FlightCar

Here's a problem with the sharing economy that doesn't involve lobbying groups and law suits over labor and fee dodging: Flightcar is pissing off it's customers who were big proponents. My Acura TL was totaled while it was being rented to Flightcar on 9/2, I returned from my trip on 9/9 to pick up my car and was given no notice. That's 1 week since the week. In fact, they even tried to lie about what happened to my car saying they accidentally extended the rental. After pressing them for info, they admitted it was in a tow yard but insisted they had no other information. I found out after receiving a letter from the police department that it was involved in a hit and run. Since then, I've gotten the run around, getting pushed to different people, and received not a single cent of reimbursement for my car nor rental car I've needed since my car was totaled. It's now over 6 weeks and counting. People I've dealt with suddenly gets fired, and I can't get anyone to call me back. This is the type of company Flightcar is if anything goes wrong. Completely not worth the risk! Maybe this startup should focus on taking care not to turn their advocates into their critics, and maybe the investors should pay some attention to how the company is being run.

This is a neat new service which offers travelers free airport parking in exchange for renting their cars out at much lower prices than traditional rental car companies. In addition to providing free parking, they will wash your car and also compensate you if you car is rented while you're gone. For someone who is always debating the best way to get to the airport (and in need of a car wash), I decided to try them out before going out of town for the weekend.

I was able to schedule a drop off just six hours in advance by calling the service -- the FlightCar website doesn't allow you to make appointments online less than 24 hours in advance. Everything went smoothly in the morning. I was especially impressed by the professionalism of the staff, uniforms and branding given how new the service was. When I got back from my trip, I was pleasantly surprised that they washed my car even though it wasn't rented out. However, the shuttle back from the airport didn't show up for 25 min, which was a little longer than expected.

My experience is pretty limited so far, but I will definitely use them again and see how the experience is when someone actually rents my car. I have also not rented from them yet, but hope to try them out after they expand their locations beyond just San Francisco and Boston.

This is one of my worst experience in life and I think that they are highly unethical and cheat people. I gave my car on monthly rental program as I was going out of country for 3 months. After 15 days, I received an e-mail that my car is damaged and gave me options to fix my car myself or through them. Next day, I received an e-mail that they have changed their rental policy and now they will pay on per mile basis. I sent an e-mail to their mentioned representative asking about sudden policy change for cars already rented out as per old policy but he/ she only bothered to respond after two reminders and below is their reply "If you are asking about the policy change, it is something that the company executives issued, felt necessary for the success of the company and were within their rights to do so."

If I don't like/ agree to their new policy, do they expect me to come back from international trip to take my car back? How can they intermediately change their policy for cars which were given to them on old policy for certain period? Also as my car is already damaged by them, it means that they won't pay me anything for the time for which my car will be fixed at the workshop as per their new policy.

I have already spent more than what they plan to pay me now by renting out a car for taking my flight from Austin to Houston Airport. The current rate of $0.1 per mile (only as and when driven) even doesn't cover the running wear and tear of the car.

Their customer service is pathetic and they are just acting as dictators as they already have my vehicle and I am on international trip. It seems that I made worst mistake of my life by renting out my car to them.

I would recommend to stay away from flightcar as tomorrow again they may intermediately change the policy after you rent your car to them saying that they won't pay anything upto certain miles per day.

Never hear from this company in my life! I went to the website, asking me for my debit card, they took my money before I got the car. They took 40minutes to pick me up. Once I got there they told me can't rent my car because I was from Washington, they told me I need to go a website to pull my record driving! Am 32 not a teenager, btw was gonna cost me $13dlrs. I told them I wasn't gonna do it, I need my money back, they refused give me my $73.00 dlrs back! Not only terrible service but also thief!

Dispatch Supervisor
FlightCar - Bedford, NH
Dispatch Supervisor

FlightCar – San Francisco, CA

Founded in 2012 by college dropouts, FlightCar is an exciting new startup that is rapidly becoming a leader in the emerging peer-to-peer car sharing market
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QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRE A COLLEGE DEGREE! YOU ARE TOTAL HYPOCRITES!

THE FOLLOWING WAS TAKEN FROM THEIR JOB POST:

Role Qualifications-

College degree (highly preferred)

It has been more than 3 weeks and yet I have not received any check/communications from flightcar about my listing.

The employees at the lot were quite clueless when asked questions. The software kept crashing.

I had not listed it as smoking (being a non-smoker), however, one of the renters probably smoked in the car, which is very annoying for someone who does not smoke. My car was neither cleaned or vacuumed. No one even cared to mention that somebody smoked in the car let alone offer any service to get it cleaned.

One of the renter had an minor accident broken mirror on the drivers side. The car was given to a body shop. I had to pick up from the shop my self and no one at the Boston lot even cared to return my calls. Except for the insurance person (Wendy Dubois), the communication at the call center also was very poor. They were annoyed that I was calling them, trying to get numbers for the lot to get my car back. The car was ready in the body shop, however, no payment was received for 4 days so they would not release the car. I was not notified that my car is still in the body shop. The replacement car given to be had a check engine light on, that I noticed a day later. I left the replacement car at the body shop as there was no one to drive me there. The lot employee said that is what the office told her to do.

It felt that no one really cared as it was not their car or for that matter they were invested in this business.

After this kind of experience I am not going to myself sign up again let alone referring others.

I rented and fully paid for my rental on Dec. 14,2014 for an SUV in San Francisco. Upon pick up, we were told that our rental had not been paid for and we were required to provide a credit card for the payment. We were also told that they had no record of our having rented an SUV and therefore were given a sedan, a big hassle that cost us extra expense because we had to rent zipcars on days that our whole family was going places together during our 6-day stay.

Upon return, we noticed that our credit card was charged a second time for $236. I have been contacting flightcar through email and phone calls multiple times to work out this problem. They now know that I was charged twice but refuse to remedy the problem easily. So far they have issued three partial credits back to my card but I am still owed $34.

I finally got tired of trying to resolve this problem with them directly and filed a dispute with my credit card company because I have already spent hours on email and phone calls with them. I understand that others might have had a less painful experience than mine. But when they do screw up, they do it ROYALLY! We will never rent another car from flightcar.com. The San Francisco site is a zoo run people that have no idea what they are doing.

As a car owner I strongly encourage you to think twice about putting your car in posession of this company. My car was in great shape at drop off. I was gone just shy of 4 months and my vehicle was rented out the whole time. 5,400miles were put on my car while I was gone and I made $540. When I picked my car up it reeked of McDonalds, ketchup stains on the seats. They claim the car will be returned as clean as it was maybe cleaner than when it was dropped off. This was not the case. Also my service light was on and no one bothered to tell me. Then I discover damage on my bumper. Took it in for an estimate and will cost about $1900 to fix. To top it off when I checked my mail these "verified" renters racked up $400 in parking violations that went unpaid for months. I keep giving the company multiple chances to redeem themselves. I get that they are a young small company, but this is huge liability and they need to take care of this stuff quickly not let it ride out. Someone said they put a $100 coupon in the mail to get my car detail cleaned, I have yet to receive it, and no one will give me a straight answer as to taking proper steps to repair the car. The before and after photos make it quite obvious that something went wrong. Again these people don't bother to tell you anything. Terrible. This company based and dependent on private owners and their vehicles. With out the private owners cars, there would be no business. I feel disrespected and violated. My car was earning them more money than it was earning me. Worth it to spend the money on monthly parking than to park here.

Too bad, I could not have been able to select "No Stars." I made reservations (7/20/2015) with EconomyBookings.com, that is with a "s". Avoid this web site, too which is not related at all with EcomonyBooking.com without the "s". Got to the airport in Seattle (8/4/2015) and no car. Flight car made a reservation with Alamo. That reservation was more than Flight Car had negotiated. That reservation was cancelled. New reservation with Hertz. Had to go to Seattle via Uber. No car at Hertz, despite reservation. Back to the rental car facility via Uber. Thrifty reservation confirmed at a cost of $509 which was twice the original reservation. Flight Car was to refund $200 toward this rental. Sent picture of receipt on 8/11/2015. No refund and it has been almost 30 days. Been getting the run around. Apparently, the refund has to go through two levels of approval, before it can be approved. I doubt I will get any refund at all. Disappointed with Flight Car. Without a doubt, we will NEVER rent from these Flight Car again!

Update as of October 19,2015: Flight Car came through with a full refund and not just the $200 that was suggested after more than 90 days. I will have to give Flight Car credit for coming through on the "promised" refund. Although I am quite happy to have gotten a full refund, I don't think I would recommend them at this time. The business model does not seem to be viable or sustainable long-term.

One star because of follows:

1. Reimbursement promised but not delivered, and kept saying there is nothing they can do, they just don't care breaking their promises to customers

2. Transferred customers to a worse service due to their own operational failure and considered it a right thing to do, laughable

3. Stopped communication completely after being asked with challenging questions, how professional

4. My experience seemed to be that they give you a chance to provide feedback only when they think you are happy, otherwise, no chance to review. So don't trust the high ratings on their own website. That's cheating.

Use Flightcar for cheap price but try to record everything, because they may not keep their promise and they said there is nothing they can do afterwards. I hope this new business model can work out but the service quality is just not there. Very disappointing.

My experiences are below:

I was writing today to request a reimbursement of Supplemental Liability Insurance I paid additionally to Payless Car Rental, to which Flightcar transferred me to due to nonavailability of Flightcar on 11/12/2015.

I know what your policy is and I understand you don't refund any insurance purchased. But I think I still deserve the refund for the following 2 reasons:

1. I reserved a service with Flightcar and Supplemental Liability Insurance is included for free. If Flightcar failed in operation and had to switch the customer to a 3rd party, the service should be equivalent to what the customer reserved from Flightcar. If you were saying Flightcar thinks it is correct to switch customers to a worse service (without supp liab insurance) and refuses to reimburse the supplemental liability insurance, that just sounded so wrong. I find it hard to believe if you truly disagree.

2. Before I picked up the car from Payless, I called Flightcar and asked specifically I would purchase Payless Supplemental Liability Insurance and whether it will be reimbursed. The representative told me YES, which is the reason I made the purchase. I know Flightcar recorded the phone conversations, please check the recording on 11/12/2015. I paid because I was promised a refund, but now Flightcar refused to refund me. That's just not right.

CAR RENTER BEWARE! I rented a car from flight car in Boston the car they had for me was a 2003 Honda Civic with 144,000 miles on it The car had no air, a shimmy in it, vibration in front end, car was not clean and had a musty smell to it. I called the company to ask for another car they said their was none available, we were stuck with it.! I will never use this company again, and will advise my friends and family to do the same.

We used Flightcar for parking and airport transportation when going on vacation just prior to Christmas. The actual location is a little obscure. We drove by twice before locating the entrance. The actual business is in a trailer with limited parking making both the drop-off and pick-up a little chaotic as we weren't the only ones doing so at the time. The biggest complaint is payment for the rental. The day after we arrived at our destination I got an e-mail say the car was rented. Upon our return to pick-up the car, we were told a check for early $49 was on the dash. We found no check in the car. The attendant was trying to handle a number of customers at once and said he'd send the check out the next day. We waited more than a week but no check. So I e-mailed Flightcar and did get a reboreply saying I get a response within 24 hours. I waited another week but there was no further response. I sent anoter e-mail so there has been no response period. My advise – if they owe you money, don't leave without it in your hands.

Upon arriving at airport I called to let Flight car I had arrived. It took about 15 rings before my call was answered and then I was placed on hold for 13 minutes. When the dispatcher returned, he told me they we're going to dispatch an UBER Driver to take me to the car pick up location. 15 minutes later an UBER driver shows up and when we get in the car he asks us where we want to go... We don't know and have to call Flight Car back and have another flight car dispatcher look us up and give us an address of a hotel the driver needs to take us. It takes another 10 minutes to get to an old run down hotel in a really sleazy area. We enter the lobby and have to wait on a hooker to quit talking to the front desk guy before we can ask him where we pick up our flight car rental. He informs he needs to call another guy who will be here in a few minutes... 10 miuntes later a guy show up with a tablet, he asks us to step into a mop closet where he asks for my license and other rental info. We complete his questions and he thens walks us out and asks me to do a walk around with him to inspect a 2003 Toyota Corrolla with 126,000 miles, bearing Arkansas plates. The car is dirty, it stinks, it sounds like it's falling apart. This is the biggest piece of $#*! car I have ever driven, I'm embarrassed to be seen in it and I don't feel safe in it.

I'm 56 years old and this is the worst buying experience of my lifetime.

Maybe there's a good idea in there. But the reality is that these guys are a front for other car rental companies. They make you think you found a nice upscale car, for a reasonably low price, and you get a reservation confirmation email... then you get there and they say there aren't cars available (even though the site would still list plenty of cars available-- I can only imagine they are ALL FAKE. Same concept as dating sites: Lots of stock photos, no real people--or cars in this case.) Then they refer you to another car rental company with a promise they will refund the difference between what you have to pay for the other car rental, and the (low) rate that they had quoted you for their car. Then they not refund the difference between the rate they quoted you and the the car rental company's much higher rate, as they promised. (it's been two months. Still waiting.)

CONCLUSION: TOTAL SCAM. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!

Note: As of Sept 28,2015, I did receive the check mentioned above, FINALLY. It took over two months, and plenty of ridiculous back and forth with the company. I suppose perseverance paid off in this case. I'm not sure if their process is really that glacially slow, or they were hoping I'd just go away and they wouldn't have to pay out what was due. In any case, the whole thing is ridiculous and I find nothing trustworthy about this company.

At the end of September 2014, we prepaid our rental car for December 26th at LAX. On the night of Dec. 26th upon our arrival to LAX, we called the phone number we were given and a shuttle picked us up. When we arrived at FlightCar counter, SURPRISE! Our car was given away to somedoby else. They only said "Sorry but there was some overbooking". WHAT? This is a steal. After 6 hours of back and forth to some other car rental companies but there was no more car to rent on such a busy day. We did not have the choice but to sleep at an hotel close to the airport. The cost: $150. The next morning we were able to rent a car from another car rental company but it cost more than what we had prepaid at the end of September. Since our arrival, we did not stop sending e-mails to them and also to Economy Booking who did the booking. Today is January 18th but our case is not settled yet. My advise to you: Do not EVER rent with FlightCar. It is Worth it to pay a little more but to rent with a national car rental company.

DO NOT RENT FROM FLIGHTCAR! I normally don't write reviews but I had such a nightmarish experience with Flightcar SFO. I needed a rental car for a couple of weeks since I had just moved to SF and was planning to buy a new car. Their business model involves renting cars belonging to owners who leave their cars at the airport. As a result, they cannot guarantee the reliability of the cars. They gave me a Subaru which broke down within hours of driving it. I had to wait by the roadside for 2 hours while they arranged a tow truck to pick me up and tow the car. I could not believe they charged me for gas when clearly I could not refill it. Back at the lot, they gave me a red mustang even though they knew it had an expired registration sticker. That night, I was pulled over by the cops and given a ticket with a court date on it. I called Flightcar the next morning and they said they would take care of it. However when Flightcar called the San Mateo court to find out how to settle the ticket, they were told that only the person on the ticket could inquire. I ended up making several trips to the court and the matter is still not settled. They were unable to reach the owner to obtain the sticker since she was traveling and had left the car there longterm. Because of all the time wasted and aggravation, I was unable to find a new car to buy. They said they would give me 5 extra days initially, then to my surprise and fury, they charged my credit card on file for a $400 late fee. This company is unreliable, unethical, and has no sense of customer service. I have spent more money on this rental than if I would have had I gone with a reputable rental agency - not to mention the incredible amount of aggravation and time wasted. I have never had a worse experience with a company than with Flightcar.

The first time I rented out of SFO in May 2015, I had to wait an hour to get my car and then I had a flat tire within miles of leaving, called to discover they provide no assistance with a flat, your responsibility! Then it took over an hour on the phone days after returning the car to get them to refund the $300 damage deposit.

There customer service reached out and asked me to consider renting again as they had some growing pains. UNFORTUNATELY, I decided to give them another try. Up in landing, they were quick to pick me up but it again took close to an hour to get the car. Fuel was almost on empty and I picked it up at midnight. Went right to my hotel, drove it to a meeting the next morning then stopped to get gas, the car won't start after filling it.

Brake warning lights come on. Call it in at 9:19 pm, someone is supposed to contact me in 5-10 minutes. 20 minutes, no call back. Finally get a text tow truck to arrive at 10:30. Text every ten minutes after I text, no tow truck. Finally get a response, delayed. Tow truck arrives 11:20 pm, TWO HOURS after calling. Has to tow me from San Jose back to San Francisco Flight Car office.

Oh, btw, if you try calling customer service after 11 pm, that are closed. Texted and received response I would need to talk to customer service! Arrive San Francisco rental office at 12:05 am.

Arrived in tow truck, staff knew nothing about the vehicle being returned, received a call after I was there. They have no cars. Sending me back to the airport at 12:40 am to PAY for a rental with Budget with the promise that customer service will work things out in the morning. There onsite guy was very apologetic and compassionate, but there was no manager on duty so couldn't do anything but put notes in the computer.

1:10 am I depart airport in a Budget rental car to drive back 40 minutes to where this began at 9:15 pm. BTW, the rental was cheaper through budget.

I signed up for the month to month program and decided it was not a good idea after seeing a few reviews! I finally elected to do it and registered for my car to be on the monthly program till I returned in December (2013 VW Passat).

The drop off was a nightmare and come to find out they don't drop you at your terminal they take you to the rental car terminal at DFW (Dallas Fort Worth).

The paperwork said I could pick my car up when I needed so I made arrangements (It took 14 phone calls to finally get my car) at one point they said they did have my car keys, Then they said a manager took my car to get an oil change (NO OIL CHANGE WAS DONE AND I WAS NOT REIMBURSED FOR THE TIME THEY DROVE MY CAR). They put me in a (Like vehicle for the night) if you can call a compact small car comparable to my large VW Passat!

Then the kicker like an idiot I dropped my car back off and left town!

I receive and E-MAIL WITHOUT ANY NOTICE! That they are no longer doing the monthly guaranteed $325 a month program and I have 7 days to pick my car UP!

I AGREED TO LEAVE IT WITH THEM TILL DECEMBER SO NOW I HAVE TO FIND A WAY TO GET MY CAR PICKED UP OR THEY RENT MY CAR OUT WITH A REIMBURSEMENT TO ME OF. 10 Cents per mile or $7.50 a day for the first 75 miles?

WHY THE HECK WOULD I DO THAT?

AVOID THESE PEOPLE!

My boyfriend and I were very happy with the FlightCar-concept BEFORE we actually tried it.
We had booked a new sedan for a two week roadtrip this summer. When we arrived at the airport in San Fran to pick up our car there was complete chaos. The offered us a huge gas-guzzling truck from 2004 instead of what we had actually booked. We were planning on driving a lot of miles, so a truck was not an option for us financially. They simply did not have the car that we booked!
The manager at FlightCar in San Francisco Airport was very sorry but could not do anything to help us. After a very long discussion he offered to cancel the reservation and drive us to a different rental company where we could rent a car. After pushing very hard he also agreed that FlightCar could pay part of the insurance since the rental car company charged a lot more, than what we had planned to pay through flightcar. We spent a whole afternoon on this which was annoying since we only had limited time for the roadtrip.
After our holiday we waited for the reimbursements from FlightCar. They did not come. I contacted the manager at FlightCar in San Francisco Airport multiple times through email. He did not respond. We tried at least three times before contacting FLightCar support. Luckily we had a confirmation-email from the manager that we would get the reimbursements.
Now, more than 3 months after our trip I have still not received the full reimbursement. Even though costumer support has been fast at replying, friendly and apologetic I am still feeling insure that we will ever get our money back.
So what can I say? I cannot in any way recommend FlightCar. However, I sincerely hope that they learn from this experience, so that a good concept like theirs can actually be brought to life.
Lise