Getaround

We use Getaround every second weekend to get to the snow. The app is great, and the cars are always clean and reliable. The bonus is that they can also guarantee you an all wheel drive. Something that not many other rental companies will do but is essential for driving on icy roads.

Allow me to speak freely:
In addition to being unable to receive a car on the day and time I requested, and in addition to the absurd policy of requiring a «selfie» with myself holding my DL, and then having the nerve to ask me for a second copy of the same DL, they asked that I take an «interview» as part of a «verification process».
All of this to rent a car. Wow. I was one of the first to use Zipcar. I’ve never, anywhere, with any app or service, had such a negative experience as with Getaround.
To conduct this interview, they sent me a phone number which, of course, does not work either. But I guess that’s in line with how they operate.
I cannot say enough about how poorly I perceive Getaround. They’ve got A LOT of work to do.
Oh, I forgot. Despite my not getting the car, they had the NERVE to charge my card a $ 180 hold for nothing.
Awful service.

Guys, do not rent your car out with Getaround! You will make a small amount of money but you will receive tons of hassles! During the couple months with Getaround, I got renters smocking weed in my car, I found underwear at the backseat, I got scratches all over and I don’t even remember how many times renters didn’t fill the gas. And finally, a bad accident was caused by a reckless renter and my car got totaled! The accident happened at the bad timing when my family is visiting. And then Getaround takes their time to go through the whole insurance process. And no satisfactory reimbursement for loss of earnings and taxi/​über.
All in all, the hassles and inconvenience is not worth the little money you make. !

Sharing my own car costs me $ 99 installation fee for a device which is nothing but a nuisance, $ 20 per month and then Getaround takes 40% of each hire? I have a brand new car that now has stains on the seats from careless renters and so far it’s cost me more than I’ve made with plenty of hassle. Unless your car is an old bomb or a utility vehicle you couldn’t care less about, it’s not worth it – not at all. The success stories are from people who were one of the few cars to hire in the beginning. There are now too many cars and too few people hiring, that you’ll get priced down and be making a few bucks a ride.

Update. I’ve seen a vast improvement in customer service response time and overall service in the last month. Increased my rating from 3 to 4. See below for more details on the goods and improvement areas for Getaround.

A tip that should be in bold: — PLEASE take pictures before and after a rental. It’ll save both the renter and owner a ton of time dealing with Getaround service which is awful.
I rented a SUV through Getaround April 25^th. Great price and add a coupon on top, it was perfect!
I checked before leaving to see if the car is at the same location before rental was confirmed. It had moved 2 blocks away, no worries! The trunk of the SUV had sand in it. I didn’t think much of it.
Anyway, was very pleased with the ease of getting a well maintained car. Parked it back around the same location i picked it from. A week later I got an email from the claims department that I damaged the car. I disputed the claim and it was dropped but the whole conversation was an ordeal.
Getaround service can be useful but their customer service is very poor. God forbid someone has to deal with their claims department.

I’m currently a first time renter renting a car from them and the experience has been horrible. When I went to pick up the vehicle the interior was dusty with dirty carpet which needed to be vacuumed. The driver’s seat was pushed up close to the steering wheel so that I could not enter the car and I could not locate the lever to move the seat back. I tried calling the owner and called customer service who also tried contacting the owner of the vehicle who refused to pick up his phone even though he had just left the car at the pick up location. I was finally able to locate the lever on my own after about 30 minutes.
That night, I kid you not, the car battery died on me while sitting in the car with no power on talking on my cell phone with a friend. I called getaround for help and was told there was a charge for them to send emergency road service to give me a jump. Luckily, I have AAA and hung up on them and immediately called AAA for help.
Before I booked the rental the car owner’s page clearly stated there would be $ 25 credit for first time rentals which was not applied to my bill. I called their customer service and asked if the $ 25 credit had been applied. They said no because I had not used the link. I had used the link. Regardless, they refused to give me the credit. I’ve now been on the phone with my bank to dispute $ 25 out of the entire charge which should have been credited. Thankfully my bank credited my account $ 25 while they file the dispute with getaround.
I highly do not recommend anyone use this service. They need some serious remedies for their absolutely poor customer service and ironing out the kinks that are bound to happen with startup companies and peer to peer car sharing. If they continue offering such poor service I don’t think they’ll be in business long anyways.

This is a review based on being an owner:
By far one of the worse customer service and experience I have ever had. Where to begin:
–I scheduled to have my car picked up to install the connect device. I set up an appointment and was stood up twice being told that the person picking up car got into an accident. I wasn’t notified at all until I called in and questioned them.
–My car was returned a mess with things thrown in my trunk and empty cans of soda
–Contacting customer service for anything is a true test of patients and repeating the same questions to different operators
–Getaround will take photos of your car for you which I thought was nice until I noticed that there was a gigantic white bird doo doo right on the front bumper in the photo. They didn’t even bother to wash it or photoshop it out. I could have taken a better photo with a disposable camera.
–I requested to have my connect device uninstalled today at 9am. No show as usual. I get a call 3 hours later at 12 with a guy telling me he was next to my Prius ready to pick it up. I was not notified of any of this and he ended up waiting an hour on me to return home. Had a quick chat with him and apparently he has no idea what the appointment times are, he is just dispatched from a higher up and they are not even given any information about the appointment.
–When they removed the device, they also removed the GetAround sticker they stuck to both sides my of car. Whatever they used to remove the stickers scratched up the clear coat and because there is a single sticker for each individual letter, it looks like a cat just went to town on my paint.
–Once again, when my car was returned to me, it was a mess and there was an empty can in one of the cup holders. Also, a random thing that happened during the pick up and return was that they took my cd player phone mount and twisted the cradle 90 degrees. No idea why they did this.
–When you have you car picked up and dropped off, you are risking your car in the hands of a complete stranger in which you have no clue whether they are even qualified to drive. My Prius averages around 46 mpg which is what it was at when my car was picked up. Upon return, the average went down to 36 mpg, which implies that whoever drove it had the pedal to the metal.
The only reason I signed up for Getaround was because it seemed convenient to not have to meet with your renter to rent out your car. However, the cons far outweigh that pro:
–Getaround takes a 40% cut
–The connect device cost $ 100 down and $ 20 a month
I’m going to stick with Relay Rides/​Turo as their cut is only 25% and you don’t pay them on a monthly basis.

As a family from Manhattan we have driver licences but don’t own a car. As frequent users of Hertz on Demand we learned soon after moving to San Francisco that they were pulling out of the city (locations were terrible anyway). We were then forced to find a new hourly rental service. Zip car quickly lost their luster after the fleet finally showed the abuse the cars took and it is not cheap. We decided to take chance on this new service called Getaround.
We use Getaround cars super frequently (weekly). Almost to the point we should seriously consider purchasing one of our own. Until this time comes we will continue to be loyal Getaround users. Within a half mile of our apartment we have full spectrum of cars ranging from a Prius to full size SUV. We personally have a portfolio of four cars we consistently use that are always clean and always a short walk from our apartment. We love Getaround and constantly evangelize there service to our friends back east (NY hates the sharing economy) and to our friends in Chicago/​Boston who have access to Getaround.
We only recently started using the native app for Andoid/​iOS which has room for improvement but 90% of time book through their desktop interface and launch a mobile web browser to access the locator and key with no issue at all.
When there is an issue (bad previous renter 99.99% of the time) we will notify Getaround and receive prompt and quick resolution to our problems. I think people who use Getaround need to recognize and accept there will be some hiccups and issues when participating in peer to peer car rental. Clearly there are issues that can be prevented but in our 15-​months of using Getaround we are very happy with the experience.

How GetAround lost my key, drained my car battery twice and immobilized my car — all in 1 week…
¹²⁄₁ — told that i need a 3^rd key but was not told it was going to be taken apart and put in my car. I paid almost $ 300 for this key.
¹²⁄₇ — car + 3 keys picked up
¹²⁄₉ — I received my car + 2 keys. The person who dropped it off had no idea about the 3^rd key.
¹²⁄₉ — Jonathan said the following «The key you left with us is inside the car, placed in the Getaround visor organizer on the driver’s side of the car. You can access your car using your spare set of keys or the Getaround app (iPhone /​Android).» Silly me, I took their word for it and didn’t check right away.
¹²⁄₁₁ 3:30pm — My car battery is dead when I am getting ready to leave for Half Moon Bay. There is no 3^rd key in the visor. Support person asked me to look around the car of the 3^rd key. At this point I am panicking that someone stole the 3^rd key.
¹²⁄₁₁ 5pm-​ish — Steve jumps my car and tells me the 3^rd key has been taken apart and has been installed in my car. Ayfer never told me this would happen, Jonathan told me it is in the visor of my car and the support person tells me to search all over my dead car for it.
¹²⁄₁₂ ¹²⁄₁₅ — I get a renters — yippie –_​–
¹²⁄₁₆ — I get a renter at night and we determine my car is dead. I am on the phone with a support person again who cannot help me. I was told someone would follow-​up with me first thing in the morning and no one did.
¹²⁄₁₇ — I hear from Courtney finally but she does not acknowledge my dead car. I write back to her I do not get a response. I needed the car to get to the airport and there was no urgency. I explained I needed the car on Friday evening.
¹²⁄₁₈ — I follow-​up and do not hear a response.
¹²⁄₂₁ — It is now 5 days since my car has been dead and no one has gotten back to me. I have had to spend hundreds of dollars and countless at this point to deal with not having a car.

I’ve really, really tried to give Get Around a fair shot. I rented my car on GetAround for about 8 months. From difficulty getting my car listed and activated, (which took 4 hours or so on the phone and email to resolve) to accidents by renters and an equal amount of effort to get my car off of GetAround and stop being charged for my parking spot, I have to give GetAround a generous 1 star for their customer service.
There are some deep flaws in customer service. You can chalk it up to it being a startup the first 4 or 5 times, but when you arrive at your car and it’s completely scratched without any prior notice of an accident, are told your car will be back from the shop and show up at your garage with no car in sight 20 minutes before a work meeting, or are told that your parking rate is going to double because of their own accounting mistake, enough is enough.
The system they use for customer service is automated, you rarely talk to the same person twice, you have to demand a manager call you back, since their system doesn’t allow call transfer. A couple of the managers are great, but it is way too difficult to speak to one.
The money you can make is compelling, my earnings for the first 3 – 4 months felt worth the hassle, but after two renter accidents and a 50% drop in earnings per month on average it was no longer worth it. I was relieved to be done with GetAround, until I checked my CC statement and they are still making charges on my account and saying I need to send in my CC info to prove the charges are still occurring…
My roommate went through the same sort of issues and stopped listing her car, so its not a unique experience. Appears to be the rule and not the exception for GetAround, unfortunately. I hope they can get it together.

I really like the idea behind this company but the service isn’t there yet.
I registered a license with them a couple of months ago because I knew it would be an app I would want to use one day. Everything seemed to go smoothly and I got the ok to start renting.
Fast-​forward to today and my boyfriend and I decide we want to take a day trip across the bay. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to finally use Getaround, but it didn’t work out. When I attempted to rent a car a few blocks away, a message popped up saying: «could not complete rental, an unexpected server error occured.»
So, I send Getaround an email with a screenshot of this message and I get a response saying that there is a problem with my driving record. Hmm. Very bizarre. I haven’t so much as received a speeding ticket in years. I replied asking them to double-​check and I got a response saying that I needed to send them a copy of my driver’s license.
Again? I thought we went through this months ago. I gave up at this point. If there really was a problem with my driving record, why wasn’t it flagged earlier? Why was the app telling me it was a server error?
Another issue is that the $ 50 discount they give you for first-​time renting is only limited to the first 2 weeks of registering with the company. So, I felt penalized for the fact that I registered early, because I couldn’t take advantage of the driving credits even though I was still a first-​time user. I even tweeted at them asking about this, but they didn’t budge. Seems bizarre to me that a promising new company wouldn’t want to go out of their way to please first-​time users.
We ended up going to Enterprise Rent a Car and getting a similar price on a 2-​day rental.
That’s the other thing. It’s just not worth it. With Getaround, you get to experience the unreliability of startup service with the price tag of corporate chains.
Airbnb for cars it is not.

Started using it for 2 months. These guys are all about ripping people off. Be aware. Don’t rent or rent your car with these guys. The worst company ever in Bay Area.
I had to file a best business bureau complaint because they tried to ripped me off of 300 $ for late return after a 1 hour rental
BEAWARE

I had a negative customer service experience with them. I thought registering with Getaround two days before renting a car would be enough. Nope. My initial registration did not go through since apparently I was «randomly» selected for extra screening. They asked for a series of photos that provided little to no extra information, which I provided promptly, but without response. I filed a ticket on their website, no response. Then I tried calling them, and an unhelpful customer service rep said there was nothing she could do. At this point it is hours before I needed the car. I ask to speak with a manager and instead of transferring me, she says they’ll call me back and hangs up. That was FIVE days ago. No I still haven’t received a call from them and no, I’m still not registered with Getaround.
Update: After posting this review my account was registered and I received a small credit on my account. Will update if I decide to use it.

I rented a Benz for a client meeting which seemed «too good to be true»…because it was.
The car was four miles away from its location, so I was completely hosed.
They had called me 20 minutes before the rental began, but I didn’t get the message.
Worse, when I called technical support, I was on hold for over ten minutes. Then, I received an email which — I’m not kidding you — said the following: We had «the impression you were driving the car.»
So let me see if I understand this… you offer a tech service which includes an app on my smart phone, a sensor on the vehicle and a website which lists the location of where the car «should» be.
Yet, despite the car in one location — miles from where it should be — and my smart phone location (about a half mile from the pick-​up spot), they’re left with the «impression» that my rental had started.
Stick with Hertz or Zipcar. They’ve got a lot of kinks to iron out and as long as you have time to burn — and another rental car service nearby — you should drive with caution.

Car owners beware! DO NOT PUT YOUR CAR ON GETAROUND! This is by far the worst company I have ever dealt with in my life!
I put my car on Getaround less than a year ago — a fairly new vehicle with only 50,000 miles on it. I thought it was a great idea because they promise you, «up to 1 million dollars of insurance!» However, today I am left with remnants of a salvaged vehicle because my car was literally driven into the ground and Getaround refused to take responsibility for it. The engine on my four-​year-​old car «mysteriously» broke down during a rental and I was told, «tough luck, not our problem.» Since I can’t afford the $ 8k to replace my engine, I have to sell my car for what’s left of it resulting in about a $ 10,000 loss on my end.
Oh and on top of all that, renters park your car wherever they please and your car gets so many tickets that you have to pay out of pocket or else your car will be booted and/​or your vehicle registration will be revoked. Only if you really hound them, they’ll reimburse you 2 months later — so don’t make plans to pay rent or anything.
Oh, and the «Connect» system drains your battery to the point where your car dies at least once a week and you will have to get your battery replaced twice in one year. Oh, and they’ll make you pay for it.
Long story short, this company is shady. I don’t trust them and neither should you.

My friends and I were really excited about using their app because the concept is awesome, especially for people like us who don’t have cars in the city. However, we were really disappointed with their customer service. I found a coupon on their website for first time users, that offered a $ 50 discount off the first ride. I was e-​mailed a discount code but when I tried to apply it, an error said it was expired. I called their customer service number but was eventually told it wouldn’t be honored because it was an old coupon. I had just received the coupon today… They basically said there was nothing they could do about it and there was no workaround. Their alternative solution was to «wait another few months for the next promo code.»
Because of the experience today, if a larger issue were to come up while renting a car, we don’t have confidence that the situation would be handled professionally or fairly. Its probably better to stick to the more traditional way of renting a car.

My friends and I used a $ 50 promo code so basically 6 hours on a prius only costed a buck (plus $ 2 for gas).
But if you’re a new user, they temporarily take $ 150 from you when you think you’re just paying the amount you’re spending. My friends and I were a little confused at first because that information wasn’t obvious to us. I didn’t really like that so I wouldn’t use this again unless I find another promo code. The car got us around.

Confession… still using Getaround because I rent from 1 owner, absolutely sweetheart, with a garage a block from my house. Unfortunately, I CANNOT. Here’s why…
Getraound is now processing bridge tolls from 2014-​sweet accounting. Frankly, I’m irritated because Getaround’s customer service is abysmal. If corporations can void paychecks after 90 days, if not cashed, you’d think Getaround would cut their losses and say, «Oops, we forgot to process payments. Let’s do the right thing and 1. Inform the renter that we F up. 2. Not charge folks without notice.»
Let’s see how long it takes them to get back to my service request. I’m guessing 2017.

Not everyone lives in their home every day because of work, vacation and other travel and because of that, Air BNB makes a killing off of their innovative idea to let home owners rent space in their vacant home.
Getaround takes this exact same concept and applies it to cars– simple, yet genius! It’s not in NYC yet (as far as I know) but when I came out to SF I was excited to try. We needed a way to get back and forth from San Francisco to Sonoma and Getaround seemed like a quick, cheap and relatively simple way to do this. We were initially throwing around the idea of getting a really flashy ride but ended up cheaping out and going with an orange Prius. Hey, gas is expensive in Cali!
We picked up the car at a lot right by our hotel in SF and opened up the Getaround app which to our surprise acted as a makeshift car key. You can actually hit ‘unlock’ on the app and open up the car that way. Dang technology. Once inside the car you’ll have access to the actual keys, but this is how you initially unlock and lock the car at the beginning and end of your rental.
Up until this point everything was going really well… but once we got inside the car we were pretty let down. It was really dirty, there were Starbucks wrappers everywhere and it absolutely reeked of smoke… and not the cigarette kind. The rental service is fairly cheap, but we are still paying customers. It would have been nice if the car could have been cleaned out before.
Otherwise, everything with the actual car went really smoothly. It rode well and was great on gas mileage. Be careful when you book until and make sure that you allot extra time if you think that you might need it. I had the car booked until 10:30 on the last day of the trip. We got a little lost coming back and the millisecond that the clock struck 10:31 I got a call from getaround letting me know that I was going to be charged for all overages. Jeeeeeez, gimme a break.
I would use this service again if I’m away and need a rental car, just hopefully next time it’s a little bit cleaner on the inside!