Revel: All-Electric Rides Ratings and Reviews

I was in Miami for workcation, after I checked out of the hotel, my flight was at 10:05pm, so I had a whole day to kill without transportation, luckily I stumbled upon the Revel Scooter a few days before and downloaded the app, I didn’t know the existence of this service, since I live in Los Angeles, so I signed up, you need to upload your drivers license, selfie shot and answer numerous safety and liability questions, you gotta answer correctly on all answers, you keep taking the test until you answer them all correctly, once you pass, you will be forced to watch a how to ride video, I used to ride a 600cc motorcycle, so I don’t need instructions, once you enter your credit card number, your account will be active.

The night before my departure day, I tried to use the app, but it said “System is closed in your area” I didn’t know the service shuts down at 8pm, but if you have a day pass, you get to ride beyond 8pm until your 12hrs are up, there are 2 helmets, hair nets and sanitizing wipes in there, you gotta choose the right scooter, first one I rented only had 37% battery and 2 mile radius, however the second one I rented for the Day Pass had 98% battery and a 20 mile radius, so I got to spend my last day riding around Miami and got to see and experience some of the attractions in the city. Couldn’t have done it without Revel, truly it’s the best shared transportation of today.

I don’t even know how this company profits based on all the discounts they give out. I chatted with Revel drivers before and they told me that they got paid hourly and that the money was way better than Uber and Lyft (who allegedly take away 60% of the fee paid by customers from the drivers). This means that there’s a smaller likelihood that the drivers take detours to get a higher pay. Also, because their wage isn’t completely dependent on how many orders they take but the hours they work, they are less “moody” than usual rideshare drivers (which I totally understand). For example, some Uber drivers are so in a rush (to do more orders) that if you take an extra few minutes to get into the car they get upset and give you a low rating (again, I blame the platform mechanism). With Revel drivers, I don’t worry about that. Because they get treated better by the company, they all seem pretty chill from my experience so far, and everyone’s happy. Also, the cars being electric takes off some guilt on my part for not taking public transport. I hope this lasts.

Seriously. Since you updated it this week, two days in a row I’ve somehow been able to ride a scooter even though it doesn’t show I’m riding it in your app. Then I have to call you guys to shut off the bike when I’ve reached my destination. This is not a “WiFi connectivity” issue. The bottom line is your app now has a new flaw that allows me to rent a bike without you apparently knowing about it. And then I have to call you, wait on hold for customer service, and then ask you to turn off the bike so no one steals it. That’s ridiculous. I’m a longtime customer and use your bikes daily for my commute, but that’s over now.

What’s even more frustrating is your deflection and lack of responsibility. No apology from either customer service representative. Today the woman essentially blamed me for having WiFi issues, which is ridiculous and untrue. Also, you don’t see it as a sound business decision to maybe credit the ride? It’s only $3 but it would’ve at least acknowledged that, as I told the rep today, having to call you to deal with this issue made me late to a meeting.

Honestly, given the weird customer service vibes, the lack of responsibility, and the fact that this has happened twice in a row, I’m reluctant to use your app again. Please retrain your customer-facing staff and please update your app. Thanks.

The app needs improvement. It does not always let you park where you been parking for 6 weeks. Connection errors. They say you have to have you WiFi turned off on your phone but that does not make any difference.
Now the scooters....they are heavily abused. They are put into service with low tire pressures, bent forks, missing mirrors, missing passenger foot pegs, broken or missing phone holders. You can count on the plastics being all rashed up. You can count on brake levers being bent. You can count on the mirrors being adjusted so there is no possible way you can adjust the mirrors to see behind you if you have any mirrors. Control pods spin around on the bars. Often lacking hair nets in the trunk to prevent head lice. I have literally seen the trucks servicing the bikes at night. All they do is swap the batteries out and move on. No tire checks. No function checks. The steering head bearings are crap even on the ones with lower mileage. They really should have tapered roller bearings instead of ball bearings in the steering neck.
In general you are renting a scooter that has been beat all to hell and no maintenance done. If it’s rideable it’s in service. Even if you have to point the bars left or right to go straight.
The good news is it is cheaper than Uber...

I’ve spent probably over $1000 with Revel over the last year. Their system occasionally double charges for rides. In the past I just ignored it but a few months ago I reported the charge on my card for $5.72. Revel revoked my account. I called and talked to a manager who was absolutely incredibly rude. She said my account is revoked until I reverse the charge on my card. I sent my bank statements proving the charge and it got lost in the mix. I called again and received no help. A third time I talked to the manager and she was equally as unpleasant.

For real Revel? I was an early adopter and a frequent rider and you treat me like this. Pathetic. Show your customers some loyalty. If I report a charge it’s because it’s real. Don’t always assume your system is working fine. I was double charged at least 4 other times but chose to ignore it so I didn’t have to deal with the hassle. You need to rethink your policy about account revocations and consider a new support manager. The actual support team was great. The manager was either having a bad day or just terrible at her job.

Please fix this and treat customers better. You have a good thing going. Don’t ruin it with poor hires.

Tl;dr: The service is getting worse (fleet maintenance, availability), and the price is going up. Suggest considering alternatives, because they’re failing in their mission statement to “make it easy to go electric.”

I’ve been a frequent rider since this January, and to keep customers they offer a discount program based on how many rides you take a month. The mopeds themselves are fun to ride when they have all the parts they’re supposed to (about 1/2-2/3 of the time) and fairly accessible. However, the deal gets worse every month. Revel keeps raising their rate, and next month they’re slashing their discount for frequent riders from 20% to 15%. EVs are relatively simple to maintain, and of course they can dodge high gas prices, so this appears to be pure profiteering just in time for the summer. Their fleet is aging; many scooters have over 4000 miles on them, and are increasingly missing essentials like mirrors, functioning phone holders, and even helmets with visors that are fully attached.

The service is passable and convenient enough that I’ve relied on it to get to work. I’ve been happy to fork over hundreds to this company since 2020, but it looks like I’ll be sweating it out on a bike next month. I won’t tolerate further price gouging from a company whose mission statement is to “make it easy to go electric.”

The service itself is fantastic. Being able to grab a scooter when I need has been great. However, I noticed that every time I ended my ride, my receipt would show an extra minute. I started taking note every ride and lo and behold, every ride it was happening. I alerted Revel giving them the benefit of the doubt that there was some issue with the app. But the customer service reps who messaged me back gave me every excuse under the sun(contradicting themselves too) and gaslighting me in the process. Sure, a 50 cent charge isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things. But for people who use the app regularly, that can add up quickly. And the fact that they have been super shady about it instead of perhaps listening to my concerns, they continue to just dig their heels in deeper, probably thinking nobody else will notice. I would have less of an issue if they were the least bit honest. But they have not been. And yes I have been saving and documenting every interaction. I used to be really excited about this company being in my area and I would LOVE to continue to use them. But I don’t appreciate their dishonesty and manipulative CS tactics. So, use this if you want. But just expect those rates to add up.

If you have 20 min to waste waiting for the cars to pick u up, go ahead,
The first time I used the service I had to cancel because I didn’t have time to wait for the driver “estimated time 19 min”, the second time (and last for sure) the waiting time was 17 minutes so I accepted since I just had gotten out of the train station cause the subway wasn’t moving for 20 min already (great trip back home I had). Once I accepted the trip the pick up time was 12:15 am but it just kept increasing, the final pick up time was 12:26. So you make the math.
I had shopping bags, the driver didn’t open the trunk for me he just said “oh god, hope you don’t have any liquids in there” which of course I didn’t have liquids, he was worried about his car getting dirty instead of providing a good service. Btw I’m a 30 year old clean cut and fresh looking guy just to picture it.
Terrible service, the radio was too loud with sports station.

If I could give this app and company 0 stars I would. They have VERY unresponsive and unprofessional customer service and they do not care about their customers. It took almost a week to get in CONTACT with them regarding my phone I left in the car only for them to try and charge me to return it. When I had called my driver that night, he let his next passengers have my phone their whole trip and both the passengers and the driver were unwilling to give any kind of eta of when he could return it.

They advertise as a “cheaper and more eco friendly” ride share service than Uber or Lyft but the cost difference is only by a dollar or two. I would recommend spending the extra few dollars and go with a company you know will care for their customers and has respect for them if any unfortunate situation occurs. I will not be using this service ever again and have informed everyone I know not to as well.

PS: they definitely pay people to give them high ratings and advertise how great the company is……

As many users, I got free credits in December 2022 and the company said they were going to honor them. It was simply a good PR since users with credits ended up being shadowbanned. For about a month I would try to get a car every day and often many times a day. I was told 95% of the time there were no cars/drivers available because of high demand. Even when I was seeing empty cars driving around. To challenge the theory, when a non-credit user would request a ride, guess what... no more high demand. The 2 times I managed to get a car, I had to wait 20 to 30 minutes, so it was almost as if they were trying to discourage me. And I guess it worked because I’m moving on! Oh and I did I mention that $300 worth of credit just magically expired within a couple of weeks? They just decided to set an expiration date to purge the system. Thank you, guys! All this says a lot about the company. Not sure who came up with this scheme/scam but it's going to backfire