Zipcar: cars on-demand

Interesting experience today - the car I was using wouldn’t start in an under ground garage at local mall because there wasn’t a satellite connection. Received suggestions like get someone to help you push it closer to entrance/exit to make connectivity (I’m a small woman - in NY, in Brooklyn, really,?) also, if you pay for help get a receipt...huh? Gee sir thank u for going out of your way, can I give you a few dollars and oh btw I’ll need a receipt even though it’s not my car and I’ve been waiting for over an hour for a call on a tow truck - smh/really deep sigh. The best offer - we’ll credit you and extend your time. Hmmm, credit (not refund) for a car I’m not able to use, extend my time while i stay with unusable vehicle waiting for a tow truck that never came? This was suppose to be a quick dash to the supermarket and Home Depot..2 hours maybe 2.5, not shopping, picking up specific items - in and out, waiting on line would be most of time. And yet everyone at Zip was friendly courteous and unconcerned about me being stranded/inconvenienced if ya know what I mean. Anyway, I finally got vehicle started - and out of the garage with a $5.00 parking charge (usually cost $2-3) not that big a deal/difference just annoying. Guess it’s time to consider getting a vehicle kinda miss having my own.

Where to begin… My most recent trip was in a vehicle with a front slashed tire and two rear bald tires. Last year in May, a car with a damaged battery died in my parents driveway and had to be towed away (Happy Mother’s Day Mom). The person who responded deemed the battery to have been tampered with. In the intervening months, I have driven cars that reeked of marajuana smoke, cigarette smoke and littered with trash. I rented a nice SUV to go to a friends wedding a year prior and it smelled like pot and the back seat was coated with a Vaseline or jelly-like substance. Gross. Many times vehicles have been low on fuel (given the other huge problems I have started to overlook this). The worst part is that when there is a problem, you are put on hold for a ridiculously long time and eventually connected with a person with an accent so thick, he or she is often unintelligible. I am often told that I will receive “credits” for these inconveniences but they never appear on my account. Purchasing a car is out of my budget, but my experience has been so bad with Zipcar that I am considering it. I would rather spend more money and know that I am driving a safe vehicle and not be (greatly) inconvenienced. Zipcar has become an awful experience.

Never in my life have I seen a company so disinterested in there customers. I spent more than 10 Hs on the phone trying to get my zipcard shipped to the correct address, not only did they not ship it to the correct address but also on 8 different occasions told me they had te sent it and only did so once!! I kept calling and they would keep telling me they would ship it again only to find out on my next call that the card was never sent. I paid my subscription in advance and after 4 months of trying again and again I decided to cancel the account, but it turns out I can’t get my money back. Total ripoff!!! Be careful think it twice there is many people that have been overcharged or had trouble using this poorly offered service. Everyone I know that signed up could never get their money back they offer you credit that you rarely get to use because it expires I had in my account over 100, 10 or so for every call I did. I would not recommended this at all. I couldn’t even get my zipcard to start using the service, I don't even want to imagine the sort of trouble I would have if I began using it. Save yourself many hours and headaches. Good idea poorly executed.

First two trips were seamless. Cars were easy to find, clean, full of gas, etc. The third trip I booked was cancelled without prompt, so I rebooked a new car at the same location. then about 1-2 hours before the start, the car info disappeared and the app stated ‘new car info coming soon.’ This didn’t change until the start of my booking. At which point I called customer service, was on hold 20 minutes waiting to speak to a representative, then they confirmed the car was no longer available and there were no nearby cars of the same size available for use. My need for the car was time sensitive, so I could have been privy to this information sooner to plan accordingly. 30 minutes into a reservation and no in app update regarding my car’s status was inconvenient and stressful. The customer service agent was helpful the best they could and understood my frustration. I was given a refund and an 1 hr driving credit for my trouble.

If I could give this experience and the past few experiences my family has had a Zero Star rating I would. When I arrived at the designated spot to pick up our car it was not there. After a lengthy call with a customer service representative the car was located far away from it’s spot. Once I got in the car it smelled like marijuana and had dirty Chinese food in it. After losing the time to locate the car and having the overall condition of the car being pretty lousy the customer service representative offered 15 minutes of driving time, and for me to go wash the car and reimburse the costs, and to put us in a new car that wasn’t even available. So, for the next day and a half my family (my six-year-old son and his grandmother) were stuck with a car that smelled like a drug den. How does 15 minutes of credit provide any type of solution that zipcar might consider satisfactory for a customer? Zipcar comes at a premium cost and delivers a subpar experience. Customer service offered nothing to actually make this worthwhile. I think that my family and I are at a point where we need to look for another company(Uber). This won’t matter to zipcar, because we’re not power users, and you don’t really care about the overall customer experience. This complaint and probably all other complaints will fall on deaf ears and I’m not even sure why I’m writing this review.

Reaching g out through here because I am unable to get support any other way. My zipcar was rear ended in December 2022. No damage to the car but we still exchanged insurance info with the driver and had a police witness on site. All information was shared immediately with zipcar. It’s currently April 10th and my account is still suspended but they are continuing to charge membership dues each month. I have tried to contact the insurance several times for an update. 30 min+ hold times and each time I have connected the call is dropped. I have called zipcar support. They simply say they have no information about how long the claim will take but it can take weeks. I ask them to discontinue my membership they say they cannot while my account is suspended. It has now been 5 months. 5 billing cycles where Zipcar is charging me a membership fee without: 1) access to the service 2) any way to discontinue my membership. Main call center are no help. They claim they can not resolve the issue and flatly refuse to escalate the issue to someone who can. Not sure what options I have except to report the charge to my bank and ask them to block it because at this point zipcar is charging me for a service they refuse to provide. Happy to connect with someone who can help me as customer service is not an option.

I have been using it for the last 3-4 years. It started really good with nice cars, affordable prices and got worse after that. Cars quality got worse in general for the last 5-6 rentals it almost always smelled like someone is smoking next to you and not just cigarette! One of the worse things keeps consistently happening last years is missing cars! I booked my car and went to the location!(it’s winter time in NYC) and there is no car, called the number and they said oh this car is in the airport right now and we will cancel the reservation. Naturally I asked for an other car and also stated I am willing to travel far bc I have a young child and we planned for this trip! and she literally said there is no car available in the ny city area for me. I checked the app it still showed 4 different available car for me but the operator on the phone checked each of them from her system and none of them were “really available “. At the end of the conversation they canceled my ride(at least that’s what I thought)and I ended up using uber back and forth to New Jersey from Brooklyn! When I came back home I received an email “summarizing my trip attached with the vill” for the car I never drove and saw!!!! By the way don’t even try to talk the supervisors they are not available. This was not the first time this happened but it is the last time never ever gonna use them again!!!

First using this rental app is was great and convenient though that didn’t last long once I lost my phone along with my cards and email, when I revisited the app I was met with a red flag restriction that prevented me from renting out with them anymore, with an app as highly recommended as this one you’d expect their customer service to be as dependable but that’s far from the case as they shown on numerous occasion their incompetence in identifying and resolving issues were baffling. I figured the lock was due to their membership fee which I had mentioned to them each call that I couldn’t see the charges because I no longer had the card nor access to my email so they concluded that because of that minor innocent mistake I’ll remain banned from using their services and that it was irreversible which is outrageous because they are the experts who run their app???. Not only i initially reached out to fix this on October 4th only to get this response October 18th which was mainly because I kept calling and reaching out because it was like I was being ignored the entire time and now the case is oh we can’t help you for the exact same reason I had mentioned. It was a very disappointing and discriminatory experience I wish on no one very unprofessional stuff like that could easily get voided to say it irreversible is nothing short of lazy and deceit

As I write this I have full knowledge of how zipcar operates. I retrieved vehicles for them and know the following They do not hire quality mechanics to maintain their cars. The mechanics are all failed Lincoln Tech or mechanics no one wants to hire. They work on 1099 contracts and have shoddy equipment they drive and keep in their van to go to repair jobs to service mechanical issues. I’ve watched them work in the parking lots they house them in. The cleaners are all from the Bronx usually Dominican Republic immigrants and aside from throwing and leaving their filthy trash in garages after a job they stay in the car while hanging out avoiding work. They also work on 1099 contracts because it’s cost effective and is profitable model but the cars still smell like used diapers from the lower income customers driving with babies and not having a car. I treat every car like I worked on an ambulance. Don’t trust it just because it smells like febreeze. They hardly wipe down frequently touched areas and use the lowest quality cleaning equipment and reuse dirty napkins on surfaces. But no one will ever know hahahah And the CSR responding to this is just the guy in the Philippines. They will make you repeat this to another agent to get a full statement instead of taking this to fix it. The old days of just a comment box drop are over. This review is more for customers to avoid using zip

I have used zipcar for almost 10 years and sadly it is coming to an end. Since last July, I had 5 trips for booked for a minivan for weekend getaways with family. Every reservation I made had been either canceled or changed to a different car that doesn’t sit all of us or a location that’s too far to get to. Last 4th of July, my minivan was canceled 2 hours before pickup time. I don’t have the heart to tell my children who’s been home for months under quarantine. I forked out $1000 for last minute car rental. We spent a lovely weekend in CT but our nightmare has just started. August trip, again, changed to a small car. Cancellation/changes were made to my reservation October, January, February, March! We have a reservation for this Friday (today ) and our minivan was canceled on Monday. I spent again an hour on the phone and got another van in a far location. This second car was canceled again on Thursday.... I guess my relationship with zipcar has finally come to an end, like a long and painful breakup with someone when you are young. Always there is one more time and this time maybe it will work out. But it is not and it never will. We all have enough to worry about in our life and no one should be worried about car rental getting canceled every time. And if I keep using the same service, I must be crazy.

Let’s get the worst out of the way: My car was stuck in wet leaves to no fault of my own on the side of a highway in the middle of the night. I called Zipcar and after waiting ten minutes for an agent, he was extremely rude and droned on for an hour, clearly not listening to the fact that I stated I was on a highway when addressing him initially. After him getting my location info (literally 45 min after picking up) he tells me I have to call the cops, not roadside assistance being on the side of the highway. They have no respect for your time or your money. Out of the about 15 times I’ve booked a Zipcar, 7 had to be cancelled due to issues with the car. The zip cars near me consistently have issues (ie. low tire pressure, unlock does not work) and I am reimbursed, and sometimes they offer me 9 bucks of credit after spending my time on their cars. A few times I have booked a car and the person simply does not return it, and I have been stuck waiting for an agent to pick up, just to cancel the trip with no substitute for my travel needs. I have had a couple smooth trips in the midst of it, hence any star at all but when I say a couple that’s what I mean. Additionally, the rates in New York City are ridiculously pricey, to the point it is not worth it unless you have 70$ sitting around for a 3 hour shopping trip.

Was a member of zipcar community for about 2 years but cancelled this morning. Customer service has gone downhill and the supervisors do not car. A ticket violation was issued to a vehicle that I had under my name during a commuter plan bill cycle. Problem? The violation was issued in East Hampton NY, and the vehicle in question was not even the right color, or model yet Zipcar paid the fine only because the plates were the same but did not bother to confirm the state in which the plates were issued. They them charge me for the violation because they failed to notify whoever had the vehicle. After getting off the phone with the courthouse they requested me to retrieve all the information for my vehicle so the ticket could be dismissed. Problem? Zipcar avoids, beats around or pretends to write the information but does not comply with giving the information. They ignored my emails, supervisors dont care, and I have requested in writing what is needed and they continue to ignore it. After reporting to customer service many times over the phone and email, again no answers. This just proves again, that this is a company going downhill with customer service and officially terminated and cut all ties with Zipcar. I would rather go to Enterprise car share over this nonsense. I DO NOT recommend this service, I DO NOT recommend this company moving forward. Save your money.

I began using Zipcar during the pandemic because my preferred ride share service was not able to stay afloat. And boy howdy has it been an awful transition. From damages reported to the same car, multiple times over, with worsening safety and driving conditions. These were reported over the summer and the cars have not yet been fixed (in March! MARCH.). The app does not work and has had me locked out for weeks, my only option to “fix” this is to send a photo of my drivers license and a selfie to a non-secure email address, which you’d think given all of the double authentication and account verification needed to literally do anything, would be explained in some sort of way, yet no explanation is given. I have never received the promised Zipcard, their pages and pages of support offer NO real answers or directions to help you fix your problems and it is IMPOSSIBLE to actually get on the phone with their support team, even though their number is plastered everywhere. Every single penny I have given this company has been an absolute waste of my money and my time. If you have ANY other options at your disposal I highly encourage you to save your hard earned money, your time, and your mental health by avoiding Zipcar entirely - 1 star is absolutely too generous for the complete lack of a service Zipcar provides.

never in my life has a company made me so mad on so many occasions. It’s as if they try to provide the WORST POSSIBLE customer service experience. All they want is to take your money and run. I booked a car to go to the airport and when I arrived to the car the previous driver said it was really broken and Not driveable which is not surprising since all the cars I’ve ever taken from them have maintenance issues. The previous person said he was in the phone with them and they said they would get the next person (me) sorted but they NEVER CALLED ME never canceled the ride or nothing. I had to be on the hold with them for 30 min before I reached someone WHILE I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AT THE AIRPORT! Then they finally said they would reimburse me for an Uber so I took one and it was 45$ , they said I just needed to send them the receipt. 4 MONTHS LATER NO REFUND. I had to hound them for weeks to get the refund and when I finally got the check it was for 21$ THAT IS NOT EVEN THE PRICE OF THE ORIGINAL ZIPCAR I BOOKED WHICH THEY ALSO NEVER REFUNDED ME FOR. SO THEY SCAMMED ME OUT OF 27$ then 45$ THEN DIDN’T REPLY FOR MONTHS AND FINALLY THEY SENT ME LESS THAN 1/3 of what the owed me. I have warned everyone I know against this company and I will continue to do so. They are scammers and I hope the next person reading this takes note before they get scammed too.

For a cheap rental I expected the car to have some cosmetic issues (scratches/scrapes on the exterior and a torn up floor on the inside with what looked like pretzels smashed into it) but I can’t overlook the unsafe conditions of the vehicle. The window was mucky on the outside and there was no windshield washer fluid in it was hard to see when the sun hit it. The check engine light and the tire pressure light came on. I don’t know how often they service the vehicles but obviously not enough. I rented it from 7-1 for a half marathon I had to be at by 8am. I called them when I got to the parking lot and could safely call at 740am and the guy told me I could bring it back to its original spot and take a different one for the remainder of the trip which time wise was not going to happen. Called again after the race around 11:30 and the woman was saying they could only refund an hour if I were to get it back by 12… I asked to have this issue forwarded to management because while it is one thing for cosmetic issues to be present on a rental it is not good practice to rent out vehicles that are unsafe to drive and could be putting people in danger. As a company it is clear they are putting profits over people. I will not be using zip car again and I would not recommend it to anyone.

During COVID, like I’m assuming other member have, I have utilized my membership more frequently and am surprise that the Zip car company has not put in place a plan to ensure that the cars are disinfected, clean and in better condition. Because of COVID, when reserving a car, I have made sure to sanitize and wipe down the car before entering the vehicle, as an extra precaution. However, I have had to go beyond just sanitizing and wiping down the car because of the deplorable condition the cars are left in by previous user or the lack of regular maintenance of the vehicle. I’m not sure if the lack of care of the cars I have reserved is only in my neighborhood or others in non- minority neighborhoods are experiencing the same conditions. However, I tend to think that the cars in my neighborhood receive less care or of lesser value than in non- minority neighborhoods because I’ve experienced it first hand. Zip needs to do better, especially during these difficult times which threaten the health and well being of the citizens of the USA

Walked to the home location of the car and found it was not there, which all too often a the case. Called and they found me a car and compensated me. I appreciated that effort, but more than anything I want to know the alternative location of the car before I get to the home location and find it’s not there. Then I have to call, which is not always quick or fruitful, as they may not have other cars available. The car was left at a location 15 blocks from the home location. You can’t tell me they couldn’t find a legal parking spot at 1pm that wasn’t closer. Clearly they didn’t want to park the car at the home location or even close, because it was inconvenient to do so. This happens all too often. Zipcar needs to find a system fix for this, since members are not following the rules. But also need to work with local government to ensure private vehicles are not parked in Zipcar locations without consequence. The replacement car had pet hair all over the back seat, but thankfully I didn’t need to use the back seat. The use of the car was smooth and easy once I get in the replacement

I would love to give this app 5 stars i enjoy my ride whenever i use. However, this parking garage just makes it a headache. Its a garage thats blocks off reception so now ur mobile key is as useful as a brick. Meaning if ur not using it to break the windows ur not getting in. This is the second time ive had to sit on hold outside the car for 30 minutes or more to get someone. This last time i waited 40 minutes on hold just for them to drop my call or hang up 5 seconds into him answering. He asked for my name and that was it. Now im on hold again sitting outside the car currently waiting to get in ***Update*** Do not get this app. ii never hot that firat problem resolved so ii ended up canceling my account. About a month ago ii saw a random charge for tolls of about 50 bucks despite the fact that it had been months sense my last rental. I figured it was a delayed charge and let it go. Same thing happened this month. Then im getting emails about owing a balance even tho my last ride was paid in full in the beginning of august. It will keep ripping from whatever account it’s connected to. Im trying to get rid of this app for good and cant

I’ve only been a member with you guys for less than a month and have spent roughly $1200 renting your vehicles! I want to express how much i regret not using a different service than Zipcar! Every time I’ve been in one they have been extremely dirty with debris, smoke odor, and trash ! Not to mention a couple of them have even had service due lights on! One being “transmission error”? You need to come up with some way or incentive to make other Zipcar users return the vehicles clean! I took my little spare time and money that I have YET AGAIN as I have done with each of your cars I’ve rented and made sure to clean up debris, wipe it down with armor all, vacuum them, and cleaned the windows but I’m not going to continue to do so if it’s not enforced or regulated to others! Especially with the HORRIBLE customer service I receive EVERY time I have to call your company. The agents are rude and don’t care nor listen to our comments! I EVEN HAD TO USE PERSONAL MONEY TO GAS UP because the gas card was not in the car!Considering how ungodly expensive your service is to rent a car for a day you’d think that Zipcar would be on top of issues like these but that’s unfortunately not the case. To say the least I am VERY disappointed and honestly don’t know if I will even continue to use this service!

So I wanna start by saying that my first time booking with Zipcar was a 10/10 I’m not gonna lie, but this is where I dropped the rating down to a 1/10. After having a great day running errands and taking care of some responsibilities i then returned the car ON TIME & with a tank FULL OF GAS. I then get an email the next morning stating that my account was immediately terminated. I was confused because I had no reason and they did not state a reason. So I called and surprisingly I didn’t have to wait that long but then when I explained my problem and wanted to know reason behind the termination I get told they couldn’t release an information regarding my account. I find it weird because why approve my application to then terminate my account the next day. Well then I asked them to file a request to support team which they claimed they would and I would get an email within 3-5 business days okay… 3 weeks later still no email. So I called and was told again that they couldn’t release any information regarding MY ACCOUNT, key word MY ACCOUNT. I just don’t understand why they would give me just a hard time giving a reason they I’m sure they didn’t have to terminate my account. For anyone reading this.. I wouldn’t waste my time

Had an extremely poor customer experience. I would advise everyone to double click on what they mean by seamless support with roadside issues and not needing to pay for any problems with the vehicle. So my story is that the car wouldn’t start, battery was dead. I called support to fix this. Took close to 1.5h just to figure out the ETA for the help. All the while, I am just sitting in the car wasting time. I was told that if I left the car for them to figure this out, the car would be towed at my expense + I would be charged abandoning fee even though it’s not my fault that the car isn’t working. So I had to wait for a total of 3 hours in a battery dead car on a weekday counting my fingers again / again. Needless to say it was a disastrous day at work. Their late return policy is another thing to double click on. Although I understand the fees are in place to ensure people are not always late, how about returning some of that back when I return the car early. That seems fair especially when the late fees are in excess of a 100$ for an hour. Might as well make sense to go to a traditional car rental company if you have to go through this kind of support.

Albeit I can log into the main site, verify my account info AND receive follow up emails from my registered email address and oh yes they did accept payment but I am still unable to activate my Zipcard ( which by the way when I received same an activation notice was not noted in the correspondence; I was checking the site as to a pickup question for an upcoming rental when I saw FAQ in re activating your Zipcard. But alas, the activation system stated I was not a registered account holder - As a result Ihad to cancel my proposed rental albeit customer service said it should be ok just to use the app but when pressed agreed not having the card could be an issue especially if my location had no cell service (ie: underground parking garage ) Despite multiple phone calls 6 email exchanges w/ promises we reworking on it I am still unable to activate my Zipcard: note calling customer support for assistance is futile - It’s either I am escalating this to a supervisor and / or “Oh, it usually takes 3-5 days to resolve the issue - I received emails stating issue was resolved ( it wasn’t) which unfortunately presumably has started a new 3-5 day resolution cycle - On a positive note Customer service gave me a $25 credit but it doesn’t do any good if I can’t rent a car

Late start- bc Gas card was not working even at cashier -she said declined. So late start bc on the phone waiting for customer service - phone call ended at 10:40pm , even though I arrived at gas station at 10:10 it was suppose to be a 10am start of trip originally picking up car at 10:03am..... frustrated. Ended up using my own money $25. I would like a refund. Car would not unlock for 30 minutes - in middle of my trip,even through app sensor was dis functional :(((( and customer service rep tried to unlock it for me through guided steps over phone. I still need a refund for last week’s last minute cancellation from zip car, at the start of my scheduled time an email was sent that it was unavailable @ the exact start time of my trip , when I attempted to pick up the reserved car. Customer service says my refund will happen at the 3-5 business day mark. But I don’t see any hard copy validation for my credit $35 from last weeks cancellation, so I am guessing it should apply for today’s trip, but the zip car app should say that??? It doesn’t indicate my credit for let week, nor my refund for today’s trouble with the non working gas card??? Please confirm my concerns and refunds.

Zipcar used to be amazing but the service has really declined. In the last several months, I’ve had multiple issues. I got locked out of my zipcar during the middle of my reservation and they were unable to open or start the car remotely as the car went offline. The next time, the car I reserved was not at its location, the second one I went to was there but not functional, so I was well into my reservation by the time I got to the third car that day. On that one the scanner was hanging off the window so I could not scan in. The cars have also been noticeably dirtier than they used to be. Clearly, there was no extra cleaning due to covid- it seemed even basic cleaning wasn’t happening. I started bringing Lysol wipes with me to clean the car myself. Trying to reach a person in customer service is also a problem. It often takes 10-15 minutes on hold before you get to speak to someone. Overall, using zipcar used to be a great experience. Now, you never know what kind of experience it will be. I can’t trust that the car I have reserved will be ready & functionally. So if I have an time sensitive errand, I now go to find the car early to at least make sure it’s there. It’s really disappointing.

Here is a typical rental with zipcar these days (this happened today and it’s not the first time): They switched the car on me 3 times before my reservation even started. Each time the car they provided was farther away from my home. The app gave me the third car location and provided the wrong address. I spent 30 minutes trying to find it only to be told it wasn’t where it was supposed to be. The zipcar system said it was in a garage, the garage said it was there. Then I spent 30 minutes having one of your representatives find me a new car. She found me one, I got in an Uber to get to it and and then called me and told me it actually wasn’t available. She found me another one that was a 25 minute ride away. I had to take my third uber of the day. Then I arrived at that location only to find my zip card would not unlock the car. She couldn’t unlock it from her end. That’s when I called one last time only to be told there was nothing they could do about it and there were no other options. I had to take an Uber to my original destination, it ended up being a $185 round trip. Zipcar says they’ll reimburse me but only for the cost of the difference of the original trip. Unbelievable.

Several times have I made my reservation and paid only to show up and find out my reservation can’t be fulfilled. You call the "24/7" line and wait 10-15mins only to be told, and i quote; "Oh, that Zipcar was reported with having a dead battery." Or “We don’t know where the car is.” Why advertise a car as being available knowing very well the car battery is dead or that the company itself doesn’t know WHERE THE CAR IS? Can’t this company text/email/call me if there is a problem with a service I’m paying for? They don’t bother taking out the cars from the available list to an unavailable roster, they make YOU find out. After all that, I can’t get a simple call Informing me and other customers that my reservation for that day can’t be fulfilled? This service doesn’t award it’s costumers, no “loyalty points” and you are expected to fill the gas(free), make sure car is clean for next driver, and don’t forget you are driving a car with an advertising sticker, not really “cool” to the young crowd. This service is suppose to be reliable, fast and cheap but it’s everything but....they just say they are sorry, refund your money and hang up, you waste your time, can’t make your appointments and are stuck trying to figure out what to do next.

Nothing is working properly. From the day I signed up to the time I took my first trip. Signup took days and multiple phone calls. First reservation was crippled by, what I assume to be, a server outage where nothing was working, no website, no app. Then comes the first trip. I was trying to find my car, but trying to unlock/honk it kept saying try again after 5:30pm which was my reservation start time. At the time it was 5:32. The app kept saying try again after 5:30. This is not a service launched last month. You guys are running this for years and it has come to this?? Then the car showed up, apparently the other person was a bit late. But then she was unable to end her trip. She said she is getting an error in the app. Anyways, then I start my trip late and I have no idea if my time is adjusted to the 15min late start. I come back on time, try to end my trip, the app keeps showing an error and a spinning indicator at the same time. Is it working on it or has it failed? No idea. I lock with my card and leave the car. The app still the same in 3-4 tries. I take photos to document my timely arrival, thinking that the erratic app can put me in trouble.

I rented a car for 3 days. It broke down within an hour drive. They got it towed and send us back to the city on an uber to pick up a different car, but there was not an available car. I call back and finally got a 3rd car and drive to my destiny upstate. Next morning I receive a text saying that the car has to be delivered that same morning when I requested it for 3 days. Now I’m upstate with a car that should be in the city. That was a Saturday spent calling back and forth until finally we got the car extended to how we initially intended. This only lasted 1hr when a second towing service came and took the car from us, for the second time, even tho it was activated on my Zipcar account legally and I could access the car with my card, but the fleet coordinator from Zipcar Malitza Veloz had already ordered to tow it. Now I’m stucked upstate on a Sunday in COVID times with no way back home. NONE of this was a mistake from us and this company couldn’t care less.

Today marks the third time that I’ve needed to use Zipcar for a specific purpose (in this case an appointment) and the app locked me out of the vehicle in the middle of my allotted time. I called, I was on hold for 20-some-odd minutes, I missed my appointment. The customer service representative told me that I could only receive one hour of the amount I paid back but that she would make it two. The app is still not recognizing that I had a scheduled rental. I couldn’t even use the app FOR HOURS to lock and unlock the vehicle. I had to drop it off without closing out my time on the app. Again, if this were the first time I’d likely be more lenient, but I’ve had this experience time and time again with the app. To their credit, the customer service reps are friendly, but I don’t want to spend 20 minutes waiting to have someone in Southeast Asia unlock the vehicle I’ve rented during the time I’m supposed to be able to be driving the vehicle. The app glitches have been sold to me every single time as a fluke, but clearly there’s something wrong here. I’m living careless with my partner. This seemed like a good resource for us. Now we’re feeling cheated of our time and money. Find another car share option in your area.

I have been a Zipcar user for a while now. Essentially, I love the idea of Zipcar and it works for someone like me, young, always traveling, attending different schools, currently working on my doctorate degree, and I’m always in a big city where having a car is too expensive. I’ve just moved to Miami from Chicago. In Chicago Zipcars are everywhere, you will always get one. They whole system seems to run smoothly. Here in Miami, I have had multiple issues. There aren’t enough cars in the area. The cars are really dirty, I have to wipe them down each time and carpets are filled with crumbs and debris. Gas cards are always missing from the cars. Some of the Zipcars aren’t parked in the correct spot so you have to search for them. They experience here just isn’t as fun. I used to get excited about picking out which car I wanted for the day and going shopping, now it’s not so much a joy and I’m actually considering getting and inexpensive car, because I need the reliability of a car more than anything. I hope that as time goes on it gets better but as of right now, Zipcar isn’t my favorite mode of transportation.

Where do I begin, well my first ever time booking a vehicle with zip car since hearing good things about them. That went completely out the window when the first car I went to pick up was not at its home location because another renter did not return the vehicle. From there they were able to put my into another vehicle ( which I used my funds to transport to another vehicle in a Lyft). From that vehicle there was also another issue ! This car was missing a key and was unable to continue on a trip. Desperate to get to my chemo appointment, I took the associate recommendation to try another vehicle in the area. I got the vehicle and parked it and it never started back up again ! Malfunction warning and the car completely shut off! I called customer service over and over again and requested managers assistance which was no help at ALL! They told me I would not be eligible for my own money back because the car was still on a trip and I can only get partial if that’s possible me after the escalated it ! This has been a horrible horrible experience and I will not recommend anyone ever ever, book with this complaint for anything at all.

I have driven with Zipcar for years at this point. Both in Ann Arbor, MI and in Tallahassee, FL were my experiences just as terrible. When calling customer service, they will only restate policies to you instead of actually solving your issues. In particular, Caesar, the head of customer service, has no one above him to help you solve your issue. So, he simply just keeps repeating himself to you. His inferiors, such as Xavier, barely understand how the company works, misread information to you, and will try to overcharge you. Additionally, their gas cards almost NEVER work or get stolen. You must then pay for the gas and Zipcar will "reimburse" you. Except, they might not. And even so, they'll charge you if you return the car with low gas, EVEN IF YOU REPORT THE CARD MISSING DAYS PRIOR and THEYVE STILL NOT REPLACED IT! I highly recommend using another app. The customer accusatory tone of the "face" of this companies customer service is demeaning and is only there for the company to try to charge you more money. I hope Zipcar improves its customer service and gas card issues. If not, I will be leaving the company soon. It's not worth your peace of mind, time, money, patience, or respect (as they certainly won't respect you). Shame. :/

I’ve had zipcar since they started and the service was pretty good a lot of cars available and no issues until this year 2020, every time I rent a car there’s always an issue Such as not being to enter the car with a zip card which then they will lie and say the car has battery issues this has happened to me about 5+ times, also Cars not being at the location they said they were at or another member doesn’t return the car on time, I’ve been booking cars in advance I booked a car for July 23 at the beginning of July and now they changed my reservation and I have to go to another pickup location which is not convenient for me now I have to pay ubers instead of walking also they did NOT contact me and tell me that my reservation will be changed. Also their customer service is horrible they really don’t care about the situation you’re in all they do is offer driving credit instead and then you have a wasted day that’s was planned, when you call you will wait hours just to speak to someone and a majority of the time the call will fail right when they answer! Horrible I’m canceling my zipcar membership after I use the driving credit.

Love Zipcar! If you are thinking about getting it, do it! I save a fortune not owning a car and still go and do all the things I want with nice new cars that magically get bigger or smaller when I need them to! 🪄 😉 A few weird app complaints. I get notifications on my phone, recently about a storm and in the past about weekend discounts. But when I tap the notification to read more, it opens the app to the regular reservation screen. There is no list of notifications in the app, so I can’t read about the storm warning or get the discount the notification teased me with! 😠 Another app issue is that when the app first opens and I tap on one of the search options to edit the search by date or time or location, it just does a search for now, nearby. I rarely need a car right now, so I always have to click again to edit the search. So annoying. I still love zip car but wish they would fix these app issues!

I love the idea of Zipcar and have been a member for several years. However the customer service and overall experience has declined significantly. I was told after a rental that the car I drove had damage and I would be charged for it, even though it was not during the documented time of my rental. I received this information in a random email and called customer service. The person I spoke to refused multiple times to tell me what the damage was, when it was incurred, or what the next steps were. They just told me they couldn’t share the information but “it would be taken care of.” At that point I thought I had been scammed so I monitored my accounts but never saw or heard anything come of it. I’ve recently tried to cancel my account on multiple occasions and have gotten numerous error notices pop up on their website and in the app. It keeps saying the site is down, or I have to finish my account, even though I’ve rented with them multiple times. Other times it will let me log in and take me to my account page, but not my membership page. As I said I’m all for carshare services but won’t be using Zipcar anymore.

I downloaded zipcar a few months ago and at the beginning it was aggravating because there wasn’t many cars around my location and when you rented a car you has to park it back where you founded it, which it’s inconvenient but I try to understand. My big issue started when I accidentally forgot an item inside one of the cars that I rented and I’ve been trying to schedule an appointment so I could go check the car for my lost item but they sent me an email saying that Zipcar is no responsible for lost items, I understand, it was my fault, I let it go. But me and my boyfriend bought a car a few days ago so we no longer need the app, I’ve been calling and calling and they never call back nor pick up the phone. They’ve been charging me for the membership but I do not need it anymore. The only way you can cancel a membership is by calling, but they never pick up the phone, not even when I was calling about my missing item. I’ve tried all means possible, Direct message on Instagram, commenting. Nothing. I NEED YOU GUYS TO STOP CHARGING ME FOR THIS MEMBERSHIP THAT I DO NOT NEED ANYMORE, PICK UP THE PHONE AND HAVE BETTER COSTUMER SERVICE. CANCEL MY MEMBERSHIP!!!! CLOSE MY ACCOUNT!!! PLEASE.

Have had multiple issues with rentals - car not starting, dirty cars, not parked where they’re supposed to be, then not being able to find the car where I parked it despite having parked it exactly where I found it, double-charges to my debit card.....They literally have no way to contact customer service online. The links in their emails to customer service are all broken. The only email address online has a message warning that if your email isn’t about applications it won’t be reviewed. They send out email surveys asking how your ride was but they aren’t actually interested in knowing about or fixing customers’ problems. I called customer service multiple times and all they were able to do is tell me they’d have someone email or call me back. No one ever did. I ended up having to dispute an erroneous charge with my bank. Still no reply despite multiple bad reviews on their surveys that apparently fall into a black hole once completed. I hope a customer service oriented car rental company buys them out and fixes this company because unfortunately, Zipcar owns the market for this type of service where I live.

This was a great company years ago. I’m assuming it was sold off to some greedy bank that has turned this service into a money trap for the poor customers that rely on its convent locations and auto variety. God forbid you need support they must get paid based on how many fees they can add on to your rental because the responsibility is always with the customer even when the car needs service or the app won’t work to unlock your car. Somehow they find a way to charge you extra and thank you for using their service. Even when you failed to use the service or get support. It once took them 2 weeks to retrieve a car that had a bad battery. I’m not sure they even picked it up it might have gotten towed. Turo has cars by owners so they actually care about your experience and the cars that they rent to you. They won’t pass on their problems to you like Zipcar started doing some years ago. So many great ideas come from MIT and then the founders sell out as anyone would. Unfortunately new management grows tired of cool new idea and tries to squeeze every penny from existing customer base. Time and time again.

We discovered that the car we reserved had a flat tire so we returned it to the curb. My boyfriend called customer service. They asked to speak to me but I wasn’t there. My boyfriend explained that it was more than 100F in Portland and I’m a breast cancer patient. We really needed to get this resolved. Customer service rep said it was no problem, they’d refund after they talked to me and that he’d put a note on the file. Meanwhile, we went to look at another nearby car that was showing on the app. We didn’t want to reserve it until we saw and I’m glad we didn’t. It was filthy, inside and out. We got an Uber instead. When we returned from Portland, I called customer service and they said they’d have to investigate before giving me my $111 refund! They said it would be at least 5 days before they could get back to me. This was an issue with their car and they should refund immediately. That’s what any company with customer care and common sense would do. Nope. Haven’t heard back. Going to tell my credit card company to dispute the charge. This was our very first time reserving a Zipcar and it will definitely be our last.

After close to 1000 app downloads I can confidently say Zipcar is the biggest scam in the rideshare space. As a matter of fact Zipcar has been the worst app download decision I have ever made. I can’t recall ever writing a review for any app/service but the guys at zipcar are out for every penny they can get off your credit/debit card with their frivolous charges (or fines as they like to call it) I rented a car for 3hrs @ $49 but they charged me an extra $59 for ending the trip 11 mins late…11 figgin’ minutes!!! NO OTHER RENTAL SERVICE DOES THAT! It’s so wrong and the sour experience has cost me way more than the foolish convenience I subscribed for. $59 for 11 mins is pretty steep especially for a first time r user of your service with a life time customer potential. Please you are better off renting from the regular rental companies or Turo…even Uber & lift will serve your purpose better. Zipcar is a rip-off service sugarcoated as a convenient rideshare company. They don’t even care when subscribers ask to cancel. For as long as I live I will make sure everyone I know never use their service. Too bad there’s no option for 0 stars

I just went to the app to price out what a few hours of rental would be on Sunday. The price on the main page with multiple cars and locations was different than when I clicked on the specific car. I thought...well, I’m just looking for the total anyway so I can compare it to the cost of renting from Enterprise for the whole day. There was no total, but the “confirm reservation” button at the bottom. I thought there’s no way they’d actually confirm it without showing me a total and figured it had to be on the next screen. So I clicked it...and it booked the car WITHOUT SHOWING ME A TOTAL FIRST!! Come on zipcar, that’s ridiculous. Especially when you showed me two conflicting hourly prices for the same car on different pages. I want to see a total with taxes and everything BEFORE I decide to confirm reservation. The app is good and easy to use...but I gave it 3 stars cuz this is a bad mistake...and common sense says to show the total, people want to know.

My daughter used this service for a trip to a national park and the car lost connection and stopped working in the mountains in the middle of nowhere. She called ZipCar looking for assistance, and they told her they could not find roadside assistance and that she was on her own. They left her and her friend stranded in the mountains at night by themselves. They lied about not being able to find roadside assistance because the park ranger that found my daughter was able to call a tow that she paid for out of pocket and is still waiting on reimbursement. after the tow, they left her stranded again until 3am in a random parking lot in a strange town locked out of the car. They started ignoring my daughter’s calls. My wife and I were calling from midnight to 7am across the country begging for them to help her. Customer service kept promising us they would call my daughter and they never did. This was a parents worst nightmare and we were deathly afraid for my daughters safety. I don’t recommend using this service that does not care about its customers safety and would willingly leave its customers stranded and alone at night

The car was locked on me while in the gas station, it was 1230 at night when it locked it had my purse and all my belongings in it luckily had my phone but that didn’t matter it said I was not in a open trip and could not find the car I had just been locked out of. I tried calling, texting, emailing everything that I could think of doing I tried to no avail so I had to pay a tow truck to come unlock the car after getting in it would not start being because I was locked out, now I was locked out with nothing not even a jacket or my pepper spray or anything so I called Uber and went home what else should I have done right? Wrong when I returned in the morning the car was no longer there and I am now account suspended because I didn’t return the car to the correct drop off location and I have got not one person that understands what that was like to all of a sudden be locked out and then punished for it, for someone who spends a good deal of money with this car service I am extremely disappointed that this is how I’m being looked at. U got this one so so wrong!!

I’ve been a Zipcar member since January 2008. You can rent cars located in or near your neighborhood by the hour. You reserve cars at the website by day, date, and time, based on availability. I’ve made reservations just minutes in advance, and currently also have reservations as far ahead as several months. The only limit is if and when someone else has booked the car you want, but you usually have alternative cars available nearby. Even if you own a car, it makes sense to be a member and have a Zipcard in your wallet, for when your car is in the shop or you’re traveling to other cities and want the convenience of a car when you get there. The billing is similar to Lyft or Uber, and the app works as well as the website and is very intuitive and instantaneous. It’s a great option, one I use at least a couple times a week, and I haven’t owned a car since 1992.

Of the 4 times I’ve booked a car, I’ve only been able to use it twice. The first time, the previous reservation went late and I got no notification about it and no credit to compensate for my ruined trip. The second time, I at least got a notification the day before, letting me know the car needed service. Again my plans were ruined, as the only cars available after my reservation was cancelled were very expensive. A company that treats customer well might have credited me for the difference on rental price so that I could be on my way, but not Zipcar. I finally decided to just buy a car because the service is so unreliable, and I’ve been trying to cancel my membership for 3 days. You can’t do it online (I tried submitting a help desk ticket 2 days ago and they promise they’ll cancel your account within 24 hours, evidently a lie). I’ve spent hours on hold over the course of 3 attempts to call, and am now suspicious that there are literally no representatives who answer phones. Will be looking into places to report these abusive, anti-consumer business practices. Do yourself a favor and stay away from Zipcar.

I love zip car but the last three times my experiences have been the worse. I booked a card a few weeks ago and when I went to pick up the car the car wasn’t available due to a malfunction. I wish someone would reach out to us in an event like this. I wasted my time and arrived late at the event I was going to. Yesterday I booked a car for the whole day, when I arrived at the pick up location the vehicle wasn’t available yet again due to an engine malfunction. This time there weren’t any vehicles available in any of the locations near me so I had to cancel my plans. Today, I booked another car for a few hours and again when I arrived at the pick up location the car wasn’t even there. They changed my car to a different one at the same location and when I get the second car the gas card is missing. I had to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed for gas. I’m so fed up and all they can do is give me a $30 credit. This is so not fair that this happened 3 times in a row. The least you can do is call us if we happen to book a car who all of a sudden isn’t available for whatever reason!

I used app off and on over a 5 or 6 month period a few times I had to pay some over charges due to one thing or another but this last time I was 2 min late returning to the location (after attempting to extend it and the system would not allow) it was a $68 late fee when it was $13 per hour for the car , I spoke with one customer service person a few days later who said she was more then happy to take care of it and wave the fee and a week later I went to rent a car but again the fee was still there attempted to contact someone 3 days in a row and sent multiple emails that finally received a response 2 weeks later and basically I’m outta luck and the required payment. Didn’t matter that I was told differently by the first person there is no grace period on the check in. Plus the fact that it took me a month to finally make contact with a person and 2.5 weeks for anyone to return my email I’m over it and would rather walk then deal with this.

I was having trouble logging into their crappy website and so I called before I paid their $25 non refundable “application fee” as my father is dying and I need a car ASAP. I explained this and was told a member representative would call me ASAP. I was told I could rent a car today and I was the “highest priority”. No one called. In the meantime I was able to login. I paid the $25 application fee and only after I paid was I told that it would be 3-5 days before I could rent. I immediately called again. I was told there was nothing they would do. I offered to pay to overnight the stupid membership card they require and was told no. I asked for my account to be canceled and my money returned. I was told neither would be done. My account is in limbo, they haven’t done anything on it at all and yet refused to return my money. That’s theft. Obviously with my father dying and wasting hours with their terrible interface I was upset. Their horrible customer service manager decided to lecture me on cursing and provide me with warnings instead of helping me. Please use Turo, GetAround or any of the other companies out there. Zipcar is the absolute worst.

To begin, when I was applying, they pulled the wrong driving record and denied my request. I have had no accidents or tickets since getting my license, yet was denied for a bad driving record. I fought with them on it for a few weeks, and finally got it straightened out because I don’t have any other options for rentals being under 21. The FIRST TIME I reserved a car, they gave me access to the wrong vehicle, and only informed me because I made it an hour down the road and the car wouldn’t start again. They then told me the car I had picked up was reserved for someone else later that day, so I had to return it. To do this, they moved my reservation from my original vehicle to this one. Drive an hour back, just to find out they had rented my first vehicle to someone else. They then tried to charge me for a second reservation for a truck (which I have never driven) 5 miles down the road. I told them to save it, I’ll just be taking the train next time. Customer service is abysmal, and I seriously dissuade anyone from using this service if they don’t want to deal with Comcast level bulls**t.

Zipcar has been messing around with its model for the last year to maximize profits. I live in a major city and understand that this is a typical thing for a company to do, but imagine my surprise when I logged in today to realize that the price of every single car in my area has gone up by over $3 for an hourly rate within the past month. This means you are paying an extra $10 than you would have a month ago to rent a car for 3 hours. $20+ for day time rentals. The system used to be a reasonable and ecofriendly alternative to convenient travel, but is now honestly more foolish to invest in rather than just leasing a car or taking an Uber. It’s MORE expensive than just renting a car from a local car rental service. Let that sink in. Something that uses ten times less staff, doesn’t have to pay rent for a physical location, etc, is MORE expensive for HALF the expenses. Zipcar when it was affordable was great!! I’d reccommend it to anyone! Zipcar now is overpriced and mediocre, and unreasonable to pay for a car on top of your already high monthly subscription fee. Bye Zipcar.