capitalbikeshare.comReviews of capitalbikeshare.com

Using Capital Bikeshare can be a frustrating experience. I have had particular problems with the kiosk at North Capitol & G Place in NW DC. The kiosk often isn't functioning properly. Today, for instance, I initiated a rental from the kiosk, was given an unlock code, and the CODE DIDN'T WORK on any of the bikes at the kiosk. Later, I got a text saying I was being charged $36.85 for not terminating the ride properly. A ride I was never able to take. Then I had to spend 10 minutes on the phone with their customer service to get a refund. The refund will take 7-8 BUSINESS DAYS to process. Other times, I have not been able to successfully re-dock the bike at this kiosk. Every time it requires a tedious conversation with customer service to resolve. I am DONE with Capital Bikeshare. It's not worth the wasted and time and frustration.

Capital Bikeshare (CaBi) is the DC Metro area bikeshare service. I volunteer as a Bike Angel to help move bikes when I exercise. CaBi is owned by Lyft, under permission from the local municipalities. First, the fact that Lyft, a carshare company, owns CaBi shows a big conflict of interest because the worse CaBi's bike availability is the more carshares they can rent. In theory the CaBi business model is great, pay an annual fee and get to rent bikes and ebikes around the area at a discounted rate (even free). The problem is that they don't have a good system to redistribute bikes so some docks end up being overloaded while others don't have enough bikes. This makes the service unreliable for commuting. Since the bikes are computerized and fully tracked Lyft should be paying people enough incentives to rebalance bikes on their own, however they don't. People are only paid $0.10 per ride to help rebalance ebikes and sometimes it even costs money to move them so participation is very low. Lyft/CaBi needs to increase reimbursement rates for BikeAngels and give them gift cards if they want. Second, Lyft should be using their monitoring system to redistribute bikes, however they are only reactive and require people to message them in their help chat option. My third complaint is that their out of dock fees system doesn't work. The $3 no dock fee is pricing the bikes out of reach of the poor while discouraging shopping trips. A better system would be to count people returning ebikes from out of dock areas then credit no dock fees against their number of returns. Lyft ignores suggestions. Also, it looks like there could be some coordination between Lime and Lyft because whenever ebikes are low, Lime places their bikes nearby.

I booked a day pass for 1 dollar and payed a small amount additionally because I had a longer ride. Now as I am back in germany they charge me 17$ a month without any legal basis. Me email inquiry gets replies but they are written by AI or some unmotivated people who dont care. Now I have to get a new Debit Card to stop these illegal charges.