Zipcar Reviews

The car that I reserved had no fuel in the car- in fact, the gas light went on after I drove it for 2 avenue blocks. I submitted a photo of the low fuel and had to re-route my trip to get to a gas station. In the meantime, I called customer service to make sure that I reported the severity of the issue - I waited 20 minutes before a customer service rep got on the phone. He didn't speak clearly and his connection was delayed and extremely lagged. After spending the first 45-minutes of my car reservation getting to a gas station instead of getting right on the highway, I asked for a reasonable credit for the time that I spent to fuel the car that should have had at least 1/4 tank. And there was no gas card in the car either.

The customer service rep offered me $5 and told me that was the only thing he could offer; he said it would be the equivalent of 15-minutes. That was not only offensive but it did not resolve the fact that I now needed to pay for more time because of my inconvenience. And you can't even reserve a car for 15-minutes so why would you offer that as compensation for the 45-minutes that I spent fueling the car?

I have been an extremely loyal member since the day Zipcar launched and I have been one of their biggest advocates. Sadly, I can no longer support a company that has fallen into such disarray, with no focus on the customer experience when all other companies are in relentless pursuit of it. They don't deserve the Zipcar brand and they don't deserve to serve the community that the founding brand built.

I hadn’t logged into nor used my ZipCar account for several years. I recently moved back to the U.S. and needed to use it. I discovered my account had been disabled so I reached out to their support team (it took them several weeks to respond) they informed me of an outstanding balance which I logged in to pay but the date didn’t make since (it read 2021) at which time I had been living abroad. Long story short my account balance was cleared (as it had not adequately been explained) but THEN they disabled my account fully (unable to log in) I reached out to support once more and after a few back and forths, Rawson stated I could apply for a new account then he completely reneged when he realised the system would not allow me to and that the old account would need reinstatement. He said he would contact the appropriate department for reinstatement as a goodwill gesture. THEN: He came back with the following lame response: “Thank you for your patience. After an extensive review, we will not be able to approve the reopening of your account due to billing concerns. The decision is final and cannot be reversed. We understand this is disappointing and apologize for the miscommunications that have occurred.” They are penalising me for an old $23 bill. It’s disgraceful. I’m certain these reviews will cost them much more.

This is AFTER he told me he would get my account back up and running again. I will be leaving reviews everywhere the internet allows. I might even organise a boycott if I find the time this summer.

We had an awful experience using Zipcar.
It started with no fuel car being present in the vehicle.

Later during our trip, I got logged out of the application that enables you to open the car. This happened in the middle of a national park without internet to log in.

The worst, however, was the day after; our phones could no longer connect to the car to open it.
Calling the support team didn't help, and since we had an international flight to catch, we had to take a 4h taxi drive to the airport.
After countless emails to the support team, Zipcar isn't willing to provide fair compensation for the incredibly expensive taxi journey.

I would leave 0 stars if I could.
This was my first time using Zipcar and will definitely be my last. First, I was told before I even started my trip that 200 km's (per trip) were included in the membership price but a day after my trip ended, they charged me "overage miles" for the entire trip and did not deduct the 200 km's.
The car was also missing a fuel card. When I called to let them know, they said I would be reimbursed as soon as I submitted the receipts. I sent my receipts that same day and had to keep calling to get them to finally reimburse me.

I still haven't been reimbursed for the overage miles and have had no updates from the support team.

My advice would be to use at your own risk! I would recommend using a different company who is more transparent about their fees and charges. There are plenty of other carshare options that seem more reputable than Zipcar

I called the company's number several times and spoke to Representatives and they mentioned they will get back to me as I wanted to know why I was not eligible when I met all the requirements listed on their website. I waited and just out of curiosity after 3 months I tried again and they said they could not give me the reason at all. It is a waste of time and money stolen as you have to give $26.66 whether or not you are eligible -- but if you are not --- you should get at least a valid reason as to why and not just "Sorry you are not eligible".

Garbage company denied my application with my license still valid made no attempt to contact me to resolve issue. Charged despite service not provide. Go somewhere else.

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...

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...