Re: Zipcar's True Economics

As a result of my post regarding Zipcar's true economics, I received a call today from Brian who works at Zipcar. First, its always a good policy for a company to reach out to its customers be it proactively or in response to an issue. Personalizing and having a one-on-one to hear it out almost always casts a better light on it if not resolving the issue itself. So I appreciate the call and effort on their part.

I learned a couple of things but I think the synopsis is that they don't dispute with what I wrote. I reiterated that Zipcar used to be the convenient and more cost effective choice but its now probably only convenience (not that that isn't of value but it lessens as cost increases significantly past a day reservation). I was disappointed to hear that they recently had the rental car tax asserted again against them. I guess NYS is so desperate for cash that even something that benefits locals economically and helps the congestion problem doesn't pass muster.

I encouraged him to make changes to the figures used in their marketing as it is misleading at best to people considering signing up. Of course, I also asked why rates didn't go back down after they were raised a couple of years ago when gas went up. I didn't get a direct answer other than they've held rates for two years. Fine, but gas is one of your biggest variable costs so that margin has to be going somewhere.

I was able to inquire about and ask for a few other items with no promises (putting the cars back at MetroNorth train stations and adding weekly rates). At a minimum, I'm glad it was heard by someone there. And that leads to the final point I made: In the early days, Zipcar was pretty good about communication with members about what was going on with rates, cars, etc. You felt like part of the community and realized we were all figuring this car sharing thing out as it went along. That has certainly lessened over the years and, again, I say its due to a "professional" marketing organization coming in which promotes "messaging" over "communication". I hope mine was heard but my core assertion still stands.