Zip Car is a pay as you go car hiring scheme, where members pay for membership and they don’t have to have the hassle of servicing the vehicle.
However with one of my friends it was not like that, he was given a zip car on a hot summers day and during his reservation, it started to rain, and when he turned on his window screen wipers, GUESS what, it was missing, so he parked up and waited for the next day to call, when he did call and mentioned it to them, they said they where sorry about that and he said can he extend it so he can bring the car back when its safer to drive, so the customer service lady said yes and applied a immediate debit from his account for this extra day.
When he got back to London it started to rain and he was furious because he had to pull over and wait for and hour or two for the rain to stop, he said it was so dangerous to drive. And he had to delay his journey throughout his relatives wedding week due to the rain and Zip Cars issue.
when he called them a few times they were very rude and they said that he will have to pay for the whole booking, he told them that he was unhappy with their service and that they have breached a section of goods and services were the vehicle must be road worthy, they said sorry and that he should have called for road side assistance and they would have come to the rescue and replaced the wiper, funny the lady did not mention that over the phone when he called in the 1st time and explained the reason why he was extending the booking.
He seems really confused and has been asking me to help him, I was unsure on what to advise him.
I told him to ask them that can he pay for the days were it was not raining, so 3 days out of 6, so half the booking price.
What do you guys recommend?
I just cut the story short, but according to him, he was very scared to drive and he said when it started to rain he was on the motorway and he said he could have died, however Zip Car find out of there responsibility to make sure the members are safe and according to them the vehicle should have been checked before use and that it was his fault for not calling a their roadside assistance number which he wasn’t told about at all., he said the vehicle was filthy and he had to pay an extra £10 for cleaning the vehicle, my friend also mentioned that, whets the whole point of paying a yearly membership fee if you still have the hassle of having your own car.
It seemed that they didn’t care if he had crashed and died in their vehicle with the window screen wiper to be missing.
He has tried negotiating with them on several occasions, however they have only offered an apology and one day free use of their vehicle, and still require their full payment of the service he received from their death trapped car.
What can he do?
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