Zipcar

NYCWarlock

Joined 3 years ago

I have been using Zipcar through an arrangement with my college for awhile now. I had found it generally convenient and cost-effective.

Recently, I failed to read a parking sign in Brooklyn and was issued a parking ticket. I immediately checked with Zipcar customer support, and followed their instructions. I paid the ticket immediately, and secured a receipt from the city payment service.

A couple weeks later, I had a note from "Chad" in the main Zipcar office in Boston or thereabouts. Chad claimed I hadn't paid the ticket, that Zipcar was going to have a new ticket issued and was going to charge me $20 for the inconvenience they suffered.

I called customer service, neither the first responding agent, nor his supervisor, Jessica, was able to resolve this.

I called Zipcar headquarters. Chad and his boss Eric (there seems to be a shortage of surnames at Zipcar...) were still out to lunch or something well into the afternoon.

I called the Zipcar New York City office. No one was home.

I sent along the NYCServ receipt for the ticket, with a hard-copy cover letter, asking for hardcopy acknowledgment; with GenY types, a paper trail seems a good idea. The Zipcar stuff seem to think that is shocking. They are also shocked to discover I have a last name and I expect a degree of formal language when being addressed by people whose services I patronize.

Zipcar is so upset, they cancelled my account. This is a minor inconvenience for me, and a loss of at least $120 every four to six weeks for them.

Bottom-line: By all means deal with Zipcar if you need short-range wheels from time to time an an urban environment. But expect surly customer support. Expect problems with their systems. Expect a degree of arrogance when you catch them out being stupid.

Doesn't Recommend

sf2626

Joined 2 years ago

Zip away. It is probably cheaper to rent a car from a regular chain on priceline. The hourly fees are outrageous. You return a car 10 minutes late due to unforeseen traffic and you get hit with a 70 dollar late charge. I rather walk.

Recommends

JMQ

Joined 5 years ago

Great idea. Zipcar is such a great idea I wish I had thought of it. If you live in the city it's much better than owning your own car. Nice selection of vehicles as well. Educate yourself about the rates and fine print. I have no issues with their customer service because I don't use it. Life is too short to waste your time complaining.

Doesn't Recommend

boston71

Joined 5 years ago

Stay Away and Beware. Beware of this company. They try to charge misc. fees what are in very fine print. If you have issues regarding charges, to get someone to talk about the issue is almost impossible! Not very customer service oriented.

Recommends

westiedog

Joined 6 years ago

Great idea for the occasional car user.. I used Zip Car for a couple of years befor purchasing my own car. It was always very easy. Between the garges in the neighberhood there was always a good selection. It is fun driving lots of different cars.

The cars were not always clean, but, they tended to be cleaner than National Rent a Car.

Zip Car for day long rentals is not always a bargain. The ease of use, new cars and FREE GAS!!! makes it always a good choice.

Doesn't Recommend

amaxena

Joined 6 years ago

Leaves You Stranded. I do not recommend Zip Car. Why? Because they do not have good customer relationship procedures and leave customers like me stranded at the very last minute with no apologies despite the fact it was their fault. PLUS, even if you cancel your membership due to this situation, they wont refund your $25 application fee. Would you trust such a company?

Our story: We made a reservation weeks in advance for a Volvo for Saturday, August 4th for noon. On Saturday, we went to the parking garage to pick up our rental car and....

GUESS WHAT?????

It was not there. So my boyfriend calls Zip Car to remedy this situation and ask if we can use another Zip Car that was parked there as well. The minutes were ticking away... I am getting nervous because we need to get to the place and we have no car yet. We were on permahold for a while until my bf finally speaks to a rep. who said that the car was given to someone else 3 hours ago and she went to Albany but if we waited another 3 hours, we can have that car then.

Hello? We all know that driving to Albany from New Jersey will take more than 3 hours one way so it was highly improbable that our rental car will arrive within 3 hours. What makes the rep think the car will be there on time?

So my bf asked if we can have the available Zip Car we were standing next to. She refused stating that we did not make a reservation to that particular car and someone made reservations to that car later that evening. Hello? Our reserved car was given to someone else and no respect for our reservation. No apologies. No accomodation. No rain check. Nothing.

My bf and I decided we can not trust Zip Car for our future reservations, which were many. This was just our first experience and our last.

Would you trust a company like this?

Imagine, you got an important event to attend and the car you were renting was given to someone else and the company did not even care to offer you additional options due to their mishap!

Recommends

Contributor

Joined 10 years ago

Editorial Review. This self-service car rental company allows customers to pick up cars at any time of day and includes all gas and insurance.