Scoot Networks

I would love to give Scoot 5 stars, but they’re really running their fleet into the ground by focusing too much on rider recruitment instead of keeping their current riders happy. I once found vomit in one of the helmets of the scooter I had checked out, and thankfully, Scoot refunded my ride that time. So their customer service is responsive and understanding. But a lot of the scooters are in bad shape (broken mirrors, scuffed up helmets with face shields so scratched up you can’t see through them, wobbly wheels, corroded brake fluid reservoirs, missing phones covers, busted throttles, rusty kickstands, etc.).
Scoot needs to be more selective about to whom they give memberships, and opening up memberships to out-​of-​towners is a horrible move. A lot of scooters I try to ride bear classic signs of having been dropped by inexperienced riders. I didn’t have to do the in-​person course because I have a motorcycle license, but several of my friends did and said Scoot instructors gave memberships to people who were visibly wobbly and uneasy with the vehicles. That’s not safe for anyone on the road, and not to mention incredibly irresponsible.
Instead of expanding their vehicle selections and ridership numbers, they should focus on improving what and who made them great to start with.

Have had tons of fun scooting in the city and would recommend. The only problem that I have had is that I haven’t been able to return to certain destinations that are full and I went to rent a quad and I was required to watch more videos and my app wouldn’t let me watch them. Had a couple of problems with the app but I always love scooting.

I’m very sad to be giving scoot a negative review because I used it very frequently for some time, but I must say that my overall experience has been very poor, for one simple reason: they don’t give you a chance to contest tickets! I got a ticket and also got towed in very questionable scenarios that cost me overall more than $ 800, and if they had happened with a private vehicle I would definitely have contested them with the city. Scoot really really needs to get a process in place for contesting. Previously I have recommended them very highly to all my friends with a ridiculous amount of enthusiasm, but I no longer feel like I can do so in good conscience. It’s very easy to get a ticket in San Francisco, often in somewhat questionable circumstances, and it’s really only a matter of time before it happens to a given user. My friend got towed under questionable circumstances too, and didn’t even find out he was getting charged until a month later.

3.5 stars is more appropriate. Fair prices, really convenient when I want easy transport with easy parking. Definitely could use more scooters as there are often none available at select locations. I have to implore Scoot to consider replacing the helmets more often. The glass /​clear plastic on the fronts is often scuffed /​dirty, they just feel grimy inside and the helmets often smell like weed.

Scoot has recently updated their policy so that bikes with low miles in a garage must be returned to a garage to charge (or something along those lines). It seems to be helping as not every single scoot is dead, which was happening on the weekends. Hopefully they can get some more scoots in their fleet and they’ll get back to their 5 star ways.

Scoot, stop playing with my emotions.
One day, you rock… the next, well…
Just a few short months after Scoot released the ability to park and end your ride on streets (non-​parking garages), they seriously limited it by letting you only take scoots with 13+ miles of charge to non-​garages. It’s unbearably frustrating to login to the app and see a few Scoots in a garage, all unplugged and with less than 13 miles of charge. What is a Nob Hill rider to do with those Scoots when all the Nob Hill garages are full?
Additionally, your app functionality needs a lot of work. It would be great if Scoot could focus on their pain points (app functionality, charging, # of scoots, etc…) before recruiting new riders and adding new products/​transit methods.
If Scoot had a competitor, it would make this much more interesting.

5 stars for fun. I really enjoy riding these things around — especially through GG park.
4 stars for customer service. They’re great but not always available if you need them right away.
5 stars for price.
1 star for maintenance and reliability. Sometimes you’ll have a complete ride with no issues. But about 20 of my 30+ rides have had some kind of problem. The issues range from very minor, like the rubber knobs on the phone holder missing, to major ones like one of the brakes not working, and the throttle cutting out intermittently. You have to allow time and patience each trip knowing that something in the process will most likely go wrong.
1 star for the app. Enough said.
Some people won’t be able to ride the larger «cargo» version. I’m 5’2″ and the only way I can plant my feet on the ground is to move all the way forward, ramming the phone compartment into my ribs and taking tiny steps while bruising the inside of my shins. The smaller ones are very manageable though.
And as the program gets more popular the likelihood of finding a scooter (with more than 2 – 3 miles left and within a half-​mile of my location) gets less and less.
I really hope they do some big changes to the app, upgrade the reliability in the reservation and return process, and definitely step up the upkeep and maintenance.

Super excited to have Scoot as a transportation option. It’s much nicer to rely on yourself to get around the city rather than taking a shared ride, which can sometimes double your transportation time and be more expensive. The service is also excellent! Both the training and customer support are on par.
A few things that could be improved:
— Add more scoots/​scoot garages (especially in the downtown area)
— Improve app usability (Icons can be confusing and the location services doesn’t drop me in my location)
— Scoots are pretty worn
— Scoots that are dropped off on the street rarely have more than 2 – 3 miles
Even though there are things that could be improved, Scoot is a great service and I’m sure the company will figure out ways to continually improve.

While my scooter was in the shop I thought I would try these Scoots that I have seen while driving. Getting used to the App was a trying experience, though I think overall they have a great idea and concept.
The biggest failing was in their customer service afterword. I never intended to continue a membership, and all their e-​mails went to my spam folder. Two months later I notice they were charging me for a monthly membership that I never signed up for. When I requested a refund they gave back 1 month and I was supposed to be thrilled with that. I felt they were unprofessional in this action and were short with me as I tried to explain that I never saw their e-​mails. It is not worth the ill will over 19.00 in my opinion. If your not intending to utilize these services on an ongoing basis beware.

TLDR — 4 stars for the overall idea, but there are definitely some kinks to be worked out. Unfortunately, the negatives knock a star off their rating.
The specifics:
5 stars for customer service — My experience with their customer service so far has been really great, with great response times via text message. I also had issues setting up my bike the first time I rode with Scoot, and I called their help line and received excellent support from an incredibly friendly and patient lady.
4 stars for training videos — Since I’ve ridden a scooter before, I opted to receive training via their training videos. Their videos are clear and concise, and high quality.
2 — 3 stars for the bikes — Honestly, their bikes seem kinda cheap and rickety. You can feel every minor bump on the road, causing the front of the bike and its mirrors to shudder violently. Their provided iPhone adapter wasn’t compatible with my iPhone; when I plugged it in, my phone told me that the plug was not an authorized Apple device and subsequently did not work/​charge/​plug in correctly. Get this fixed! Especially since your app drained my phone battery pretty quick
2 stars for location pickup/​dropoffs — I know they’re a small/​scrappy startup so I feel bad for giving them 2 stars on this, but yeah, there really aren’t enough pickup/​dropoff locations. You end up holding onto your bike while it’s parked, and that adds up pretty quick. But maybe that’s part of their moneymaking strategy. The bike that I rented also was running out of battery, and I was starting to panic; I’ve also heard that most of the bikes only have a few miles on their charge.
1 stars for the app — The app is pretty terrible. The map that you use to locate the bike is a pain to navigate, and its GPS doesn’t seem to work — whenever I open the app, it seems to think I’m in a completely different neighborhood than I actually am. Zooming in and out of the map is a nightmare, and the icons showing where different bikes and parking are definitely need to be reworked. I don’t know what half of them mean, and it’s hard to distinguish between regular bikes and cargo bikes — it’s easy to book a bike you don’t want. There should be an easy way to filter for regular bikes, cargo bikes, charge stations, garages, etc. Currently it’s all on one map and it’s literally kind of a clusterf.
The app also doesn’t have any useful information from the videos — if you have a terrible memory like me and forget where the keys are stored or how to turn on the bike, you won’t be able to quickly reference the app for said information. Big, big product flaw. I’m sure that you spent so much money on those videos — make them more accessible!

Scoot is Good. It’s great at some things but not so great at others, so depending on your needs it could be fantastic or not so great.
Random point to point trips: 4 – 5 stars
— scoot is pretty handy if you want to go somewhere 1 way (during non-​commute hours) and don’t want to drive home. It’s certainly not a motorcycle replacement, but there are times I don’t want my bike sitting out somewhere or don’t want to take it home and scoot does this well.
Commuting: 1 – 2 stars
— extremely unreliable for commuting. I tried to use it as a commuting alternative while my motorcycle was unavailable. I was successful about 25% of the time. The rest of the time there were either no scoots available at my starting point or no parking available where I wanted to go. Looking back on the few weeks I think Muni, a community pillar of inefficiency and waste, would’ve been the same commute time averaged out and significantly cheaper over a scoot/​lyft/​walking combo.
On the plus side the people who work there are responsive and helpful.

Just signed up. Best part is riding a scooter! I’m hooked on that part. Scoot Networks execution is a bit rough though. App is iffy and doesn’t connect at times. Lack of parking causes me to be late as much as 45 min as I park a mile away and walk … in addition that ends up costing more. Can’t get a scoot back from downtown to the Richmond and the Richmond scoots usually have 1 – 3 miles left on them and it is almost impossible to find one that is charged up.
I feel for them re the logistics of parking and charging … but given that they’ve named themselves Scoot Networks… seems that the networking/​logistics part is where they feel their value is.
I will say that on boarding to the service was quick and easy and painless and the customer service folks (shoutout to Sophie!) are friendly and helpful.
I love riding a scooter though. Will keep going with them for another month or two to see if things shake out… perhaps buy my own!

This is an awesome service because it’s cheap and convenient, especially for cross-​town errands or places MUNI doesn’t get to so well. These things are fun to ride, even if their max speed can make you feel a bit vulnerable on faster streets like Geary. On our first night of riding, after our lesson (this was well over a year ago), I packed a picnic and my husband and I took our Scoots out to discover a new-​to-​us park and have our dinner with the sunset. My receipts inform me I’m about 100 rides deep — I’m obviously hooked. I really hope the pricing structure doesn’t skyrocket like the rideshares did as they gain popularity — any more increases and I’m likely to downgrade to the totally free plan.
As others point out it’s sometimes hard to find a Scoot, so it’s not something you can depend on. It’s a nice alternative option in the moment, usually. (To help with the Scoot stock, I wish they’d crowdsource the relocation of Scoots when/​where needed… e.g., offer a free ride going from FiDi to Dogpatch at 11pm via a notification.) For a time they were SO hard to come by, and I enjoyed riding SO much, that my husband and I got our M1 licenses and bought a motorcycle. Still, there are a lot of situations in which I still use the Scoots… like when I realize I’ve bought too much at the grocery store to walk home, or I’ve gone out somewhere straight from work, and now I’ve got to get home.
There are a couple of major design flaws with the app which have persisted for over a year… the random refreshing thing when I’m in the middle of changing my return garage, for example. The app in general seems it could use a redesign. (I would love if it flipped the concept for locating a scoot — looked at my current address, let me select my destination address, and suggested the most convenient scoot to reserve.)
I’m glad they put the little plastic cups around the grippy phone mount, which was obviously in response to a LOT of incidents. One was mine… going down rocky Caesar Chavez at the 101 underpass, I saw a flash of light and realized it was my phone jumping out of the mount. Took me a while to make the 2 necessary U-​turns to get back there, by which point it had been smashed to bits. I didn’t push the issue very hard when I reported it to Scoot because it was a company phone and easily replaced, but had it been my personal phone I would have been PISSED about the lack of support in that situation. Though there is an extra outside mount nowadays, I still typically make the effort to plug it in to the charger, too, just for added tethering.
I mean all that to be constructive criticism, and overall I think they are an awesome awesome awesome company. :)

Thank you for taking my $ 25 to sign up, running the DMV report, disqualifying me, and keeping my money. Great service…

Signed up Scoot when they first started. Their monthly rate changed since they first started. I kept mine at $ 0/​month because there wasn’t any stations or stop by my house. Please add at least a stop by the Outer Richmond district. Kind of hard to use if I have to walk a mile or two to get to a scooter. (–1)
Also, if you are a scoot member, don’t be rude. I hate how people park their scooter at a stop station with less than 5 miles. I found a few that had 1 mile left. Really?

Awful customer service, charged my card when I never authorized them to do so.
My friend had me sign up so we’d each get the $ 5 referral credit. I downloaded the app and then began filling out my personal info. There was a spot where they requested my credit card into to keep on file, which I entered. I checked the boxes agreeing to terms (none of which listed a charge), then bam, I got an email receipt for a $ 25 purchase. No checkout, no «we’re charging your card,» and nothing listing different fee options or anything.
I contacted customer support immediately (like 1 minute) after the bogus charge and receipt. They wouldn’t even address the issue in their first response, they just listed the fee structure, which was news to me. I had to keep requesting a refund, sending second and third emails. They said they were keeping $ 10 of my $ 25 and giving me back $ 15 but it would take a few days to process. Now I’ll have to contest the charge through my credit card company, what a pain.
The tech buzz is wearing off in the bay area and companies like this that are obviously not profitable and poor on execution are already showing signs of fighting for air. Stealing my $ 10. Have fun with it, and keep asking «investors» for more money — we all know where it’s going, down the tubes.

As awesome as it gets!
If you’re considering it, DO IT! You will not regret it.
I’ve been a member now for about 3 months and have taken more than a dozen rides of varying distances, ranging from a few miles to more than 7.
I find scooting to be by far the most convenient way to get around the city and I’ve tried it all, from walking to biking to driving to lyft to bus/​muni/​bart/​whatever!
It’s so awesome that every time I ride I think of buying my own scooter for added convenience. Luckily Scoot is catching up to me and they’re opening up new stops on a weekly basis so at least location wise they’ve got SF pretty much covered from my perspective.

Such an excellent idea, but so far, disappointed. I took the course/​orientation a few weeks ago, took a Sunday ride to Taco Bell (yes, I love the TB, haterz gonna hate), but whenever I want to take a Scoot to/​from work nothing’s available. I’ll hold on to my membership for a bit, and they say they have more Scooter’s coming, but part of me wishes I’d held off. I feel for them as it’s a classic startup conundrum, but in this case they can’t add some new servers to meet demand, they need to invest in what I’d guess are pretty pricey Scooters. A *lot* of them.
EDIT: Started this review during the summer and since then they seem to have a lot more scooters available. Overall pleased, but there’s no way you can depend on it for daily transportation. Plus, for me, the quicker commute was sometimes offset by having to park farther from my house than I’d like. Even though I just bought a motorcycle – Scoot was a good way to see how riding in city traffic is – I’ll probably keep the $ 0/​month plan just for when/​if the motorcycle’s out of commission.

Super easy service to use and super fun when using it. I did my orientation with Helga, who was fantastic. The orientation was more of a formality and technical introduction to the service — I already have my M1 so the scooter itself didn’t scare me.
In fact, riding the scoots around SF is actually very liberating. You are able to see more of the city and the service is designed for easy one-​way trips (so no worrying about parking/​securing/​etc).
I’d highly recommend giving it a go. Not sure if I’d use it for my sole mode of transport though. The weekends seem to make scooters scarce (though you can set up text notifications to ping you when one at your desired area is available). And if you are flirting with the idea of selling your car and buying a scooter — this service is a great primer to check out that lifestyle and see if it’s for you. I’m going to make it my ‘Über Substitute’.

I love Scoot Networks. The concept and execution are really good. I use the scooter to run errands around the city. If you have multiple stops you have to make in a short amount of time, then Scoot Networks is the best way to go (bus is too slow and Über/​car rental is too expensive).
However, the only downside is that they are too popular and it’s hard getting a scooter on weeknights during rush hour. When I leave work at 6p, I have less than a 50% chance of getting a scooter in downtown. They’re all taken by then.
Scoot tells me that more scooters are coming, though!
Also, the customer service is really good! When I registered, someone called me to see if I had any questions about Scoot. After I took the training course, the trainer follow-​up with an email to make sure I was using my free credits.