Repo Men, Shady Charges, And Mass Confusion: Philly Car Share’s Season In Hell
Over the weekend, many users of Philly Car Share were shocked to find that, despite what previous plan agreement they had been a part of with the company, their credit cards were all now being charged $15 a month. PCS’s grand notification of this scheme? A single email sent out to its customers, just days before the charges were to go into effect. But while local folks were getting hot under the collar about this on Twitter — and there’s a great post on Albert Yee’s blog for more background on PCS’s recent woes — Philly Car Share had a much more burning problem to address: According to our sources, up to 30 PCS cars were being repossessed, off the street from their local neighborhood parking spots, some at the very moments PCS customers had reserved them. Representatives of McMahon Leasing, which supplies a large part of the PCS fleet, were unavailable for comment as of this morning, and more than 10 unfulfilled calls to Philly Car Share’s main number lead us to believe that either their front desk is slammed with angry customers, or it’s simply disconnected for the moment. We’ll have more on this soon.
April 27th, 2009 at 11:33 am
They survived the $4/gallon gas, and in this economy it seems like more people would realize they might not need to own their own car. I hope this is not because Zipcar and PCS are fighting for the same market… and both end up tanking. That would suck for all of us.
April 27th, 2009 at 11:44 am
The fee change itself is only part of the problem. The *much* bigger problem to me, and I think many others, is the obnoxious, condescending way they announced this as a BENEFIT, coupled with the automatic, OPT-OUT change on relatively short notice. It doesn’t help matters that their phones have been jammed.
If they had come out and said, “Look everyone, money’s tight, we’re going to have to eliminate the Basic Freedom plan or else go under. Sign up here to stick with us,” there wouldn’t be half the outcry there has been. But then again, a smart move like that doesn’t fit with the pattern of gross mismanagement that Albert Yee described.
April 27th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
They are schizophrenic over there. Exhibit B:
You have to mail your keyfob back or pay $30.
http://twitter.com/phillycarshare/statuses/1629997886
10 minutes later…
Just kidding!
http://twitter.com/phillycarshare/statuses/1630075144
April 27th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
I was also surprised by the email. it just seemed so unlike their usual style to send the email like that, with such plain language, and sort of a “if you don’t like it, click here to cancel” ending.
Even though i rarely even reserve a car anymore (maybe 4 times a year?) I decided to stay with PCS for a while longer. Even at a higher premium, its still worth it for me to have the option available.
April 27th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
yea, this email totally sucked, and I wish they’d given me more notice, but I’m also gonna stick it out. Zipcar does not have nearly the number of cars that PCS does AND, PCS is non-prof. I’d much rather support a local business over a predatory international corporation. If you haven’t noticed, Zipcar’s rates in Philly are about half of what they charge in all their other markets. What’s gonna happen if they force carshare out of business? are they gonnna go back up to $9-$11 an hour like they do in pittsburgh, new york, dc, chicago and more?
April 27th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
I’ll probably stick it out as well, but word of repossessions is making me seriously reconsider the 30% discount, pay annual fee at one time offer.
Also, PCS made what I think is a bad decision to have very few of the low-rate cars (Fits, etc.), which means that the few in the fleet are overused and absolutely trashed. Too many different types of cars. They could cut it down to 3-4 models with more small and cheap options.
April 27th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Your exactly right. Zipcar is predatory and will jack up their rates if Phillycarshare fails. That is their goal and then the money you spend won’t stay in Philly it will go to west coast investors. They claim parking in Philly is cheaper, hence their cheaper rates, but it’s not at all. It’s a scam. No other carshare service offers free membership and I agree, the wording didn’t have to be condescending but it’s a tight market and Phillycarshare needs to compete with predatory, for-profit corporations…free membership just isn’t sustainable.
April 27th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Um, hi Philebrity? Could you please share a little of your sourcing for the repo reports? That seems like a lot bigger issue with regard to PCS’s continued viability than a dicky email.
April 27th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
@slosh: We cannot. But we await comments from both PCS and McMahon Leasing.
April 27th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
30 cars is a sizeable chunk of PCS’s 500 car fleet and no one has any news, accounts, witnessing, etc. of these alleged repossessions besides your “source?” Anyone see anything missing in the PCS reservation system? The org’s down and you kick ‘em in the nuts with that allegation? Lame. That is not how you pick up the ball after sucking a flu tracker.
April 27th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
There’s a typo in my comment there, but I actually like it better than my intended phrase.
April 27th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
For what its worth it does seem like some of the higher-cost cars have disappeared from PCS’ fleet. Try finding a BMW, Lexus, Scion TC or Smart in their inventory and you’ll get dumped out to this mysterious new page on PCS’ site that I’ve never seen before of “sold” cars: http://www.phillycarshare.org/408/pod/pcs-sold-vehicles.php