The "apps" that "run" this show are full of bugs. While the concept of renting an electric car from a neighborhood station sounds good, you’ve got to have the solid, legitimate code to manage all the features of the concept.
The first issue is that the station map shown online isn’t interactive and doesn’t show addresses. And the one closest to my house, Vermont and Santa Monica is hosed due to "vandalism."
I knew in advance that the "app" to start the car was weak, however, I didn’t realize the other "app" that shows car "availability" was also weak. I must have looked at it 100 - 200 times, and it maybe showed cars available to rent 1% of the time. And I do mean 1%. It also does not give the exact address of the station, super lame!
I finally called them and they reserved a car for me fairly close by. I still had to take a train and bus to get there because it was in Koreatown.
From my arrival to actually driving away took almost 30 minutes because the app cannot take more than one picture and then it stalls out (I have Samsung Android). Basically, they had to open the door, start the car, do everything from "headquarters." The people I dealt with were nice, however, that’s not the only drawback.
The other huge drawback is that you cannot park these babies in a parking structure most likely because "headquarters" or I assume the "app" won’t be able to interact with the car and then it’s tow or rescue time.
Since my home parking space is underground, that literally means parking in the red in front of my building, schlepping many bags of groceries into the lobby and then schlepping again to the elevator. And, don’t forget, you have to turn the car off which means another phone call to start it when you’re ready to leave again. Note, they don’t state this anywhere on their site or app, you just get the FYI
If you’re running multiple errands, this is actually very inefficient. The second time (and last) I rented from them, I had to call about 7 times in total which adds up to about 45 minutes doing the work of the "app."
Another odd feature about the car is that it won’t let you lock the driver door after you turn it off. I wrestled with it in Ralph’s parking lot for about 10 rounds and finally said forget it, I’ll cover up my bag from CVS and Burbank is pretty mellow. And best of luck finding the button to unlock the trunk, it was a mystery on both occasions.
Finally, today would have been what I hoped was the last time I would use this service and when I called to reserve a car, the front end person, almost always a woman, quickly punted me to the rental area, always a man, who was short and rude. He let me know they don’t reserve no car for no one up in here and that their fabulous "app" had been in the ICU for several days and that we’d all get an email when surgery was over. I told him I’ve reserved a car previously and he made sure to let me know I did not. I then introduced him to Mr. Tone, first name Dial.
After that, I shredded every piece of documentation from this company. They just don’t have it together which is why in 5 months, I’ve only used them twice. Today would have been the third round, however, they couldn’t bring it...surprise...not!
It’s unfortunate that today I got 2 of the rude reps on the phone, however, I’m sure they’re uptight advising all their customers that the "app" is currently played out. Being a coder, I can attest that creating good, clean code is an art and a skill to master. And for now, they sure aren’t there. If this service had actually worked, it would have been an awesome option. I’m spending several days next week shopping for a new car. Bye Bye Blink.