Please don’t use Philly Car Share spots that are designated for cars other than the one your driving for regular parking. That means that the person who has that car out can’t return it where it belongs if they get back while you’re still inside, for example, Ikea.

One thing I hate is the “Member ID”. I do not need another randomly assigned string of numbers and letters in my life.

Why not use my name, or my birthday, or my email, part of my SS, my address, or pretty much anything that has any significance in my life.

I get scolded by their operators every time I call because I don’t know the ID they gave, that’s just a poor experience.

P.S. I was expecting a little more meat in this post because of the title. Why not have a real critique about the service rather than just a tutorial about how to use the service.

Here I’ll start; I am pretty underwhelmed with their website. It appears to just be a skinned version of an off-the-shelf product. The fact that they’re catering to such a specific audience you think they could have done some unique things. How about recommending day-trips according to my address, etc. I imagine with Zip Car, Hertz, and others rolling out similar car shares they’ll have to get on the ball.

First: The Philly Car Share site says there are no pods (rental spaces) at Ikea. So I called Philly Car Share and left a message to ask about the spot. Michelle from PCS called me back and told me that I was right about being able to park there. The spot I found was a spot reserved for PCS users as a perk. (Kind of like how Ikea has family parking as a perk for bringing your kids.) Ikea donated that spot and at least one other for Philly Car Share users just to be nice.

Second: Philly Car Share is a voluntary service and if you don’t want to use it, YOU DON’T HAVE TO USE IT. Member IDs aren’t thatannoying if you can remember to keep your numbers handy–you could even tape them on your key fob. Furthermore, there wasn’t much to critique regarding the service. I reserved a car (easy), I found the car (easy), I started the car (not as easy as I’d assumed) and I drove the car around town (easy). Upon ending my journey, I got gas (easy) and I parked the car in the same spot where I found it (easy). How’s that for a short critique? As far as the website goes, it’s easy to use and it gets the job done. That’s all I need from a service website.

I wanted to use a car for the day and I did exactly that. My post was written to encourage people to try Philly Car Share and to show them that it’s not as intimidating as it may seem. Keeping my length limitation in mind, I added details to my post that I thought were relevant to my experience. I’ll happily use PCS again and I will continue to encourage my friends to try it.

Good for you, Alexis, for giving Car Share a shot! My husband and I have been members for a couple years now, and we are pretty pleased overall with the customer service as well as the availability of cars and ease in reserving them. Car Share is a non profit organization that has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years, and I am continually impressed with their ability to serve their ever-growing customer base with good manners, patience and efficiency. I might add that we are regular users–about twice a week. I’m a little surprised at the previous poster’s advice that Car Share should “get on the ball”–they currently have 30,000 members on their rolls. They must be doing something right!

I think Philly Car Share developed the site — they announced it last year. I’ve used two other car share websites, and Philly Car Share’s is the best. It’s faster, more attractive, and you can search by more criteria.

Not that a website is everything - most important is the convenience of my closest cars. And Philly Car Share scores there too - across the street (and on the next block, and the next). I effectively ended my Flex/Zip membership in L.A. when they removed all the cars from my neighborhood last month (Zip’s disorganized customer service was a debacle too).

As someone who has used multiple services, I can say Philly Car Share seems well organized, very customer-friendly, and reliable.

PCS is also a non-profit. Which means it’s much cheaper than Flexcar/Zip Car.

I’ve been car free for a year and a half, and have no complaints about PCS, only about rude people. PCS depends on the individual users to return the car on time, not smoke in it, keep it clean, etc. Unfortunately there are a few people who abuse what is otherwise an awesome system.

I’ve been using PCS for 6 months now or so - I’ve saved a ton of money (over gas/insurance) and never had a serious problem with anything.

Nice article.

Thanks for the first-time user’s overview of PCS! Good to hear that its easy and I’m loooving the mini-cooper. (That alone should convince people to try the service.) :)

Some good discussion going on.

Perhaps I wasn’t clear in my first comment. I use Philly Car Share, I love Philly Car Share, I just think it could be better.

And I guess that’s what my expectations were for the piece. However, doing a little digging around this site reveals that it’s more of an informative venue rather than critical.

That’s cool, just different than what I thought it was.

why do you keep censoring constructive criticism/feedback on this article?

Howdy–I’m the managing editor and I don’t think we’ve censored any comments on this post. In fact, we very rarely need to do any moderating on uwishunu. You’re free to speak your mind on any post, as long as you keep it relevant and civil.

–Brennen