Comment by geuis | Hacker News Reader

Comment by geuis | Hacker News Reader

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I absolutely could not disagree with you more.

I've been a member for over 5 years. I live in a popular neighborhood in SF. It's to be expected that weekends or special events affect availability. But there are so many lots around its easy to walk an extra block.

I've been in 2 accidents in their cars. First time was pretty bad, 2nd one was minor. Each time the most I had to pay was a $500 deductible. That sucked, but was nothing compared to how much I had to pay for an accident many years ago in my own car. (This all makes me sound like a terrifyingly bad driver, but I'm not!)

Just in the last 2 days I used Zipcar. I was heading to Stinson Beach for New Years. To rent the car overnight was $101. It was 2 blocks away.

I called Enterprise downtown and got quoted a car at $28/day. Awesome, I think. Well, no. They closed at 3pm that day. And they're downtown. And although I only needed the car for 1 day, they were closed on Jan 1 and would have cost me $45 to drop the car off when the place is closed. So then I would have bad to worry about parking a car I didn't need. Also, since I refuse to carry a credit card, in order to use my standard bank card (the thing that has all the money I actually have, and not artificial debt like in a CC), they want paper copies of two bills to my house and my last pay stub. Seriously? I don't get paper anything anymore, much less a pay stub.

So in the end, I payed a little more for the Zipcar rental. I got the convenience of it being local, flexible, and less shit for me to worry about. That's why I like Zipcar.

I've had the occasional frustration with them. Dirty car, no gas, broken card. Little infrequent things that are frustrating at the time but are rare. You call and report the previous driver, they get fined and don't so it again. It's happened to me a couple times.

So I refute your claims about Zipcar being so bad. I've used them a lot longer and quite happily too. I'll continue as long as they don't become like other rental car companies.

Hear, hear! Plus Zipcar's rates included gas and insurance (they also quote all taxes and fees in their 'estimated rate').

Thing is, though, under normal situations, that scenario with Enterprise could have been much better, and ZipCar might not have been so great:

* You live in a popular neighborhood in SF with lots of nearby ZipCar lots. Many people do not have that luxury.

* ZipCar was more flexible for a holiday rental. Fine. Any non-holiday Enterprise rental would not have had that problem.

* The credit card issue: you're in the minority. Most of us are fine with having a credit card and even many of us use it as more of a "charge" card, just as a buffer between the merchant and our bank accounts (not to mention cash back, airline miles, etc.). I'm not trying to say "change your ways"; I'm merely pointing out that this was a special situation for you in particular, and that most people would not have to jump through these hoops to rent a car from Enterprise.

* The last time I rented a car, they had someone come pick me up and take me to the rental location, free of charge. Maybe Enterprise (or the rental location you were looking at) doesn't offer this service, or maybe their policies have changed, but many car rental companies will do this for you. Yes, it's still more convenient to walk a block to a lot to get your car, but a driver picking you up is still pretty damn convenient. Not to mention that you know when you get there that the car will actually be there, and be clean.

So in the end, you're condemning traditional car rental services mainly for things surrounding your special circumstances, which is a bit unfair. On the other hand, it's great that ZipCar is there to cater to your needs! The bottom line is that ZipCar got you where you needed to go, and under terms you found acceptable. Definitely a win.

On an off-ish-topic side note, I do own my own car (and live and work in SF), and despite how often I tell myself I should just get rid of it, stories like this make me very glad I haven't, despite how much money I'd save without it. I hate having to depend on others so deeply for transportation, with no fallback plan should the stars completely misalign.

(Disclaimer: I own a small amount of ZIP stock, which hopefully will be above water again soon.)

Could not agree more. I've driven a Zipcar probably about three times a month for the last three years and they've been great.

One time the garage where the car was supposed to park wouldn't open (I was returning it). I called them, they said, leave it somewhere on the street, call and tell us where it is, and we'll deal with it. It was after midnight. Awesome.

Another time the car wasn't back from another driver. They reserved me one a couple blocks away and extended my reservation by an hour to make up for lost time.

Those are literally the only two instances I can think of to complain about, and their service was prompt and helpful both times. The cars are always very clean, and the community is great about keeping the gas above the required level and getting cars back on time, for the most part.

Yeah, the cars get gobbled up on the weekend. Just like hotel rooms get gobbled up around the holidays. There's a finite number of cars and demand goes up and down. Part of the deal. If you don't like it, pay to own your own car so you can have one nearby at the drop of a hat anytime (and pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars per month for that convenience). It's frankly just unrealistic to expect that Zipcar is going to be able to provide you with car-ownership levels of convenience all the time.

I pay about $60 a month with Zipcar and there's zero hassle 90% of the time. If I owned a car, I'd probably pay twice that in insurance per month, plus gas, plus parking, plus maintenance. But yeah, holy shit, I can't always get a car at the last minute on Saturday. What a shit service.

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