Popcar Car Sharing

After years of using Popcar and recommending it to friends I'm now looking at every possible alternative. After the change in ownership every aspect of their service is anything from poor to appalling. Here's just one example: When I arrived at the car I'd booked, it was unusable - probably a flat battery. The agent refused to allow me to use one… Read more

of the other vehicles parked in the same area, saying that the booking could not be transferred to a vehicle in another category. Instead I was told to pick up a car several kilometres away and that I would be refunded the cost of the Uber fares I would need. The alternative parking place was so poorly described that it took an hour and a half and many phone calls before I was eventually able to use the alternative car. I was promised a refund for the wasted 90 minutes but there's no sign that I'll ever get it. I was promised a refund of the Uber fares. So far it has taken two long phone calls (with long waits in phone queues), two emails and a Web form. The form required lots of information, including all the information I had already supplied by phone and email several times. I wonder if I'll ever get the money.

Being a regular Popcar customer for the last 5 years, it's disappointing to see that after a recent change in ownership, the user experience is now appalling. The new app is step backwards and there is no support to help rectify the issue. Only able to chat with AI who then refers you to a customer service line, and they are unable to help so… Read more

refer you to send an email (to which there is no response!).

After a booking is completed, I have not been able to get a Tax Invoice.

Its cheaper and easier just to rent a car from a professional hire car company.

Truly shocking customer service experience - every car hire has lead to dramas over card charges not going through and being charged late fees. I would highly recommend going elsewhere because the prices are not cheap enough for the bad service we’ve gotten over 12 months

I like Popcar but it’s not a perfect experience - cars dont seem to be managed frequently enough by humans (tank nearly empty and have to put diesel in even though thats part of charges, dirty windscreen etc). But customer service is always friendly and it’s easy. Show details

Convenient, reliable and professional service – After the deliver of our new car was delayed (after we had already sold our old car) Popcar has been a lifesaver! Getting our licences validated was quick and easy for both myself and my husband. Being able to grab a car whenever we need one has been fantastic. We have just found out our car delivery has been delayed another 6 weeks which would… Read more

have had me in a meltdown if it wasn't for Popcar. Whenever I have contacted them their staff have been super friendly and helpful. Living in the city we have a popcar location just around the corner which is super convenient. Some of the cars are a bit rough (but really that is on users who clearly don't take care when driving them)!

Great team, great support and great price – The team at Popcar are so easy to deal with, super friendly and incredibly helpful. Along with their great rental rates I will ensure to be using them for any further vehicle rental needs. Great work team PopCar!

It was 5 stars before being purchased by a Singapore based company. They replaced the local app with their inferior one which is buggy, slow, and inconvenient. They decided not to honour pre-purchased credit so they've effectively stolen from their Aussie customers on day one.

What a joke of a company. This is the worst "customer service" I've received in the past few year from an Australian company. Anthony Welsh and Steven Suyanto should be deeply ashamed of the utterly despicable disdain shown toward their "customers" and the Kafkan lack of human accountability.

You got charged $25 for late payment fee just because they can’t direct debit your card once. Even though you paid them on same day. In my case I forget to top up my smart access. Show details

I signed up with Popcar on a Friday afternoon and paid the $20 upfront fee expecting my licence validation to be handled within a reasonable timeframe. After two business days nothing had been processed. In the meantime I signed up with two of Popcar’s competitors on the same day had my licence approved instantly and was already using their… Read more

services — proving the delay was entirely on Popcar’s end.

When I called to cancel and request a refund I was met with a dismissive and abrupt customer service representative who tried to justify their delays. When I rebutted with the facts he hung up on me. I called back only to be hung up on a second time. On my third attempt I was told by a “gatekeeper” that they didn’t know who I’d spoken to but would “send them a message” and proceed with cancelling my account. If they didn’t know who I spoke to who exactly were they sending a message to? The whole exchange was laughably unprofessional.

Popcar takes your money upfront but fails to provide even the most basic level of service or courtesy. The rudeness lack of accountability and disorganisation I experienced are unacceptable. If this is how they treat potential new customers I dread to think how they treat paying members.

Save yourself the frustration and go with literally any other provider.

Absolutely a disgraceful company. Not even worth a look in, go to GoGet cars, much more reliable, they even start as the batteries aren’t flat all the time. Pop Car, it’s a wonder they have gotten this far to be honest. At first it was convenient to my location so I went with them, now I’d rather walk or take the bus. Even public transport is… Read more

cleaner and more hygienic. Found condoms in the Pop Car in my last visit, I literally through up, and I had a great breakfast that morning. I guess as they don’t start due to being flat you might as well use their cars as a bedroom. To give one star is a joke, not even worth half a star.

Wish I could give no stars, but unfortunately I can only leave one. I’ve been a loyal Popcar customer with over 30 rentals, but my recent experience was extremely disappointing. I was hit with a $25 missed payment fee due to a small $2.40 kilometre charge I forgot to factor into the total. I resolved the payment within five minutes of ending the… Read more

booking, but still got slapped with the automatic $25 penalty.

Despite reaching out to customer service multiple times, there was zero flexibility or grace period offered. The complete lack of empathy—especially for a long-time customer—shows poor customer service and a clear disregard for loyalty.

Popcar’s policies are nothing more than a way to steal your money. I will no longer be using them and cannot recommend their service to anyone.

Charging before you get approved and then denied with no real reasons. A complete useless system that constantly crashes and a customer service team who deserves to be fired. Hope this company fails.

Extremely Poor Customer Service Experience – Avoid Popcar I am deeply disappointed with my experience using Popcar. The customer service was exceptionally poor and unresponsive, leaving me frustrated and stranded during a critical time. Despite clear issues with their service, representatives refused to address concerns adequately, offered no… Read more

meaningful solutions, and displayed a lack of professionalism.

What should have been a straightforward rental process turned into a stressful ordeal due to Popcar’s inability to prioritize customer needs. Their failure to communicate effectively or take accountability only worsened the situation.

I strongly advise others to explore alternative rental companies. Many competitors offer transparent policies, responsive support, and reliable service—qualities PopCar severely lacks. Save yourself the hassle and avoid Popcar at all costs.

Incorrectly nominates speeding tickets to the wrong users! – Do not use! Incorrectly nominates speeding tickets to the wrong users, then customer service refuses to respond or do anything about it. Extremely rude customer service, unhelpful and blames users for their own mistakes. Had to deal with police for months to resolve. Did not compensate for time and cost of their mistake. Did not even refund the… Read more

booking that cause so much stress and time wasted with police.

Car maintenance almost non-existent, some don't even look roadworthy; some cars have smashed side mirrors and smashed lights held together with tape.

Not even the cheapest anymore. Save the hassle, time and money. Go use Kinto or GoGet for better cars and better customer service.

Terrible customer service – Only one star because you cannot choose zero stars. The customer service is utterly hopeless, they are beyond incompetent and they don’t even follow a simple request to cancel an account. A month after my request to cancel I receive an invoice for them for the last month. Avoid at all costs.

Worst car-sharing service in Victoria – — June 2026, Popcar moved to a new App, deleted all their promotions plan, removed a significant number of the cars and increased their prices again… it doesn’t smell good — April 2025 update, the recent significant increase in price , the halves of kms for a day of renting, the removal of « flexible » price for hybrid corolla which used to make… Read more

sens compared to « fixed » price on non-hybrid corolla, put the business at risk, I ll personally rent less and start to look for alternatives… Not the smartest move Popcar …

« — Before prices increased : 5 ⭐️ : Frankly, it's the best car-sharing service in Victoria, especially if you can get a promotional plan. I'm lucky enough to have four cars near my place, and I use them as my primary vehicles. The downside is that a car might occasionally be dirtier than usual, but overall, I highly recommend it!«

Slow license verification process which is incorrectly stated as being 24/7 – Signed up with Popcar on Friday afternoon and submitted a license verification request. Despite stating that license verification is 24/7 I rang and confirmed with them that they only verify licenses during regular business from Monday to Friday. Why say it's 24/7? Customer service was unhelpful after requesting the process be expedited. I… Read more

understand that may not be possible with their current processes but to not provide a way forward was poor. Won't be using in the future. Better of using a more reputable company like GoGet.

Poor. Frustrating – The worst system. They failed my drivers licence verification. When I called in to ask the reason. I was told there were not enough vehicles around the area so had to invalidate my licence. How fair is that? They wanted more proof like my payslips to prove that I work in that area where cars were parked. Seriously? What a good reason to not validate my licence. Absolute rubbish system.

Easy to use but car didnt seem safe – The signup process and obtaining a car was smooth, the Bluetooth connectivity to enter the car is a smart and excellent feature! However, the car breaks didn't seem very stable and felt very heavy even with the slightest touch. The car was also due for maintenance, which didn't make me feel very safe to drive.

Appalling Customer Service – Popcar sat on my application for 5 days (despite stating on their website that they validate applications in 1 day). I rang them and they said they would 'push through my application and an outcome in the next 10 minutes'. I then received an email stating that my application was rejected 'due to not meeting the requirements in the terms and… Read more

conditions'. I rang back and they stated that the reason for the rejection was that my license address was out of the region of the vehicle. I explained that whilst I lived in a regional area, I was driving my own vehicle to pick up the van in metro Melbourne and was only driving the van in that area and would then drop it back locally before driving my own vehicle back to regional Victoria. I offered to put this in writing. They simply repeated that I did not meet their requirements as their process was to base applications on the license address. I asked to speak to someone more senior to resolve the matter. I was told this was not possible and that was their final decision. Appalling customer service.

Popcar please provide insurer details as I am in pain, it’s not good enough to ignore members! – My email and phone call requesting name of insurer, was never followed up by Popcar! I only was requested to provide information and clarify how the accident occurred. And provide the driver at fault details! Later after waiting to be fully treated and not reaching full recovery I need SPINAL SURGERY, to reach pre injury health ! I requested… Read more

details from Popcar regarding the insurers name and contact details. To date I have had no response from Popcar! I was never provided insurers details so I could recover looses for my belongings in the vehicle and treatments associated to the accident! Non of the airbags in the brand new car deployed I assume it also affected my injuries, supposedly 11 airbags to protect passengers and driver, and the car was a total write off, it was a serious accident and no one from Popcar has provided any information to me verbally or in email or letter to date it’s now almost two years since the accident !

Please don't use Popcar. Seriously, just don't – Absolutely terrible. We wanted to take a day trip from Melbourne and once we had started the car, it made loud clicking and rattling noises. As we were surprisingly not comfortable driving this kind of car for an entire day, we called customer support and after being placed on hold for a looooong time, a very bored lady finally told us she was… Read more

going to rebook us to another car. She also explicitly told us to get an Uber to that other location and stated that they would cover the cost. Bear with me, this will be important later! Unfortunately she only told us the street name of the new car even after repeated requests to specify the exact location and as Melbourne streets tend to be quite long, believe it or not, there is more than one Popcar vehicle on Grattan street!

So after ubering to one Popcar and then walking to the next one, we did find our vehicle. At this point we had lost an hour of our planned day trip and therefore chose to ignore the general dirtiness and the smell of vomit mixed up with a refreshing scent of cotton candy emanating from an "air refreshener". After all, the car didn't make rattling sounds. Call that priming!

Thankfully our trip was uneventful and beautiful and after returning the car to its location, we took an Uber home – because said location was nowhere near our hotel and we didn't feel like exploring new parts of Melbourne at 11pm. This is where the fun begins.

We submitted our Uber invoices to Popcar (less than 25 dollars in total and might I mention that we paid about 255 dollars in total for our road trip) and thought this would be the end to it. Nope. First of all, Popcar only covers the cost of us transferring to the new and remote vehicle by Uber. Popcar doesn't, however, cover the cost of us taking an Uber BACK from said remote location to our hotel in the dead of the night! Unfortunately, apparently Popcar also doesn't cover the cost of us transferring to the new vehicle as promised, because for this you would need an Australian bank account. As tourists, we don't have an Australian bank account. Surprisingly, this was not a problem when we paid Popcar – it's just the reimbursement part that seems to be very difficult.

So let me just sum this up for you (as we did for the "Member Experience Consultant"): After paying more than 250 dollars, being given a broken car, being specifically advised to take an Uber to the next vehicle, losing an hour of our day trip, having to use a car smelling of vomit and being required to drop it off in a location we didn't choose in the dead of the night – Popcar not only straight-out refused to cover a 10 dollar Uber ride back to our hotel, it also informed us that they would in fact not be covering our transfer to the new vehicle because wE dON't hAvE an aUsSiE BaNK aCCOuNt. At this point, it seemed kind of personal but then we read the other reviews on this platform (which we should have done before using Popcar for the first time but we were young and desperate) and discovered that apparently this kind of thing happens very often.

We will not be using Popcar again and I would strongly advise you against doing so. A few things to keep in mind: - As tourists, you will be facing the same problems regarding your bank account in case you ever need to receive a reimbursement. - Even if you do have an Australian bank account, this seems to be a regularly occurring thing and after reading some other comments, it appears Popcar might just be looking for reasons not to have to reimburse you.

In my opinion, these people are actively endangering people by not taking care of their cars, potentially causing them to malfunction or break down in dangerous situations. Being entirely blasé about the situation, never offering actual help or perhaps a small voucher as compensation for our trouble and most of all not even reimbursing the additional costs we had BECAUSE OF THEIR NEGLIGENCE and that THEY PROMISED THEY WOULD REIMBURSE US FOR is completely unacceptable and I would rather pay more for another, actually functional car rental service than give Popcar another cent.

Popcar expects you to maintain their cars for them – Cars are great when you don’t have issues. But good luck if you happen to get a car that is not maintain because according to Popcar, it’s your responsibility. They have like one person manning the support phone number, so it’ll take multiple calls to get a person. I rented a car and took my two boys to an indoor playground a few kms away. … Read more

After a couple hours of play, we returned to the car to go home only for it not to start. Called support and was told it was my responsibility… even though I’ve only driven it a few kms. They wouldn’t send anyone to jumpstart the car and wouldn’t reimburse the cost even though they had to replace the battery after I returned it. My experience with Uber Carshare when I rented a car that had a flat battery … they called NRMA and had them jumpstart the car at their cost.

I’ll be going back to GoGet from now on