I am an urban dweller without a car and I have a strong need to get out of the city often. I've been using Zipcar for 5 years now. I've taken Zipcars up to the mountains overnight and I've taken them over to the peninsula for the weekend to visit my parents and I've even taken them to eastern, WA for a long weekend. Granted it seems pricey at first compared to say, Enterprise. But I've put a pencil to it every time I've needed a car for a day or more and I've found that Zipcar wins every time. First of all the convenience of Zipcar is in of itself worth the money you spend--time is money sometimes. I can go grab a car (my choice) when I need it and not have to talk to anyone and go through the same rig amoral car rental places make you go through (unless you're a regular or frequent flier). That's just the perky part. Price-wise when you factor in gas, and insurance on typical rental car rates it always adds up to about the same daily rate. If you work for a company that might have a partnership with Zipcar it's worth looking into because there are some savings there. The only downside is Zipcar does have the daily mileage restriction of 180 miles per 24 hour rental. So if you want to go over to the peninsula you have to get a car for two days so you don't go over on miles. I wish they would allow more miles per day on the weekends but it usually ends up working out :) Also, I've learned you need to be a very responsible person to not get hit with Zipcar fees etc. Don't be late, don't lose the keys or it can cost you. Lastly, the Zipcar people are so responsive and courteous when you need to call them (which is rare). I almost rented a car this summer, I called to confirm my reservation and ask about the insurance at the downtown Enterprise and the guy was so rude to me, I cancelled my reservation and immediately got on my Zipcar app and reserved a Ford Escape with all the bells and whistles for my trip and it was actually way less cost compared to the small suv rental at Enterprise. Zipcar is a great value! read more

1. DECEITFUL BUSINESS PRACTICES 2. TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE I signed up for Zipcar after my car was stolen. Instead of buying another car, I wanted to lessen my carbon footprint and support what I thought was a decent service. I was wrong. Zipcar's representatives tell you Zipcars cost $7 an hour, including gas and insurance. THIS IS BLATANTLY FALSE. What I found out the first time I tried Zipcar was that out of 34 Zipcars on Capitol Hill, only ONE car rented for $7 an hour, and that car was two miles from my house. The rest of the cars cost AT LEAST $9.50 an hour. Add to this rental car taxes at close to 15%, and the actual cost for a Zipcar BEGINS at $11.33 an hour. I spoke with a representative of the company who told me "at least 10%" of their fleet should rent for the $7 price tag. I have consistently looked at the site over the past two months, and the breakdown is the same: about 1 in 34 cars rents for the advertised $7 an hour price. The first time I actually tried to use Zipcar was a fiasco. Arriving at the car, my card did not work. I had to call into Zipcar headquarters, where an airhead customer service person proceeded to repeatedly activate the horn of the car, which was excruciatingly loud, as I was standing next to it in a concrete carport. She did finally unlock the car, and I had to dismantle the back of the car in order to locate an extra card next to the spare tire. It was not there. I ended up missing my appointment and took a cab to my second destination. Later I talked to a customer service representative to cancel my membership. She talked me into staying with Zipcar and offered me two hours of free driving time. In another deceitful marketing practice, Zipcar advertises the sign-up price as $60, for which they offer $50 of driving credit. What they don't tell you is that the $50 is only good for the FIRST MONTH after you are approved for their service. I was NEVER informed - either when I signed up for the service or in my numerous phone calls with customer service people - that there was a time limit on using the $50 credit. I found that out when, after finally successfully using their service, I was then charged on my credit card instead of credited. Their deceitful "marketing" practices, coupled with the number of phone calls needed to rectify recurring problems, finally prompted me to cancel my membership. Instead, I'm saving the money I would have given Zipcar to buy a car of my own. Strangely, it will be much less hassle. read more

Worst customer service. It is a giant loop where there is no direct contact with anyone who can actually refund money or make a decision. I have been trying to get a gas receipt from Canada reimbursed for two months. I send it to the support email with all necessary info as instructed and don't hear anything. I forward the email with a plea to respond and get an email back from the info address asking to attach the receipt and send it to support. I have done this 5 times. I have spoken to a representative on the phone asking to be put in contact directly with someone instead of sending it to info or support. This doesn't exist. He once again forwards my message, for the 5th time to a generic member services email account and I once again have not heard anything back. Canceling my account. They couldn't even give me a direct phone number to the local Seattle office. read more

Zipcar rules until you realize how much it actually sucks. First off - the cars are scarcely as available as they'd lead you to believe, nor are they as cheap. I live right on Capitol Hill and still have to bus to the nearest car, and hardly any of the cars are offered at the hourly rate they boast in their advertisements. I've never spent less than $60 for an afternoon of errands. God forbid you need a truck or a van, ouch. Forget getting a car on any holiday - even on Thanksgiving any car within 10 miles of my house was booked out 2 weeks in advance. They'll charge you randomly for things that didn't happen, $10 here for returning the car late, $15 there for something else - I didn't make a fuss at first because bring under 25 my rental options are limited, but I've gotten bogus late return charges more than once. Yet more than once I've gone to pick up a car that WASN'T THERE! And never have I been comped or helped out in any way for the inconvenience. I was also supposed to get a $20 driving credit when I signed up and never received it. The app has never once worked on my phone (new droid), it crashes every time it is opened. The last straw is a combination of things - my wallet was stolen with my debit cards, I.D. and Zipcard in it. When my auto payment failed the next month (because the card has been cancelled) my account was suspended and I received a collection's notice from a company on Zipcar's behalf. After a MONTH. I paid up in full ($24) and bussed downtown to get a new zipcard, which the all mighty blondes at the front counter haughtily informed me they couldn't do because I had a temporary I.D. and they wouldn't accept or look at my other forms of photo I.D. I needed a car today, but instead will be cancelling my Zipcar account because honestly this isn't even worth $15/mo. Hello Car2go! read more

Once upon a time the brakes went out on my antiquated Ford Bronco II. I was faced with a repair bill of $1600... only $1200 if I just wanted to make it street legal. I declined and gave up my car. That was 5 years ago. Immediately after that I joined Flexcar. Flexcar was awesome. But Flexcar is now gone... perhaps because their policies were just a bit too friendly who knows. Now we have Zipcar. The good: 1 - The cars are very conveniently located. I live on 1st Hill and there are at least 6 within a short walking distance to my apartment building. (I define short as within 4 blocks or so) 2 - I am a casual user so I pay about $12 bucks a month for one hour (trip to and from the vet with my pet). Parking in my building was (5 years ago) $100/mo. 3 - The cars are nice cars. They are usually clean and well kept. And, so far I have not had a problem with a car not being where it should be since they changed to Zip car. I had 3 or 4 such incidents with Flexcar. The bad: 1 - They are more expensive and so I end up using them less. I had a $10/mo plan which gave me 3 hours. I loved that plan and didn't mind going over and paying the rate for the extra few hours. Now I only pay by the hour and so usually I just use it for the one hour. 2 - Their policies seem punitive instead of positive. Yet again today another email about returning cars on time. I think every month they harp on that. Clearly something isn't working if this is ongoing enough to nag us about it every month. They seem to be escalating their threats about it and now saying you may get kicked out if you are a habitual late returner. They also don't give credit for filling up the tank or getting it washed or anything like that. (Flexcar gave you like $2.00 to fill up the tank. That's just nice and isn't a huge amount.) 3 - (And I fully admit this one is a completely petty thing) I hate the way they name their cars. Numbers were so much easier for me to remember. All in all, they're the only game in town. If you need a car for just a few hours they are great. If you need it for a full day I'd pay a rental car price because that ends up being cheaper even with buying rental car insurance and gas. read more

I just moved to Seattle from Australia and have to say how disappointed I am in the customer service and website. I used a service like this called Goget in Sydney and it was fantastic and in the 6 years of using the Goget service I never encountered a problem. When I moved here I was excited to use this service but when registering on the website my application came back as delayed as they wanted my driving records (never had to do that with Goget). I get an email today from zipcar saying that they want to send me my zipcard but can't because my billing address says Australia. Of course it says Australia its because I'm using my Australian credit card but living in Seattle now. It states on there website the billing and residency address has to be the same so that's what I entered but on the actual application itself I had entered my current address. Another thing I noticed my credit card did get charged 25 dollars for Sept 13 to Oct 13th statement now how can that be when they said my application was delayed because they needed my driving records. I think Zipcar management should check out the Goget website and see how easy it is to sign up and how user friendly it is. I am still waiting to hear back from Zipcar about why my CC was charged and why they would want to send me a card when they need my driver record. Side note: after reading some of the negative reviews I'm thinking I should just cancel the whole membership. I can rent a car from National for 41 dollars a day with unlimited mileage and since I don't use a car that often this might be the better way for me to go instead of hourly. read more

Its interesting how much the reviews vary for Zipcar. I dont have any issues with Zipcar presently. All of my issues in the past have leaned towards pricing and policy which the local office in Seattle has no control over. However, I do want to recognize one of the front desk employees at the Seatlle Zipcar office. Whitman is amazing. He is efficient, patient, and through. It has been awhile since I have encountered a customer service employee who is truly great at his job. He is professional, consistently pleasant, and the go to person if you need something resolved in a hurry. Thank you Whitman for all that you do. Zipcar be good to him. : ) read more

If you have an issue with your zipcar account don't contact their customer service line. I've called them 3 times and I was told each time that a customer service rep would call back in 24-48 hours. It's been 10 days and I still haven't received a call. If you ask for their name as a reference you won't get it. If you ask to speak to a supervisor the agent will refuse to transfer you. You are stuck! If you're old enough to rent a car do it! Zipcar isn't for you if you have a problem. They lack serious customer service skills!!! read more

Had a terrible experience today with poorly communicated Zipcar policies and customer service. Buying a car this week.

This is now for ZipCar, I do not like this company. The rates are a tad higher and less availability of cars in my neighborhood even in Capitol Hill. The car that I rented would not start one day and I was pissed after I found out that if a vehicle is parked for like more than 10 minutes????, then I have to rescan my card to "refresh" my time alotted. What a bunch of BS!! I was about to call a tow truck on that car. I am keeping it two stars though since a car co-ownership still exists in Seattle and Zipcar still has a functional purpose, be it a crappy one. read more

Zipcar has opened Seattle for me. I just moved here and sold my car in NYC. There are 3 Zipcar locations conveniently around where I am staying and it has been the greatest help since public transport is not that great here. It is a little expensive because of Washington State rental car taxes, but that's not Zipcar's fault. Wide selection of cars that are always clean and available. read more

I used it for almost two years. Initially it was good, but later I realized it's only as good as the other clients that utilize the service. And it seems that Seattle is now filled with zipcar users that don't care if they get fined extra for turning vehicles in late, or not turning them in at all! It's a service that doesn't reward the people that follow the rules and use their service appropriately and with respect to other users. Last month I needed to move, so I reserved a van several days in advance. When moving day came, I arrived to the designated parking spot where the van should have been, but it wasn't there! So I called zipcar and was put on hold for over 20 minutes. I needed to use the van to move things, but also to pick up the U-haul rental, and so now I was late for picking the U-haul truck and in danger of losing my reservation for the U-haul truck! The rep finally got back to me, after 20 minutes, to tell me that the van was parked 3 miles away! The rep didn't offer to find a way to take me there (offering to send a cab would've been nice), but instead offered to reserve a nearby car I could walk to. He said he found a car 1/2 a mile away, and gave me directions. I walked half a mile to the car, in the rain, and when I got there, I had to call zipcar back because they forgot to tell me that the car was in a secure garage, with a code to get in. They gave me the code. It didn't work, but they didn't have any other suggestions for me, other than to repeat the code to me a few times as if I was just not putting the code in correctly! Finally a tenant in the building offered to let me in, so I was able to get to the car, and use it for moving, but it was not an ideal vehicle for moving, and I was late in getting my U-haul and so had to pay extra to extend the reservation for it. When I called back to see if there was anything they could offer to compensate for the loss of time, and not getting the vehicle that I wanted (the zipvan) at the time that I needed it, all they could offer me was a time adjustment to reflect the real time that I had actually spent using one of their cars. Which wasn't a compensation, in my opinion. I was renting a van for a 24-hour period, and they said they could adjust the time frame for the car I had to walk to, for 9am-9am, instead of the initial time of 8am-8am. Wow. So today, I cancelled the service because the service automatically renews a year to the day you sign up, without warning. You have to call in to cancel it. I cancelled mostly for the above incident, but also because I now live in a neighborhood with just one zipcar site, and I have to take a bus to get to it, which is not convenient at all. read more

I was a member a couple of years ago, loved it. Moved to an area that had no Zipcars yet so I canceled. Moved back to the Seattle area and decided to give it a another go. I was charged a 25 dollar fee for application (non-refundable) which was expected. What wasn't expected was the additional 90 dollars that I was charged without my knowledge. When I called the customer service to ask about it I was lied to and told that it was a credit, I took the operators word for it. I check my bank statement after the weekend and sure enough 90 dollars was gone. No explanation as to what the charge was for, so I say BEWARE shifty practices. Don't know what happened to this company but customer service is no longer a priority. read more

You know, honestly, we used to have a car but cars are such a pain in the arse and are so high maintenance, we got rid of it. It was the best decision we ever made. We now zipcar, uber, bus or walk places and it's been so freeing (not to mention, cheaper)! I love how convenient zipcar has been over the years -- and their customer service desk in the heart of downtown is no exception. I guess I'm lucky since I live in the downtown area, so zipcars are never scarce for me. Can't complain about the number or availability of cars! (It might be a different story if I lived in a different part of Seattle, though!) Also, can't complain about the speed in which they handle urgent matters. For instance, I lost my card and just realized it this morning (just in time for a reservation, too!). I looked on the website for how to get a card replaced and they wanted me to call some 800 number which would have definitely taken some time because I'm sure they would have told me that they'd mail me a replacement card or something. Rather than do that, I went straight to the source and showed up in person to the downtown zipcar office. The office is clean and bright and there wasn't a line at all. The girl at the desk was very helpful, fast and friendly. All they required of me was a credit card and drivers license and voila! I had my new zipcard instantaneously. I could activate the card on one of their computer kiosks and now it should just work. I noticed all my existing reservations got transferred over as well. I give credit where credit is due and zipcar really handled the situation in a streamlined way which could have been a crazy amount of paperwork. Sometimes living in this brave new world really works out! ;) read more

After my experiences with both companies, reading yelp, searching the web for reviews and experiences, and talking to others in the city, it has become exceedingly obvious that Flexcar was wonderful and Zipcar is horrible. At first, Zipcar took away many cars in areas that needed those extra cars (or cars at all!) with no warning. Emails and phone calls to get the cars back were greeted with BS corporate rhetoric and empty promises. Zipcar does not offer credit for taking time out of your reservation to put gas in the car, but sure as shite will charge you if you leave it under 1/4 of a tank upon return. Zipcar charges more, in general, but also charges more for hybrid vehicles. This makes absolutely no sense. Zipcar took the damage report pads out of all of the cars so each member cannot see if damage has been previously reported. Instead, you have to assume no one has reported it and call it in yourself. But be damn sure it's in the first 10 min of your reservation! Or it doesn't count! Zipcar will not open cars if you left your card at home. No matter how long you rode a bus to the location or what you needed to use it for. Regardless of whether or not you can verify your identity. And regardless if you can pick up your card and log it out yourself. Zipcar charges significant late penalties and couldn't care less about why you're late. Stuck in bumper to bumper traffic because of an accident you couldn't possibly predict would happen? Someone has the car right after you? You're SOL. $50 bucks every hour you're late (or is it 1/2 hour?) *Note: this happened to me once with Flexcar. They tried to call the other member to let them know I was stuck and try to get them in another car, but they couldn't get a hold of them - so they never charged me a dime! Zipcar has horrible customer service. Their duty is to their corporation, their policies, and their bottom line and NOT to you. They make this perfectly clear in how they handle themselves. How about this? Zipcar ruined the night of my wedding. We were taking a long day trip to get married, got the car for the day rate, and because someone scheduled the car from immediately when our reservation ended out for 2-3 days, we couldn't get back, get dinner, drop off the guests, and return the car in time. The car was located in downtown Seattle. There are SO MANY cars in downtown. Why this one? Zipcar couldn't care less it was my wedding day. They wouldn't even attempt to call the other member to let them know the situation and see if they could get another car. They just told me it would be 50 bucks for every hour I was late. Nice, huh? So, we basically returned the car and had to have half the people go pick up another Zipcar, half the people go get dinner, and wait for the other half to pick us up. I'm sure there's more to be said, but I'll stop for now. Zipcar is a horrible company. If you can stay away from them or cancel their membership, please do so. Hopefully we'll get some competition in the market and put them out of business. read more

What an incredibly incompetent company. I would never rent from them again. I've had an account there for over 6 years and they just continue to screw up left and right. If you want to constantly. be harassed by incredibly incompetent customer service, go with zip car. Also, why do they take up SO MANY Parking spots in town. NOT A GOOD COMPANY. DONT USE THEM. read more

Once upon a time we had Flex Car. They tried to introduce their service to Lake City, where I just purchased a condo. Rates were reasonalbe, and the membership fee wasn't much--I think it was $25 to join, and the cars were $7 an hour. The plunked down 3 cars in my neighborhood, and it was convenient to get a car just 2-3 blocks away. Fast forward 4 years. Zip Car buys out Flexcar, raises the hourly rates, tacks on a $25 application fee in addition to the $60 annual fee. Ok, I say to myself, business is business. Obviously they had to change some things in order to become profitable, or there'll be NO zipcar. Their business restructuring didn't stop there. They then took all the cars out of Lake City, and now the nearest Zip car pick up spot is Northgate Professional Center parking lot. Recently, they sent me an email stating they 'wanted me back' and were offering a $30 driving credit. Based on the fine print and the amount of people whe were duped into thinking it would last forever, I thought this is something I should check. Days go by (in fact it's been a week now). they said I needed to give them the issue date of my Driver's license, as it looked like I had not been licensed for a full year. I sent them the information they needed. Another week goes by, and I get another reply that based on their records, I'm not eligible to be a member until 3/30/2012. I've been licensed 'continuously' since I was 16, so I don't know why or where they are show me having a gap in my driver's license. I've asked them to call or email me to clarify this information. At this point, I could take or leave ZipCar. I'm a very occassional user. I get around pretty well with Metro or my bike, or my partner if we are going somewhere together. For all the hassle for a little convenience, I just don't see myself becoming a big fan of Zipcar, especially after they pulled out of my neighborhood. If they really wanted me back, as they claim, they'd up their game and try a little harder. As far as I can tell it's the same re-packaged, crappy, over-priced plan with fewer cars where I live. read more

Disastrous customer service and user experience. All the previous times using zip car was fine when I didn't need support. This time renting Zip Van was terrible. The tank started off almost empty when my rental started. I tried to extend my reservation in case I couldn't make it back in time after fueling up. The extension was declined with no reason given. I called customer service expecting assistance but instead waited and waited with no response. Finally, I spoke to a customer service representative and we talked in circles as I tried to understand why I couldn't extend. I finally figured out that it was because another person had requested the Van. By this time, I had spent 15 minutes trying to understand what was going on. Ended up returning the Van 18 minutes late with a $50 dollar fine. read more

My company provides a ZipCar account and I consider it a HUGE benefit. It is so easy and convenient to use this service and I am very happy with the quality of the customer service they provide. As soon as you book a car, you receive confirmations via e-mail. In addition, if you sign up for text messages with them, they send you reminders about your reservation and give you the chance to even extend your reservation by sending them a text message. Recently, I used a ZipCar to attend a client meeting. Unfortunately, the meeting ran late and I was about 26 minutes late in returning the car. I tried to extend the reservation, but because the car had been reserved right after my end time, I was not able to. I contacted the company and let them know what had occurred. A few hours later I received an email with my reservation summary. I noticed there was a $50 late fee charged to the account. I found it to be a bit excessive given that I had only been 26 minutes late returning the car and had explained the circumstances. The customer service rep I spoke with was kind and told me she would contact this Zip Car branch to review the situation and told me to expect a response 2 to 3 business days later. I must admit I wasn't particularly happy. However, the very next morning I received an e-mail from this branch stating that as a one-time courtesy they would waive the late fee. I was pleasantly surprised as I had expected them to lower the fee, not completely waive it! I found that to be a "wow customer service" moment. I would highly recommend Zip Car. read more

Update: Soon after writing this review, a manager from the local Zipcar office reached out to me and offered to look into the issues I described. It turned out I was eligible to reapply for the membership. So I did. And am a Zipcar member now. +1 star to Zipcar for making the effort and listening to the customer. read more

I tried to rent the vehicle TipToe on Friday 23 Oct. I received a notice that it was ready to be picked up so I took an rideshare to the vehicle location. It was not present. I immediately called help and was on hold for 19 minutes. During this time I walked the entire parking lot to ensure it wasn't improperly parked. When my call was finally answered, the agent left me on hold for another 7 minutes. When they returned they said the car was at another location and there was nothing they could do. I asked that this trip be refunded and they said they couldn't do that. I informed them I had movers waiting and an elevator reservation, that this trip had already cost me and now I would have to rideshare further and I expected to be compensated for my costs since the vehicle wasn't available as agreed. I was told there was nothing that could be done. I asked to speak to a supervisor and the agent hung up on me. I called back and was on hold a further 12 minutes before being disconnected again. As a further indignity, I received an email the next day saying that I was being charged for the missed trip. Since I was unable to use the movers during the time scheduled I was charge the cancellation fee $120 and had to rebook everything. All together this cost me $25 in rideshares and $120 in mover cancellation fees, plus the $43 I was charged for the trip. The emails from support simply stated that they were sorry the situation wasn't better but there was nothing they could do. Be wary when using this service. read more

I started using Zipcar early this year due to financial issues. Now that I've been using them for months- I'm thoroughly spoiled and really dread the idea of having to purchase another car. It's so much easier just to share a car, drop it off, and let someone else worry about the maintenance. I can easily review my monthly statements and the money saved is huge! I've never had a problem with issues. The customer service is amazing! If you ever are worried you'll be late because of seattle traffic, just call ahead or add 30minutes to your reservation. It's really very easy if you have a smart phone. My car owning friends are often baffled at how easy it is :-) I've even had an insurance claim. So painless. Of course I pay the extra 9 bucks a month to waive any large deposits. Highly recommended. read more

I LOVE ZipCAR! What a concept they came up with! Very innovative and environmentally friendly. And, very convenient. I've reserved a car three times so far and each experience has been easy. One time I did encounter an issue and called ZipCar up, and the person who answered was very helpful and friendly. I plan to use their services until the day I decide to purchase a car for myself. read more

My wife and I used Zipcar for about 2 years when we lived in Downtown Seattle. They have a wide selection of cars (we loved driving the BMWs and Mini Coopers), and they have many convenient locations. Their customer service was always helpful. There were times I had to wait a few minutes before reaching someone, but not a huge deal. I recommend booking yourself an extra 1 hour if you are going outside the city just in case of traffic. You don't want to get charged a late fee. We now live in Magnolia so we had to buy a car. We actually ended up buying a BMW, similar to the ones we reserved thru Zipcar. read more

I signed up for Zip Car a loooong time ago (when it was still Flex Car) and used the service a couple of times. Totally awesome, especially since I didn't have a car at the time. Then I completely forgot about my membership, I moved a couple of times, and I have a car now. So when I was charged the $50 yearly fee this week I was totally bummed! I thought I would have to call them and fight to get my $50 back, and fight to cancel my membership, and be all lawyerly on the phone...BUT NO. Zipcar is awesome, and Janae, the nice lady who helped me, refunded my money and canceled my membership NO QUESTIONS ASKED. Thank you, Zipcar. If my car dies and I need your service I will definitely reopen my account. You rock. read more

i think flexcar is amazing. i was so excited when doing my research before moving here a month or so ago that i could join. for those of us who live IN the city and truly do not NEED a car on a daily basis, but like to have one for the occasional trip to someplace beyond walking/bus distance its great. no paying for gas, no insurance, no changing the oil, no searching for parking near your place. its super convenient (at least in first hill where i live) and i choose to drive only the hybrid cars which is great because another positive of joining this community is the reduced impact on the environment, if only more people would join in. clearly i am a believer in the economic, environmental and social reasons for joining flexcar. its catching on...hopefully it will keep me out of car ownership as long as i live here... read more

Great customer service, convenient locations. Wish cancellations and edits didn't need to be so far in advance of reservation without hefty fees incurred. read more

My first zipcar experience. The car took a while to start had to call 800# then it started with them rebooting the system/car. On the way back the car wouldn't start even with the 800# rebooting the system. Waited over 10 minutes in the dark on hold. This was a very bad experience then I couldn't figure out how to get back in the garage to drop the car off because the garage door was locked after hours . I should get a discount this totally sucked since I'm paying for a car that wouldn't start on its own. I was late to my destination and only one car in my area. read more

This service sucks. They always rip you off when you are late, which I think it's totally OK, I've paid a couple times the well deserved 50$ late fee when I return a car late. Fair game. However when Zipcar makes a mistake and they waste your time they won't give you anything. Today I rented a card using this service, the car had a dead battery, and when I tried to get back from my destination I couldn't start the car. I had to troubleshoot the car with 2 different people over the phone. They wasted my time, and didn't even offer to pay for a cab. I can't understand how a transportation business doesn't offer to pay for alternate transportation when they make a mistake. When I am late I have to pay you 50$, but when their car is broken because they don't take care of the battery, we are on our own. I just spent about 200$ on zipcar this christmas, guess what. I'll NEVER EVER spend a dime on this company again, because they don't take responsibility when they make a mistake the same way they ask customers to take responsibility when we are late. Good bye! There's A LOT of other great alternatives in the city of Seattle. Go check them out. read more

EDIT: I finally got a response and my account has been restored. It really feels like someone dropped the ball on this one but I am glad that it's been dealt with. *** I've been waiting for about a month for Zipcar to contact me about a claim because of damage that occurred during my reservation. I even have the damage waiver. I've emailed 3 times and never heard back. I've emailed the sedgwickcms.com people and heard back and they don't know why my account is still suspended as there is apparently a note on my account saying it should be unsuspended. I also called and was told I'd have to wait 5 to 7 DAYS for the local Zipcar team to get back to me. I also noticed that my monthly fee was still charged even though my account is suspended. WHO DOES THAT? This is ridiculous and I'm about ready to just cancel my membership. TLDR: Pray that nothing happens during your reservation because someone doesn't have their act together. read more

Yes yes yes yes. They have 100% coverage unlike the other guys, they have awesome cars (BMW and Cadi, just to name two) they have 24/7 people standing by for calls, and all and all meet the consumers needs. read more

I loved Flexcar when it was around and reluctantly signed up for the more expensive Zipcar because I sometimes need to get off of Capitol Hill. There are a lot of cars in the neighborhood and the hourly rates aren't terrible. You can go for 180 miles before you are charged 40 cents a mile, which kind of works for a trip to Portland. What killed it for me was that I was charged a whopping $50 fee plus taxes, totaling $58, for being 10 minutes late. I couldn't extend the reservation, and apologized profusely to the couple waiting. They do mention this fee in the fine print, but when it does happen to you when you get stuck in traffic or get lost, it's not really worth it anymore. I'd rather take the bus than be tied to Zipcar. read more

I'm adding an update to be fair. I did get a hold of someone at Zipcar (they also called me back several times) and got my question answered. I've done one rental with them and everything went smoothly. read more

Very useful for people like me who don't own a car and live in downtown.

This concept is cool, but my car has broken down twice and the second time they were beyond useless. I had to sit in freezing weather for hours to get aid or I would be charged a massive towing fee. This zip car worked for me for a bit but I would rather walk than have to deal with all their shit. It ruined my day. I would give it zero stars if possible. read more

Zipcar rocks. Plain and simple. If I had money, I'd buy stock. Customer service is great. My only complaint is that more cars are needed in Ballard. Let's help Zipcar continue the trend of shared resources. Oh, and you never know what you're gonna find... our last rental consisted of an orange and a bud. No joke. read more

I love zipcar! Customer service is excellent and the service is reliable. I use it all the time and always have had a good experience.

Two stars because I was initially really happy with the service, but recent events have changed my rating. Added a household member to my account- thought it was a good way to split the annual fee. No mention of fees or costs associated. Couldn't find any FAQ or details on the website. Credit card charged $25 application fee, $26 additional annual fee, no emails or notifications from Zipcar that I had been charged (sneaky!). If I had not checked my credit card statement, I wouldn't have known! Called support once, they submitted a request to member services. Email told it was nonrefundable. Called again, told it was in the "Terms and Conditions" during the approval process (conveniently those terms are no longer accessible since I had already "approved"). Passive aggressively told, "that's why you should read all the terms and conditions carefully every time before you agree." Looked and there was no such clause about additional application fees for households, or additional annual fees associated with households. Still no refunds or credits. Would have been cheaper for household member to sign up on his own. Considering cancelling account because of extremely poor customer service and hidden fees. read more

I've been with Zipcar for almost 3 yrs, and I have always been extremely happy with the customer service. How things change quickly. The last time I reserved a car, I tried to update my account with my new address. The website rejected it because it remvoed the credit card secret code, and when I keyed it in and clicked to update, the site kept rejecting it. I called, was told it has to do with my bank. My bank said nothing with them, it's the site, then I got busy and figured I'd deal later. This evening I called, spoke with Karen, she said only a manager could update the address on my account, then asked if she could do anything else for me and we hung up, right then I realized she didn't offer to transfer me to a mgr, and I shouldn't have let her go, so I wasted more time waiting for a CSR by calling back. Next CSR transferred me no problem. Supervisor Steven, said the notes said I couldn't update my credit card info. on the site. Obviously Karen didn't listen to my concern. Bottom line, Steven not only refused to update my address, after the 3rd sentence he got upset and was interrupting me, then got worse when I explained getting upset with a customer won't help. I asked him for another mgr. he said he's the only one in the country available now, and that he would make a comment on the "report" that I wanted a manager to call me from the local branch. We'll see if anyone got a request to call me back, when I call them tomorrow. I would say "more importantly, can they resolve my problem and update my acct. with the correct address without further randomization of my time" but now I am far more concerned with the sub-standard customer service. If I have to keep playing with a business site and try to contact them, just to ensure THEY get paid, I won't ever need to worry about their site updating anything. Forget it, more options out there. Can we say "Capitalism"! read more

I'm not one to write reviews especially on this horrid website but I don't even know how else to handle this situation. I used this service one time previously with zero issues. I rented a car yesterday for several hours and had no issues until I parked in a garage. The car went "offline" and I wasn't able to unlock it. After being on hold for 20minutes someone finally transferred me where I was left on hold again for an additional 50 minutes. I hung up and called back and waited just as long, leaving me stranded in a garage by myself with melting groceries for 2 hours. I can understand being short staffed and I can forgive some inefficiency but this should have been a quick and easy fix. I hung up and called again to tell them I would be getting a Lyft home and I expected to be able to retrieve the items that were left in the car & I expected a refund at least for the time extension I paid for and was unable to use because of the issue. I was on hold again for another hour and a half before my phone died. Someone finally called me back later and told me they would call me the next day between 8 and 10 AM to retrieve my stuff and offered me a $50 credit instead of a refund. I accepted bc at this point I just didn't want to deal with it anymore. But now its 1 pm and I haven't been called about retrieving my belongings and I've been on hold for another half hour. At this point I'm honestly just grateful that I wasn't in an accident or stranded longer or further & I feel bad for whoever booked the car behind me who probably still hasn't received any explanation or a refund when there was no car for them to drive. I'm not gonna pretend to know what's happening behind the scenes that makes this company so god-awful but something's gotta change. Give some other company your money because this one is not worth the risk. read more