E-Car Club Reviews 20

I was initially quite enthusiastic about this service and, since they had installed 3 of these cars in my home town, I paid £50 for what was described as "life membership".
Later, they removed all 3 cars from my town, and so I asked for a refund on my "life membership".
They refused.

Would love to give 5 stars but not happy with the service car was great can't fault that my complaint is the free credit I had 35 hrs left to use I was going to book car when my credit has gone found out had a month to use not that e car tell you this took over 2 weeks to get my card to open car I won't be using in future so just be aware of free credit doesn't last long enough to even use it

NO cars available!!! Everytime you try to book a car, there are no cars available!!!

Friendly, efficient service. Swift responses to emails, expert help on the phone when I had a question. My only criticism is that the car was not cleaned inside or out before I used it. Users should be encouraged to clean the cars, and staff should check.
Altogether an excellent experience, highly recommended.

Breakdown experience
This will be updated ..

Most unreliable car company I've ever seen.
After months trying to get an account for my wife, they finally activated, but put her under mine so she can't book cars now directly. Called them for 10th time and said they would take care of the situation creating a separate account for her.
Never heard back. No wonder why the have awful rating. Message to the owners/directors : renew your team, they are all helpless.
Update: my wife called them again and a girl said she does not have access to the system, but a manager will call her in the afternoon to finally solve the problem. Result: nothing, again no call.
Whoever who owns this company, please do something about it.

Been bad service from the start. When I set up, I waited and waited and had to be persistent in emailing/phoning them to get it sorted. They have charged me for a booking I made in error, even when the customer service person said in an email I wouldn't be charged. I brought the car back on time, yet they charged me for another hour. Sometimes I can't book it out, yet it's sitting in the car park.
It is convenient once I get going, but the app needs to be clearer when choosing a vehicle. Twice I booked the wrong vehicle- maybe user error, but very annoying- especially when I then have to pay for it! I joined this scheme cos u can't afford a car and they've ripped me off a few times. They need to change the 24 hour cancellation period.
Anyway rant over. It's not like I have a choice. It's a great idea for a service, but get more vehicles in my area (the car I use is also only ever available weekends - I suspect the local council books it out, could be wrong) and don't penalise people who have to cancel or make an error!!

I have tried to create an account with them, but they have not got back to me after a several days of waiting. Have not answered emails and phone calls just get disconnected. If there weren't people claiming to have used them, I would believe they are a scam. Think twice about using them.

Please go to another app! We have been trying to be patient and give them one chance after the other but it is hopeless. We have booked the car 6 times one and there hasn't been ONE single time we haven't had an issue. They cancel, the car doesn't open, the GPS doesn't work, the car is not charged... Always something. They always say they're traying to improve, but to be honest, we're done with E-Car.

Hilariously bad service.

After being cut off on the phone several times, I get told my details appear fraudulent. 'Sorry mate, I can't get you on' was the manager's response.

So no further explanation, and no attempt to resolve the issue. Despite me having sent in photos of me and my driving licence, and supplying the requested DVLA information.

Seems like a company being run from a garden shed.

Has turned me off of using Europcar who they're affiliated with too.

E-Car Club runs a range of excellent electric vehicles which are a pleasure to drive. It is wonderful to have E-Car in my home town for convenient car use as and when I need it.

However, the E-Car Club system has one major usability flaw which tarnishes the whole service: the majority of times (I would say 6-7 out of 10 times) when I return a car it is not possible to put the car on charge.

Usually I will spend 10-15 minutes attempting to get a car to charge. I will swipe the charge card (or the key fob - it is never clear which to use) on the charging post, wait for the cue on the charge post screen, then insert the charge cable at the post and the car, and wait for the charging "clunk" sound to indicate power has started. Sometimes the car socket indicator light will pulse blue indicating charging has successfully started. However, often the indicator on the car socket will flash red indicating charging failure. So then I reverse the procedure - I remove the cable, then reinsert it, then swipe the charge card with the cable already connected. Sometimes this will work but often it will fail. Sometimes I will then "reset" the car by closing the doors and locking/unlocking the vehicle, before attempting to charge again. I will usually make 5-6 attempts to charge the car before giving up (especially if I'm in a hurry) and calling the E-Car Club customer helpline to report the vehicle unchargeable.

On one occasion, I returned a car at around midnight and I could not get it to charge after 15 minutes of attempts. I left the car and immediately emailed E-Car Club to let them know the car was not on charge. They did not respond to my email and instead closed my E-Car account! When I queried this, they said it was for leaving a car not on charge. When I explained and re-forwarded them the email I had sent, they reopened my account. They therefore clearly do not monitor their customer service email address adequately.

This charging problem has existed ever since E-Car set up service in my home town and continues unaddressed after several years. It's sad because this would otherwise be a 5-star review. It must also cost E-Car considerably in terms of non-charging cars being unavailable to hire and in terms of sending out engineers to put cars on charge.

I will be happy to update this review when the E-Car Club charging problem is addressed.

Absolutely useless! Cars don't open. Missed so many appointments and customer service line forever engaged

E car club, I’m a founder member and I genuinely don’t get anything for that, no discount or anything, however I do get a very good service from them, they can be a little slow, but this is to keep cost low I suspect, the have a very small team so you end up getting to know them by name, I’ve been a member for about 7 years I think and I’ve never had one problem with e car club, I have however had issues with the cars, never broken down but they have been late to be returned, I don’t like the idea of standing there waiting for someone to get out and lock it before I have to wait for them to walk away and use it straight away, there should be a gap of 15 mins for example, any issue I have had has always been refunded, e car have never taken money for fines, damaged cars or not charging it when returning, to use a car club you need to be courteous to your other members, respect the joint asset and care about the club, I never abuse club cars as you should treat them like you would your own car, here goes to another 7 years of worry free motoring

Awful customer service. The cars are convenient and cheap, yes, but dealing with their customer service is a headache and a half. Things I’ve had to deal with: I signed up and they didn’t send me the card necessary to unlock the car for 3 months, then would get nasty when I called (hey, I think YOU’RE in the wrong on this one, considering I’m PAYING for your service), then said I could unlock cars on the app but never had ‘signal’ (hmm, suspicious). They even would change my booking on a dime to more expensive vehicles but wouldn’t say the charge is higher, so then would charge me different prices. Is that even legal? All in all, the club is a good idea, but whoever is managing this circus needs to get it together and train your people to be actually nice and not consistently nasty - worst customer service I have ever dealt with.

I found their service to be very poor, calls sometimes diverted to a mobile phone, vehicles are dirty and not often cleaned. They are cheap for a reason

Sign to their club was an easy process. Got me going with my account the same day I signed up. Nice customer service people. Had a car later on in the evening and they great in helping me get going. Will tell my friends and family about this!

I have booked a vehicle and paid the fee in full. However, when I picked up the vehicle, the warning sign of puncture came on. I immediately called the customer service, the guy I spoke to told me there wasn't any other available vehicles for me to use, so he would have to refund me the entire booking instead. I then had no choice but to take the public transport to the place I had planned to go, which caused a lot of stress and hassle.

Right after I put the vehicle back on the charging cable, I called the customer service again, and it was the same person who picked up my call. I confirmed with him that my booking is now cancelled and the refund processed, he assured me that everything had been dealt with and to expect my refund to arrive within 7 to 10 business days.

3 weeks later, I still haven't received my refund, so I contacted the customer service again. A woman picked up my call with a horrible attitude, and said she doesn't know why I am expecting any refund. When I asked her if this issue could be sorted out today, she raised her volume and sounded testy and interrupted my speaking by saying 'can you hear me' with a condescending tone. Eventually she finally agreed to get back to me by the end of the day via email.

As a customer, suffering from not being able to use the vehicle for my intended use on the day was bad enough, but being yelled at by the customer service when they are the one in the wrong was furiously unacceptable.

I have booked a vehicle this morning and the vehicle is no where to be found(not at pick up point). Booking fee is paid 24 hours ago but vehicle disappeared. No GPS location of where it is.

Caused a stress morning and a lot of trouble for our planned trip.

After back from the airport, I called the Custom service and I was told the vehicle is moved to another pick up point (which is around a corner of the road). I had a look afterwards, the new pick up point is after a rectangle turn of 300-400 meters away with two intersections in between (with at least 4 buildings in between).

I have use the vehicle 5 days before from old pick-up point and E-car made the sudden change without noticing their member, especially the ones has reserved this vehicle. So far, their website and application still shows the vehicle is 'located at' the old pick-up point.

I would like to have an explanation of why the user is not notified by such a change and I would like to urge E-car to update the new pick-up point location.

Plus, the mileage is charged for hybrid vehicles which is not explained on their website. You can only find the explanation/rate when calling custom service.

Before I hired a car I had so many questions. Which they answered no problems. The car wasn't charged to 100% but they helped. Really recommend.

Rip off merchants, overcharged all the time adding time to your bill, and double billing, customer care none existent, complained many times told like it or lump it

Problems, scam, overbilling, bad service, could not care