“Are there better car sharing options available?”

“Dear PoPville,

Last night [Sunday] I had a reservation from 5:00-7:00p that I made a month in advance knowing about the metro service interruption and the racist march downtown, having to transport my 5 year old daughter pursuant to a custody agreement requiring my daughter to be dropped off at 6p in Virginia. As the thunderstorm hit, our car was not available (parking lot above Columbia Heights Giant). The ZipCar representative said we could wait for 45-50 minutes or walk a mile in the storm to a car in another location, carrying a car seat, my daughter, and her bag.

He ended up finding one a bit closer that we went to. Soaking wet I installed a car seat into the replacement vehicle. The representative promised “one hour of drive time credit” but would not grant the full hour of time as no car was even available to fulfill the hour, and would not adjust my reservation to when I actually was able to acquire the replacement car, charging me for time when the car was not available to me. I returned the car at approximately 6:30p.

Furthermore, I received an email late last night and further discovered the ZipCar representative had extended my reservation from 7:00p to 7:30p without my knowledge or consent and fraudulently billed my credit card for the additional charge. When I called support this morning, they insisted my reservation was until 7:30p and not 7:00p despite evidence to the contrary and no refund was issued. Instead I received an email cancelling my account. I had my little girl around so I certainly did not get carried away in the conversation.

Do I have any recourse? Are there better car sharing options available in Columbia Heights where I can make reservations that will actually be honored?”