[UPDATE: At about 4:30 p.m. the day this posted, I got an email from car2go telling me that they were crediting my account with 110 minutes. The email apologized for the delay, but did not explain what had caused it.]
[UPDATE (6/12/13): On my very next next car2go rental, either I failed to do a final card-swipe (or the reader failed to register it), and several hours of fees wiped out my new credits. The customer service agent told me I should have received a text when I ended my trip but no swipe occurred, which didn’t happen — although I always receive texts when I reserve a car. He thought that the overtime could be wiped out once the situation was reviewed, but as of this moment, car2go has simply eaten up the new credits and billed me for the overage.]
Everyone who tries car2go seems to love it — in principle. $0.38-per-minute, one-way trips, street parking included: What’s not to like? A few things, it turns out: cars that won’t go, cars that won’t let you leave, and “free” driving credits that fail to appear.
When I researched car2go, on their entry into Seattle, I found customers complaining mainly about technical glitches. But as car2go is a young company, it seemed reasonable to wait and watch as they upgraded. But though Seattle has turned into one car2go’s hottest markets — they’ve already boosted their fleet from 350 to 500 cars — their website, for instance, still stubbornly defaults to a view of Austin. When you visit, you’re asked if you’d like to set Austin as your default. If you choose not to, and choose your city, the site refuses to remember your choice. Well played, Austin.
Last month, after some heavy usage (I ran up $135 in mostly $5 to $8 trips, thanks in part to SIFF’s Capitol Hill and Queen Anne venues), I finally got the chance to experience an on-the-road glitch. A car2go I picked up near Columbia City kept balking during my login, not wanting to let me drive it off. I had to exit the car and end my nonexistent trip, then try to login again. Noting the gas gauge was at 1/4-tank when I started, I thought I’d fill ‘er up when I got back to the Hill. (Car2go offers you 20 free minutes if you fill up a car that’s below 1/4-tank.)
Back on Capitol Hill at the end of the trip, I tried to exit the car, but it refused to end my rental. I tried three times, hopping in and out of the car, then gave up and called it in. The car2go agent agreed something funny was going on, and ended my trip remotely, promising to credit me with a few minutes for my trouble. A few days later, I checked my account to see what my credit stood at. No credit visible, not for the check-out glitch, not for filling up.
I waited a few more days, still nothing. I called car2go to check on the free fill-up credit (thinking maybe the few minutes credit just wasn’t apparent to me), and the agent asked if I was sure the car was below 1/4-tank. It seemed logical to me to assume that it was, given that, at this point, I will never fill up a car2go again. He was going to look into it. No credit ever appeared.
Last week, after getting out of a late SIFF show on Queen Anne, I found the closest car2go was about half a mile away, down Denny on Minor. The 8 bus had of course left 3 minutes earlier and wasn’t due for another 27, so I decided to hoof it, but reserved the car first. When I arrived at Minor, I walked down the block on one side and back up the other, without spotting a car2go. The little dot glowed tantalizingly on my iPhone — I stood on top of it — but there was no car. I called in to see what the matter was, and after several minutes, the agent (looking at a different screen, obviously) located my car2go in Lincoln Towing’s impound lot.
“Does it look like it might have been parked illegally?” she asked. I could still see the phantom dot; if it was accurate, it was a 4-hour parking space. She located the nearest car, up on Capitol Hill on Bellevue. Walking 2/3 of my three-mile trip home didn’t seem like an acceptable substitute, so I asked for driving time credit instead. She told me she’d pass than along, and I’d get an email. It’s been a week: no credit, no email.
I’d be more perturbed by the fact that their GPS location is only pretending to be live, but I’m getting the sense that the company’s customer service is as glitchy as the cars. I’d be interested to hear if you’ve had similar problems.
Glitches: e-breaks that won’t release; being charged for time spent reporting damage when picking up a car; stop-overs that wouldn’t let me re-start the car after getting out due to the system crashing and restarting and tagging on an extra 5-8 minutes on my rental and I’ve had phantom car2go reservations as well
Well the CS has been alright for me. My worst experience was when I reserved a car two blocks from my place, walked to it and got a message on the card reader that it could not connect to check my credentials or reservation. After trying again, I called CS and was told that sometimes the weather makes it so the cell tower can’t communicate with the car. The weather? It was grey skies and drizzly out and this is Seattle (and I was at the top of Magnolia hill). But that’s the excuse she kept with. As I walked to another car a few blocks away I tried to wrangle some courtesy minutes out of the CS agent and got none. “There’s nothing I can do…”
That and the shitty website and extrenly crappy mobile app on my android (it’s near impossible to use) make using Car2Go a last choice alternative for me.
Though, the cars are janky in the extreme. The shifting is so rough that I never let it be in automatic. And I have yet to figure out how to pop the trunk.
You have to tap right inside the handle on the back of the car.
Aside from one instance where the card reader failed to register the end of my trip and charged me about $50 for an extended reservation (which was refunded to me about a week after I called it in), so far my problems with Car2Go have been very minor, so I have to say that overall I’m very pleased with the service. Yes, the Austin default on their web site is a little annoying, but I’ve been using their Android App almost exclusively, and which seems to work just fine so far as I can tell; reservations go through promptly, cars are parked where the GPS maps says they are, etc., etc.
What part of Capitol Hill were you headed to? if you miss an 8 then just take a bus downtown instead and hop on a bus up to the Hill. Yes, it requires more minutes, but it’s cheaper than a car2go.
I was headed back toward North Capitol Hill, but, yeah, that was a possibility. I think the Monorail was still running, and I could have caught a 10 back up. But it was late on a school night, and I wanted to try to get home sooner.
Early on in the service rollout, I tried to bring a car back to Pioneer area, but it wouldn’t let me park due to signal outage. So I went a couple blocks away (after lots of block-looping) and found what looked like a legal space, but it still wouldn’t let me park due to signal. I called the CS and they couldn’t seem to remote cancel either. The car also wouldn’t lock. I was told to put the keys under the seat and the local crews would be alerted that the car needed attention.
That was at 12. At 3, apparently, the place I parked turned into a bus lane (the sign wasn’t visible because of a huge van parked in front of the spot I got. At 5 the car got a ticket. At 9 the car got another ticket — and towed.
Since I was the one that parked it there, I was on the hook for the tickets and the towing fee. Never mind that the local crews should have probably done something about the unlocked car well before then. Never mind that I wouldn’t have parked it there if the car had been able to end the trip in my original (legal) parking spot.
I cancelled my c2g after that but have since restarted it and haven’t had issues since…
I’ve heard of some others having these issues, but I use C2G to and from work every day and haven’t had any issues except once when the gas card reader wouldn’t register in its little slot. I called customer service and they ended my reservation and everything was fine. I think it’s really the luck of the draw. They are such a new company here in Seattle that I’m willing to give them time to work out the kinks. Plus, I’m actually spending just about the same amount I would on my monthly bus charges. Maybe a tiny bit more, but the freedom of leaving and coming when I want to is worth it.
Overall, I love Car2Go and use it more and more frequently. However, I have experienced a variety of glitches, including the time the whole system was down. I would like it if they were a bit more generous in crediting minutes when a problem occurs. It also does bother me that I pay to report damage from prior drivers…did that this morning and was put on hold, took several minutes. I hope we see some other variants/competitors enter the market.