Cancelling my Citibike membership
I am cancelling my Citibike membership that I have had for quite a few years. I used to really like Citibike when it was not owned by Lyft. I am a senior and I cycle for exercise and it was usually easy to find a regular peddle bike, but now that Lyft has taken it over, the bikes are all heavy clunky electric bikes, many not working. I have not had one pleasant experience this year, so I have cancelled my membership. Please bring back ordinary bikes, and senior rates.
Nancy M
They charge 3 months minimum and…
They charge 3 months minimum and auto-renew after that. $45 to cancel early. Also very poor quality bikes.
Stina Jonsson
Citi Bike is not reliable
Citi Bike is not reliable. It is a great concept, but in practicality, it is not very functional. Luckily, I don’t use it for work because it is unreliable. I can’t count how often I have been late to appointments because there are no working bikes or the station at my destination is full. Yes, it has given me the freedom about 70% of the time. That percentage is not high enough to take the risk of either missing or being late. The manual bikes are a total joke. I am not the only one who complains. I have many friends who utilize these services. They complain about the same thing I just stated. What a shame, it is the best way to get around our beautiful city when it works properly.
ken rochelle
Not worth it - overpriced, faulty bikes, worst customer service experience
We took our daughter for our first trip to NYC and heard biking around the city was a great way to see it. There were additional charges for e-bikes which wasn't well advertised. After riding around central park, the bike wouldn't dock. We tried over 30 docks at two different stations. We were stranded with this bike. Friendly locals and even an ebike repair employee tried to help. We spent 2 hours on the phone, then another hour the next day, then another 2 hours the next day trying to deal with the situation and charges. It put a real damper on our trip.
Jonathan Oswald
Massive hidden fees are buried in a 45 page agreement that you are expected to read on the kiosk!
Was lured in by the $25/day offer only to find out after the fact that I was also charged $0.38/minute because we used e-bikes and not manual bikes. I called to complain as was told that the flat rate only applied to manual bikes and that the information is somewhere in the approximately 45 page agreement that the kiosk asks you to read and agree to. Ever tried that on a hot day with 90+ temperatures, high humidity and in direct sunlight, with others waiting to make their own purchases on the same kiosk? To add insult to injury, one of the rides involved a bike with a completely flat tire that had to be returned almost immediately to the same station it was rented from and when there were no others, we had to return my wife's, as well. Calling Citi Bike resulted in an offer to remove the highest additional charge (about $17), but nothing for any of the other charges. I'm now in the process of disputing these charges with our credit card. It would have been WAY cheaper to take taxi rides, especially because there were two bikes involved.The actual usage experience is a mixed bag. The docking stations are clunky and often will not allow a bike that seems fine and with plenty of charge to be unlocked. The return process is nearly as bad -- sometimes the dock will work and the light will turn green and other times you have to try several until you find one that does. Pressing the "broken bike" button appears to do nothing to stop others from trying to rent the same one. There is no feedback when that button is pressed whatsoever. The bikes themselves are clunky and you feel every bump. Some bikes feel over-boosted, some feel under-boosted. There's no way to adjust that setting that I can tell.The 30 minute per ride limit is also ridiculous, especially if it also applies to manual bikes. This is NYC, after all! There are lights, pedestrians and traffic, not to mention crazy fast e-bikes, scooters and motorcycles weaving around you on both sides without any audible warning. We rode from mid-town to just over the Williamsburg bridge on a Sunday morning and it took more than 30 minutes. The bikes have no mirrors so you can't see what's coming up behind you.My advice is to avoid these bikes at all costs. Take the subway -- it's way safer, much less expensive, air-conditioned and avoids all of the traffic.
Lee H.
Why I’m cancelling…
Why I’m cancelling my subscription. At least the major reasons:- price goes up even as you now charge for e-bikes. You now want me to pay more for a e-bike ride than it costs to take the subway. - no senior discount; no veterans discount. Was told one year we’d get a vet discount. But it never happened. The following year we were told vet discounts were discontinued, even as you still had it listed on your website - doubly insulting. - hard to reach. And when you do reach the company, the people are astoundingly unknowledgeable. - final insult: I go to cancel my subscription and you give me 100 characters to tell you why, which about sums up your respect for your customers. (And this doesn’t cover the state of the bikes/docks.)
Gabriele Schafer
Dishonest misleading pricing $37 for 90 minutes
First, the good: there were plenty of places to pick up and drop off bikes. The bikes were in good condition. Riding around New York was fun.Now, the bad: It's $4.79 for a 30-minute ride and I wanted to be free to explore for a couple of hours so I decided to pay $19 for a "Day Pass" which seemed like a good deal.But it isn't really a day pass! You are supposed to drop off your bike every 30 minutes and pick up another one! For no reason! If you don't do that they charge you another $4 plus tax per 15 minutes. So if you want to have a nice long ride you can't, even if you've paid for the whole day. You have to stop start stop start stop start again. I ended up paying about $37 for just 90 minutes of riding even though I thought paying $19 for a Day Pass would give me that freedom. Felt really ripped off.
Benjamin Charlton
Complete Desaster Company
Summer Streets is a great opportunity to experience NYC with bicycles. BUT DO NOT USE CITIBIKE.As family of five we booked Citibike daypasses and locked the bikes after 28 minutes by returning them at another station. After a difficult search for a station with available bikes for another ride and a lot of disappointing experiences with bikes without function we could not unlock bikes which were in function by using our code. They even charged us additional money for not returning the bikes, which were clearly locked. Even the contact with the helpdesk was a desaster: agents, wich gave no real answers, extremely incompetent, offering no solutions. It seems that the whole business model is constructed to rip off tourists. Don't waste your money with this company!
Helmut
SCAM!! Warning
SCAM!!! Family of 4 were charged US$ 270.00 for renting 3 hours in Central Park, NY. We bought 4 Daypasses (4 x US$ 30) but were charged 270. DONT USE THIS COMPANY
Adam
Scammers!!!!!!!!!
These people charged me $136 to use their bikes for 15 minutes. I paid for the day pass but didn't use it. When I went to use them again I couldn't because it wouldn't accept the code and I was not going to swipe the card since I didn't want to be charged again. I called to explain and they didn't care and said they couldn't do anything. Now, I see all the bad reviews these company has and I understand they are just ripping badly the people. Don't get caught in this and don't waste your money with this people.
Shirley Lopez
Citibike/Lyft is a ripoff, they're crooks
Citibike/Lyft is a ripoff, they're doing something illegal, they're definitely up to no good and their practices need to be investigated.I've had a yearly membership for the longest time because I use the bikes to get around filthy NYC. I used a bike on the night of 09/16 and rode it ten minutes to the docking station.I docked the bike, but I didn't get the text I always get telling me that the bike was docked. Then, when I looked at the Citibike app, I see that it's showing a bike number that is completely different from the bike number I actually rode.I tried to reason with their customer service, telling them that they're system seems to have made a mistake by logging a completely different bike than the one I used, but they fail to listen to reason.Twelve hours later, the app is still showing that I have that "phantom bike" out, even though I never had anything to do with the bike number they're claiming I used.
Juergen
100% Scam
100% Scam. Had to pay 60$ for a short ride.
Robin René Lindberg
SCAM - HIDDEN FEES BEWARE!!
Got a ‘day pass’ for $19 but it didn’t mention all the other hidden fees. Ended up paying $80 EACH!!! for 2.5 hours riding around central park. Went to support who were useless. They told me i should have checked the website for pricing and there is nothing they can do. Absolute scam.
Ben
Not transparent and extremely pricy
Extremely expensive. Full of negative surprises and extra fees. Very trick to rent bikes for a family of four, and the e-bikes charges are out of this world. Rent from a local bike rent instead.
Nikolaj Millers
Horrible company, don't give them your credit card info.
I had an experience similar to many others who got stuck with unexpected credit card charges and a company that refuses to refund their charges, even if it was a result of their mistake. Because of problem with incorrect information in the app, I wasn't able to start the ride at all, but I also wasn't able to end it. Their customer service said they would send someone out to fix it and they would issue a refund, but they never did. I ended up getting charged almost $100 even though I never used their bike at all. Their customer service agents just said sorry, yes we know you didn't use the bike, and we told you we would give you a refund, but we just aren't going to now. It's crazy that it's impossible to get refunds from this company, even when they admit they are at fault. They need to authorize their customer service agents to give refunds, it shouldn't even be a big deal, it's just refunding a bike rental fee.
Loryn Alawa
We rented bikes with CitiBike
We rented bikes with CitiBike - never should have. We signed up for day passes. Picked up the bicycles at the same location, and attempted to drop off at same location, which was not possible. I then continued to the next station (extra 10 min). I then receive a bill for a ride 2 hours longer than my GF's. I am sure the bike was locked when I left it, but CitiBike claims the ride was continued. And I get it, it could happen that the bike is not locked - it is difficult. But even if so, all information confirms, that an honest mistake has happened - and not an attempt of cheating the system. But CitiBike's "hands are tied" they claim. No, they make their money on these situations, and do not want to help. Come to Copenhagen, try our Metro, where in doubt, the customer is trusted, not vice versa.
Finn Laustsen
Be careful
Be careful - this company may trick you into a 185 USD membership. How can a turist have any interest in a 1 year membership?They will send you an e-mail with how much you have used the bike, but no mention of a membership that you may sign up to.
Gunner Sørensen
