Popular Ride Sharing App Leaves Syracuse Zipcar Zooms out of Syracuse

MADDY DEVERA, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: “As a college student who doesn’t have a car here, I relied on my Zipcar.”
JOHN PERIK, (REPORTER): “A sudden surprise for users of a popular ride sharing app.”
MADDY DEVERA: “We went to go see if any Zipcars were available, and we were like, where did they go what the heck? they were nowhere to be seen”
JOHN PERIK: “Without making any public notice… zip car has disappeared off the Syracuse map… forcing students like sophomore Maddy Devera to pay more money just to get a bite to eat.”
MADDY DEVERA: “It’s affected me financially because I do spend all of my money with Instacart and then I have the delivery fee.”
JOHN PERIK: ”And then there’s Syracuse freshman Liam Feaster, who’s also feeling a financial burden… last month Liam spent 95 dollars on a Syracuse University student zip car membership… only to find out Zipcar’s aren’t available
LIAM FEASTER: “When I signed up everything seemed to work out i paid for the extra insurance.” but when I went to rent cars I noticed it said they were all booked for the next three months.”
JOHN PERIK: “Feaster then called zip car”
LIAM FEASTER: “I finally called them, and after a while, a manager was able to tell me they were not affiliated with the school which was never listed on their website.”
JOHN PERIK: “And when Feaster went to zip car’s website this is what he saw… the Syracuse student membership was still an option… But that changed yesterday…. 30 minutes after we contacted zip car… the website changed to this. Looking for answers about why they left… without any notice… we gave zip car’s customer service a call.”
ZIPCAR CUSTOMER SERVICE AGENT: “The market for Syracuse was closed back in january… do you know why the market was closed. I don’t have the specifics for this, but probably because they were not viable anymore, we actually closed a few of them..”
JOHN PERIK: Zipcar then sent us a statement saying, “Based on recent trends, we decided to relocate the Syracuse fleet as of January 15, 2023. Which was over two weeks before Liam Feaster signed up for his Syracuse student membership.”
LIAM FEASTER: “they let me use my Syracuse-affiliated email. and all of that information. so it didn’t seem they discontinued the affiliation. I feel like the university should say something as well because it misleads their students.”
MADDY DEVERA: “We don’t even have ice cream in our freezer because we can’t go food shopping.”
JOHN PERIK: “Maddy Devera agrees; without Zipcar, both her wallet and fridge have now gone dry.”
MADDY DEVERA: “With Zipcar, I was able to go to Trader Joe’s and I would have microwaved frozen food.”
JOHN PERIK: “But she doesn’t go anymore because she can’t uber everywhere… like many college students, money is tight for Maddy… something Liam Feaster knows too well….
LIAM FEASTER: “I’m of course limited, i don’t have a source of money right now. So not being able to use the 95 dollars i spent was disappointing.”
JOHN PERIK: “and now Zipcar is telling Feaster they don’t even know if they can refund him.”
LIAM FEASTER: “advertise your product properly. If you’re going to not affiliate with something and say you are, you’re going to mislead a ton of people who would actually like to spend, you know their money with your company.”
JOHN PERIK: “All gas, no breaks, zip car has zoomed out of Syracuse… with students money in the trunk… in Syracuse, John Perik, NCC News.