I’ve been wanted to write this blog post for a little while now. I’ve been working in companies that promote brands that listen to their customers, brands that want to improve themselves, that want to innovate, change and adapt themselves to their customers as much as possible. It’s really cool to see brands doing that, brands that are changing, or at least trying hard to change. Some example of those brands: Ford, Netflix, eBay, and many more. I want to congratulate those brands, they are just Crushing It!
Unfortunately, it’s still a fraction of companies that are doing this. I’m hoping hard that more and more brands are going to change, and finally listen to their customers, and change things that are wrong with their service or product. On the other side, I’ve been seeing more and more companies with really poor service, bad customer support, that are sometimes listening to their customers, but nothing is really changing. Most people seems to be fine, satisfied with mediocre services, because they are locked in those services or simply because of the lack of choice. I’m tired of this, tired of paying for poor service, and not being treated like a customer paying for a service should be. Is asking for good products too much to ask? It seems for some companies.
One of these companies is Zipcar. I wrote about this service a couple of months ago on the old version of this blog. Unfortunately, I realized with the months that their service was really bad. It went from cars that didn’t had insurance (to pass my drivers license!), cars with really damaged equipment (like really used tires), cars that are not where they are supposed to be, reservations cancelled or changed at the last minute for “technical reasons” and many more problems. And I’m not even talking about their really bad iPhone app, because TechCrunch already wrote about it. Last problem with them was just this week-end. The car I rented to go biking with friends didn’t had battery anymore, Zipcar was perfectly aware of the problem up to 24 hours before my reservation, and no one called me, they couldn’t find a replacement car for me, so I had to give up on what was supposed to be a great day, because of a company not doing his job. They first offered me $11 (one hour of rental, versus the 16 hours reservation I had) when I called. What a joke. But still, this company is acting poorly, letting customers complain online, closed their ears, and still trying to broadcast messages, the old way. It’s too easy to just criticize. That’s why I’m sending a letter to Zipcar, with solutions that would have made me happy today, and how they could have improved the customer support experience I just had. And I’m sure we all have ideas to improve millions of products, we should just share them.
To finish with Zipcar, I’m going to quote Alex Payne:
Dealing with Zipcar has been one of the worst consumer experiences I’ve ever had. While I know plenty of folks who’ve used the service without issue, I hope that if they’ll keep a close watch on Zipcar from here on out. It’s my intention to sign up with City Car Share. They have fewer cars in the Bay Area and no presence in other cities, but far lower rates and a good reputation. They don’t have cars on my block here, but close enough.
I really hope that more and more people are going to counter those old brands. WE have the power, without us, brands can’t live. It’s time to change, and use products and services from responsible companies. Companies that are changing, listening to us, adapting themselves to what we want. That’s how it should be.
This is especially a shame if you consider that it decreases the trust not only in zipcar but also in the car sharing business. With all its benefits in term of budget, efficiency, urbanism and ecology. Here in Switzerland we have mobility.ch and they are particulary aware that they have to pay the greatest attention to the satisfaction of the existing customers if they want to convince more people to join the car sharing community.
Anyway, great complaining post, balanced and constructive :)
Hi Mathieu!
unfortunately for me, I didn't see your blog post 1 week before!
I send my application to zipcar on friday! Because I remember your old blog post about zipcar and how this company was good!
From my own (and short) expercience with the customers service of Zipcar (only web chat) I'm not really happy (but happy for the gift!), the online assistant reply to my questions, but not in good terms. (I'm a bofa user and they customers service is really really good!) to come back with my zipcar experience, I received a 50$ credit to my account and fee waiver (25$).
I will come back to this post at the end of November to let's you know about my zipcar experience!