ZipcarReviews of zipcar.com

May 2022: had been receiving emails to update card details on account & showing a £6 overdue balance, which was wrong as I knew I didn't owe any money, however a couple of other emails from them showed £6 credit, so I thought 'they must have realised they made a mistake and that might counter the charge when I add the card' so I updated the card via the App, but it still shows £6 as 'overdue' and the £6 plus the £1 nominal charge have been taken from my account - it's impossible to see other account information on the App so went to the website and logged in - I had been switched from a 'basic' plan to 'monthly' as of April 29th with a monthly charge of £6, with another payment due 29th May! Switched it back to 'basic' and written an email to Zipcar asking for a full refund - looking on here and I see someone else has had the same experience, as well as lots of other shockingly bad experiences. I am going to cancel my membership and I recommend other people avoid this company until they sort themselves out.

Cleaning fee: I’ve used it a few times since there’s a location right at where I live. The cars are usually very gross and dirty. This past Sunday I took it out in a rush and didn’t report the car being dirty in the app, because honestly that’s the norm now with Zipcars. However, ZipCar says the driver after me reported the car being dirty, and now they’ve charged me a cleaning fee for an hr of driving. This is ridiculous logic. If every driver reports the previous user without ZipCar ever actually cleaning it, they’ll just keep collecting cleaning fees. Customer service: their “24/7” customer service line is impossible to get through. I’ve tried on a few occasions to get help or ask questions about billing. Even the “24/7 roadside assistance” isn’t working. Ridiculous company and so poorly run. I’ve canceled my membership after 2 months of trying.

I am so frustrated and dissatisfied with Zipcar’s service and reliability. Since March 2022, I have used their service to get to school from Seattle to Bellevue once a week. Of the 6 times I needed mobility, only two worked without problems. Here is my experience: (1) The cars were not in the assigned parking lot two times, even though I booked them one week in advance. (2) Once, I was assigned to a different vehicle than the one I had booked previously without further information on the reasons. Additionally, it was almost out of gas. (3) Zipcar’s credit card did not work to buy gas another time. It took them almost 2 weeks to reimburse me. Furthermore, I needed to contact customer service on Facebook to have someone look at my claim. (4) On another occasion, I could not end the ride because the vehicle wanted to be returned to its assigned location. I parked it in its designated parking lot. (5) I tried numerous times to reach out to customer service via phone in all these weeks. Unfortunately, I never reached someone even after staying 30+ minutes on the line. Via Facebook’s live chat, I was lucky to connect to one of Zipcar’s representatives. They tried to solve my requests quickly. However, I never had the feeling that they understood the challenges I faced with their mobile app and service. I wished they would have been more empathic and holistic in understanding the issues. To me, Zipcar’s service appears to be chaotic and unreliable currently.

I would have given Zipcar a 3/5 until a recent incident. They did not send me an email, physical mail, SMS, or phone call notifying me that they were going to charge me a $70 yearly renewal fee. They subsequently failed to charge my deactivated card on file. I contacted their support team (with web form) on the same day and have not heard back (5 days and counting). Four days after the charge failure, they sent me an automated email that said "If you're not using your membership, please pay this balance and deactivate your membership in your account settings." A customer shouldn't have to pay a yearly fee to close an account. Anyway, I have been on hold waiting to connect with their support team for 10 minutes. I will update this review if I am able to speak with someone or something changes.

Zipcars app advertised a $0.00 extension, so I took it. They now claim it was a glitch and are charging me $50 for it instead. If you can't trust the prices that the app advertises, then what the hell is the app for?

I have been a member for almost the time that Zipcar has existed. The service was great until this last year. First they moved a reservation to a sketchy unlit area. Then a few more minor issues happened but today was the last straw. The car that I had reserved was dirty, had trash in it, a dented fender, exposed wiring, horrible upholstery AND the key didn’t work. Customer service took 15 minutes to get back to me. Offshore folks who clearly don’t care. They offered me a car a mile away even though there were two cars beside me. They said they “couldn’t offer” them to me. The manager wouldn’t find me a car near by but offered me a credit. They never use the credit that I had for referring people. It became clear by looking at the two other cars in the lot that one had a flat. Guessing the third car was messed up and the one in another lot near me was damaged because I walked by it several hours after and the same trash was piled around the passenger wheel. My best guess is that Zipcar is no longer maintaining their cars to any sort of safety standard. Cannot recommend!!

Honestly, I would rate Zipcar zero after their non-existent customer service. I hired a van to collect a bed I had purchased. They cancelled the van on that day. When I called them they had no alternative transport and were unwilling to help me arrange anything else. So I had to spend £80 on a man with a van, as no other rental companies had vehicles last minute. I raised all of this with Zipcar to explain my predicament and eventually got the following response after a bit of back and forth: “Allow us to apologise for any misunderstanding and for the trouble encountered on the 22nd. I was trying to call you on your registered phone number but i could not reach you. Please be advised that as we are a sharing community in our core we rely on the previous members good usage to ensure an uninterrupted service for those to come. From our end we are happy to see that you have the option to use the credit offered for a similar trip another day but we are sorry for the problem that you faced on the day as we understand that there was no close by vehicle to be offered as an alternative. Allow us to assure you that we do not take lightly any change that is not welcomed but on this occasion the vehicle suffered a flat tire while with the previous member. lastly we are sorry to inform you that we can not cover the cost of the alternative transportation that you used. Thank you for your understanding. John The Zipcar Team” Essentially, Zipcars view is that they’re willing to leave someone without transport last minute, without offering any support / compensation for such. They’re supposed to be a reliable source of flexible transport but I won’t be using them again. From their point of view, “you’re on your own kid”.

ZIPCAR IS THE WORST. I remember when it was a great company... But now, service is HORRIFIC, the software DOESN'T WORK, tech support is by email only (no more help by phone), and if you have a technical support issue, nobody gets back to you for WEEKS. The latest example: We had an incident in a car (scraped some paint). I thought I’d be a nice person and report it, even though it was a minor issue. Zipcar’s response: they SUSPENDED our membership – surprise!! -- and said we had to file an incident report. But the incident report system is BROKEN. I was told they’d submit a tech support request. After a week, a tech sent me an email message saying 'we're aware of the issue', but offered no help in submitting a report. Meanwhile, I'm told the incident can take 2 months to resolve -- but only after I submit the report, which I can't submit because the website is broken!! Meanwhile, all my family members have been removed from my account. We're kind of desperate now, and there's no help in sight...