I received a penalty charge notice. I requested transfer of liability so I could could challenge it. Once liability had been transferred, Zipcar paid the PCN anyway and took the money out of my account. They are denying the liability was transferred even though I sent them a copy of the letter confirming the transfer from the council. Every time I have contacted the department that deals with PCNs (which you can only do via email) I get the same copy and paste response saying the council refused to transfer liability. I have called Zipcar and requested to speak to someone twice but no one has called me back. I have been a customer for nearly 10 years (shortly after they launched in London) and have spent thousands of pounds with Zipcar over the years. I am disgusted with they way they treat their customers read more

My partner was a member of Streetcar since we moved to London 4 years ago. We got on fine with Streetcar. Then Zipcar bought out Streetcar. We got on fine with Zipcar too. Once our Zipcar broke down in the middle of the A12 out in Essex, and Zipcar (once we got a mobile signal and could call them) sorted things out - sent a recovery lorry and gave us a tow all the way back to London. Pretty good service, all things considered. For the last 4 years, my partner has been driving me around in Zipcars because my US license expired about the same time I moved to the UK. I finally started to feel bad, so embarked on getting my UK driver's license - no easy feat for anyone who's done it. I spent numerous hours behind the wheel with a driving instructor learning the UK road rules and the tricks of the trade to pass that damned UK driving test. Being the astute driver that I am, I passed my UK driving test with only 1 minor fault - a fault that was instructor induced (as he admitted after the test was over), I might add. I was well pleased, and as soon as my photocard driving license arrived in the post, my partner went to add me to his account so that we could share out the driving - and likely hire Zipcars more often for this reason. Someone called me to do my DVLA checks and realised my license was new. He asked if I held a driver's license anywhere else previously, and I told him I had - nearly 10 years' daily driving experience in the USA. He asked if I had proof, but unfortunately I didn't have my old, expired photocard driving license. I went to great lengths to get documentation of my previous driving experience (trawling through old emails to try to find insurance statements and finally going to the Florida DMV's website to call up my driver's license record). I returned this information to Zipcar only to be told that unfortunately it wasn't proof enough of my previous driving experience. I wasn't even angry at this point. I wasn't able to provide solid, photocard evidence of my previous driving experience - that's on me. But the person I spoke with offered to let me speak to his manager. I didn't really think it necessary, but I figured I might as well since he had offered. Well, when his manager got on the phone, she told me that - actually - they couldn't set me up with a Zipcar account because my UK driving license was less than a year old; it had nothing to do with the fact that I had a license previously, that even if I could provide my previous photocard driving license it wouldn't matter. I was shocked. And proceeded to walk her through the ludicrousness of her statement: 1) Americans can join Zipcar in the UK with only their US driver's licenses, with no experience or training on UK road rules. 2) I had an American driver's license for 10 years. 3) I went out of my way to undergo training and pass the UK driving test (which is notoriously difficult) 4) But since my *UK* driver's license was less than a year old, I could not join Zipcar. She unabashedly consented that these are the rules. I pointed out that I knew of Americans who were members of Zipcar in the UK who had been members of Zipcar for more than a year and asked her if she knew that it was, in fact, ILLEGAL to drive on a foreign driver's license in the UK for MORE THAN A YEAR. Now, this is the point where I got really angry... She simply replied, 'That's none of our business.' There you have it, folks. It's none of their business whether they aid and abet their customers in breaking the law, but it is their business to keep a woman with over 10 years' driving experience abroad who went out of her way to become a legal driver in the UK from driving on the streets of London. Awful policies. Awful customer service from management. read more

Terrible company. I am so disappointed I rented a car that was busted and very dirty inside. I had to go to several petrol stations, all of them refusing to take the zipcard for payment. When I asked why, they told me that the company is not paying their bills. I wasted an hour trying to find a petrol station that would accept their card, all to turn me down. When I came back to park the car, the card park was closed for which I wasted another 45 min trying to find parking, whilst on the phone with the agent telling me to park in certain areas where there was no parking!!! When I complained about the whole experience having lost 2 hours of my time with a dirty busted car I was sent some automated emails how they apologise for my experience but wont do anything about it. Closing my account very disappointed, and will not support a company that scams the users and other companies by not paying for the petrol being used!! They told me to use my own card and they will reimburse me, having read other reviews it looks like thats a lie too.. use another service people they are not reliable read more

Totally unacceptable customer service. I applied for a basic membership with Zipcar UK and followed all the formal steps they require. According to their criteria I am totally eligible (15+ years of driving experience, EU license, 0 points, 0 penalties). Despite these, I received an automated and surprisingly short email from them informing me that my application has been rejected. No explanation, no feedback on how to improving a future application. When I emailed them back kindly asking for some feedback, the sole explanation was "All Zipcar membership applications must be processed through our internal eligibility checks. Your membership application has been declined. Unfortunately there is no further information we can offer you regarding this matter." closing the email with " this matter is considered closed." Just that! No explanation, no reasoning whatsoever. How outrageous? How can they decide like that, providing zero evidence? Do I have the right to think that they simply didn't like my face or name? I was wondering if they are legally allowed to even treat (potential) clients like that. Horrible company -- glad my interaction with them stops here. read more

Zip here, zip there I can zip everywhere! What a fantastic service, seriously! Great value for money and they are brave enough to let me behind the wheel of one of their cars. Now that is an extra star in itself. What, I don't have to pay for petrol? And no congestion charge? Wow, so I'm going to pay insurance... oh no I don't have to? Fantastic! Now I grew up driving a Citron AX, for those of you who don't know, this little french car was inspired by the Flintstones and if I cut a square in the floor to pop my feet through I not only would go faster but it'd also look the pretty similar to Fred's ride (minus Barny as co-pilot). So now I am a Zipster (yep I used that word!) I can take my pick from a really sexy array of cars, yes I can have a Mini, yes I can be that twat in a BMW, but most of all I can be a white van man with The Sun on my dashboard if I so wish. So why only 4 stars? Well, I live in Stoke Newington and there isn't a car in front of my house. Am I asking too much? maybe. But I'm a woman, that's what I do. read more

i love zipcar! we used zipcar on the weekend just for 1 hour and it could not have been easier. You use the app/website to find the closest available car to where you are located, or to a pre-selected home/work address. We found a van 5 minutes walk from where we live. As my membership card had not arrived yet, the operator suggested i use my android app to lock/unlock the car. wow too easy! She also said i could call them up to 14 minutes before my allocated time slot and she would unlock the van remotely without any additional hiring fee! The glove box contained both the car keys and a card that gets me free petrol at any service station...all for £9 per hour. I got the mini van but i think a VW Polo is around £5 per hour. Further as i hadn't driven in about 2 years, i paid another £9 to drop my insurance excess down from £700 to £250 (unlimited drives for the rest of the month) but next time i don't think I'll bother with the insurance up-sell. if you don't use your car for work, then there really is no need to own a car in london anymore! read more

You have to love this service. You pop online, find the nearest car to you, book it for as long as you need, rock up, drive away, then bring it back within the allotted time. At around £5ph, with no petrol, insurance or congestion charge to pay, Zipcar is a truly phenomenal service. Seriously you should sign up. With a huge fleet of very well maintained cars, ranging from hatchbacks to vans, and most of London having a good placement of cars, other than North and North East London (coming soon I've been told) zipping around beats the ass out of taking the tube. read more

I'm a big fan of Zipcar. I've been a member since it was named Streetcar, quite a few years back. I used to be a car owner, but found living in London, owning a car was overly expensive, with high insurance costs especially in my area. Plus living near a tube station, I hardly had use for it. Zipcar, with my business account allows me access to brand new cars whenever I need them, for much cheaper per year. I usually hire Volkswagen Golfs, that are parked in bays on roads adjacent to my home. It's great for London trips, either for work or evenings out with friends. I love how I can just book with my iPhone app. Depending on the time of day, car availability is varied, so I tend to reserve ahead of time. Booking slots are every 30 mins - just chose your booking time length, then check over the car for damage against the log book and you're away. Tip: try to get to your booking 5-10mins early if you can, to check over the car. I've found if you find any damage from previous booking, reporting it to their team can eat into your booking time. You can spend 10 minutes or more getting through to them on the phone to report and write it all down in the book. I also take photos as proof too. Weekday rates are fair, plus I also get discount 7am-7pm business rate - but i do find the weekend hire a bit on the pricey side. Zipcar also isn't great for longer trips outside of London. You do get 60 miles of petrol inclusive for your booking (per 24hrs), but outside of London, you can rack up the milage quite quickly. Expect to spend around 0.25p per mile after your 60 mile allowance ends. Insurance costs are quite fair; I use the full damage waiver, which protects me from any accidental vehicle damage that might occur during my booking and with zero excess. Costs are around 9% of total cost of your journey and added on to trip cost at the end. You can choose a lower tariff, but with a higher excess - at your peril. Also be careful, with your timing on your booking. Make sure you give enough time allowance for your entire journey. If you return the car to the bay late, their fines are pretty steep (£25ish). For me, the best deal is the overnight weekday bookings (mon-thurs). from 6pm-9am the next morning you can hire the car for roughly £30. If you're a non-drinker or designated driver - it's even better and can be cheaper than the tube fare & taxi cab costs combined. read more

Pros: Simple to use, have lots of cars around, gas is included, available in other countries (with the same membership) Cons: Annual membership (they won't let you leave early, under no circumstances), price increases during peak times (summer, Christmas, weekends, basically every time someone who works or studies would use it), gets very expensive if you use it for more than an hour or two, people report having had issues with being blamed for damage they didn't cause, very limited mileage (hence no good for trips out of the city), customer service is not very customer oriented, no one way trips. Mostly the price: you are usually cheaper off renting a care from somewhere else. read more

I have been a Zipcar user for over 6 years now. Their website is constantly broken and their customer service is more than pathetic. They have recently notified me of a penalty charge notice, except they provided the council parking service with my previous address on their system. Despite the council confirming that Zipcar can indeed update them with the correct address, no, Zipcar customer support either does not reply or says it cant do anything. How am I suppose to pay a ticket that I have not received? They dont care. Zipcar is a tech disaster and they have lost a customer. read more

Zipcar is a great idea. It is easy to use and very economical when living and working in the city. I would reccommend anyone who needs a car for an hour or so to use Zipcar. They have wicked cars from Mini's to BMW's. All you have to do it pay a standard fee (which is very reasonable) and drive! The fee includes congestion charge, petrol and insurance. Thumbs up! read more

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Old vehicles, always dirty inside and out..I've found rubbish, debris and ceramic shards in vehicles I've picked up and always have little or no fuel. Terrible and tight parking spots and difficult ti contact if you have a parking issue when returning. Every single booking I've made has had an issue and I've ended up paying rediculous fees through no fault of my own. Avoid at all costs no matter how desperate you are. read more

Have used Zipcar many times in the past but seems to have got worse and worse recently! Tried to book a car on the basic membership, the car was not in the designated location even though I only booked it only 10 minutes before going to the location and it was showing as available. Have been charged £10 and missed my appointment tonight. Tried to make me walk to a different car at a different location even though I explained it would've been too late by then and I didn't even know where the other location was (no explanation given why the car was not where it was supposed to be!!). They clearly should have known the car was not in fact there by GPS when I made the booking (especially with it being booked so close to the pickup time). Apparently the car was nowhere near the location as they "honked" the horn and it was not even within hearing distance. Of course I had to pay immediately for the booking and have been charged straight away to receive nothing at all apart from massive inconvenience. But for some reason it will take me up to 5 days to receive my money back!! Nothing at all was offered in compensation for this. Non-existent service and call centre staff who have no idea at all what's going on with the cars. Will be cancelling my membership with immediate effect. read more

Received two parking tickets, 3 months after issued, totalling in £250. Due to the knock back from COVID-19 I took a cut in hours and pay, so paying £250 was to much for me all in one go. When trying to negotiate with Zipcar was told that monthly instalments for payment was impossible. I'm now faced with getting my account suspended and Zipcar passing on my debt to a collection agency. Absolutely not worth being with long term, was a joy for about a year and then they try to get what they can from you. Don't treat you as a customer let alone a human and see you as just a number adding to their income. DREADFUL company. read more

Members beware - twice I have asked for my membership to be cancelled and 2 years in a row they have charged my account and go through the process of asking it to be refunded. My guess is there are a lot of people out of pocket that haven't realized the company does this. read more

It's a great idea, but if you ever need to communicate with customer services you are in for a whole world of pain. They have siloed departments that cannot communicate with each other and no way of contacting the membership team other than sending an email into the black hole that is their customer services. I used to be one of their first members when they were streetcar and loved the service. Now they've clearly cut costs and will do anything they can to avoid having any contact with customers. Avoid at all costs. read more

Zipcar is attempting to charge me for existing damages to one of their vans. The van already had dents and scratches to the rear bumper and side panel, that was clearly marked on the log in the vehicle. Before I moved the vehicle another driver brushed against the parked van and did not stop, leaving minor scratches. Given the previous damage was far greater than these scratches, I though I would get a reasonable response and the matter would be finished. I was wrong. Zipcar attempted to charge me the full £750 excess. I requested the invoice which shows replacement of the rear bumper and major repairs to the side panel, damages that are clearly marked on the damage log dated 3 days prior to my hire. When I brough this to Zipcar's attention they gave me a discount as a "good will gesture," but have otherwise ignored my questions as to why I am being charged for damages that were already existing, clearly marked on their damage log. Zipcar also claimed to have fixed the vehicle per previous emails but more recently are telling me the vehicle will be fixed once it is sold. I am still in dispute with Zipcar and have been forced to seek legal advice as they are now threatning to take this to collections. read more

Be afraid! Beware! Should you need roadside assistance, this company does not have AA roadside assistance or a contract with any other firm. If you have a flat or a malfunction, you fix it yourself. Or wait in the dark on the verge of a busy highway for 3+ hours until after the last Tube, talking to the end of your mobile battery to a nice customer service person in Indiana. Be careful. The marketing is great, but the service delivery is very problematic. read more

We are sure we parked within the designated parking space for zipcar when we returned the car but were charged £140 by the local authority. Is this a scam by local traffic wardens as zipcar customers are easy targets? In regards zipcar, I have been waiting for a response to questions about the fine for weeks now. Potentially a very good company but in my instance very slow to respond. read more

My first Zipcar experience was via Zipcar UK in Oxford and it was not a good one. The first problem was locating the car due to vague reservation info. Better info on that and return driving directions would have enabled me to enjoy the full rental period I paid for and avoid ann obnoxious late fee and additional 1 hour charge. The second problem was the condition of the vehicle; it was filthy and previous renters had left bulky items in the boot. Every upholstered surface in the car was badly stained, making me very suspicious of sitting in the seats in good clothing. The floors were filthy as well. Had it been a legitimate rental company, I would have refused the car. Mechanically, the car was fine and I experienced no operational problems, but given the car's interior condition I ascribe that to luck, not service. I do not recommend this service if other car rental options (even if more expensive) are available. read more

This is my second time using Zipcar. I thought the first time registration took a little while, nonetheless managed to book a car within an hour and got what I needed to do done, which was handy, despite the car being a bit run down and rather dirty. Second time using the service, this time hiring a zipvan to move some furnitures. I arrived at the car pick up location with the wing mirror having duck tape wrapped around it to keep it in place as well as two large scratches on either side of the vehicle. So I called up the call centre to inform them of this in case they think that I had created the damage. Upon speaking with the lady, she asked me not to drive the van and try to find me another car for safety reasons (mainly due to the broken wing mirror) but when reading through the in-car damage log, this issue was already reported over 2 months ago in March! If this was a concern then why didn't they fix it or take the vehicle away until they have? Oh and when I got into the van, the passenger side had spider webs just under the glove box space. And the windscreen washers had no water... I guess what I'm saying is, Zipcar is a good service, it does offer convenience and when making reservations it's obvious that it is a popular service because cars do go very quickly especially at weekends. But the problem is, the quality of the vehicles are really really poor, both times the cars are filthy and poorly maintained. They knew of the issues and obviously haven't paid attention to repair the faults. If quality of the cars can be improved I would use it more often. read more

As always - check the details!!! The benefits of a car club are obvious, but you really need to get your own insurance where I pay £35 a year for FULL cover, not Zip's £180 per year for part-cover with tires etc excluded. Zipcar have bought out Streetcar and this now virtually a monopoly in London at least. I can't speak for the other places it's now in. The insurance is now around 15-18 per month which is not far off double what Streetcar used to ask for and importantly less items are covered under the new insurance. You now bear the cost of flat tires, windscreen damage or other small acts of vandalism. Forget the £6 per hour rate. If you only use a car 1-2 times per month. The yearly membership and insurance fees mean it would cost about 10-15 per trip before you even book. So a 1hr shopping trip per mth costs more than a catching a cab. You also need to check the cars in your area. I used to have the cheapest Polos/Golfs all around, but slowly they are lifting profits by replacing them with more expensive BMWs 1 &3 Series which are nearly double in cost. I now have only one Polo within a 10min walking distance and that's in a saturated area of W11, London. If you drive a couple of hours per week, it's actually worth buying a £1000 junk car and gambling on being able to dispose/replace, once every 2 years. The Competition Commission which allowed Zipcar to buy Streetcar and create a monopoly, made a mistake. read more

Their fuel cards get declined. I had to pay up on the pump about 70 pounds, and I'm still waiting for a refund. Their customer service representatives were rude and unhelpful. Watch out. read more

I booked a van for my house move only to wake up the morming of the move to find out Zipvan had changed my reservation for a much smaller vehicle, when i called them they could not care less about it. I had to leave loads of stuff at the previous property and incurred charges by the landlord. Terrible customer service, they just don't care. read more

Everything goes okay until a little glitch appears in the system. My reserved car hasn't been returned to its parking space. So I called zipcar and the staff adjusted my reservation to another car 10 miles away, mentioning they are going to pay the cab there and back. So My zipcar trip that day was a nightmare. I travelled one hour to the car in congestion. I couldn't open the car there, had to call them again, then drive back to my home in cogestion again (10miles) After my planned trip also had to drive 10miles extra and travel back with cab. To sum up I lost 4 hours from my planned trip,got tired of travelling and also have been charged 20miles extra. So in total I paid way too much for this horrible trip. They charged me more than what I would have paid if I got the reserved car which hasnt been returned. They also haven't paid the cab because I didnt show them any receipt(which I asked them if necessary, they said no, they will pay it anyway). I have only got a goodwill gesture from them( 20£ credit which I can use for reservation) after I called them 4 times ( some of the staff are rude and cant speak nicely) Only one thing upsets me after this nightmare that if someone doesn't return the car on time Zipcar makes profit, because they give a penalty charge to the person who doesnt return the car, but instead of refunding that amount to the next member who couldnt take the car, they keep that as a profit and charge the next member as well for that time. It is a very unfair way to make money. read more

Horrible customer service. I've been with Zipcar for a while without much issue but their customer service is just terrible. While I was on holiday I received an email stating that they had suspended my account without any explanation whatsoever. They've ignored my emails and whenever I call I'm told that they can't help because it's another 'department' that only accepts emails. To make things worse they had the cheek to continue charging me a monthly fee despite them suspending my account and not allowing me to book cars! read more

Thieves and liars. My last booking, the car was not at the location given by the app, so I called zipcar who after some time confirmed the location of the car at a different address. It is worth noting at this point that neither the SMS text message nor the app sent me to the correct location. At the end of the booking, I checked the app and returned the car where it directed me to. . I subsequently received a notice from zipcar that they intended to charge my account for a parking ticket the car received after being left in the bay was apparently suspended. I do not feel I should be responsible for this charge as I followed all instructions given to me by the app and by zipcar personnel. In my correspondence with zipcar, they accused me of lying about not having been informed of the parking bay suspension. In writing, I have Adam Coombs, a senior member services specialist, stating: "Having reviewed the facts of this incident I can confirm that we informed you of the bay suspension via three different methods both before and during your reservation." This is false. The text message and app made no mention of the parking bay suspension. I did not read the confirmation email, because I had the text message confirmation already and the app had confirmed my booking as well. When I returned the car, the app still made no mention of the bay suspension, and the location of the car's bay had not been updated despite 24 hours having passed and the team having been made aware of the error. In Adam's email, he says: "The app will also have been offering you the same information as both the confirmation email and the app pull the location details directly from our system." What a lie! Although I had all the proof that I was right and they were wrong, it was ignored by customer service employees at all levels which makes me think that this company is rotten from its head all the way down. read more

I've been a ZipCar customer 'formally Streetcar' for over 5 years and have seen its quick demise from a really great service into a very low rate 'cowboy' car hire company, cumulating in the unacceptable customer experience for my family and I had to endue on the evening of 23/12/13: I had booked a car close to where I live to collect my young son for our only Christmas evening we were all spending together, it should have been a low hassle quick trip, taking less than an hour, it was also a horrible evening with bad rain and wind so using Zipcar made perfect sense. I went to pick up the car with my baby daughter only to find it had not been returned, and in the rain and the wind I was told by Zipcar on the phone that my Zipcar car was going to be 30-40 mins late back (this was not the problem, these things happen although in 5 years I have never returned a car late back), I was provided an alternative: a van 30 minutes walk away in Wimbledon town. Desperate and stressed and wet, we went to collect the van from the town centre and went to collect my son. On returning the van to its drop off point in Wimbledon town centre I noticed the Zipcar bays were occupied by other Zipcars, one parked in the van's drop off space. I called Zipcar for advice, I was greeted by a unhelpful and arrogant call centre staff and the manager who provided the following unbelievably terrible 'service': * I was made to feel the problem of not being able to park the van was my fault and it was up to me to rectify this problem, Zipcar offered no helpful support. * I was advised to go and find an 'unrestricted' parking space in Wimbledon, I had never seen such a road in Wimbledon, maybe on the very outscirts of Wimbledon. * Zipcar blamed the Merton council for parking restrictions and refused to take any responsibility for this problem. * I asked if I could park in a restricted bay (it's restricted to 11pm in town and outside town restrictions start at 8:30am) as I had no time to search for an unrestricted bay area. I was told if I did I would pay any parking fees until the van was collected which could be a few days. * I explained that another Zip car customer had parked in the bay and gave the registrations, hoping they could do something as it's their cars stopping me parking, but they did nothing! * I asked for some help in finding an unrestricted space in Wimbledon as I could not be expected to drive around all night in search for an unrestricted road, Zipcar could not help, they insisted I will just have to drive around until I find one. * In desperation and with tired and upset kids I drove around in search of a space, it was impossible to find a road in Wimbledon with unrestricted parking. * Eventually I parked in a bay near to my home, the opposite side of Wimbledon, the van was in a restricted bay from 8.30am and I asked if they could please take responsibility for this problem and collect the van before 8.30am and take the problem out of my hands so I can get on with my evening? I was told no they could not collect the van it would be picked up by the next customer in a few days, also "if I was not willing to find a unrestricted bay I would pay the costs" I was also told I also need to find an unrestricted bay as close to the original bay as possible, not in its current location. * Reluctantly, against my family wishes, I moved the van to the other side of Wimbledon and drove for an hour to find the closest 'unrestricted' parking space I could and had to walk a 1 hour journey home in the rain and wind arriving home 3 hours later than I had hoped with evening ruined. This experience leaves me with the conclusion that Zipcar: 1. Zipcar Punish good customers by imposing grossly unreasonable conditions on them when others break the rules. 2. Zipcar go to great lengths to avoid all responsibility or care for their customers, to the extent where Zipcar refuse to support customers resolve problems, which are Zipcar's responsibility. 3. I find this experience totally unacceptable 4. Zipcar policies and processes are not fit for purpose. read more

This is the worst carclub experience i have had to date! I have been a customer of Streetcar until the two companies merged and since the merger i had the worst customer service you can think of: 1. my card did not arrive whent hey said it would. I had to follow up twice for the card to arrive after they migrated all streetcars over to zipcar (so i was nor abelt o book a car for over a week. 2. i booked a van and when i got to it the side mirror was so broken the car was not safe to drive. This fault was reported to zipcar by another member 2 days before and not only did they not notify me i had to call the premium phone number to get the situation resolved (i waited for over 10 minute on that line). Once I got through though the girl on the phone was helpful and also promised me they would not charge me for the either booking. 3. After the mistaken booking i went online to check if the credit was given for that booking or for a future booking. Only to find they credited me £20 for the booking i could not use (which is about one third) and charged me in full for the new booking on top of that!!! Need I say more! Stay clear! read more

BEWARE of Zipcar! They are absolute crooks. I tried to put my father on as an additional driver- they took his information and money, sold him an extra insurance contract and sent him an email saying he was approved and welcome to zipcar. They then sent him an letter with his own zipcard welcoming him to the service, he made a car reservation directly with them and they sent him written directions of how to find and access the car. Upon returning this they claimed he hadn't filled out his application process properly, despite him doing EVERYTHING they asked at every step. They told him his insurance hadn't been valid the entire time he's been driving- which is extremely dangerous- and cancelled both him and my memberships. But they gladly took his money for the reservation. Their custopmer service is abysmal and you can't get a straight answer out of any of them. DO NOT USE THESE PEOPLE! IT IS NOT WORTH THE RISK! THEY SYSTEMS ARE SHOCKING AND ORGANISATION WORSE. BEWARE!!! read more

This was my first experience with Zip Car. Getting on-line to join was difficult. I don't think your website is intuitive. ( I have many years of tech experience). That aside I continued to give it a go :-) I had booked this car about 2-3 weeks out and I needed it for a wedding. 1. I arrived and the car was where it should be. 2. The car was white but VERY dirty/ grimy. 3. I didn't possess a card because I hadn't been sent one - this is being dealt with I am assured 4. Not having a card, I tried using my Zip car app to unlock the vehicle. It wouldn't work :-( 5. I called into Zip Car and the young man told me that he was not allowed to unlock the vehicle...arrghh. I was specifically told that this would happen. 6. After more minutes of frustration rebooting phones etc - I tried using the app again. No luck! 7. I called in again and this time the young lady - who was excellent given my clear anger - tried to unlock the vehicle. NO LUCK AGAIN! 8. She confirmed that there was no signal to the vehicle and therefore I had to get another car. 9. This resulted in me paying a cab £20 to get me to another vehicle - of course I am carrying my baggage for the wedding too. 10. The lady at Zip Car stayed on the phone with me until we arrived at the next car. 11. White A3 - My app could not unlock the vehicle...aarrggh. 12. The lady then remotely unlocked the vehicle. 13. I registered the current damage to the vehicle and took pictures and then noted that the car was a) dirty/grimy b) had trash inside the car - gum wrappers, empty water bottles, and general use grim. 14. Car had 3/4 tank of fuel which was fine. 15. I was finally on my way - £20 lighter AND now 1 HOUR late. 16. I arrived at the wedding ceremony late. 17. Car return: Got to the spot and my app could not now LOCK the vehicle! 18. Spent 15 minutes on Sunday night standing outside the vehicle with my baggage waiting for someone to pick up. 19. Finally the phone was answered and the car was remotely locked. 20. Next day - I was emailed stating that I was charged a late fee for returning the car late. I returned the car 2.5 hours before it was due. 21. The car late fee was related to the FIRST car that could not be used. 22. Spent 20 minutes on the phone getting that sorted out. 23. next step is to check my Zip Car account and bank account, to ensure I am not double charged. Another stressful waste of time. NONE of this happens with Hertz and Avis and they are cheaper. You figure it out. read more

Great service when you need are, although they really got to start expanding their drop off zones, and also makef sure that the cars are in good condition, iv been in many and items are missing read more

I strongly reccomend that anybody considering using Zipcar use another provider. I had an account with them and their car was parked in the wrong place when I rented it. I returned it to the same place per the contract and they tried to charge me for a parking ticket. I disputed the charge and was given the run around - they would not escalate to issue to a senior member of staff. I stated that I would take the matter to court and told them I refused to pay. They took the money illegally from my account anyway and now refuse to engage. I am reporting them to the regulator and issuing legal proceedings against them. read more

Easy to use but don't have an accident - the customer service is shocking. For the record I paid what I owed but they just wouldn't talk to me Here are excerpts from my emails with them. Please also note that as you have been found liable for this incident your risk tier will increase. This is subject for a review a year from the accident date (18th Jan) [reinstatement of membership] This decision is final and will not be reversed, if you require any further information please reply to this email (13 Feb cancellation email) contra., This is your opportunity to appeal the termination of your membership. Your statement and any supporting documents will be reviewed by Zipcar's Damage Review Board (16 Feb after my complaints) After a thorough review of your account, the Home Office has decided to terminate your Zipcar membership. This means that you will no longer have access to our vehicles or be able to reserve Zipcars (29th Feb) read more

PLEASE do not waste your time and money signing up for Zipcar. A company is only as good as it's customer service and Zipcar's Customer Service is disgusting. Zipcar CHARGE for everything. I have only used this service on about 5 occasions on which 4 times the cars were filthy and I do mean filthy and 3 occasions was the same car despite complaining each time, one time I had to attend a funeral in a dirty car. I was told to valet it but don't pay more than £10! to valet a car in London? Are you kidding me? I got a parking ticket which I paid, and Zipcar still charged me, I sent them evidence I paid and they never acknowledged me, sent it again and they ignored it. Zipcar isn't as cheap as it seems and I just wish I read reviewcentre before I signed up. If I need a car now, conventional car hire will do for me. read more

Beware!!! Zipcar is a great idea- BUT ONLY WHEN EVERYTHING WORKS SMOOTHLY!!! The last time we used Zipcar, we went to the allocated postcode, found the car there, used it and returned it to the exact same spot. A few weeks later, we are being fined £295!!! Apparently the customers BEFORE us left it in the wrong spot, and when we then returned it to that same spot, it was later towed away. Zipcar customer services were no help at all in being sympathetic to our case. Apparently it was out fault for not cross-checking the EXACT parking position of the car we found, against the provided picture. Of course, when you find the car at the provided postcode, and are able to unlock it (!) you assume that you are picking up a legally parked car!! Customer services fully accepted that it was the previous customer's fault, but that we were just 'unfortunate' !!! In fact they were very cocky about the situation, EVEN TAKING THE FINE FROM OUR ACCOUNT before we agreed!!! luckily we had just been paid but, at any other time, this could have been problematic. We are now leaving Zipcar as what was supposed to be a cheap 'car run to the shops' turned out to be more expensive that 10 taxis! From reading the other reviews it seems they are never very good at helping when things go wrong! read more

Good service but some answers of their FAQ are misleading. As an example, they state "You can go from joining to driving in minutes". This is totally wrong, once registered they ask for tons of scanned documents and don't send you anything they received and checked them. Think about at best a week to get your card. read more

BEWARE!! Zipcar convinced me to take out a damage waiver when I first joined and then said it would only cover me for the 1st month. I have now discovered (after 10 months during which I only used zipcar a few times) that they have automatically been debiting £14.95 from my account. I never authorized this but they went ahead anyway. BTW, they act like a small outfit but they are actually owned by AVIS. There are much cheaper options in London. Don't bother with this service, it's a ripoff DAN, it's not good enough to have the information several layers in my account info. This should have been made a lot clearer to me as a customer. Also, if you look at my account, I've hardly used the membership. If you really had customer service in mind, your system should have generated an email to ask whether it made sense for me to continue being debited for the damage waiver when the account wasn't even being used. Consumers are not stupid, we know that companies pull this trick with the hope that we won't catch it (esp ppl who lead really busy lives). I don't think it's good enough just to point to the fine print to get away with this. I am really disappointed in Zipcar as I expected better. Short of receiving a full refund for every month except for the first which I signed up for, I will not change my opinion of your service read more

Zipcar is definitely not the best at what they do. Cars from previous users are usually abused with dents etc from bad parking, dirty seats etc however this has never always bothered me and only once had to really make them aware of the state of some of the cars. Also cost for their cars are higher then most car rental companies especially when you exceed the extra hours. Spoke to a guy called Clint at wimbledon to ask a couple of questions as didnt use zipcar in a while and wanted to double check. Provided all security questions as required as I had also booked a zipvan earlier today with no issues. He tries to sell a damage waiver to me which I refused as I have spent over £2k on zipcar over the years and only ever purchased a damage waiver maybe once or twice. Since I couldn't quite remember when I did purchase a waiver he decides to suspend my account. The bizarre thing is that this has nothing to do with my security questions and since I use zipcar once in a while as I have a daily vehicle he expected me to remember exactly when I did use their service and the exact number of times. Clint was very unhelpful, and when I asked to speak with a team leader or manager he clearly hesitated and kept asking me to send an email. I then called in again and spoke to someone and he couldnt tell me why my account was suspended and when I asked for a team leader or manager his reply was "i'm sorry, but I cant put you through to anyone", I asked why and he says because you have to wait to hear in a day or two. Take my advice, the customer service at Zipcar has fallen greatly and If you have any issues, dont expect them to care as they wont. read more

Their website says literally: "there is no mileage limit on reservations"... but not at all!, they charge you after 60 miles PER EVERY 24 HOURS,... absolutely unacceptable. read more