An Electric Scooter Community on a Mission to Stamp out Transportation Mediocrity.

Share your stories and adventures, good or bad.
By LisaM
#688
So I really wanted to give this a shot. I live 20 minutes outside the city so I knew it was going to be more of a time and gas sink for me than others, but I had prepared myself for that. I had not prepared myself for all the other problems.

- The app for Android is really, really bad. Not one SINGLE bird in the place the map said, they were sometimes across the street, sometimes a street or two over. And no, they weren't being moved. The map is way off. I could stand still on a corner for 20 minutes and the app would show my purple dot moving up and down all the streets in the area, like it was possessed!
- There are SO MANY hoarders. Not saying anything you guys don't know, but 8 out of 10 available Birds are in someone's garage or in a dorm.
- Bird's "block" rules gave everyone headaches - here in Austin we have a big event called Austin City Limits Festival, weekend one was this weekend. Riders took the Birds into the festival grounds, which chargers could not retrieve without tickets to the event. So the festival personnel decided they would round up all the Birds and put them outside the gate to let us do our thing. We thought we had a windfall! Nope - Bird "locked" those Birds because they "moved before being scanned". Of course I contacted support to absolutely no avail. No idea what happened with those hundreds of scooters - likely those of us there early to help were the ones punished, they either released them to the late crowd or just picked them up themselves since they were all so nicely gathered.
- Some Birds aren't paying out - I contacted support because I had three(!) birds who would not show a charge on the app, despite multiple times shutting down / reopening. The lights on all three birds were green as if fully charged. Contacted support, they told me to just release back into a nest and let them know if I didn't get paid. Well, I got paid on one of the three. The other two - I'm being told it will take 1 - 2 days to research (even though I'd already told them the problem). Plus - in the same batch, one that didn't have any problem, that I charged to 100% and released correctly and on time, just didn't pay! Haven't heard back from support on that one.
- I'm being penalized for Birds not holding their charge - on my last batch of the weekend, when I lost sleep charging and topping off Birds because they start losing a charge the very SECOND I unplug them, Bird decided (for the first time) to dock my pay - by a lot. I had 10 Birds and one of them, I just absolutely didn't get to. So they paid 66% of the fee - totally appropriate. But the other nine all had AT LEAST 98% when I left them in the nest (ON TIME!) - and they only paid two at 100%. The rest are 79%, 87%, 80%, etc. There is NO WAY they went down that much in charge. And of course, it will be a while before I hear back from support and I have no way to prove my side of this story...

So that's why I quit. This isn't worth it for someone trying to do a good job and not cheat the company. Best of luck to others out there, hope you don't get screwed over too.

Lisa
User avatar
By druinthor
#689
That is a rough start. Hang in there, it does get better.

Stay on support until they pay you right. It sometimes takes several messages before they get it fixed. You’ll figure out the app soon enough.
#1851
Lisa don't quit! Have you heard of scootermap? It aggregates all of the scooter companies into one easy to use map that can give you text notifications when you are nearby a scooter. Download it in the app store or go to scootermap.com to learn more about it!
#2356
I'm with Lisa on that. Last night was my first night. Saw 4 Greens and 4 yellows all at an apartment complex noted as out front (Android App so not sure if the App is bad or like Lisa, Android App is bad).

Greens are supposed to be easy.

I walked every building, walkway and checked behind every bush and found ZERO!

It is a good thing I need the exercise or this would have been a total waste.

Also good I drive an EV hybrid that charges with "free" nighttime electricity.

Don
#2361
You have to take your time to review the charger map before heading out to capture scooters. If you just head out without doing your research you won't have good luck.

I'm only on the iphone app and heard the android app has a lot to be desired. As @guisar mentioned ScooterMap.com is worth checking out.
By Jray517
#2869
Don’t worry they will have this all ironed out by next year. A lot will be kicked, many for messed up reasons, scanning the wrong birds etc. but you won’t see a hoarder next July I gauruntee
#2882
Jray517 wrote:
Mon Dec 10, 2018 4:42 pm
Don’t worry they will have this all ironed out by next year. A lot will be kicked, many for messed up reasons, scanning the wrong birds etc. but you won’t see a hoarder next July I gauruntee
The scooter companies should have figured out how to stop hoarders a long time ago. Its obvious to us chargers who run across them everyday. Eventually they will shut down the hoarders. Hopefully your right!

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