BlaBlaCar: Carpooling and Bus

Great app for selling the extra space in your car when you take a trip. Especially helpful with then increasing cost of fuel. I enjoy having company in the car and learning about other cultures while traveling. The time passes more quickly. A couple things that could improve: - the Messenger does not allow images nor links to be sent which would be incredibly helpful for discussing modifications to the pickup location. - The Messenger is clunky. It often flags messages that are within guidelines and doesn’t send them, however it doesn’t tell you immediately that this has happened, making it difficult to know which messages have gone through and which haven’t. Messages also sometimes are put into the thread out of order. Clear communication is really important when you are trying to meet someone so this really needs to be improved. - The messenger’s email notifications also are also clunky/buggy. I’ve often received email notifications for messages that were supposedly from me, but actually showed messages from a potential passenger - sometimes these were flagged messages, though, so it actually allowed me to see the messages that BlaBlaCar was trying to erase/keep me from seeing, so that was nice :)

Not often there is a service which just gives a lot and takes almost nothing. I respect this service as it fills empty cars, saves money for the driver, speeds up the way for passengers and ultimately reduces carbon footprint. And for free - at least I think. Something not many applications and services can say about them.

I downloaded the app while in France, but my phone’s settings are in English. Even so, the app insisted on French. I’m back in the US, and traveling in Mexico frequently, but I’m still stuck using French and Euros. I know enough French to get around, but I’d much prefer English or Spanish. That you refuse to allow a language or currency change in the app shows that you fail to reconcile the diversity of your clientele. Do better. UPDATE: after a reply from the developer, advising me to change my region to the UK (I live in the US), I’d like to ask: Do the developers understand that this is an app for travelers, and thus it might be a nice feature to be able to customize options such as language and currency? Who wants to change the settings of their entire phone just to customize one single application? I’m presently in Mexico, and would love to use the BlaBlaCar app to book a car. But when I use the app, my only options are French and Euros. So, I go to the website, change to Mexico and Pesos, and set up alerts for new trips. Then, I get emails about new trip in English, with Pounds as the currency? Nobody wants to have to do all these unnecessary currency conversions, and nobody wants to struggle through a language they barely speak, unless the goal is to learn that language. BlaBlaCar as a service is great, but there are a LOT of improvements that have to be made before this app can deserve 5 stars.

It doesn’t allow you to change the language. I’m an American living in Ukraine, so to search for cars I’m forced to use Ukrainian which is impossible to understand every button, description, or guide. If I want to use English, it takes me to the UK, but I don’t need rides there. Imagine Ukrainians going to France. Oops, no Ukrainian unless you know French—just guess what each thing means. Even Uber or Bond Taxi allows English in Ukraine, and the drivers know about this, why not Bla Bla Car? Is it really that backwards thinking or is it just laziness to allow the options for multiple languages within a country? Unless you know someone who speaks the language of the country you’re in, this app is basically useless. That’s too bad because that’s a lot of lost profit for drivers and your company.

The company sometimes applies major workflow changes, for instance how payments are done. It would be nice if there would be notifications to the user to explain why there is a change and what actually changes. There is in fact some confusion amongst users as to how things work because of this. Also, the Messages section has never been very stable ever since I have used it, which is about a couple of years. Notifications come through, but if the user has the app open on the Messages section, One needs to exit the Messages section and come back in in order to refresh it and see new messages.

I think you guys should make the app able to save the messages and the informations for the driver and for the trip information Because today I didn’t have internet reception and I was waiting for the woman in the place we agreed to meet at , and I tried to make sure that I’m in the right place but I couldn’t because I couldn’t see the messages in the app and I think it’s a problem if I need to see some information that might help me at the time . You guys should think about it I think its very important to be able to use the app in the off line mode just to see some information like messages or just a phone number Or the time and the place of the meeting Thanks

I see people have complained about this for years. And for years, this is why I haven’t used it. You open it up and it’s stuck in whatever language the country you are in uses. Developers, here’s a tip: when a lot of people are complaining about something, you should probably fix it. Unless you don’t like making money. Every other app has language settings when you first start it. This isn’t rocket science. Oh, and before you comment: my language and region is US/English. FIX. YOUR. APP. Edit: I know you’re aware of it. You have been for YEARS. Look how old some of the negative reviews talking about it are. Every time I consider trying your app, I see it’s still there. Are you in business or aren’t you? Do you want to make money or not? STOP BEING CHEAP AND LAZY AND FIX IT.

As other reviewers have pointed out, this app sets the language according to the country chosen, making it effectively useless for many of us. I understand from developer responses to other reviews that they are working on this problem. There’s a feature for ID verification; my verifications failed repeatedly but no information as to why, or what to do was forthcoming. Following my initial posting of this review, the developer kindly contacted me to ask for further details. To me this indicates a good developer so I improved my rating. Furthermore, they are releasing new versions frequently.

Great concept-- a long distance Uber in many respects. Expect to get to know the other passengers, because y'all will be spending multiple hours in a small car together. However! There needs to be differentiation between location and language. I'm an American visiting Spain at the moment. If I say I'm in Spain, the app turns to Spanish and has no option to change it. I have to pretend I'm in England, and read all prices in British Pounds, to use this service in Spain. Should be an easy fix that may happen by the time you read this review. Overall a great app.

Overall, this a great service! But when used by someone like me who travels different countries and pays cash (because most drivers accept cash), i need a quick way to switch currency. Why would i want to see rates in my local currency? I need to see rates in driver’s currency because he/she won’t accept my local one. Right now you suggest i delete the app and re-install it, and set a new currency. And that i do so every time i’m in a different country. This is insanely inconvenient. Please fix :)

I just got the app to be able to travel around Spain and it has some issues. It takes your money once you send in the request not until it’s confirmed. So guess who never got their ride confirmed but got their money taken away so then I requested another and no confirmation either. At that point I was running low on money it’s ridiculous. It says you’ll get your money back 1-5 days, why would they take my money before my ride is confirmed?!!!! So now I have to message drivers first to ensure they’ll accept before I request.

The app doesn’t have the pick up line or drop off slide like over I understand it’s a totally different concept but you should have a button that you picked up a passenger for our call rider and then that you dropped him off from point a to point B for the safety and security that would be much better all the driver should be verified it’s better to be paid online soon as you pick up a passenger because some of the passengers are complaining that some drivers are trying to get my money trying to play gimmicks.

My driver canceled no me a few hours before my trip. Bla Bla makes the rider wait 7days for the driver to agree that they canceled. Feels like the driver has taken my money and I can’t do anything about it for a week. Not fair to the rider and let’s the driver scam riders traveling through on vacation since they will be long gone or out of country. Also I did try to book another driver. They had until 1:59pm to confirm a 4pm trip, but he never did accept the ride resulting in the app not allowing me to accept a ride from a third driver. Finally I just got a bus because it was my only option left. Could have missed connection. If you are traveling or not a local I would NEVER USE or TRUST THIS APP!!!

the app is literally terrible, despite dozens of attempts i have never successfully gotten a ride with this service. it seems like they don’t even notify the driver of anything having to do with their trip. once you make a reservation they make you wait for the driver to accept it, and you aren’t allowed to request any other rides during this time. meanwhile, the other trips get booked up, and the trip that you requested never gets approved, so you’re left with nothing. this happened to me just now- i had 5 options for a ride at different times throughout the day, i reserved the one leaving soonest, and then the driver never approved it so it simply expired and by that time all the other trips were booked up. another time, i requested a ride, it was approved, and i took an uber to the middle of nowhere to the location where the driver wanted to meet. they never showed up, and the app didn’t allow me to report the driver. no one is held accountable for anything in this service.

Having seen all the troubles people had using his app in English and knowing the steep extra currency conversion fee I would pay if I paid in gbp, I selected french as language for a trip to France. I set up the entire account and included all details which were verified, I'd phone and email, then added a profile pic and booked two rides, which I paid for with a card in my same name? for my upcoming trip. And the next day blablacar suspended my account for 'suspicious activity'. Why would anyone want to go through this to use this app? Now I'm awaiting their response to reinstatement....

If you want unreliable rides, you can use this app for that. There’s a lack of customization features, such as adjusting time zones and currencies. This makes for a terrible user experience, but doesn’t render the app unusable. I believe this works better for domestic users (E.g. Spanish people getting rides from other Spaniards, Germans with Germans, etc), but is not great for foreigners, visitors, or tourists. The app also takes a significant commissions and doesn’t offer much in terms of safety features or customer service. BlaBlaCar needs a major update before I could recommend it.

I downloaded the app because it showed up on Google maps as an alternative to local mass transit options but also because Lyft doesn’t exist here in Florence, IT. Anyhow, the interface is nice and for the most part intuitive to the user. The issue I have are that (1) it presents options that don’t really exist and ends up wasting bandwidth and time and (2) tends to have more server connectivity issues than expected. For example, I click on one option and i get a red banner that says it can’t find it. Or I get a message notification but when i click on the message icon i get a similar message. If those issues get fixed, I can see this being a good app.

Ordered a bus through an application which asks you to pay ahead and then you get notification that driver has no point of contact and didn’t arrive at all. Lost money and extra stress to get to the airport, just to get to the plane on time. Ridiculous product design that allows you to pay first and then no information about the upcoming trip on the app at all. Probably, need a new product management team that will think through the logic of transportation apps, some undergrad intro to computer science level of mistakes. Even the support team give you a fake number that you can add to your scum base if you have desire to.

I would love to use this app, but unfortunately it seems impossible to change the language setting. I downloaded it while in Belgium and it will only use French. My French is seriously lacking so I don't feel comfortable using the app. I followed the developer's suggestion to another reviewer and checked that my phone settings are correct, but it makes no difference. I've tried deleting and reinstalling the app while here in the US, but, nope, still in French. Why is this simple issue not corrected by now? Other apps let you choose language and currency.

The basic idea behind the app/system is great. There are operational issues, in that drivers don’t seem to face consequences for letting guests be stranded by canceling late or no-shows; but that’s not a matter for app review. What is however a matter for app review, is that randomly the entire correspondence I had with a driver that did a no-show, and then canceled the ride an hour after he was supposed to meet me, disappeared, removing all evidence of the interaction between him and me (well, I sent both in-app messages and SMS, so the latter I still have, but BlaBlaCars has no access to those). Similarly, for a great ride I had, I left a five star review. Now the review is not to be found in the “ratings given” section, AND I can no longer give a review to the driver: the driver got deprived of a good review, and I can’t fix it. These kind of glitches, where communications and reviews simply disappear, as if they had never happened, are unacceptable.

First time I used it to go to Malaga. It took me several hours to purchase the ride because of an error of processing my card that has more than enough money on it. Later I tried to go to Valencia and I was never able to purchase a ride. It kept coming up with error messages. I used 4 different cards and even used one of my friend’s cards and it was the same. I deleted the app and tried to get it back and log in and it told me to try another way of logging in even though my password was correct. The idea of the app is great and the one time I used it was fine but there are many bugs on the daily

Driver agreed to pick me up at a specific place at a specific time and messaged me to confirm. I was there and they did not show up after 45 minutes. They didn’t call they didn’t message and didn’t answer their phone. I reported the user nothing happened their profile still shows that they rarely cancel trips. They just get away with leaving someone stranded on the side of a highway for an hour. What a horrible use of time and a horrible app. Hold strict consequences for both drives and passengers. Otherwise who cares… bad app will not use again.

I was looking up routes to find the quickest way from Milan to Venice and found blah blah car it seemed very professional and easy to use however I was unable to use this service because I needed an SMS sent to my phone. I am not sure if the app coordinates with United States phone numbers so I was unable to use it. It seems like a very convenient way to get around but was bummed the SMS was unable to coordinate with non local residents. Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.

This is such an amazing service app! I am currently living in Mexico and have used this service dozens of times. I have never had a single problem and all the drivers have been kind and honest people. I only use this service when I can !

We are from USA but the only way to get the app in English is to say we are from the UK That means our ID doesn’t match up as it is not UK ID. There appears to be no way to change language once the app is set up. There is no tech support in the app We’ve been charged but have not yet heard from driver and don’t know when/where we meet and there is nowhere in the app to ask for assistance. Good idea and we r crossing fingers that driver will answer our numerous texts and phone calls.

Can’t change the language from Spanish to English even tho I have it set to English in the iPhone settings. Also tried to reach the customer support on the website about how I’ve had two drivers not come through and they still are keeping my money for some reason, but after I wrote my message and had everything filled out it kept giving me the error that I need to enter a phone number; even though I clearly entered my phone number and tried to make it longer in every way humanly imaginable

I’d like to know what the distance cut off is? I was staying in a small village in France and to get to the nearest big town (25kms away) was difficult by bus (different département) but blabla car also doesn’t offer that ride as it’s too close, it suggests using blabla car daily. But blabla car daily is not available to users of the American App Store. The rides I have taken have been very good, but the customer support was non existant.

The app will not let you switch languages and will not show you local rides if the language/region of your phone does not match the country you are in. I read a review from 3 years ago here saying the same thing. When I use incognito I can see multiple cars but when I sign in they all disappear because the language and region don’t match. And there’s no way to fix it. (You canned response of go to settings and select reason doesn’t work and will not suffice) FIX YOUR APP!

I hope you guys can give us the option to run the app on the language we choose, for exemple im a student i live in Ukraine and i use the Ukrainian version so i can see the whole list of drivers and i can't change the language in-the app to English so i can better understand how to run through the app smoothly otherwise everything is cool, i like the new design

Downloaded this a few days ago to book a simple trip within Mexico. Driver never responds to messages and potential bookings. System keeps stating trip is already completed when it’s hours and hours later - though still shows updates with new riders. I learned quickly ai contacted the company as well - no one responds to email, twitter messages - there’s no phone support. You’re lost in their black hole. I can’t count on this company. Waste of time! Delete app now.

I am an American traveler sitting with my friends in Ukraine and when I sign in, there are no rides on any common routes; when they sign in, there are tons of rides on the same routes and dates. They work in IT and we are all shocked that this international traveler app... isn’t international. The app gives false negatives and won’t show rides in other languages. Now I know why I couldn’t find rides for the past seven weeks! Total disaster. You can only get rides in your home countries. Otherwise .. good luck. Such a shame. We tested on multiple phones. Same results.

I installed the app on the recommendation of a friend. At the time of installation I was in the Netherlands so I set that as the region. Big mistake as now the app is locked into Dutch only with no way to change it to English! This is a terrible UX/UI design as not everyone in a particular country may speak the language. There should be a way to change the language setting but there isn’t which makes me unable to use the app. I’d give it a zero star if that was possible.

It’s difficult to change between languages (and also impossible to change the currency associated with the language). Drivers constantly cancel and their is no penalty, don’t rely on this to get from place to place unless you’re flexible. I had 4 separate drivers accept and then cancel in one day and had to change my accomodation.

The app is not bad, few bugs. I believe the original concept is now over: people tend to use it as a long range taxi service but it’s not. Many passengers think the driver is an actual professional driver who gets paid. In fact, the fee the driver gets is bad, and BlaBlaCar takes a good commission (20-25%) and has very poor customer service. If a driver does not show, which seems to happen regularly, there is no compensation despite it can get people in trouble. For me as a driver, welcoming people in my car is like welcoming someone in my home. You can meet nice people, but some people are just there to enjoy a cheap ride and force themselves to be nice, against nature. I will not use it again, for the money you get as driver it’s worthless the effort to be nice.

The app is good but still a lot space to improve. As many travelers we relocate temporarily in new cities/countries. One thing the app could improve is the option to change the language independently from the OS system location, also the currency should be have an option to see it in a different one. Offline retrieve of messages of data.

I am so grateful to use Bla Bla car. They are efficient. My driver was Mailise, she knows very well where to go & she is an excellent driver, well organized, friendly & respectful who came on time & she has also an excellent communication in English & respond questions on time. Thank you so much Mailise.

Didn’t work for me, several drivers cancelled last minute and one driver said he had space, I paid, he immediately cancelled and I never received the refund. There are probably reliable people out there but I tried several times only to have last minute cancellations. I have had much better luck hitchhiking! I was stuck in a jam with a cancellation and got a ride hitchhiking within minutes from Orgiva to Granada after 3 cancellations and ghosting.

We had a native friend set us up with a ride. It was faster and cheaper than the train and comfortable. We were able to negotiate a bit where we would leave from in the city which was helpful.

Mehmet was very kind, easy to get along with and a good driver. We found this ride last minute and he didn’t mind waiting a little bit longer than the original leave time so that we could join. Would be happy to carpool with him again!

The app lacks the important details and options the website has. Essentially all it does for me is keep track of the trips I've planned on the website bc its functionality is so limited. The most important tool for me is searched trips from my location without specifying a destination! It's such a great obvious option of the website that the app, seemingly for no reason, doesn't have.

1. When I want to share my ride and then change it - 80% chance that I get an error 2. Often error when I want to apply feedback 3. Blablacar always want to apply their deafault price

The US App Store version Doesn’t work in Ukraine or Eastern Europe. It’ll say zero cars a available at all times. When I search for cars in Lviv, Ukraine using my US App store iOS BlaBla car app, there is always ZERO cars available. The same search using my Ukrainian friend's BlaBla car app shows dozens of available cars. This has been a problem for 1 year now. Please fix it. Edit: the developer responded and basically said. “We don’t care. Use the website instead.”.

It is terrible, does not refresh itself, you can not see new messages at the same time, you need to turn off and run again to see new messages. As a result it is Old fashion app😤

BlaBlaCar is a great concept, but there is a major problem with drivers cancelling trips last minute. Drivers should have a visible rating of how often they cancel trips so there is incentive not to cancel a confirmed trip and so passengers can be aware of the reliability of the driver. Drivers need to be held accountable to actually take the trips they post and confirm.

The app forces language and currency options based on your phone’s country settings. So if you have your phone settings in a different country to try to practice the language, it will force you to use the app in that language and use that country’s currency. As a user you don’t have the option to select your language and payment currency. This is so inflexible! Hope they fix it soon.

Happened with me few times that passengers cancel trip in the last moment, and I cannot mention that in their profile. It would be good to have possibly writes comments like this to see if reliable passenger makes reservations.

You should have add to select any language you like not everybody in france speaks or know french in your app if you select your location it automatically select that countries language!!

Love this app and have been using it for a year but there is a driver who has been putting the same scam for three days. It’s the same trip for the same price at the same time. Myself and fellow riders are in the reclamation process and can’t leave a review to warn anyone. Please find a way to stop these people during the reclamation process!!! Especially if everyone in the car is saying the EXACT SAME THING.

This is my first time to use blah blah car. It was easy to set up. It was easy to navigate. And it got me to my destination for a fraction of the price of a train or a bus. I highly recommend it.

This may be the best app ever published. I would have no way of knowing. The first screen prompts me to choose my country from a list of countries that omits the US. Canada is not on the list, either. So I choose Mexico, and upon proceeding to the next screen, I discover first that all subsequent information will come to me in Spanish; and second, there is no way to go back to the first screen and change my preferred nation. In short, installing BlaBlaCar was a complete waste of my time.