This story is nearly a year old.
I was between vehicles (waiting for the new one I bought to be delivered) and taking Uber to work. I would take Uber or possibly a bus home. (Uber is 3x the price but 1/3 the time.)
One of those companies that rents scooters via an app had moved into our city, and I thought I'd try one out, hoping it would be somewhere in the middle in terms of time and cost. The vehicles in question are an old-style push-scooter but with an electric motor, essentially a skateboard but with one large wheel at each end, the front one able to steer and with handlebars attached.
I put $10 credit on the app and started out.
It took virtually no time to discover that I am not their target customer. I returned the scooter to where I had found it and ended my session.
The app asked me how my first ride had been, so I told it: it was terrifying. The throttle seemed to range from too fast to WAY too fast, the thing required significant effort to get it started. Also, riding it on the sidewalk seemed unsafe, as the tiny wheels and uneven surface made controlling it very difficult, and operating it in the street is illegal.
Oh, and at no point in setting up the app did it mention that only licensed drivers are allowed to rent a scooter, or that I would need a helmet: that message only came up after I picked a scooter and rented it.
I received an email offering me a refund and saying they were sending a repairman to pick up the scooter. I replied that I didn't think there was anything broken about the scooter, and I hadn't been looking for a refund. Then I asked if there was any way I could give my remaining balance to someone else, since I was never going to be renting one again.
This went back and forth a while, usually with them explaining that there was no way to transfer my money to someone else, and then apologizing for my somehow having wound up with a broken scooter. And then I would try again to explain that I didn't think the scooter was broken in any way, but was in fact functioning as designed. I just didn't enjoy it.
Surely at some point in developing this business plan it must have occurred to you that someone might try it and not like it.
Eventually they refunded my rental, then reversed the entire $10 charge to my card. None of which I asked for: I didn't know if I would like it, I expected to pay to find out. And I'm still not sure they understood that I just didn't like it. They seemed to think everyone would love the experience, so my negative reaction must be because I got a defective scooter.
I was between vehicles (waiting for the new one I bought to be delivered) and taking Uber to work. I would take Uber or possibly a bus home. (Uber is 3x the price but 1/3 the time.)
One of those companies that rents scooters via an app had moved into our city, and I thought I'd try one out, hoping it would be somewhere in the middle in terms of time and cost. The vehicles in question are an old-style push-scooter but with an electric motor, essentially a skateboard but with one large wheel at each end, the front one able to steer and with handlebars attached.
I put $10 credit on the app and started out.
It took virtually no time to discover that I am not their target customer. I returned the scooter to where I had found it and ended my session.
The app asked me how my first ride had been, so I told it: it was terrifying. The throttle seemed to range from too fast to WAY too fast, the thing required significant effort to get it started. Also, riding it on the sidewalk seemed unsafe, as the tiny wheels and uneven surface made controlling it very difficult, and operating it in the street is illegal.
Oh, and at no point in setting up the app did it mention that only licensed drivers are allowed to rent a scooter, or that I would need a helmet: that message only came up after I picked a scooter and rented it.
I received an email offering me a refund and saying they were sending a repairman to pick up the scooter. I replied that I didn't think there was anything broken about the scooter, and I hadn't been looking for a refund. Then I asked if there was any way I could give my remaining balance to someone else, since I was never going to be renting one again.
This went back and forth a while, usually with them explaining that there was no way to transfer my money to someone else, and then apologizing for my somehow having wound up with a broken scooter. And then I would try again to explain that I didn't think the scooter was broken in any way, but was in fact functioning as designed. I just didn't enjoy it.
Surely at some point in developing this business plan it must have occurred to you that someone might try it and not like it.
Eventually they refunded my rental, then reversed the entire $10 charge to my card. None of which I asked for: I didn't know if I would like it, I expected to pay to find out. And I'm still not sure they understood that I just didn't like it. They seemed to think everyone would love the experience, so my negative reaction must be because I got a defective scooter.
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