Freebird: Rideshare cash back

In a world where it seems every app, offer, coupon or reward comes with “fine print,” hidden costs, and misleading promises, or just flat-out doesn’t do what it purports—Freebird stands apart as an excellent, always improving, customer responsive, and well worth-your-while, cost-saving app, that is neither excessively intrusive nor exceedingly cumbersome to use. It only adds about 5 seconds longer than normal to calling a Lyft or Uber, shows additional offers without ads or unnecessary pop-ups, and clearly shows you exactly what you’ve earned, and how many points you need to receive your next reward. I call a moderate amount of vehicles—I’d say slightly more than an average person, but certainly not every day; and I make about $20 (or a little over) each month! That’s roughly $120 a year for using this app. When you consider it: that’s 2-4 rides per month, I get for FREE, just by using this app. Over the course of a year, that’s 24 to 48 rides Firebird will pay for. That makes a difference. I find the whole experience in a word: refreshing. It’s hard not to be cynical in today’s world, where so many companies don’t tell the truth and don’t have the customers best interest at heart. Firebird gives me hope that more and more apps, business and user interfaces will choose to follow their example.

So I’ve noticed a few glitches when I am waiting for a ride and close out of the app, but yesterday was beyond frustrating. I had the rider arriving any moment then the app froze and has been stuck on “We’re finding you a driver now” with Don Julio since I was headed home. I had used the app 3 times the same day with zero issue then here I am stuck at 3 am with a frozen app. Now it’s 24 hours later I’ve closed the app and turned on and off my phone and even turned my data off but the stupid screen is still trying to find me a ride! I am frustrated that I missed out on the ride last night and had to wait outdoors alone forever because I had to order a new ride. Driving responsibly I need to go get my car now across town and still won’t get to use the app. Gahhh!!!!

FreeBird sends cars to the wrong location. It’s an ongoing problem with their gps and they have either not picked me up at the right location, or dropped me off at the wrong location, at least a third of the times I’ve used it. I have been late for classes and appointments due to this. When I have contacted customer support they have told me again and again that I entered the address wrong. Why would I enter my addresses wrong or not pick my schools name on a map? In the latter situation, the driver dropped me off in the middle of the hood. I mean it was sketchy and dangerous and I had to wait for another Uber to come. It cost me a fortune, as did the other rides where the wrong location was sent to my cab. FreeBird kept giving me a hard time it and saying it was my fault and only after multiple messages from me would they refund me (and for the difference only mind you. Not for the entire ride given the inconvenience.) I liked the idea and have really given it a shot but reading these reviews I see that I’m not the only one who’s had this problem. I wouldn’t recommend.