Zipcar: Beware!

[steelbrassnwood]

mary_wroth signed up for a Zipcar account recently so I joined her account, since that way I can have a car when I'm in the city without having to drive mine back from Ithaca and worry about parking and such

Comments

[kibbles]

Infuriating. Absolutely infuriating. Glad you got your money back, but a hit like that would have thrown me for sure...

[steelbrassnwood]

Those debit cards are freaking dangerous. These clowns snapped $750 out of her checking account. If she'd been using a credit card, they would have charged the account and she could have disputed it, without having to cough up the $750.

The banks will tell you that they'll handle these situations, and some will or some won't depending on the bank, but you're out the money while they decide. And you'll really have to battle to have them refund bounced-check fees -- imagine if Zipcar had done this just before the rent check was cashed.

The moral of the story, aside from not trusting Zipcar, is to avoid those debit cards that pretend to be credit cards. Use a real credit card, or use an ATM card (the kind where you need to enter a PIN to make a purchase).

[queencallipygos]

Hmm. I've always had good experiences with them; even when one of their cars broke down on me in the middle of the LIE and when the insurance company they kept calling kept trying to charge me for the tow because "I was parked on the LIE" (I was in the front lot of a state police station; that counted as "being on the LIE". Zipcar did not accept that either, and kept trying to call and reason with them -- I think the agent at Zipcar finally managed to ask them to "pretend you picked her up in the BACK lot, moron").

[steelbrassnwood]

Us too, until this.

[kizlj]

Ooo. Wanna put a floodlight on this? I'd love to run a lightly edited version on CNNMoney. I appear not to have your email -- ping me if you're interested? stacy.cowley@turner.com

[steelbrassnwood]

Hey Stacy -- sure thing. I'll drop you an email.