Vélib', app officielle 4+

Started using Velib a week ago. Unfortunately the app rarely displays accurate information regarding the bikes at the stations. There are often many bikes listed at a station, only to find there is only one, and it’s broken or mechanically malfunctioning and can’t be removed from the dock. Sometimes there are 0 bikes listed and yet there are a few. It’s a complete roll of the dice. Today one station supposedly had 12 bikes according to the app. It had one broken one. Has me walking in circles around the city just trying to find a bike, making me later than if I’d just taken the metro.

Docking station didn’t record two of our bikes as having been returned, so we were charged €56 for what they called a 14-hour ride. Meantime, we couldn’t rent bikes and walked 6km back to our AirBnB.

Customer service lists hours but no time zone, so you have to guess when they are open (hint: the hours aren’t Paris time zone). When I finally reached customer service, they restored account services and said we wouldn’t be charged for the supposed 14-h ride, but we were.

Next day, tried to renew the rental so we could ride again. I paid for a 24-h rental but the App said I bought 14 days. There wasn’t even a 14-day option. Nevertheless, we were unable to unlock any bikes and customer service never answered, even though we should have been at least one hour before the end of their stated hours, based on the time that they answered my call the previous day.

I highly recommend you find another option for bicycle rentals.

I want to write a good review, but your app and system make it hard for me to do that. Seems amazing, started out great yesterday. Til my bike wouldn’t dock correctly due to a mechanical issue and my account is locked. It seems to have been fixed now, but now the app won’t let me use it. Says I need to download the latest version, which doesn’t exist. I have the app. I even deleted and re-downloaded it. Same problem. Great concept, awful issues. Can’t dependably rely on the app, at least not today. No good way to report the issue so this is as good as it gets.