Zipcar Reviews 

Had the worst experience today. I informed the man I had anxiety, and would it be okay for me to go over? He said yes, the guy's understanding impatient. I go up there to get my car wash. And I couldn't get it in nutral for some reason, the guy was rude, disrespectful and walked off while I was trying to talk to him about it. And then I just told him I wanted to get out of the line and then he just sent me on through. Never go back again.

I signed up for the service but there was a hidden sign up charge that was not mentioned anywhere at all. Just rent cars from trusted traditional vendors instead of going through this horrible app

My booked and prepaid car was not available at the provided garage. I never got a notification that the pick-up location had changed until I called customer service and they informed me that the new location was 50 minutes away from my home. Zipcar provided me the information after 7 phone calls that they had no car available for the pre-booked period at the location where I was. This resulted to lose all my meetings, had to get a rent a car from a trusted company and pay 5 times more, because of the late time booking on Columbus Day. Do not risk your day with Zipcar. Not a reliable service. It is not worth to risk your schedule with it!

I was 1 minute late returning the car and they charged me £35

This is the second time I tried to book through the app and was not booked but was still charged. Tried to tell customer service but they insisted the only way to book the car was to charge my card again. Once they over drafted me and I couldn't extend, they charged me a late fee. So was basically charged 3 times and Zipcar refused to refund the accidental charge that caused the mess in the first place.

Cancelled my subscription and they continue to take money out every month. Have called twice for a refund and they just took out money again. Don’t sign up unless you want to call them every month for a refund after you cancel

I was unable to lock the Zipcar van on the day of rental due to technical glitches with the app causing incompatibility with my mobile device. I spend a couple of hours standing by the road talking to Zipcar customer service who were able to do some basic non technical troubleshooting. Zipcar were unable to resolve the issue and refused to send someone to unlock the car or help. They refunded my rental, but not the cost to me. As it was a UK bank holiday, I had to pay a local man with a van around £200 for a last minute van rental to help me move, and as a result of the delay, my landlord deducted £120 as we ran out of time to clean the flat. Avoid at all costs and use a traditional car rental company or local van rental.

Zipcar is losing business because of its predatory policies. I live in Los Angeles and we sometimes experience extreme traffic. I ended my trip 11 minutes after my drop off time (during a 1 hour trip that costed $15). I ended up paying an additional $62 for the 11 minute overage. If that isn’t predatory and exploitive, I don’t know what is. I called to try to get the fees waived this once since I’ve been with them for years and have spent thousands (during which times I’ve been inconvenienced on numerous occasions by zip car; and they didn’t pay me a dime). I even have been a person whose trip had been impacted by a late driver before me; NONE OF THE FEES WENT TOWARDS ME OR MY TRIP AT ALL!

I cancelled my account after spending thousands on their services and vow to never use them again. Poor company and they deserve to go out of business.

Zipcar refused to tell me where the car was located as it was towed to an impound lot. They have a tracker in their car and told me I would have to call 311 knowing full well on a Saturday it is closed and it’s Labour Day Weekend. They wanted me to accrue daily charges so they can make profit of my booking.
After begging them that I need my baby’s items in the car they finally revealed the location but when I called back to confirm the address the next customer service agent refused to confirm the address. We managed to get the car out of the impound but had to pay $156 out of pocket. Zipcar willingly refused to help and was happy to let me get charged daily if need be.
I returned the car and cancelled my membership so fast! Will never use them again!

I’ve been a member with Zipcar since April 2025 and spend $450 a month with them and have gone through having two cars canceled on me last minute with no warning or notice and no replacements as they promise to do. Everytime I call in it’s offshore and they can never forward you to a manager without asking you questions to validate your identity then reading their policy’s. There is no one in United States that works for this company not any supervisors to speak to when the agents can’t help you. They don’t take care of their longest customers and frankly are over priced.

Absolutely disgusting customer service,
After over 20 calls 10 emails and 4.5 weeks of waiting!
Still nothing.
DO NOT RECOMMEND

This was an extremely upsetting and traumatic experience for us. To break down exactly what happened, here is a comprehensive chronology:

We rented the Zipcar at 7pm and drove across the George Washington Bridge to get groceries. We also brought our dog with us because we have a puppy and the rescue agency said he should not be left alone. After shopping, we return to the car at approximately 8:20. Mind you, our drop off time was 9pm and it was an approximately 27-30 minute drive, so we planned the length of our shopping trip to ensure we would drop it off at the correct time.

What ensued from this point forward was nothing short of emotional trauma. The car would not start, as it told us the battery was dead. We asked numerous people in the parking lot with extra batteries to help us, but it was an older model of car that they were not familiar with and were unable to successfully do so. We then called ZipCar and they agreed to send a maintenance person to look at it. 

When he arrives, he was able to successfully jumpstart it. However, our problems were just getting started (keep in mind that it is nearly 11pm at night and in a dark area). We are unable to get inside our car, as the key is connected to my husband's phone. The most upsetting part is that our dog is inside the car with no air conditioning and it is 80 degrees Fahrenheit outside and much hotter inside. We can see him panting and whimpering.

At this point, it is a matter of life and death for our dog before he overheats. We call ZipCar again and the representative is extremely abusive to me and my husband, telling us that there is absolutely nothing he can do and he's sorry about our dog. I reiterate to him the seriousness of the situation, but he just says, over-and-over in a very nonplussed, uncompassionate tone that there is nothing he can do except call a tow truck.

Then, he starts blaming us, saying this whole situation is our fault and that we should have made it back on time. When I explain to him we were leaving at 8:20pm to make it back, he keeps reiterating that it is still our fault. I then ask him how we are supposed to get back to our home, which is a 30-minute drive away. He tells us we need to take public transportation. It is 10:30pm at night in North Bergen, NJ, and there are no buses running. Couple that with the fact that we have twelve bags full of groceries (a majority of which are perishables like milk, cheese, meat, and seafood) and a dog, and public transportation would not even be an option regardless.

At this point, it's getting later and later in a darkened area with little-to-no-people. I ask him when the tow truck will come, and he says 45-to-60 minutes. I ask for a tracking number for the tow truck so we can contact him if need be, as our phones are both dying and all the shops are closed where we could buy a charger. He says he cannot provide me with a tracking number and that we will just have to wait.

So, we wait 2 hours, TWO HOURS, and the truck never comes. We realize that we have been lied to. At this point, the meat is starting to smell because of the heat and our dog is whimpering and getting restless. We are also concerned for our safety. So, we call Zipcar and tell them that the representative lied to us, a tow truck was never called, and that we had been waiting for two hours. He tells us to take pictures of our car and that we can leave via Uber.
We then call an Uber, and the driver comes. Even though we had entered our address initially, he then tells us, sorry, he can't go to New York. Uber then charges us a cancellation fee and we have to take a Lyft back to our home only to find that our perishables had gone bad. 

As reiterated before in the initial paragraph, we are requesting a full compensation for the amount of our trip, the Lyft back, and the perishables that spoiled. Please issue this immediately.

A shocking company with terrible support, I closed my account and will never consider using them again. I had to wait 5 days for a simple reply from support. Their tech is useless and good luck if you need any assistance.

I done a web search for driving test car hire and these showed at the top of the search, BUT THEY DO NOT offer that service.

I signed up for Zipcar expecting a convenient, reliable service. Unfortunately, my experience was frustrating from start to finish.

Without my consent, my account location was set to Boston. This made the service completely unusable for me. I never received the SMS code to open my App.

When I contacted customer service to resolve the issue and request a refund, communication was slow and unhelpful. I had to repeat myself multiple times, and it felt like my concerns were not taken seriously. As a paying customer, I expect prompt, respectful, and competent service!

None of which I experienced.

Overall, I found Zipcar to be inflexible, poorly managed, and not customer-focused. I will not be using their services again and cannot recommend them to others: especially those based outside the US or relying on them for business travel.

Whilst on holiday in London we booked a Zipcar for a much looked forward trip to the countryside. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the car we were unable to unlock it and the UK phone number was out of service. We eventually contacted zipcar via a US number, which transferred us to the UK. We were informed our booking was accepted in error and we would not be able to use the car. This left us both disappointed and with a bill for a 30min mobile call to the US.

Its a total SCAM, even before showing you the cost they charge your card. Then noone replies to your messages

I was signing up, they charged me twice for application fee, application was rejected. When I called, she said that she can't refund me the 60 dollars, only 30.

Didn't mention why application rejected, I have all the requirments, valid driver license, age requirment, last ticket I had was 8 years ago.

So pay attention, you might be applying and rejected for no reason, and then get charged for it.

Well like I wrote in my review and Yelp I would have been a poster child for Zipcar right up until the very last rental. I made the mistake of taking a nap before I was supposed to return one of their vehicles and I overslept by about an hour and a half. When I woke up I was frantic to return the car so as I'm walking the block and a half from my apartment to where the car was parked I called Zipcar and was told by the associate that answered the phone that I didn't need to worry about returning the vehicle that Zipcar would handle the recovery of the vehicle and I could go on my way. The next morning I received an email and a phone call from Zipcar corporate saying that the vehicle had not been returned yet. I immediately pitched in and said that I would return the vehicle at that time I was told by the gentleman on the phone that it would actually cost me money to return the vehicle because they needed to book me into the car so I could have access to the vehicle and drive it back to his home location. Unfortunately, I did not have money in my checking account for them to book this micro reservation and told the gentleman that over the phone he refused to do anything about it and then told me that effectively my membership was in Jeopardy of being canceled and later that night I got an email stating that my membership was canceled and that I was going to be charged hundreds of dollars for the recovery of this vehicle. Next, when I found out that they were trying to charge my checking account over $500 because of the recovery charges for the vehicle after I had already offered twice to return the vehicle and was told that I couldn't I officially revoked in writing any authorization that they had to be able to charge my checking account. Somehow they were able to circumvent all of that and still get my account for $538 and one loyal customer that they decided was expendable

I payed for a month to be told I haven’t had my license long enough this I’m ok with it’s the rules. Now I asked for my payment back and they refused … this is very disingenuous. This company has no manager no supervisors and no fraud department. This company is not legitimate and I feel like it needs to be looked in to KYB because I’m not getting a great response from there customer service call operators