Free2move: car sharing & rent Reviews

UPDATE: Some how they’ve made a horrible app more horrible. Now I’m encountering some bug where when I click a car to reserve it momentarily selects it then resets to show the whole map of all the cars, never letting me reserve it. I’ve tried everything-logging out and back in again, deleting and reinstalling to no avail.

Free2move is the worst—slow, buggy, and unreliable. I’ve tried to come to terms with it. I really have. But it is not a useful app. Free2move has fewer features and a less intuitive interface than a year or so ago before they did their big app redesign. Try viewing a list of your previous charges. All you’ll get is a list of giant photos of a car/SUV and you have to open each of them separately to see the cost and time. Why not have a list with times and costs? The cars all look the same; I don’t need photos of them. The invoices don’t show total trip time. They include non-billable minutes for the reservation which is a useless number for checking accuracy. Also there’s no timer showing how long I’ve had a car rental anymore, which was a useful feature. Last, God help you if you have any problems because when you call they won’t be able to do anything. They will just tell you they’ll refer it to the billing or tech departments who will get back to you in 24 hours. Plot spoiler: they won’t. Can we go back to the old app and get some phone support where they can actually help with issues?

I enjoy the service a lot, it’s good and affordable and after Car2go and other car sharing company left DC, is the best option for me. My only complaint is when you have a problem with your payment even when you can make the trip, you have to call by phone to ask customer service to make the charge in your credit card. I don’t understand why you cannot do that automatic within the apps and it’s frustrating when you are in a hurry and have to call to do that.

Ive been a VERY frequent F2M user since it’s inception, at least 2 years now. I honestly can’t stand F2M anymore, but all their competition in the DC area has gone out of business. Free2move overhaul they completed a few months ago, resulting in Free2move, has left us with a slightly better LOOKING app (debatable), at the cost of functionality. It’s now significantly slower in all regards, whether it’s booking/unlocking a car or simply navigating Free2move . It feels incredibly unstable. They also took away the option to see how much time you’re running up during an active reservation, which is infuriating. Nearly every time I unlock a car I have to quit and re-open Free2move at least 3 times as it can never register that I’m standing directly next to the car and gives me an error that I’m standing too far away. And now, this morning I just received a $100 charge to my credit card for absolutely no reason. I’m sure they’ll resolve it but this should not happen to begin with. They’re not a new company. They’ve been operating for years now. I just hate this app. I wish there were another option in DC.

First of all, the terms and conditions that are agreed to inside Free2move are DRASTICALLY different than the terms and conditions on their website. After the situation that I went through I was repeatedly told that certain rules where in the terms that I simply could not find, I was then emailed a document that had 6 more pages than the one I agreed to, and was told that was the binding contract. I used a vehicle to travel to and from work, but after my 5 hour shift of standing in my feet, I came back to a vehicle that had been locked with my belongings in them. I called customer service, and was on hold for a while, even after explaining that I needed a quick resolution since my phone was on 4 percent. They unlocked the vehicle for me, but refuse to restart my trip, saying I had to rent a different vehicle, at a higher rate. By the time I made it to a different car. My phone had died. 2 hours and 5.2 miles later, I’m writing this review with my freezing cold fingers. Worse experience ever. Just use turbo, Getaround, or enterprise.

First… more recent & why I finally closed my account: They charged my bank account months after a trip for a ticket I had accrued without any prior notice or bill so that I could pay it when I got paid the next day. My checking account went into negative and I ended up also being charged overdraft fee.
THEN!!! They send me a feedback survey that was already prefilled with five stars and positive review!! So when I clicked to open it it submitted a fake positive review without me getting a chance to fill in anything! That’s how shady they are!
AND when I first joined I tried to use the $30 first user coupon they had on their website, but it never applied to my trip! I called dozens of times and they kept saying we’ll apply it and never did. I just got tired of calling, that should be the first clue and I should have closed my account way back then.
DO NOT trust them or use their service, they’ll rip you off and submit fake positive reviews on your behalf too! I’m sending this to Better Business Bureau also.

I have gotten this car maybe 6 times from January to March and all but one time has there never been something wrong with the car! They’re expensive for starters and we can’t even get all the requirements that come with the vehicle. Can’t ever connect my phone bc there’s always “too many devices” needs to have every person who uses the car DELETE THEIR DEVICE BEFORE ENDING THE TRIP! They don’t require ppl to put gas in cars and they’re obviously not doin it either. Had to use $20 of my own money to put in a tank that only had 50 miles left til empty on it! And to top it off it’s ended my trip on multiple occasions where i needed the car for longer and the shorter the trip the more you pay! This company is ridiculous and had the nerve to credit me only $1.04 even tho they ended my trip early!! Free2move is now deleted off my phone and i will use ZipCar or another car renting company.✌🏽

UPDATE: good experience with customer service. I did not have to wait long to connect with a helpful rep, who was able to explain the situation and refund the time that I didn’t use. Changed rating from 1 to 3 stars.

Original comments:
Unable to verify bank when first tried to use, app kept crashing. Contacted customer service, got no follow up. They eventually fixed it, but didn’t let me know (I checked a week later and it worked.) On exiting after first use, Free2move crashed. I had no idea (and still have no idea, an hour later) if it has registered that my trip is done, or if they’re still counting the minutes. Also, the Gome zone is way too small to make this an affordable/realistic option. They describe the Home Zone as “your city” but that is misleading, it is probably 20% of my city.

I love this app cars - they’re really how I get around in my home city. However, I’ve had so many issues with the new app upgrade that occurred within the past couple of months. I’ve had multiple instances of me ending a trip but Free2move doesn’t register it properly - I’ll reopen it later and it will look as though the trip ended, but when I try to reserve a new car it doesn’t allow me. All times when I’ve called to figure out the issue, I’ve been notified that my original trip is still going (with huge charges!!), which I then need to speak to a different department to dispute. The huge-bill trips also oddly don’t show up in my list of past trips, but they definitely show up on my credit card bill. I’ve resorted to taking screenshots of my phone each time I end a trip to have proof that I’ve ended it. Fix these bugs, they’re horrible!

I’m so angry at the horrible service, especially since they raised their prices. One of the most important features of the car is being able to plug it in with a phone to navigate and play music, for the past 4 trips I’ve had, the car has been USELESS at connecting with my phone. I even started bringing my own USB cable, but there is no way to know what the luck will be with connecting. It’s impossible to connect via Bluetooth as the cars don’t allow you to remove old users (I have wasted 10 mins in one trip trying to fix it), and instead had to keep picking up my phone to check the navigator. This is infuriating, it is such a basic feature that you should be able to know what issues a given car has before starting it. I wish there was an alternative service in DC especially after they jacked the prices up.

1. Over a one month There was only one round-trip where I did not have to troubleshoot with phone support

2.They are phone support folks are really lovely and do what they can but they can only help you with issues such as starting or stopping a trip

3. If there is a problem with billing you cannot do anything through Free2move ., forcing you to wait days or weeks billing/ cust Sercice to respond . I havent been able to use Free2move for two weeks, while emailing and calling about every other day.
One of my cards was declined once. So Free2move autonomía disabled all of my cards!! I immediately added funds to that card and tried again, but still none of my 3 cards were accepted despite them working perfectly with other merchants!

4.As it turns out that the source of the surprise-declined transaction was a minor speeding ticket randomly added to my "balance" which customers cannot view. The ticket was issued 1.5 months prior to it being unexpectedly added to my invisible balance. I still have received no communication about from this app.

This is completely inefficient, poor service as i have spent hundreds of dollars with them... and just unheard of to me.

There was a time where the car wouldn’t lock and we had to call customer service but they wouldn’t answer.

Free2move always takes at least two minutes to lock the car, while charging you.

There’s been two instances where I locked the car, heard it lock and got the “vehicle locked” notification and then was charged $30 for a 75 minute trip! My actual trip was about 6 minutes.

Customer service is horrible and you cannot get a hold of them.

Cars often smell like cigarettes - I reported it once and they wrote back saying I need to report it before driving the car, not after ending the trip. I’m not going to pay for the car while I sit in it and report.

There’s been a lot of times where I walk to a car I reserved on the map and cannot find it anywhere - there’s no way to report this on Free2move .

There’s also times where it won’t let me unlock the car because I’m “too far away” even though in Free2move you can see my location/that I’m standing right next to the car.

Once I wasn’t able to start the car (even though I’m paying bc it is unlocked) the cars dashboard kept saying “key is not in console” or something like that - of course no one to talk to because they don’t answer the phones.

I tried to sign up for their service but received an email stating I was ineligible based on my “True-risk Auto AR report provided by Transunion”, and that I could “contact Transunion and they will be more than happy to assist”. However, when I contacted Transunion to ask them to provide me with this report so I could understand what made me ineligible for the service, two separate representatives had never heard of it before and were unable to provide it to me. When I tried to circle back to this app to get more information about how they were able to get this report on me that I am unable to access and that Transunion says doesn’t exist, they closed my support request and then never responded to me again. The whole experience was unbelievably frustrating, and I could not recommend this company less.

this app is probably one of the worst businesses I’ve ever had to deal with. They hide your billing and make it nearly impossible to speak to anyone. I have called dozens of times over many months and can never get anyone to answer the phone to discuss billing concerns.

Additionally, the vehicles are poorly maintained. Some reek of cigarettes, others have the seatbelts cut out of them, and others are just filthy. Furthermore, I have had multiple cars that I have started a ride only to discover they have a flat tire (one happened 3 times in a row within one month). Once again, they say you have to talk to billing for a refund, but no one answers the phone.

This business is fraudulent, offensive, and preys on people that have no other transportation options. The Better Business Bureau will be investigating their predatory practices.

UPDATE 5/14

Got a call from a higher up this afternoon, problem is resolved, changing rating to 3 stars until app shows a history of stability.

I’ve requested my account be deleted after trying to get a car today. There was a glitch on their side which erased all trips over a 2hr period I recall. Luckily I was able to still use the car n get home but have not been able to use Free2move since. CS cant help and tech support can’t either. My phantom trip is currently at almost 3mos now. Free2move is terrible unfortunately all the competition is gone or even require a subscription like zipcar.

Original Post
The ability to travel somewhere quickly at the last minute is nice, but Free2move is terrible. On more than one occasion it will say trip ended but charge me a huge bill later. Often the unlock and end trip buttons will disappear mid trick and customer service can’t really do anything for you when the car trip won’t end beyond locking/unlocking the car. I’m going to look at zip car again for the first time in a decade.

As a first time user of Free2move , I had a horrible experience. I returned my car to the original location that I picked it up (thinking this would be preferable for the company). Then two months later received a $125 charge due to the car being parked in a ticketed zone.

After contacting customer service and explaining the situation (as I was unaware it was a poor place to park), they stonewalled me and didn’t offer anything and basically said “sorry your fault”. I understand now that I shouldn’t have parked the car there, but a heads up to a first time user or a notification to not return the car to original location would be helpful.

They know they have the cheaper rental cars due to COVID, and don’t seem to have much concern for customer satisfaction.

There are days when it works near perfect but Free2move is poorly designed. There is no mechanism to report a car that you cannot find, the park and end trip buttons are so close together in space so if you fat finger, you have to wait a full cycle to finish and then select the option you want. Free2move doesn’t refresh fast enough for a GPS-based experience: says I’m 8 minutes away from the parked car when I’m already at the car. Looks like an app created by a visual designer: pretty colors, but missing all the important capabilities. poor information architecture and absurd interactive design choices. By all means reach out to me directly because I have a longer list of things that are wrong with Free2move .

My car was in the shop for almost 2 weeks. I needed a car to drive 5 miles to and from work. Free2move works well. It’s easy to use. However, each of the three cars I used was dirty inside. Two had tons of dog hair. They had trash inside from the previous user. There were sticky spots from spilled drinks. One car had a child’s booster seat and lots of clothes inside. And yet it was listed as available in Free2move . None of the cars had washer fluid. One car needed an oil change and another needed air in the tires. After seeing someone’s fingernail clippings in the last car, I gave up and started using Lyft until my own car was ready. Too nasty.

It’s really unfortunate because this service is super helpful but Customer Service is hard to reach, half the time you have to leave a voicemail and they don’t call you back. If you do manage to get a hold of a person they’re usually not helpful and rude. Free2move often doesn’t register cars...won’t take your payment information...delays getting you approved...and just straight up doesn’t work or show you’re even on a trip once it’s started. Everyone I know has the same issues and the company doesn’t seem to be receptive of feedback. After this last ongoing issue I’ve had I probably won’t use the service again. It’s really too bad.

The service is fine for what it is, by Free2move is an utter nightmare. If you book a car it will tell you you’re too far away to unlock it when you arrive...even as you’re standing next to it. The new version does not display trip time so you have no idea what you’re paying, frequently freezes/crashes, and asks to repeatedly validate your CC even if it’s on file with your account. I’ve had at least three instances where I completed a trip, the car locked and I got the trip ended green screen, only to later discover the trip ran for several days. The customer service people bailed me out and dotry their best, but they are put in a bad situation by the company and Free2move . When the pandemic ends I’ll be going back to rideshare.

This is the worst carsharing app I’ve ever used. The payment validation is impossible, customer service hasn’t responded to any emails or phone calls and although I love the cars, the overall service experience has been negative. If they can fix the payment validation, it would be at least three stars but for now, one star is generous.

Personalised car sharing on another level!

Past reservation list no longer (easily, at least) shows trips by month, but a long list of vehicles you have to click on individually to see how much you paid. Currency symbol is incorrect. Past users have to re-enter credit card information.