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August 2018 by Mike L.
I have been a NYC member of Zip Car for 3 years. Thought i would try another city. BIG MISTAKE, the car stunk, tires bald, filthy dirty. Called zipcar with no help with car. It rained and it was hydroplaning. Luckily kept it under control. Of course charged full price. Consider now canceling membership there is alternates. Be warned of vehicles here.
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August 2016 by Tamia H.
Back in the day I used ZipCar regularly until I got a car of my own. Fast forward today and I'm visiting from out of town to visit my family. I figured I'd reopen my ZipCar account and update my license. I go to 429 Allegheny Building and discover that there was a fire in the basement and all of the offices inside had to be closed or relocated. The ZipCar office has no sign telling you were the office was relocated. I called the office number twice just to hear an automated message tell me that the office was open and located at 429 Allegheny Building. I then called the 1-866 number to speak to someone only to be informed that there is no new relocated address for ZipCar Pittsburgh. The customer service rep told me to wait a couple days to get something in the mail to get the new address. I knew she was full of crap because she didn't even ask for my name or address. I thought I'd be cruising around in a ZipCar today, but it looks like I'm going to have to go with just a regular car rental place.
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June 2016 by John S.
Awful Service! Since they outsourced to India and Central America, there service went from average to awful! Non stop mistakes! Stay away!
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August 2015 by Soham G.
Was a member for 7 months This is my experience 1. It's expensive 2. Customer Care sucks 3. Will charge you for things out of the blue. I was charged for car cleaning 30 days after my rental. I was charged 175 dollars after 4 months for some traffic violation. I am a very clean and careful person. It is impossible that I made these mistakes but hard to prove that after such a long duration. 4. I left my shopping bag in the zipcar and left it at there parking location. Returned after 2 hrs and found nothing. Zipcar does not take responsibility. 5. Took the car with 3/4 gas tank filled. Returned with same level. Charged me for gas. 6. Delayed the car return by 20 mins. Charged again. 7. I have rented at least 25 times giving business of not less than 5k excluding the false penalties. I have not received a single promotional offer. Money sucking enterprise. If you have too much money go for it. Become a zipcar member. Also not to mention every month they will charge you 16 dollars irrespective of whether you rent or not. Be informed before becoming a member. Could be useful for people who occasionally want a vehicle for an hour. This is highly unlikely. Anything more than an hour rent from car rentals for whole day and still save money. Zipcar sucks!
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January 2015 by Zoe X.
Be Aware of Extension Policy. I got a text msg half an hour before my reservation is over, asking me whether I want to extend my reservation, I replied yes immediately, and right after my msg was sent I got another msg, saying I could not extend my reservation. Then I called but the customer representative is super rude and mean, insisting that we need to return the car on time even though they gave us the option to extend the reservation. Shouldn't they hold the car unavailable for at least 1min for us to reply the msg ??????!!!
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June 2014 by Jaromir E.
We are ZipCar users for ages, from California to the UK and now in Pittsburgh. We are quite sad that quality of service is rapidly declining. It looks almost that somebody wants to kill the business. Is that because the company is owned by a rent-car business??????? 1. Almost every second ride the tank is less than quarter. We have to use our rent time to do somebody's job! 2. Almost all the cars are dirty inside and even we report that all the time there is no improvements. 3. Some of the cars are need some maintenance as well. Does anybody take care of the cars in Pittsburgh?????
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January 2013 by Travis H.
3 stars, with an itch to give a 4th because it's just so cool. but, there are some issues that should be addressed. I had similar frustrations as Alyson Y. signing up. In the online application, I was given the option to have my card mailed to my home address, or I could pick it up at my local office in D.C. lol. I have no idea where they came up with D.C. being my local office when I live in North Oakland here in Pitt. So, I had it sent to my home address. The emails were confusing, i got one on Friday that said it should be at my house that day. By Tuesday, nothing, so I emailed them. They said it hadn't really been mailed out until Monday (3 days/1 business day after the email said). By Thursday, I still hadn't gotten anything. So, I filled out the online form that most closely matched my situation: requesting a new card. I got an auto-reply saying they would mail it out and charge me a replacement fee. A bit frustrated, I called the support phone number. It's true they don't make it easy to get through without a card id number, but I just kept trying 0 and # until I got a person. I got a guy on the phone, he was very helpful. He didn't understand why they had D.C. as my local office either, but he canceled the replacement card and instructed me that I could walk down to the office (about 1/3 mile from where I work) and get a card there that day. Which I did, and it was smooth sailing after that (so far, knock wood). Just for fun, I took out a car twice that night. They were a bit dirty, but it's been a nasty couple of wintery weeks here so it's understandable. The car's are kinda stripped down, I was surprised neither the Audi nor the Hybrid had automatic lights. But the whole experience is just geeky and fun. I work downtown, and live in Oakland; so for me the zipcar locations couldn't be more ideal unless they put one in my driveway. I think the main thing that makes it such a great value for me is the deal I got through my employer. No application fee, no monthly fee, just the low annual fee. I think I will still be using my old rental car company for longer trips, but with with gas and insurance included? I dunno, it might be cheaper to stick with Zip exclusively. I am going back to Cincinnati this weekend and was happy to see there are Zips there as well. (how did i miss that when i lived there?). So, instead of renting like I usually do, i think it will be greyhound and cincinnati's zipcars for me this time (they are a couple dollars cheaper there too:) That brings up my only real complaint. When I first heard of this concept, I thought the strength would lie in the ability to just pick up a car, go where you want, and drop it off for the next guy. I.e. one-way, short term rentals. Seems so much more green. Since Zipcar requires you to leave the car where you pick it up, that greatly limits the usability of this whole concept. Competitive one way option, Zipcar, and you will corner this market.
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August 2010 by Iliana C.
BEWARE of zipcar. DO NOT use this if you need a car asap. Nowhere did they mention I had to wait a week before being able to reserve a car. It wasn't until after I had to pay the hidden $50 annual membership and $25 application fee that THEN they told me I had to wait a week. I even tried calling the local offices here in Pittsburgh but they all went straight to answering machines. Without so much as a callback. Anyway ... I thought zipcar had a good idea but not anymore. I'd rather use other methods of transport. Thank-you.
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June 2009 by Dave P.
I've been a zipcar member for a year and use it whenever I need a car bigger then what I have to carry larger items. I like that cars are almost always available where I live. The cars are definitely used hard and often have a lot of scratches but they're city cars and not mine. Zipcar is easy to use and the prices are very fair for what you get.
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June 2009 by Colleen R.
In a city that's so dependent on the car, I love that Zipcar even has a presence in Pittsburgh at all. True, the cars seem to be disproportionately located downtown, but I've found the locations to be quite convenient and accessible. In fact, Zipcar has enabled me to forgo renting a car during my stay here, and instead use their service for the occasional long-haul errand. I have my eye on a Mini Cooper that I'm just waiting for an excuse to drive...
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August 2008 by Alyson Y.
I was a pretty big fan of Zipcar a few years ago. It worked well for my needs. To save money, I cancelled my membership for a while. Later, I paid the $75 signup fee and re-registered. To actually use my account, I needed a new card. And it's been a big pain since then. Every time I logged into my account online, Zipcar would pop up with a big message: "Your Zipcard is in the mail!" So I waited. And waited some more. After a couple weeks, I tried emailing Zipcar. No response. Then I tried calling the Pittsburgh office. They told me they'd send out a new card right away. Never received it. I tried calling the main Zipcar number, but it prompted me for my card number and gave no other options, so I couldn't speak with anybody. Then I tried to call the Pittsburgh office a few more times. I always got a machine, left a message, and never got a call back. Tried to email Zipcar again, got no response. I called the Zipcar 800 number again, got around the robot by making up a Zipcard number, and spoke with a person who sent me a new card. I kinda kicked myself for not outwitting the phone robot earlier, but so it goes. I made a reservation and walked a half mile to the Zipcar nearest to my house. My Zipcard wouldn't unlock the car. Called Zipcar, which unlocked the car for me and told me to dig around in the trunk for a spare Zipcard reserved for occasions such as this. No Zipcard in the trunk, so I wouldn't be able to use the car I'd reserved. The rep offered to reserve another car, at a more expensive hourly rate, two miles from where I was standing. I declined. Now I'm waiting on another card in the mail. If the new card doesn't work (assuming I actually receive it), I'm cancelling my membership. Port Authority can be a pain, but at least I know it'll take me where I need to go. Maybe I've just experienced an insane string of bad luck with Zipcar, but I'd say that if you really need reliable transportation and you either haven't received your card, or you have yet to use a new card, don't depend on Zipcar. If you've passed the card hurdles, Zipcar may work out for you.
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July 2008 by Iris S.
Zipcar is horrible. I rented a car, and returned the car in good time (10 minutes earlier than the due time). However, zipcar insisted that I returned 9 minutes late, and charged me 55 dollars of late fee. ($50 dollars late fee + half an hour extra usage fee). I called them, the customer representative insisted that i was late, and only waived me 27 dollars. I have no idea what happened to the rest of the money. But I did return on time. I made sure to look at the time after I parked it and swiped my zipcard! Plus, nowadays, everyone uses cellphone whose time is sync'ed to the wireless carrier. So undoubtedly, I had the correct time. I am going to cancel my zipcar membership.