u/Dependent_Doctor_533

Today my girlfriend got a notification if a transaction was made by her, and accidentally clicked no. The card was instantly blocked and it was removed from her bank account instantly.

She then applied for a new card, but then when she wanted to add the card to Apple Pay it told her to wait until the physical card arrives.

I remember when we first got our cards, we could add it to Apple Pay even before getting the physical ones. Why can’t she add it now? It’s urgent because that’s her only way of paying and that is where all her money is.

I tried calling support but the robot voice AI is not helping at all.

Thank you for your help.

Hey all, I am posting from Australia where I drive Uber Eats on an e-bike. I’ve been lurking in this sub and the contrast with our market is pretty striking, so I’m curious what those of you who’ve been doing this longer in a more mature market think.

For context, the Australian model is almost the opposite of what I am seeing here:

US model: Low base fares (sometimes $2 or less), with the expectation that tips make up the bulk of what a driver actually earns. The platform is essentially offloading wage cost onto the customer’s social obligation to tip. Support are uncooperative.

Australian model: High base fare (roughly $3-4/km), almost zero tip culture. Customers rarely tip, and when they do it’s maybe $2–4 and that’s genuinely rare. Uber Eats and DoorDash also just struck a deal with the Transport Workers Union for a guaranteed minimum of AU$31.30/hr starting mid-2026. Support is cooperative and actually helpful (based on my personal experience).

But I’ve been reading about the history of the US market and it looks like DoorDash actually started with a guaranteed minimum model too (2017–2019), before shifting to the low-base/tip-dependent structure you have now. Tipping was also only introduced in Australia a couple of years ago and barely anyone uses it yet, which makes me wonder if that’s just stage one of the same playbook.

For those who’ve been in this longer, is this something you have seen/felt before? Do you think Australia is just a few years behind the same curve and drivers will start getting the same treatment anyway?