I first signed up for a Zipcar membership in Madison, WI, and generally had very positive experiences there. When I moved to Boston and had a look at all these reviews I was kind of dreading the occasions when I would really *need* to rent one. I just figured, well, in a major city things are bound to be more chaotic. But I've rented 3x now with them and I was very happy with all of my experiences. I did have to contact customer service for each rental to deal with some issues (e.g., locked gate for returning the car, previous renter very late), but I got through very quickly to someone, and each of the people I spoke with was super helpful and very friendly. *However*. . . it's important to go into this with sensible expectations and to be prepared to change things up if needed. For my most recent rental, the person who had the car before me was stuck in traffic and eventually we had to switch to another car--not the company's fault, that just happens. For my trouble, I was offered a significant discount, which I appreciated, mostly because it allowed me to take care of a lot more errands by having the car for longer. In terms of renting strategically, you can do the following: (1) try to rent a vehicle that's in a less busy neighborhood, less usage on the car; (2) check out the vehicle in person beforehand to see if it's pretty beat up and more likely to present problems--also to figure out where the car is parked, which is not always easy to figure out; (3) try to choose a vehicle that does not have a lot of rental time before or after to avoid being delayed and to allow you to extend time if needed. To be honest, if I had someplace important to be (wedding, business meeting), I would either not rent a Zipcar, or have a back-up plan. Customer service: it's quite possible you may end up speaking with someone who is not in the U.S., not shocking that they're outsourcing. But the people I spoke with had perfectly good English, and I found them very pleasant. You would think from reading this whole string of reviews that literally everyone who rents a Zipcar has some kind of nightmarish experience. I'm going to guess that anyone who has a terrible experience is much more likely to post here? read more

This company is the worst and has no regard for safety. They rented vehicle to my daughter without a key as all was done digitally via the phone. Hmmm, one can guess what went wrong when they were in an area without reception in the middle of a National Forest...doors would not open. Called company who opened up doors and it would not start due to connection issues. Solution.. they lock two young ladies out of the car and abandon them to find their own way out/home while it was getting dark in the middle of the forest. phone is losing battery due to the length of time on phone and there is nowhere to charge it. Call center is in Africa and they refuse to unlock doors or talk to anyone else. No care for an urgent situation Or safety. This would have been a non-issue if they had a key to the car. read more

Absolute crap company. Spend the money to buy a used car, because the amount of money you will waste dealing with the customer service reps when the company makes massive mistakes repeatedly (about 60% of the overall trips I've taken) will come close to the cost of the car you would have otherwise bought. read more

Worse customer service ever. Do not use!!! We arrived and the car was not there, they sent us walking for 30 minutes read more

DO NOT submit your application without going through the reviews. Their pricing before you submit, you will never see. The $25 application fee is a rip off and you will not get it back. It showed as low as $8 per hour before I signed up, then when I looked to rent my first car, for 6 hours, I could not find anything for under $130 for the 6 hours, and it was the same price if I had kept it 24 hours. I wrote them to cancel my membership and request a refund, they told me, politely F. O. I rented a nice SUV from budget, for 24 hours, on a Saturday, for $45.00. Check around before you sign up for zipcar. read more

They provided me with an unsafe car. Something felt very wrong with the car brakes, and the "maintenance required" light was on. I immediately returned the car and reported the problem. They refused to provide a refund for the trip. read more

Zipcar - Car Rental Near Me

Zipcar has a surprisingly dangerous maintenance policy. One a few occasions, I had rented a car, noting that the vehicles (this happens more frequently than you'd expect) had maintenance issues. What those issues are, who knows... someone should be maintaining them. At one point I had noted quite late in the trip that the tire pressure warning was on, with the pressure being dangerously low. Called them, turns out they don't maintain the cars until someone reports an issue with the car. Meaning the car could be unsafe, and you would have no idea, as they don't maintain them. This maintenance policy assumes that a person who rents the car, which is a car they're driving for the first time and unfamiliar to them, would catch that the car had a maintenance issue. It also assumes that the drivers care enough to take time out of their day to call in and report the issue. If they don't it could continue to get worse until you're left with a pretty dangerous car, with no idea of what's happening. When I called, the agent realized this was a significant problem, and gave me a driving credit of 10 bucks. They also have a policy where, if you return the car late, they charge you 60 bucks (even if its only a minute late). They say this is to prevent drivers from returning the car late. Though, if you go to pick up a car, and there is a maint. issue, or the car is not there, they simply give you a driving credit for the cost of the trip... Wheres my 60 bucks? They pocket the late fee, the person who rented the car is SOL, and zipcar is 60 bucks richer. read more

customer service is extremely bad. I got hung up twice and they did not answer my questions. they disregarded my concerns and double charged me with no real explanations. absolutely horrendous. will not recommend at all read more

ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE COMPANY THAT DOESN'T CARE ABOUT ITS CUSTOMERS. We rented a Zipcar for a weekend trip in Boston, and from the start, it was a disaster. The car was parked a quarter mile away from the listed location, forcing us to waste time searching for it. When we finally found it, it was in disgusting condition--filthy, with stains on every seat and reeking of weed. Completely unacceptable. When we called customer support, they were utterly useless. Not only did they say they couldn't help, but they also hung up on us! We asked for another car in the area--seems like a basic request, right? But of course, they couldn't manage that. We then asked for a discount to at least make up for this nightmare of an experience, and they flat-out refused. This company clearly has zero regard for its customers. Avoid them at all costs! read more

I recently rented a vehicle with ZipCar locally, after receiving many emailed offers of $15 off rentals of 3+hrs, however, the discount was never applied. Reaching out to their Support wasn't useful; they (apparently) are 'unable' to apply a discount after a closed reservation. read more

The car smelled like someone had been smoking in it. I put this info in the inspection report customers complete before the trip. I had to drive with the windows down because it was so smelly. I booked the car the next day as well, and it was still smelly. Again, I drove with the windows down. Again, I added this info to the inspection report. I contacted support after these two trips to share my experience and request a refund. They offered me a 15 minute credit, which is nothing for the two two-hour-long trips I took. They said I should have contacted them the day of the trip to request a different car; however, the other car at that location was not there, and I needed to leave right then for work. I explained this situation, and the customer service rep still was not able to provide more driving credits or a refund. Otherwise, Zipcar is really convenient and my only complaint is that the inspections take a few minutes and clearly are not reviewed/acted upon! read more

Zipcar provides me flexible transportation options with a good price/value equation. The service provided is a necessary component of my ability to operate freely. read more

I'm an avid fan of Boston start-ups and entrepreneurs. Boston really produces the best of the best. But zipcar is one company I'd love to see go the way of Theranos. I booked a zipcar on 9/15 for an important event in Boston, I reside in Florida but am from Boston. Seemed simple enough. While I'm on the plan almost in Boston, they email me that my car has been reassigned to a Crv. I didn't mind, it seemed like an upgrade to me. And an hour later, they cancelled the entire booking because of mechanical issues. Huh? Why happened to the car I originally chose? And why would you assign a car before inspecting it? So there I was at Logan absolutely pissed. And worse yet, stranded. There are no rental cars available at the airport, there's no Uber cars to rent, I check surrounding rental car places, there's not a single car in boston available to rent. I call zipcar and basically got "our bad sorry", and same response via email. This company is an abject failure and disgrace. There's no remedy for my situation other than following through on what I paid you in advance to do. Your irredeemable actions ruined a lot of people's weekend. I want to see this company crushed to nothing. Not new leadership, not vouchers or credits...no, I want this company to cease from existence. I want the leadership of this company to never be at the helm of any company ever. That's exactly what would bring me joy right now. You absolute cluster of an organization. Get bent. I've attached photos, please look at the dates. If Zipcar gets brave enough to gaslight me in response to this post, I'll edit it to include the photos of the response of zipcar not giving the slight crap about the aforementioned issues. Use Turo. Use enterprise. Use Uber rentals. Screw Zipcar into the abyss where it belongs. read more

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Very easy to rent, clean and full of gas, and I could easily walk to it from home. Very new model of Kia, a maker I really like.

the cars are fine but the have the worst website of any modern company and their customer service is even worse.

I was able to make reservations 3 times. The first time I got there the vehicle was late coming back. The driver before me pulled up, " saying sorry". Then the next time I reserved, I had to have that car back at 8 am and grab another. Unfortunately, the windows of two of the vehicles were busted out. So, they couldn't give me another vehicle. I was late to a meeting I had to attend. Then my last two reservations I waited for the vehicle to arrive. The young lady never showed up. She kept there vehicle. When I called after an hour of waiting, the young lady told the operator, "well someone did the same to me" I was so shocked I just gave up and probably won't use the service again. It's totally a hit or miss with the vehicles. read more

Zipcar - Broken windows - Car Rental Near Me

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I was a member in the past. I was very disappointed that they would charge you a fine for returning a car late, but no 'bonus' if the car you booked was late. More recently, my daughter applied through her school. Due to a clerical mistake, they didn't accept her application -- she is not 21 yet, that's why she applied through her school's partnership with Zipcar. When I spoke with a representative, they told me there is no way to escalate, appeal, verify or fix. She will only be able to apply in 3 years when she is 21, they specified 'with a different email'. I think that an issue here is that a service that should be public (transport) is left in the hand of a private entity that has no oversight or control. read more

Overall clean cars and easy to use. I don't have anythimg negative to say about the service. Lastly it's affordable for anyone on a budget.

When I tried signing up multiple reps providing wrong information not clearly understanding my issue. When I finally figure it out my self I was able to create an account and was suppose to be credited with weboffer25 prompt code. That code never took and the account was billed. I reported this to them and they were stating that they would fix it. Then when I rented my first car through them it was horrible. Very unsafe. The car was a CRV and there was bad tire pressure, check engine light with hard start, along with bad windshield wipers that would smear as I struggled to see driving through the snow and icy weather. It continued to snow and this was my time away out of town and I had to deal with crap from Zipcar. I couldn't drop off the car to it's original location because it's obviously unsafe to drive in those conditions. I called roadside and they said they would send someone out. That call was around 10am and I waited at that location all day long. 6pm I finally departed and they called about the vehicle and I told them I departed. They said well you stated it was in a garage so we won't be able to get it anyways. Seriously? I waited all day for that? When I called to update Zipcar customer service the annoying Indian guy cuts me off and says that's protocol to stay with the car. Seriously? I know but that was all day to be told no. They are now billing me saying I owe the $25 when I should not have been charged from the beginning and it was suppose to be handled. The reps are incompetent. I also decided to rent again giving them a second chance as they were suppose to credit me but then on top of that the car I used a second time had a check engine light on and was dirty. For a company that's been around for a few years know they sure are annoyingly ignorant. They make you use desktop version because the site isn't mobile friendly at all. I was exited to use zip car in the beginning but they turned my first experience into a disaster. Did I mention that with that billing issue the account is suspended? I'm very very unhappy. I have given them a bad review as a Yelp Elite member at the Michigan location but it appears I should place one on the headquarters page for Yelp as well. I also reached out to member services by responding to a message and a concern of frustration and the completely ignored me. Website isn't mobile friendly, marketing sucks, customer service sucks. read more

Zipcar - Wipers were bad, needed an oil change, tires low, and check engine light on with hard start. - Car Rental Near Me

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Zipcar continues to get worse. I've been a member for 20 years; at this point they have pretty much abandoned customer service.

Zipcar is great ! recommends through them anytime . Good cars and service and customers service is always available

Don't see this company surviving past 2025. Paid monthly fee and they canceled my membership because their credit card processing company didn't like something on report from 5 years ago. I also see less locations to pick up cars. read more

I love Zipcar.. it has an occasion hiccup here and there like any business but over all easy use of the program, just selection of cars, with gas and mileage included that is hard to beat . read more

Utter incompetence across the board. No one is answering their phones or e-mails, but their message says that "someone will be right with you." Twice I have chosen the option of receiving a callback, but have never been called back. It has been days. The reason I was calling is that after them taking over a month to get my Zipcard to me, I wanted to rent a car. It turned out they had cancelled my membership and I had to re-register. I chose the optional extra $86 charge for a damage fee waver. They charged me that right away, even though my membership still hasn't been approved and I can't rent a car yet! I have tried e-mailing and calling and no one responds. If they are closed because of the pandemic, they should say so, and they also should not charge me any money. They also could obviously have people answering calls and working from home. Pathetic. Now I am trying to cancel my membership, but can't reach anyone to cancel it! This used to be a great company when it was started. I joined for the first time in 2002, and was a member until 2017, when they were so bad I cancelled. I tried to become a member again so I could rent a car and attend the funeral of a friend's child who died, but I didn't get my card until well after the funeral, weeks after it was supposed to arrive. Then they messed up further. I will never make the mistake of having anything to do with this company again. read more

You just lost an 11th year customer after I rented a filthy, disgusting, defective vehicle in San Francisco. I asked to return and get a replacement, was offered a car 1mile walking distance away, and was only given a partial refund after all my trouble (and no trip AND 45 minutes on hold with various reps). This company used to be awesome. It's too expensive and the cars are always filthy and disrepair. I'm writing to my city supervisors and asking them to take away your free street parking spots. What a shame read more

Have been a member for several years, and am glad that Zipcar is still around. I get to have access to a variety of vehicles at a moments notice. This is the new age of car rentals. read more

What I ordered vs what I got: Thought I was getting a Toyota but got a huge, dented mover van Thought my car would be available at 10:30am... how about 1:30pm Thought I was given a 2 hour extension, instead got a late fee Thought I was getting a clean car... got one full of used napkins and fries Also Zipcar guarantees a full tank of gas but mine was on empty with no gas card in sight... Zipcar--it's Tinder for driving: not like its profile pic, dirty & makes you pay extra Also their customer service is outsourced so you won't get a hold of them as a company... read more

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I like having access to cars, buttttt. The penalty for not taking care of cars should be taken seriously, the cars be beat up and dirty. The fleet went down since 2019. Also you need more availability in more zipcodes thru the city of Baltimore. read more

I had been a Zipcar member since 2016 and its customer service had been downhill since. If you just needed 1-2 hours for grocery or convenient pickup, then Zipcar is great. But if you need one whole day or more days reservations, it can be bad. It went bad in my case. "Ohhhh the car is not safe to drive, and there is no other nearby cars, we will give your refund and that's it." ?? Nothing else? Just the refund and get the f off?? First, You are telling me to make car reservations in advance for trip longer than 24 hours but yet you won't give me a proper replacement car and ruined my whole trip plan. Believe it or not, It happened to me TWICE in the same weekend. I would not be renting Zipcar for any trip that are longer than 24 hours. I'm back to Avis or Budget, because they (at least) make sure that I would GET A Car even if my originally booked car is no longer available. read more

Zipcar - Car Rental Near Me

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Terrible terrible rental company. Treats its renters likes crap and will overcharge them to hell. Cars always are filthy and beat up. Never charged fully etc. they will cancel bookings and just say sorry like you didn't have shit booked for a reason read more

Been a Zipcar member on and off for over 10 years in 3 different major cities (Chicago,SF and NYC) and the service has changed quite dramatically- and not for the best. As their service has grown in demand, they can't seem to match the quality in terms of car/availability, technology linking and especially in customer service The last straw was this past weekend when my reserved car was no where to be found. "How is your day going?", the customer service person asked when I'm calling them about not being able to get my reserved car and get to where I need to be and they can't find me a replacement car. How is my day going? Really?? Ironically, it's become cheaper for me to buy my own car - with paid parking- in NYC than to use their service. That's when you know it's time to move on. read more

Customer service is unhelpful and ridiculously snarky. Worst example of ship 'support' offshore in the quintessential mantra of we don't care about supporting our customers. Works if you don't ever need help, but that one time you absolutely need someone to help or you're screwed, you will in fact be screwed. What an abysmal business fail. read more

First off, they don't tell you you have to take an Uber or taxi to find the car initially. It was not at the airport. It was parked on the street in Boston somewhere and we were new to the area. When we opened the car it reeked of reefer and never quite lost the odor for our entire trip. Then on the drop off you park again on the street in Boston and have to get a taxi to the airport. Quite an inconvenience and not cheap either. Once you go past 180 miles they've got you on their hook. Cha Ching!! read more

If I could submit a review with ZERO stars, I would. Where do I even begin? I've been a zipcar member since 2015 and while there were hiccups here and there, I still recommended their services -- which were pretty good. Fast forward to pandemic zipcar rentals and the service is bottom of the barrel when assisting members. One unresolved scenario that I will find a way to resolve: I rented a zipcar over a month ago and while on the trip, tried to extend it. The app kept saying there was an "error" so I called customer service. The gentleman was extremely helpful and extended my trip by phone. When I tried to return the car, the parking lot it was assigned to was packed to the brim and all zipcar spaces were in use. I called Zip and coordinated another place for me to leave the car. The gentleman even said "I'll put in a request for a late fee refund since this was outside of your control". In my mind it only seemed fair. Within a week, I was charged a late fee and additional rental costs, and when I called to resolve it, was told I'd see the credit soon. I kept following up to see what was going on and kept receiving feedback that the refund was issued, but never received it. I was even asked to show my bank statements (which I did) and was still denied a new refund. I cancelled my membership and even though I've consistently called about my refund, I've been given the runaround CONSTANTLY! Fast forward to today, over a month later, after my account is deactivated, I notice a SECOND charge for a "late fee" that they CLAIM was never charged to my account. How ironic is that? And when I ask to escalate beyond the customer service reps and supervisors, I'm told there's no one above them to rectify the situation. The fact that you have to go through so much to resolve such a simple matter is beyond my level of understanding. It's absolutely ridiculous and shows such a lack of care for members who have supported this concept for years! read more

***Beware before doing business with this company*** I will begin by saying that for 10 years I used Zipcar, and I used it very often. I live in New York where owning a car is a headache, and the convenience of having Zipcars located 3 blocks from my house couldn't be beat. For the most part, the cars were in good condition and the pricing was fair considering gas and insurance are included. Now the bad... As some reviewers have already mentioned, the customer service is beyond abysmal. They are almost always receiving "a higher than normal volume of phone calls" and your wait time will usually always be "more than 10 minutes." This is particularly frustrating when you are: A) experiencing an issue gaining access to a vehicle you have booked or B) when the person before you fails to bring the car you have booked back on time. So basically wherever you had to be, you will most likely be late, or not be there at all in the event they cannot move your reservation to another vehicle. Now the really bad.... Zipcar decided to help themselves to $254 from my bank account (I use a debit card for my bookings) for a booking that was $28. Not only did they help themselves once, they helped themselves twice and only refunded me once. That's not even the deal-breaker... When I called inquiring about these charges, there was no explanation as to why I was charged this amount. There were no apologies. There were no offers to credit my account. There was no admittance to their error. Instead, I spent hours and days on the phone, with probably about 10 different employees who all sounded robotic and as they were all reading from the same script. I got the same, infuriating answers from every, single, person..."we refunded your account, it will take 3-5 business days." I asked for supervisors, their response was that they would have to put in a request for me to speak with one. I asked for an email address besides the main one that you get an automated response from, amazingly enough, that is the only email that exists. Today is the 4th business day. I decided to call back to get the status of my refund. After waiting on hold for 45 minutes, I was told I now have to wait until Friday - that will be the 7th business day. I asked for a direct number so I would not have to wait another 45 minutes when I call Friday. You guessed it, there is no other number. I asked for another email address, nope. I asked for a name of someone who works in the billing department. His response was, "it's run by computers." Zipcar, you are a bunch of thieves who don't give two flying f@*#s about your customers. It's a shame how greedy and sh*%#y you all are because the idea of Zipcar is awesome, but you will have no customers left if this type of treatment continues. read more

Zipcar - Two incorrect charges, one refund. - Car Rental Near Me

Used Zipcar a few times in 2018 and then cancelled when I got my own car. However, they CONTINUE TO CHARGE ME A FEE every year and somehow have my bank account information although I have NOT AUTHORIZED IT and I cancelled with them YEARS AGO. DISHONEST BUSINESS & STEALING CONSUMER MONEY read more

Due to an emerging situation during my reservation, I needed to extend my reservation by 24 hours. The customer service rep told me that the car I had was reserved for 9:30 the next morning, way short of the 24 hours I needed. He understood my predicament and shifted the next Zipster over to another car, allowing me to get the 24 hour extension on the car I had. I really appreciated the rep's understanding of my situation and the quick work around he came up with. read more

Absolute worst organization and customer service and disgusting cars. The cars always stink of cigarettes. I got a car once that had a spare tire on it and was shaking during the trip. I ran in to traffic and tried to extend the trip but the app said my account was on hold for violating a guideline. (They later told me a toll had come through during the trip and counted as an overdue balance & suspended my account mid trip). When I got to the drop off place there was no parking so I had to wait for someone to leave. They charged me the $50 late fee. I called and was on hold for a long time before speaking with someone and being put on hold again where the call was dropped. Called back and after another hour of waiting and talking with someone I was told it was in review and would be taken care of. I called back today because the charge was still there. The call was dropped again and when I called back I was told that there was no record of the second person I spoke with who said she would take care of it. At first I was told I couldn't extend mid trip because of the $3 till that I didn't know about and then I was told that because the app wouldn't allow me to extend the trip someone else was effected. All of this is poor organization on their end. I was going to spend $150 on trips today but how can I put my safety and plans in the hands of this completely untrustworthy company? read more

Very convenient. I am loving the new fleet of cars. Not happy about the increased rates but Alas it's a great service

Terrible customer service. the car I reserved was no where to be found after I walked 30 minutes to the rental spot. when I called customer service, they told me the previous rider had been suspended for failure to return the car. So why did they rent me the car? The non availability of the car caused me to miss a class that I still had to pay $60 for late cancellation. Zipcar refused to compensate me in the form of a credit, saying "The system does not allow this" Terrible business model where they are willing to lose a customer to avoid paying $60! Also, terrible system where they rent cars that don't exist! David read more