Also – could you point me to the page where it says that this blog isn’t my personal bitching platform? While this post wasn’t a bitching post, I haven’t been able to find where it says what I can and can’t post.

Anyway thanks for your comment – all feedback is appreciated.

Good point–there is nowhere (that I’ve found) that says you can’t post a random complaint here. The expectation is that you’ll read considered opinions on this blog, though, which is perhaps a better way of making my point.

With that, tho, I’ll be returning to fried turkey and putting the soapbox away. Thanks for your reponse; I do appreciate knowing that attention is paid to readers.

We were ok with paying a premium from the start but now it’s just gotten, well, uncompelling.

ZipCar, please get wise. $10 an hour is your base and you need a stock of cars at $8.50 for the cheapos out there. If your biz dev guys says anything about “upscaling the customer”, show him the latest headlines and then the door. There’s world of business just below your price point.

If their pricing model is largely based on the price of gas, we should be seeing that variability on the rates of the car. Perhaps for cars whom are more gas-efficient, the rates wouldn’t swing as much, but for other cars, you’ll probably see a $1 swing on hourly rates if gas moves from $2.50 a gallon to $4 (just an example).

The reply was most likely a canned message, but said that rates wouldn’t be changing anytime soon. “Our pricing model is based on total operating costs, including parking, insurance, vehicle leases and fuel. An increase in multiple variables (including gas) led Zipcar to increase its prices earlier this year. We don’t frequently change the rates based on the time or year or trends but rather we look at total cost over a period of time.”

I think you could still make an argument that in a recession, operating costs shouldn’t be going up at all. Fuel is now incredibly cheap, dealers are desperate to unload new vehicles and labor costs should be contained. Property values are also down with the collapse of the housing market, so I can’t imagine parking costs have gone up astronomically either.

Of course, airlines have kept their fees in place because it’s such an attractive revenue stream at a time when the industry is struggling. I can’t say I blame Zipcar either — the company has struggled to return a profit for years. However, it will be hard to get more members if the rates remain so high.

What went wrong over at zipcar? Gas is at it’s all time LOW. I drove in New Jersey and a tank of regular gas was at $1.15

What’s staggering about this blog, is that it was created in November. 2 months later, and zipcar is still reluctant to modify its prices.