Zipcar UK Avis 3 296

I booked a car for 5am on a saturday morning which was in a bad state with ketchup on the seat. I called the company and the agent kindly booked another car for me. As I was picking up my wife and 7 year old for to head to our destination 5.9 miles away i noticed the car was on 2% battery. When I got to the destination it was on 1% I put the car on charge while I waited for my wife and son they were finished in 25 mins. The car was now back on 2% I couldnt let my wife and son stand out in the cold so I picked them up and headed back. The car didnt make it back and stopped 2 miles from home my wife and son had to walk the last 2 miles while I was told by zip car to wait 90 mins for a tow truck. I ended up waiting near 200 mins in the freezing cold for the tow truck to arrive. Now they have charged me £182 for the tow truck. I would have understood if they gave me a car with a decent amount of charge and I would have to return it with such but 2% battery??!! Where could I have gone? Very poor service from zipcar. I will be telling everyone I know to stay away from them.

the customer service Hanna or Anna instead of helping me with my inquary she was being a real PAIN :)) terrible Services

£15 credit has an expiration of 1 month and it is not clearly stated.
I hired a van after 1 month and £15 voucher was vanished when I needed it.
Why should a basic membership cost money anyway!

Where do I start? they are useless, booked car, go to collect it and it's not in its space, they take take 5 mins to answer a call, tell you the car is 9 mins away. previous user said the space wasn't available.is a problem location and they knew before hand and didn't bother to advise.

They know this

Get to new location it's not there, 40 mins later trip abandoned.

I’m not saying don’t use them but just be wary if you’re time sensitive. Car wasn’t there when I turned up because the previous user dumped it somewhere random. Support worked but you’re at the mercy of other people and things got quite delayed.

**UPDATE** - They're suspending UK activity. I wonder why! Thank goodness.

The app flat-out lied about a car being available. There was nothing there. I got shoved onto another vehicle, only for the app to conveniently **erase** my initial report that the car was filthy - dirt, pet hair, the works. Funny how it only “remembers” the exit report that restricts you to exterior photos only. Almost like the system is designed to blame the customer.

I moved three clean cardboard boxes a couple of miles and they slapped me with a cleaning fee of £50 for someone else’s mud-covered, pet-hair disaster.
Absolute scam behaviour.

Customer service might as well not exist - they’re useless, scripted, and completely uninterested in fixing their broken setup.

If I’d read the reviews first, I’d never have touched this company. Horrible business model & a garbage app.

Avoid this clown show at all costs.

I have been a loyal Zipcar customer for years, regularly booking cars and always paying on time. What I’ve just experienced with their customer service has been the worst treatment I have ever received from any company, and I feel it’s important that people are aware of how Zipcar operates behind the scenes.

1. Zipcar offered me a payment plan — then took the full amount anyway

I was emailed an offer to split a charge over five instalments, which I accepted immediately.
Instead of honouring this written agreement, Zipcar took the full amount without my permission, leaving me in financial difficulty at a very expensive time of year.

Zipcar later admitted that they “wrongly emailed” me this option, yet their mistake cost me money and caused days of stress.

2. Repeatedly ignored, no follow-up, no accountability

I was told I would be contacted by the complaints department, I wasn’t.
I had to chase them multiple times, and each time I was met with:

No progress

No accountability

No willingness to help

Repeatedly copied-and-pasted responses

It became clear that nobody was actually reviewing the case properly.

3. Vehicles regularly have tyre warnings, yet I’m being held fully liable

For years, I’ve noticed that many Zipcar vehicles start with tyre pressure warnings on the dashboard.
It’s so common that if I complained every time, I would never get a car.

Yet in this case, they immediately decided that a tyre issue was my responsibility, ignoring the fact that Zipcar’s fleet is often poorly maintained.

4. Threatening messages despite me cooperating

Despite me never refusing payment, and repeatedly trying to resolve the issue, I received an email stating that:

I have “no interest in a payment plan” (completely false)

My account would be referred to debt collectors

My credit score could be affected

Additional fees would be added

My account would be suspended

This was extremely distressing, especially when Zipcar’s own errors created this situation in the first place.

5. Suspension threats for accepting the payment plan THEY offered

Zipcar insisted that if I accepted the instalment plan, my account would be suspended for months, even though they are the ones who caused the problem and admitted their mistake.

Punishing a loyal customer because of your own incompetence is outrageous.

6. False statements made by their agent “John”

The final message I received incorrectly stated that I had refused the payment plan, something I never once said in any email.
This is not only incorrect, but completely unacceptable and unprofessional.

7. Overall behaviour: disgraceful

Zipcar’s handling of this matter has been:

Misleading

Dishonest

Threatening

Financially damaging

Emotionally stressful

Completely lacking in empathy

I have never experienced such poor treatment from a company I’ve supported for so long.

Bottom line

Zipcar’s customer service and complaint handling is appalling.
Their internal procedures seem disorganised, their communication is inconsistent, and their “policies” are used to threaten rather than help.

I would strongly advise potential customers to think twice before relying on Zipcar.

I will now be escalating this matter to external regulatory bodies.

Total crooks!!!!!! Do not use. Fuel card ran out 8 months ago, so had to pay for fuel and the website is totally useless for trying to claim back the money. These people need to be in jail

I picked up my Zipcar in a Zipcar bay in Hampstead, and returned it to the same bay. Zipcar then charged a fine of £145 to my card, citing a PCN they had received from the council. As it turns out, the bay had been suspended by the council - but the Zipcar app still directed me to pick up and drop off at that bay. The suspension wasn’t signposted anywhere, the only signage was a Zipcar sign beside the parking spot.

Although Zipcar knew the bay was suspended, they accepted no responsibility for directing me to park there. When this was pointed out to them, they said I should have checked the council website to ensure no Zipcar bays had active suspensions - patently ridiculous.

To round things off, they have not responded to my last five emails, dating back 18 months now.

Similarly to so many other reviewers I have been absolutely appalled by my recent experience with zipcar. I have had an account for several years out of necessity and have never had any incidents of damage whilst using the vehicle. Conversely, the vehicles when you pick them up are often improperly parked, in poor repair, and absolutely filthy.
A few days ago our card was charged with over £150 following a booking. We received an email stating this was due to the next user after us finding the vehicle with a flat tyre. I responded to let them know that during my trip a notification had come up on the dashboard informing us of low tyre pressure, but we had not reported it at the time because firstly I was driving and secondly there is no option when you end your trip to report any dashboard alerts.
I pointed out that there would be no benefit to us not calling them if we got a flat tyre, since we would be aware we'd be charged for it anyway. I asked for evidence from a third party mechanic that the flat was caused by impact rather than low pressure over a longer period.
They refused to provide any evidence or reverse the charge - effectively accusing me of lying about the low tyre pressure.
They asked if I had evidence - which obviously I didn't as the message came up whilst I was driving and I did not get my phone out to take a photo - but also how can you evidence that something like an impact didn't happen.
Despite the convenience, I would suggest avoiding using this company due to the exploitative nature of their business model.

If I could give this joke of a company 0 stars I would.

Not only did they allow me to book a car that was not road worthy. They then charged me £170 2 months later for a parking ticket. With no contact beforehand about a ticket. I didn’t even have the car at the point of the ticket being issued.

I contacted them prior to dropping that car off as it smelt like burning. I then asked them if they wanted it put back where we got it. It was not in a club car bay and there isn’t a club car bay in the location they said and we didn’t get it from a club car bay. (Which is not my issue. They should check where it’s parked before letting someone else take it)
They then said I parked it in the wrong place. Hence the ticket. But the best part is the ticket was two months after. So they could have contacted me when the first ticket came to them. But no. They waited and didn’t pay it and then took from me £170 without my consent and without speaking to me.

They don’t want to refund it as they want to blame me. Even when I have sent them proof that there isn’t a club car bay where they say.

Absolutely disgusting service. I will make sure anyone that wants a car goes somewhere else and not to these fraudsters.

As I can’t reply to the response. Let me add that you were informed where the car was being left as there were no road markings. I was told to put it back where it came from. If there was an issue with that then someone at Zipcar should have contacted me and advised of something else instead of trying to issue multiple tickets to me. It goes to show that you don’t check your cars. Fraudulent behaviour and horrendous customer service. Happy to reply to a review but not to any emails. Joke of a company.

EDIT: This has now been resolved - slower than ideal, and the process was frustrating, but ultimately dealt with satisfactorily. Review amended to 3 stars.

I was sent an email from ZipCar telling me I had received a penalty charge notice on a day when I hadn't even hired a ZipCar. Zipcar took £80 from my account plus a £30 admin fee.

The email itself from ZipCar contained the date and times of my hire, and the date and the time at which the infringement was committed, and they were for different days.

Ten days later, after several emails and phone calls, ZipCar still has my money and whenever I call I just keep being told to send more emails.

Abominable, unconscionable service.

Just passed the test, paid £15 non-refundable deposit and turns out that they do not allow to hire until you have 1 year of experience.

Nowhere on the application screen or welcome page you can see this information clearly as a check. Only after paying the money, you find out that this is a requirement.

Avoid at all costs.

Just spoke to a gentleman called billy

And he helped me a lot

I cannot thank enough and his help was great

Took £90 from my account on two separate occasions for an invalid private parking violation and did not notify me in any way. No email, no text, no letter, no notification in app.

I will never use your services again, and a trip for an hour, has ended up costing me more money than renting a car for a month.
Their 48 hour response time is an absolute joke, they took nearly two months to reply to me after raising an issue to their ukviolations zipcar email. Their cost cutting tactics result in an awful experience for the customer, and causes you to incur additional fines, and then they are more than happy to charge you an admin fee on top of your fine, so you end up paying over 200% of what the initial fine would have been.

Excellent experience. Always giving me driving credits and helping me. If something, the time to reach someone is long.

Nightmare experience. Car wouldn’t start, so had to call customer service to unblock it. It wasn’t clear when I booked that I had to return the car to its original bay, so I wasted and entire evening and had to cancel all my plans in order to take it back. Customer service was absolutely horrible and told me my only option was getting the car towed back by emergency services. I submitted a complaint and refund request but they haven’t bothered to respond.

I created account, and the second I paid for the application, they banned me. I have never used their service before and I have a clean license. They have robbed me of the fee to create an account and I doubt I will see that money.
Avoid this company.

DO NOT USE. ONLY OPERATE IN LONDON. I signed up and paid £15 for an application fee (laughable) only to find out they dont operate in my city (BIRMINGHAM)Been contacting them and submitting the query to have a refund and refused to provide one as they have an application fee for a application process and team.

Im.sorry but we do not live in stone ages and know this is fake.

Secondly I am ONE customer. You do not operate or provide a service in my city give the consumer their money back. Why are you so greedy???

The SERVICE Isn't even available. I can't consume YOUR service. How petty are you???

I was contacting the team instantly!!!
5 mins after my application. Only today they reply.

So much for a "team" that doesn't have an SLA to reply to a customer
I dont even get to be a new member.

The one gentlemen kind enough helped to close my account. That was it.