Vélib', app officielle

I bought a day pass. But was subsequently charged ~$50 for not returning the bike correctly. I made sure the monitor stops shinning indicating I can leave. However, the customer service told me that I should wait for an email verifying the return. That’s EXTREMELY unreasonable 1) it’s not even mentioned in the instruction and 2) they expect people to stand there for 30 minutes just to get an email that says it’s return? The penalty charge is outrageous. You’re better off taking Uber or a taxi next time. This is how they make money, based off charging people for ridiculous mishaps. Oh did I mention, the bike was completely shot and need repair. I can’t believe they let bikes like that running in the street without checking.

I visited Paris in the hopes of riding bikes around the city with zero luck, this app keeps toggling from English to French, tells me to update the app for the best possible experience multiple times a minute even though it’s fully up to date and I deleted and reinstalled the app to ensure it was fully update to no avail, and over all the user experience is horrifically bad, I spent almost 2 hours just trying to figure out how to get it to work and on top of that the updated pass Doesnt even get added to my Apple wallet resulting in even more frustration trying to just hop on a bike and go. If I can give this app 0 stars I would. Paid (twice for a subscription and only got to use the bike one time with tons of frustration). I don’t recommend this app in the slightest.

Wish this worked better. Seeing Paris by bike is awesome. Paris is set up for bikes. Seriously though. Every VELIB bike is broken somehow. Every single one. No tires, seats, gears. Take your pick. Every electric assist battery is dead. You have to go through 15 bikes to find one that works. You spend more time reporting issues than riding bikes. Forget it if you’re traveling with other people and need to find 2 bikes that work. Lime bike worked pretty well but we were traveling with our kids who were under 18 and weren’t allowed to rent the lime bikes. Invest in learning the busses and trains. Cheaper and way less frustrating.