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.

The below is from a recent trip end report which is just one among many annoyances using this service. I’ve been using this service on and off for almost two years and it’s always been a pain. Often cars are dirty and smelly also. And more than once l've had to refill nearly flat tires. In between personal cars I have to use it for longer errands but as soon as I have another option best believe this will be cancelled. Also you have to pay the $25 application fee anytime you cancel and reactivate and no options for pausing. Total ripoff and scam!!When checking out the car, I had to do the full inspection 4-5 times because the app would not let me submit. Finally I started going through and choosing the boxes that would let me submit. Only certain combinations of checked box and text in box would let me submit. In the end in fact I don’t think I was even able to leave a text comment. Overall, if I didn’t need this service (and I will unsubscribe as soon as I don’t) I wouldn’t be using it at all. The experience itself plus customer service has been awful. I recently had to carry $1000 of damages on a work trip because the support team would not answer my questions or help out at all even though it was a hit and run at the location the zipcar was always parked. Absolute nightmare. If anything I’ll actively tell people NOT to use zipcar unless their life depended on it.

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.