I really don't get this concept. Never ever would I entrust a total stranger that I haven't even met with an expensive piece of machinery. You have zero control over what happens when you're not there and your car could easily end up being totaled, broken (in ways not easily seen immediately) or used in ways that conflict with the law. Sure, the 'middleman' will tell you it's all just fine and they're insured and what not. But in the end it's <i>your</i> problem to fix it if things don't work out and it won't take very much to offset the gains from going this route in the first place.<p>I love the basic idea behind the sharing economy, way too much stuff lying around unused. At the same time as a supplier of capital goods to that industry you're taking an awful lot of risk.<p>Edit: I did some googling about flightcar reviews:<p><a href="http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.flightcar.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.flightcar.com</a>
I have had the same experience. The car was returned dirty and there was damage on the body. They said they will pay me a measly $60. I asked for $180 since I spoke to a mechanic who said it will cost me that much in SF.<p>Since there was back and forth I said fine ok just give me the $60 saves me hassle I will foot the rest. I have not yet received the check this was several months ago.<p>Also another time we had left a credit card in the car by mistake. Someone ran up $700 in charges. Luckily card fraud protection covered us. Flight car did not give a crap when we reported it.<p>Don't use Flightcar, just take a shuttle or cab or whatever.
I will never forget the comment a disgruntled former Flightcar employee left on my rant I posted about Flightcar.<p><i>I am a current flightcar employee so I will be anonymous.<p>I read your post and listened to your recordings and I will do my best to break down whats going on a flightcar.<p>I am sorry to hear your experience...<p>Do not use flightcar or recommend flightcar to any one.<p>The CEO is a 20 year old kid and only interested in making money.<p>He moved the customer support to Philippines because he can get someone for like 10-12$ an hr. Great idea.. right? Let's connect the customers who are loaning flightcar a 30-40k car to someone in Philippines who does not understand english or even knows what a floor mat is.<p>Check out this post on reddit - <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/3.." rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/3..</a>.<p>An email sent by an angry coworker - <a href="http://imgur.com/eGhDhXM" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/eGhDhXM</a><p>Yelp reviews - <a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/flightcar-south-san-fra.." rel="nofollow">http://www.yelp.com/biz/flightcar-south-san-fra..</a>.<p>Glassdoor reviews - <a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/FlightCar-Revi.." rel="nofollow">http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/FlightCar-Revi..</a>.<p>The current working conditions are so shitty that my whole team hates our jobs. And it is not just you, my team and I are badgered by angry customers and we are just done and give 0 fucks to the customers. If your email is the spam in zendesk, it means that one of the philippines reps didnot want to respond to you and marked the email as spam so that the email disappears from their inbox.<p>SOOO what can you do?
- Post your review to reddit, yelp, facebook and twitter so no other customers go through this.
- Here is the CEOs number, you can try to call him - 609-529-8346<p>I have a few interviews so I don't care if flightcar shuts down, I will be leaving this hell hole very soon anyway.<p>You seem like a good guy, good luck and please read all the reviews before participating in a shared economy in the future.</i><p>From: <a href="http://watilo.com/open-letter-to-flightcar" rel="nofollow">http://watilo.com/open-letter-to-flightcar</a>
Not surprised. Had a terrible experience with FlightCar. They didn't damage my car but I rented one. Arrived at the airport after a 13 hour flight, went to FlightCar, they said the car I was supposed to rent didn't come in. Told me they would refund me, reimburse me for a rental but in the end, they didn't reimburse me. Will never use them again.
I'm still a bit confused about why anyone would rent out their car via FlightCar when I normally see off-airport parking with a free shuttle costing between $5 - $15 per day with discounts when you do weeklong or more.<p>The "whatever" attitude of people when it comes to taking care of rentals would mean it's just way more trouble than it's worth for me to use. If you're staying for a month or longer, wouldn't it be much more economical to just take public transportation there or an Uber?
I can believe there was a bad experience, but even <i>without</i> seeing FlightCar's response, this story doesn't completely cohere.<p>* The vanity-lights in the sun-visors shouldn't "short out" just from being "left open". (It might drain the battery, or shorten the life of the bulb... but simply being 'open' wouldn't/shouldn't cause damage.) The actual failure may have been due to lifetime wear & tear, or perhaps even atypical use prior to the rental period... in which case FlightCar's responsibility is murky.<p>* The VW dealer price for repair is insane. Yet even though customer is displeased at FlightCar having slightly overestimated the radiator/themostat fix cost (by $200), customer expects FlightCar to cheerfully accept highest-possible cost for his own reimbursement.<p>Doing what this customer seems to want – generous reimbursement for something that isn't indisputably related to the incremental use during the rental period – might not be tenable for the business even if everyone was acting in good faith. And if FlightCar had a reputation for generous reimbursements, it would also attract people acting in bad faith: blaming FlightCar for preexisting issues that could be snuck by the check-in/check-out inspections.<p>The difficulty of tracking and resolving such issues may be a fatal flaw in the FlightCar business model.
Previously in FlightCar: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5526655" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5526655</a> (I just remembered this because I recalled commenting - was it really 958 days ago??)
I can sympathize with your frustration, but it sounds like your car was on the cusp of all sorts of trouble when you left it with FlightCar.<p>I don't know their policies, but if I was the person renting your car - I would have been extremely frustrated that FlightCar even accepted your vehicle into their renting pool.<p>I do hope it all works out well for you though - and your story has successfully discouraged me from leaving my car with any such service.
We need a more pedestrian friendly world. And more pedestrians. People are letting their legs go underused, not caring how it is killing them, then worrying how they can monetize all their consumer purchases. Cuz: "Logic."<p>The world has basically lost its mind.
> I took the car to a mechanic, who told me that it was impossible to tell whether the thermostat is broken without replacing the radiator first, even though FlightCar had wanted to fix both<p>This makes <i>no</i> sense. Replacing the thermostat in most cars is a matter of a $10 part and 15 minutes. You need a pair of pliers and a ratchet.<p>Meanwhile, the only reasons a radiator would warrant replacement would be extreme buildup (indicative of <i>much</i> bigger issues, like a blown head gasket) or a puncture.
What I don't get is why visor lights would cost so much and why would they short out because they were left on. This says as much about VW as it does about FlightCar.<p>Bummer about FlightCar.
For those asking, here's the breakdown of the costs:<p>Sun visor (x2): 238.78 + 78 service
Coin drawer: 215.43 + 195 service
New key: 272.60
Key programming: 97.50
Sales tax: 85<p>Total: 1499.19<p>Of course, this is an official VW dealer and this repair could probably be done more cheaply elsewhere, which I'd be happy to do. But the issue with FlightCar hasn't been about price, it's been about whether they are willing to cover these things at all.
My biggest concern with lending my car out to strangers is many insurance policies don't give the replacement value of the car if it's totaled. Typically to purchase an equal vehicle (based on year, mileage, condition), you would need to spend up to 10-20% more.<p>Although, I've seen a few car insurance polices offer "gap coverage" at a nice premium to make up for the difference.
Had a bad experience on the renting side including poor customer service and shoddy operations - can't even imagine renting my own car, just look at their Yelp reviews. One of those concepts I really wanted to be great, but just hasn't happened. Sorry you have to deal with this.
Lots of complaints about flightcar here in the comments but I'll just chime in that I had an excellent experience renting from them last time I was in SF.<p>It cost 3x less than any other rental company and I got a much bigger car and it was a hybrid to boot so I saved on gas!