Social Bicycles Reviews

by Ready To Buy My Own Bike

Warning!! Be careful signing up for this service. I’ve emailed about billing issues and my bank won’t process payments because of multiple monthly charges. I’ve received no follow up and there is no way to contact anyone directly. I’ve seen other posts where ppl are being charged monthly in error with no communication as well. I started out with a Groupon that wasn’t honored and then signed up for a monthly service. At this point I’m ready to buy my own bike - it would be cheaper.

by Therealmikeytodd

I’m not sure if it’s the bikes or the system SocialBicycles runs on, but it’s always out of sync. Just about every time I rent a bike, it tells me it wasn’t returned and continues to bill me for time on the bike that I didn’t use. It’s absurd how often this happens. Didn’t used to be so bad. But it’s gotten worse and worse, to the point that I had to cancel service. And when I tried canceling through SocialBicycles, it didn’t even work. I had to do it online though the website of the local bike company that uses SocialBicycles. It’s ridiculous. My last bill was double what it should have been because I got overcharged again and nobody fixed it. So over it. Not worth it.

by R.studart

I'm a User Experience designer—meaning I design experiences on devices for a living—and I hadn't had a frustrating experience with an app in over a year... until I downloaded SoBi. You guys seriously need to send your product designers out to test SocialBicycles themselves; the usability problems are so obvious that kids could probably fix them. The discoverability was an issue in and of itself, but I managed to get all the way to the payment screen, then inserted my credit card info correctly only to get a popup that said my information was wrong (but wouldn't tell me what information I needed to change). I gave up after multiple attempts, so my boyfriend downloaded SocialBicycles and went through the whole onboarding process and then couldn't figure out the payment part either (same errors), so we just didn't rent the bikes. We were standing in the park on a nice sunny day, next to these available bikes we couldn't rent because your app is so bad. The worst part is this was our second attempt to rent those bikes. The first time, an entire rack of bikes was out of service: 10 bikes, not one could be used. Fix this experience for fudge's sake...

by Vrobles93

worst app, worst bike, and worst customer service!!
The keypad had water damage so broken to the point you could not even enter your account number, if you selected a number it would duplicate the process was overall difficult! On top of that it was all the bikes at that site! I couldn’t return it and I inserted the U bar incorrectly, tried to rent it again to return it And when I called Customer service they lady mentioned it was a GPS ERROR that’s why I was having difficulty! Followed by if can’t return it correctly and the bike gets stolen or damaged I AM LIABLE! HOW ABOUT YOU DONT RENT PEOPLE A WHOLE SITE OF BROKEN BIKES!

by Jaguarshark08

I’ve been using SocialBicycles to rent from the school fleet of bikes at OU. I’m always careful about locking the bike and logging out when I’m done, but sometimes it seems this is not recorded. I’ve noticed sometimes the console interface buttons don’t work and you have to enter commands multiple times. This has resulted in two errant charges on my account of about $30 for overages and trips that I did not incur. I called the support number the first time this happened in an attempt to correct the error, but was routed to a voicemail where I left a detailed message. Nobody ever returned my call, but instead charged my credit card. Now it has happened again. This time I’ve emailed support and am currently awaiting a response. I will not be using this service anymore and can’t recommend it to others. I will update this review with the results of my most recent attempt to contact support and get this resolved.

by Audrey Fallahaugh

I forgot the password for my account and every time I tried to resent it the website wouldn’t be up or they wouldn’t send the email to let me reset it. I wasn’t able to log into the online website or SocialBicycles at all. I emailed their email inquiring for help and no one ever got back to me. Finally I got sick of waiting and called their help line and was able to reset password and log into my account. Then later on when I was halfway into my billing cycle I decided to cancel my subscription because I would be going out of town for a while and therefore would be able to ride one of the bikes. Now normally with subscription services like Netflix you can still use the service until your billing cycle runs out. I tried to use a bike the same day I canceled and was unable to do so, so I essentially lost money by unsubscribing.

by Lilly Loves Selena

I downloaded SocialBicycles to rent bikes around college campus, firstly, it says i need to confirm my account yet the email they sent doesn’t allow me to do that. Second, i tried on multiple different bikes to sign in with my account number, it takes 20 minutes just to enter the number because it’s so slow at registering. Then it kept declining me and I attempted to book one through SocialBicycles and it would not allow me either. I might as well just buy my own bike to avoid this. Don’t recommend

by Meganpapagelis

The numberThat you guys have on your app is very unhelpful, also the email that you provide on there that starts with info is an incorrect mailing address because I keep getting emails back saying that this email address is not active from mailer demon.I had locked my bike and my bike was still being used after I was home. It’s been really difficult to be in touch with someone and it’s really unfortunate that the two ways of contact that you have on your app are not reliable or don’t even work. This is the first time I used SocialBicycles and I will never be using it again. I’m very disappointed and I’m going to call my bank and have them block any potential charges because I don’t trust SocialBicycles at all.

by Vipassan.a

You will be lucky if you find a bike that works. Also, don’t count on the map to show you where the bikes are located. I walked around for 30 minutes trying to find bikes where it said it was located. There was nothing to be found. Once I found some other bikes at another location, there were dysfunctional ones. I used the bike, put it on hold and returned to the bike. I took it off the hold and then looked at a map to orient myself to get where I needed to go. I saw a notification on my phone for a $5 fee for leaving the bike outside a hub. I was not leaving the bike outside the hub, I was about to ride it again. I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. Horrible experience and I wouldn’t recommend. Try to bring your own bike.

by Josh Dent2

I was unable to use the bikes after loading money onto my account. Being that I was only in town for a short period of time, I called to ask for a refund to my card. I was originally told that this would occur in 4-6 business days. After 6 business days had passed, I called again and was told it would take three weeks for the refund to show up on my card. Three weeks have now passed and there is still no refund or effort that has been made to address my concerns. I will tell everyone that will listen about my awful experience and the poor customer service provided by SoBi.

by Qumquatitude

Rode only 2.5 miles but had somehow wondered out of the service area, which meant that once we got back from the beach the bikes had been repossessed and we had each been charged $20 on top of the cost of renting! No one thought to not extend the boundaries to at least five miles around each station?
Also while other bike share apps require only an email to sync with your Lyft orUber account this requires you to create an account and add a credit card. Secondly key pads on the bikes require you to press extremely hard and then often the numbers register twice. There is no backspace. Took 6 attempts to unlock our bikes.

by OUCommuter

So I was renting one of the bicycles last night and I attempted to put the bicycle on hold. As instructed to do I inserted he U Bar into the frame but the keypad proceeded to tell me that I inserted it incorrectly. When I tried to take the U Bar out of he frame, the U Bar was locked into place, but still displaying the try again screen. After I had tried calling for support and reporting the issue, I tried unsubscribing to see if it would let me force quit from using the bicycle, I tried logging out and logging back in, I tried seeing if I could rent a different bicycle to see if it will stop using the initial one and none of these worked. I think these sharing apps are great and I love that they give us a free hour of use everyday but I’m currently am still getting charged and I haven’t gotten a response (I tried both email and calling). If SocialBicycles has a similar thing as Bird does and allows you to disable the bike you were using from your phone, then I don’t believe I would have this issue. Yes I understand that I need to put the U Bar back in place at a registered hub area but I wouldn’t mind getting charged a bit more for this feature instead of being continually charged for a broken bicycle

by Ageudbeuduah

The whole experience was very frustrating. First, I was trying to reset my pin , as I had forgotten it. And it wouldn’t take my new password until after many tries.
The screen on most of the bikes were unreadable. And then, even if you could see the screen, the buttons on the bike wouldn’t work. Then there was no way I could see to just rent the bike for an hour. I had to pay for a whole day and use it less than a hour. Soooo frustrating. But once we got the bike going, it worked fine.

by AlinAtlanta

Moved to a new place in town (Atlanta) with a Relay bike rack out front. First off, don’t try searching SocialBicycles Store for “Relay.” For some reason SocialBicycles and the name on the bike don’t match. Then, app shows 1 bike available at the rack. Bike is there. Won’t let me enter my full account number before freezing. After many many attempts, I walk to another rack 1 block south. App shows 1 bike available, rack actually has 4! #winning. Not so fast. NONE of the 4 bikes is functional after multiple attempts at each bike. I’m determined to try one of these darn bikes, so I walk to a rack 2 further blocks south. At this point, I’m just out for a stroll. Can’t find the “rack” indicated in SocialBicycles , but I find a stand-alone Relay bike on a city bike rack. Lo and behold, it works!!! So, not sure I’ll try again, since it was such a pain to find a working bike, but the one I found was fine. I’ll do a scooter on a different app next time, or walk, or just go buy a bike. *sigh*

by GDT1000

I’ve had a number of problems with SoBi, most due to mechanical issues with locking or unlocking bikes. I had a problem today when I put a bike on HOLD and could not successfully get it out of HOLD. I contacted SoBi by e-mail once I found an address that might be relevant (it was my Registration acknowledgement) but I got a notification that my bike had been left out of a permitted station and would be charged $2 for having to pick it up. When I opened SocialBicycles to respond and explain I could find no place to do so. I wish there was an easier way to resolve issues, like a hotline to call or an email address dedicated to problems.

by BoulderJ

I got 3 days usage and about a dozen bike rides in.

SocialBicycles has all the basic features needed, but the downside is a complete refresh of the whole interface just about every time you look at it. (Imagine if Google/Apple maps reloaded your whole screen with a US-size map and then zoomed in every time you turned from one street to another).

Showing locations of available bikes was good (as was their distribution). My success rate for actually unlocking a particular bike was just over 50% though (not clear if app or bike is to blame). When you find a bike/app/location that works, it works well, though, so try to dial that in and start/stop your trips there.

by Redwoodtree

Signed into SocialBicycles easily enough and created an account. Here in Long Beach, CA there are stations everywhere which is great. However, at least half the bikes we tried were not functional in one way or another. The biggest pain is the keypads on the bikes are mostly old and entering account number and pin can be a frustrating and time consuming prospect. Because we are visiting we don't have time to get an RFID card.

To properly rent a bike you have to find a station using SocialBicycles , then approach the bike and see if the keypad lights up. Then you have see if the seat is adjustable, several bikes we found the stems were locked so tight we couldn't adjust them. Then you have to test the brakes and the shifter. Several bikes we found the shifters were busted. After the functional checks, then you get to fight with the keypad to enter the digits and you're on your way.

When we found a working bike the price of the system is just right and it's super convenient with all the bike lanes and stations but it's too bad it's such a frustrating experience.

by SAAAAAADAAAAAAAAAAAA

So SocialBicycles is awesome! I loved being able to hop on a bike and peddle around. There’s a BIG problem though. I didn’t use all my money on SocialBicycles . And, through all my searching there is no money back option. That’s BOGUS! My home state doesn’t have these bikes so SocialBicycles will hold my money till the end of time. Update should include “cash out” for people who use this during travels.
PLEASE, developers, see this and take action.

by Civillian23

I kept seeing the bright orange bikes more frequently here in Orlando, and became ever curious about using them, so I did! Great experience once you creat an account. I just did the pay as you ride, and the rates are very very low. It's better than driving everywhere, super easy to find a bike, better for your health, and better for the environment. I'm very glad someone had this idea and implemented it this well.

by Iankan711

I love the SocialBicycles and bicycles. SocialBicycles makes it very easy to find a bicycle and my over all experience has been great. Only down side I ran into is three out of the four bicycles I rented had mechanical issues. Luckily the key pad on the bicycles makes it easy to send in a notification for a repair.

by Fallszf

Trying reserve a bike but when I put my credit card info in, it said info was missing or incorrect and to “correct the missing fields” THERE WEREN’T ANY FIELDS.

Turns out you have to sign out of any previous networks to sign into a new one and there was no single prompt that indicated this, let alone indicating that there were different networks.

Guide people to fix these issues. Fix these dead end prompts. This was ridiculous. I’m savvy and it took me a day to figure this out, imagine people that aren’t as good with their phones.

by Celine Shamalian

I enjoyed riding the bike throughout the Santa Monica area but I did have a few issues, well first of all the bike is very heavy and very hard for me to carry when I got stuck in the sand or needed to move it. Also the technology system on the bike needs to be updated the buttons were hard to press and it was pretty slow, and lastly the bike just wasn't too stable overall I kept struggling keeping it on track and in control.

by Frankienoodles

It’s hard to express how happy it makes me that Burlington and Winooski finally have quality bike share, and I have to say SocialBicycles and the Gotcha bikes are super nice and fun to ride/use. They’ve turned getting place to place into one of my favorite parts of the day. Also, SocialBicycles is pretty well designed. Nice job!