Startups Should Guarantee Your Safety! Unfortunately Get Around Doesn’t
I live in San Francisco, a perfect city not to have a car, and because of that, I decided not to have a car. I’m pretty happy commuting by Lyft, Bart, and my daily walking. When I want to go on a road trip or have a class/meeting in the South Bay, I rent a car. My favorite company for that used to be Get Around.
I had classes every Saturday in Belmont, and I used to rent a Smart Car for that. Everything was alright until my last trip. It was my last class. I was going to receive my grade for an important midterm and take my final exam. This day was very important to me, completing this class meant a lot for my professional career. In the morning I received my grade, and I was really happy with everything at that moment.
In the beginning, I thought it was a misunderstanding, then I started to think that there was something wrong with the car, maybe an oil leak or forgotten object in the car? Because I watch so many sci-fi TV shows, I thought about a lot of weird possibilities, and that doesn’t help in these situations.
At lunch time, my classmates and I were going to a restaurant. In the parking lot, we saw a police car and two police officers. They asked who was the owner of the car parked there. I thought they meant another car, but the police officer pointed at my rental car. I told the police officers that it was my rental car. In the beginning, I thought it was a misunderstanding, then I started to think that there was something wrong with the car, maybe an oil leak or forgotten object in the car? Who knows? Because I watch so many sci-fi TV shows, I thought about a lot of weird possibilities, and it doesn’t help in these situations.
The police officer asked for my driver’s license and also told me to isolate myself from my classmates, who were waiting for me and worried. The officers asked me a lot of questions, and I explained that I rented the car through an app called Get Around. They didn’t know Get Around, and I had to explain how the app works and how I rented the car. I explained everything step-by-step. I demonstrated that I rented the car. I told them how I picked up the keys and how much I paid, the whole process. After I presented enough evidence, they realized I wasn’t lying, and told me that the car was reported stolen. While they were explaining what happened, another police car arrived. I didn’t understand why this was happening, and I was also very scared because they were three police officers and two police cars. I had never even gotten a traffic ticket, and now I was experiencing this nightmare. I was confused and frustrated.
I need to say that those police officers were a bit harsh on me in the beginning. They asked me where I was from and what I was doing in the U.S. One police officer started to look at my tattoos, and I felt really bad. During all this time I wasn’t able to talk to my colleagues or anyone other than the police officers. They had taken my phone and told me I couldn’t speak to anyone. They asked me to sit on the sidewalk while they were checking the evidence. Fortunately, once they realized that it was an app bug, they changed their tone and started to treat me better.
I began to calm down. I hadn’t done anything wrong, and I knew it! But I began to think, what if I hadn’t remained calm? There are some people who don’t react well in these situations. They can’t even say their name, not because they did something wrong, but because they’re nervous and scared. Although English isn’t my first language, I had been able to talk with the officer and explain the situation clearly, but what if I hadn’t? What if I had said something wrong, and they misunderstood? The officer said that I didn’t look like a car thief, but does a car thief look like? Was it because I’m white?
This situation lasted an hour By that time, I was super hungry, and my important final exam was in 30 minutes. The police said that they could not allow me to leave the area, that I’d need to wait for the car owner to arrive at the University parking lot, and that I could now ask my friends to bring me lunch. While we were waiting, they called the car owner’s phone number from the Get Around app using my cell phone. The police checked the owner’s name, car model, license plate number, etc.
What we discovered?
Every time I rent a car through Get Around I locate the car on a map, then I look at the car model and color. The Get Around app doesn’t display the plate number. I usually try to check the plate number through the car photos posted in the app, but the plate isn’t always visible. On that day, I found this white Smart Car in the exact same spot the map showed me. I checked to see if there was another Smart Car there, but I saw only a gray one in the same area. It was very early in the morning, I unlocked the car using the app, grabbed the keys, and drove to my class. That’s the exact user flow that I have used anytime I used Get Around. You’re probably thinking, what happened? When the police officer spoke to the car owner, we discovered that I had been driving the wrong car. I had picked up another white Smart Car that was in the same Get Around map location. And, more surprisingly, their app unlocked the wrong car! How?
Why did Get Around lead me to and unlock the wrong car? I understand that cars may look alike, models may be the same, and that can be confusing, but Get Around should guarantee my safety and unlock only the right rental car. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
The officers told me I was lucky because if I had been driving the car when the police officers found me, they would have stopped my car, pointed guns, and handcuffed me. That’s the default procedure for a suspect in a stolen car.
When the car owner arrived, I explained everything to him, and he understood that it was Get Around’s fault. He was very kind and offered me his car to drive home. I gladly thanked him, but for obvious reasons, I didn’t want to drive that car anymore. The car owner said that he would cancel the stolen vehicle report, and the police officers were really sorry about what happened to me.
After this awful situation, I tried to eat something in 5 minutes and hurry back to class. The teacher and my classmates were worried and waiting for me to start the final exam. When I arrived, a classmate joked. I was already feeling bad about what happened and hearing that was incredibly embarrassing. These colleagues are people that I see in professional meetings, they’re people that work in the same industry as me. What happened on that Saturday directly affects my professional life.
I almost went to jail. Get Around didn’t guarantee my transportation reimbursement and said that my Lyft ride back home needed to be less than $45 dollars. Is this real life?
What Get Around did?
Someone called me a few hours after the incident, but I wasn’t able to answer because I was taking my final exam. I took a Lyft after my class, and while I was in the Lyft, a “Senior Happiness Manager” from Get Around called me. She didn’t make me happy or even made me feel better about what happened. I told her about the incident, and basically, the only thing she said was “I’m sorry.” She also said that the Get Around app hadn’t unlocked the car door for me. She said that a previous user didn’t lock the car, so the car was unlocked all along, and because of that, I had been able to open it. She said that I could check the car license plate number before picking up a rental car. I stated that the plate number is not always displayed in the Get Around app, and even when it is shown, it is hard to read the plate number from a small photo. She agreed with me and said that she would send Get the Around team my feedback. She told me that they would reimburse the car rental (of course, I had barely used the car). I asked for the reimbursement for the Lyft I took, and she said that she would need approval and also that the reimbursement would be less than $45 (which was what I paid for the car rental). I almost went to jail, Get Around didn’t guarantee my transportation reimbursement, and they said that my ride needed to be less than $45 dollars. Is this real life?
It was too much for me. I was in shock for the rest of my weekend. On Sunday, I had class again, and it was very difficult to concentrate. This definitely affected my life and my performance for the rest of the week.
Their feedback
From the day after the incident, I exchanged some emails with Get Around. Get Around sent me the first email on Sunday, Oct 16, saying “I’m sorry” again and also telling me that they would reimburse the $45.32 Lyft trip back to San Francisco if I sent them the receipt. They also said that they forwarded the feedback on the license plate number issue on the app. They reiterated that they agree a better display of the car license plate could have helped avoid this situation. But nothing was guaranteed.
Should I have risked almost going to jail because of their lack of risk management? For a very bad user experience? Really?
On Oct 18, I decided to send an email to express my disappointment and frustration, because in my prior interactions with Get Around, I was still in shock and barely could speak. On Oct 20, I received an email from the Happiness person, feeling sorry again, among other things. She said that the responsibility is “shared.” Shared? Should I have had to risk almost going to jail because of their lack of risk management? For a very bad user experience? Really?
The two cars were practically identical with one exception: one had a blue strip. Per Get Around, the right car was in the exact same location as the wrong car. But, I didn’t see any other white Smart Car close to the area. Plus the car was unlocked with my action in the app, as expected. They said the car was unlocked already, but is that my fault? How can it be a shared responsibility?
Get Around should guarantee my safety no matter what!
What I expect in these situations:
- At a minimum, provide the plate number to renters;
- If the last renter forgets to lock the car, in the return area and close to the return time, the app should lock the car automatically after a set number of minutes of inactivity;
- If there’s more than one Get Around car in the same range, the app should warn the renter, for instance, “There are 3 Smart Cars in this block, make sure to get plate number “XXXXX”;
- Add a sound and/or light feedback once I unlock the car, so that I know I’m in the right car;
- Worst case, the owner should be able to tag a lost Get Around car. With that, if the car is tracked in the same location as a Get Around user, the user can be contacted first before taking a more dramatic action.
I thought about these recommended improvements in 5 minutes of brainstorming. I’m sure that Get Around can develop and implement another hundred solutions if they better observe their users, connect with them, and solicit input to solve real problems like these.
Update — August 2017
Get Around updated the app, and FINALLY, now you can see the plate number!
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