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This bike app in Poland is scamming it’s customers. Let’s dig deeper to find out why.
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This Shady Polish Bike App Is a GIANT SCAM
This Polish Bike App Is A GIANT SCAM
This Polish Bike App Is Secretly SCAMMING You
What if I told you that this shady bike app is actually scamming its customers? Let me explain why. So, I rented from this app a couple of times and for the most part, the bikes honestly are pretty good. There’s generally enough stations around the city. To be honest, it’s a pretty good deal. For the first 20 minutes, it’s zero zi. And then from 21 minutes to your first hour, it’s one zi, I believe. So, it’s very cheap. Almost too suspiciously cheap. It’s very sneaky because they don’t show it immediately. When you scroll down and you see the fee for misparking your bike, it is 150 zote. And if you go over 12 hours, it’s another 200 zi. We’re going to get to that in a little bit. This to me seems quite normal. Park your bike where you’re supposed to park the other bikes. And I think that’s totally cool. So, this is where the big problem is. I was able to lock it. They didn’t tell me I was parked in a bad zone, and I was parked where other bikes were parked. So, I thought it was totally okay. 30 minutes later, I get hit with this 150 fine because I didn’t park the bike in the right place. Now, this to me is shady for several reasons. Because number one, when I initially parked the bike, they didn’t tell me that I was parked in a bad spot. This is something that Bolt does, and I think it’s a right thing. If you bolt scooter around the city, they’ll let you know exactly where to park. And if you park in an area that you’re not supposed to, they’ll let you know that if you park here, you’ll receive a fine of 50. But this bike app did not say anything at all. Just 30 minutes later, they said that I was fined for 150 roti and I didn’t even approve of the payment or anything. Apparently, they still had my card on file and they ended up charging me anyways. So, I thought that was very disingenuous. So, I reached out to the customer service and I told them that I parked the bike around other bikes. So, the guy asked me for the bike station. Bro, I’m already at home. The bike is parked in a completely different neighborhood. I don’t know what the station is because it’s not close to me at all. They alerted me so late that I was already so far from the bike. It was already night time as well. They told me if I find the bike and I can return it to a station, then they’re willing to maybe give me a refund. So, I have to go all the way back to Praa, opposite side of the city, to try to find this stupid bike. Let’s see if we can find it. Don’t you [Music] like a million stars? [Music] So, I think this app is actually a good idea. Being able to have bikes and go around the city is an amazing concept. So, I don’t think there’s any problem with that. But, it does seem like the app is designed to prey on people who don’t know any better and scam their customers. [Music] And it’s a shame because this is one of the best things to do during summer here in Warsaw. Okay, so I went back to Praga to show you guys where I dropped off the bike. So, if you look right here, there’s like a bike station, right? It’s not particularly for the bike company. I think when I was here yesterday, I also saw a couple other bikes with the same company. So, I totally thought it was okay to park here. I was actually still in the area for about an hour after I dropped off the bike. And that’s why I didn’t think that there was any problem with it because I didn’t receive any notification saying that the bike was parked in the wrong place, that I needed to return it to a certain spot. It even let me lock it in everything. It literally gave me zero warnings that this bike was parked in the wrong spot. And if you look at it, right, it’s just like a regular normal bike area. So even if it’s not the branded one, if you look on the app, if you park in one of these bike areas, it says the charge is only 15 zworthy. So that’s why I was extremely surprised when it came out to 150i. So just to put that in perspective, 150 is the fine that you get if you go to public transportation without a ticket. Some people may say never use the app. Okay? So, let’s say 30%. So, 150,000 of that is gone. So, 350,000 people who have the app. Let’s say 50% of the people use it correctly, but the other 50% don’t use it correctly and they end up getting it fined or they make a similar mistake like me. So $175,000 time $40, you get a total of $7 million. And considering how these bikes are only available when the weather is good, so maybe 6 months out of the year, in a great business model, you can make a lot of money, but it’s extremely shady and it purposely punishes the customers. Now, if you think that I’m crazy, if you go in the App Store or the Play Store, it’s filled with negative reviews about people complaining about the same thing. There’s people complaining about the locks are broken, so they can open the bike, but then when they’re trying to park it, you can’t lock the bike because it’s broken and they end up charging you over. This is actually what happened to me on the first time I used the bike, but I was able to contact customer service, so they were able to close out that bike for me. But I’ve heard of stories where other people they tried to close the bike but because the lock was broken they weren’t able to park it and the time just kept running and they ended up being overcharged and charged the over 12 hours fee which is another 200. So it seems like the bikes are not the highest quality and they’re purposely set up to have all these malfunctions and errors and the customers are the ones that get punished for it. This to me doesn’t seem correct and someone had to say something about this because if this happened to me, I’m sure that this has happened to thousands of other people as well. Moral of the story, as tempting as it might be to use these bike rental apps, if you really want a bike, it might be better just to rent it at a actual store, that way you know exactly what the rules are and what you’re paying for. Or what I do is you can just rent Bolt scooters to get around the city. You can buy a day pass or a week pass or a month pass. The Bolt scooters are very easy to use. The app is very consumer friendly, especially to foreigners. It’s very clear about everything you’re going to be charged, where you need to park. It’s a shame because this concept for an app is so ingenious in my opinion, but there are just so many shady business practices behind it that you have to be careful. What do you guys think? Am I crazy or do you guys agree that this app is actually very shady? Let me know down below and I will see you on the next
22 Comments
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hi
I guess reading terms and looking on any other map than car map is too much for Americans…
I use this system for 10 years and have never had such issues.
BTW, check the application where the bike stations are. Parking because other people biked is not smart.
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity" – Veturilo has technical issues but every time you can call to support and there is no problem to correct it.
Crazybots 😂
By the way, the city pays them currently something like 17.5 MPLN per season (which lasts for 9 months afaik) to run the system 😉
SCAM!
Veturilo is an official and public bike sharing system of the City of Warsaw. So you blame the city authorities of scamming 😉
u park bike on random location and saying they scam you 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 is ur foult that you tho is was official bike station is same in london and anywhere ussaly there is a sigh
I'd get fined for sure lol
Ended up in Poland thanks to you.
I always use Lime
In 3city the app for city bikes doesn't steal your money and everything is plain and simple. You know the rules instantly. I was also surprised when I was in Warsaw borrowing a city bike by a hidden costs I don't understand to this day. It looks like the Warsaw system is fu@#$ up by purpose to scam people.
it seems so counterintuitive to rent and return system bikes in the vicinity of branded system poles 😂
Well, sorry for your bad experience. I've been using the Veturilo bike system for years, I've learned how to use it on the cheap and I have had pretty positive experiences. It's actually managed by Nextbike, a German company with hundreds of locations around Europe, it's the largest such company in Europe. The Warsaw system is co-run by the city. My advice:
1) Study the price list carefully. The company (and the city) charges low fees but that means you have to make their work very "standard". They are contractually obliged to do check-ups on the bikes AND make sure the bikes are in large numbers and evenly distributed through-out the official stations/stands in the morning. They have to physically load the bikes into trucks and move them around, service them etc. Driving around town hunting for the bikes would be very expensive.
2) Before locking the bike, open up the app to see if you're parking within range of an authorized stand. After you lock the bike, make sure that's reflected in the app correctly. You can also leave it in an "additional zone" ("Area of Return") if you're in a hurry, but that costs 15 PLN extra. So rarely makes sense.
3) In case of problems (check everything after locking!), phone the Veturilo/Nextbike hotline. In my experience, they're very helpful. I've been slapped an automatic 150 PLN fine despite leaving it AT THE OFFICIAL STAND, when GPS in Warsaw was going crazy a few times (I also experienced it on my phone – blame the Russians). After phoning in they would ask me the ID number of the station (it's visible on the station's pole), where I left it exactly and then they would return my money with no problems, no photos or anything like that. Same thing if your lock does not lock. Don't abandon the bike, phone in, and the procedure is very simple. Only bummer is it takes up to 15 minutes of waiting to connect (but 15 seconds at 3 AM). All in all not pleasant at all, but in the end it's OK. But ah well, we wanted it cheap. Don't use Veturilo if you really can't be late.
4) If you find a bike outside of the official stands (regardless if it's the extra "Area of Return" or not) and deliver it to a station, you get a bonus of 5 PLN. I once made it a pastime to jog around my neighborhood, and ride the bikes to the official stations (a bi-athlon of sorts) and for about a year I had long-range bike rides from work (15-20 km) for free, effectively.
You've already lost trust
Is this a rage bait video? You literally parked the bike in some random place. It does not look like a bike station at all.
W Polsce jest coś napisane po polsku? To skandal. Jak możemy tak traktować drogich gości?
To co zrobiłeś to test na inteligencję. 😉
You have cool content, but this video is going way too far… YOU made the mistake yourself; you didn't check the map for a bike parking station, and now you're blaming others, not yourself….
I get that any reason is a good one to ADVERTISE A SUITCASE and to look for ways to create content for it, but creating CLICKBAIT by calling the app a SCAM is a massive exaggeration… I hope this doesn't backfire on you (I mean with your followers, or even the operator…).
I've been using Veturilo since the launch in Warsaw (10 years or so) – yes, there are some issues with the bikes from time to time, but you just call the customer service and they always help you. You can check the map in the app to see where you can leave the bike free of charge. And the last thing, the Veturilo stations are easy to distinguish from other bike stations – they have those big signs, rather difficult to miss.
You parked an App bike not in this company station but in a totally random unmarked spot that's probably meant to be used only by people visiting that coffee place on the corner and then you throw a tantrum about getting fined. You are not the brightest crayon in the box, are you?