Zipcar is a car-sharing company where you rent cars by the hour and the fee covers insurance and gasoline. It's a great concept that touts environmental advantages and consumer savings. Their Customer service is great until you scratch a bumper and decide to report it even though the scratch is so minimal, it would not have been noticed. They suddenly became very adversarial and demanded $739.00 which they intended to remove from my personal banking account even though I told them that doing so could bounce my rent check. They also insisted that the fee cover other damage to the bumper that I was not responsible. I had no legal recourse I had been told that there was a $500 deductible but at the time I reported the scratch, I figured the repair cost would not be more than $200.00. They told me they raised the deductible and emailed me about it. They email my account almost everyday with silly promotions and I'm supposed to be aware of legal notices?
Upon receiving the repair estimate, I offered several solutions including volunteering my time, fixing the scratch with a auto-detailer that I trusted, making payments or seeing if they could reduce the amount. I even explained that my sole source of income is Social Security and use Zipcar for shopping trips and medical appointments. Guess what? They don't really care at all about my credit rating or the hardship their draconian attempt to extort money would cause. If they were unable to withdraw this unauthorized amount from my account they would refer the account to collections at which point I would be able to make payment on a no doubt inflated amount. I could easily afford to buy the debt for what a collection agency pays, usually ten cents on the dollar but instead had to close my banking account to make sure my rent was paid. Now I will probably have to file a small claim to protect my credit.
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