Gotcha Technologies

I recently tried both sizes of the Gotcha scooters in Mobile Alabama. And what I didn’t realize is that when your money gets low you don’t really get a clear communication if that’s the case, instead he just disabled my scooter, leaving me in a bad part of town pushing my scooter down the street. Later, when I got to the second group of scooters, I thought my first one was just broken so I rented a second one only to realize that it was an accounting issue the whole time. Clear communication would make this how much more fun experience.

My fiancé and I went riding the other night and it was absolutely amazing. We rode for what felt like forever and we went all over the place without a single problem with the bikes. Therefore, a few nights after we decided to go riding again. Big mistake. Within three seconds of taking off from the bike rack, my fiancé’s bike just turns itself off and stops working. Keep in mind we both checked the battery life of both of our bikes before we unlocked them and they weren’t dead. We decided to turn around and he would just get a different bike since we hadn’t gone very far. However, soon after we took off his bike turned itself off again. He had to lock it and unlock it again right there to get it to work again. It kept doing that about three more times all the way back to the house we were staying at. Mine also turned itself off about halfway there and I had to lock it and unlock it again to get it to work. It charged us a $5 fine every time we had to lock and unlock it again, since we weren’t in a parking zone for the bikes. The customer service person told us it was because we rode near a restricted area, even though we rode the same path a couple days before without any problems. Even after saying we are on vacation and leave in the morning, the only compensation we got was $10 in credit for rides of which we can’t use because we leave tomorrow. Our first experience was awesome but every experience after was a nightmare.

Never have I ever had a more miserable, infuriating, inconvenient, and inconsistent experience than I’ve had with Gotcha. You basically flip a coin on whether the bikes / scooters are going to work. The app has a plethora of performance issues. Have you arrived at a designated Gotcha parking location and wish to end your ride? Good luck! According to the app, which actually shows your exact location within the parking spot, you’re in a restricted area, and must pay a fine of $5 unless you move it to the correct spot (which you are, in fact, already in). Maybe that’s not the issue though, sometimes it just simply fails to end the ride, and you’re stuck there trying to figure out what to do (better hope you don’t need to be somewhere by a certain time). Sometimes scanning a scooter / bike shows an “N/A” for the battery level, so you get to gamble on how much is left! Anyway you probably get the idea, but I promise you, I COULD go on. Genuinely just a waste of time. The worst of it really is that sometimes it DOES work and gives you a false sense of hope that’ll keep you coming back to Gotcha, but it’s really best just to let go and figure out a better means of transportation. Or just walk honestly.