another "we know better" pretense, that no one is falling for.  This time, the pretence is that there was never any order.  What order?

I wonder if the ~51 GBP will still be charged to my card?

On my Uber eats orders page, the order is shown.  But there is no status, such as pending or delivered or cancelled.  The people designing this didn't think anyone would want to know whether an order failing to be delivered, and disappearing from the realtime page, is considered fulfilled, or cancelled, or pending.

 

 

Does anyone find any aspect of this service acceptable?