Life Can Be Miserable When Technology Fails

On a recent trip to DC, my daughter and I decided to try one of those ‘car sharing’ companies rather than deal with Washington Reagan’s complicated car rental terminal.  We chose Maven, a GM car sharing company now operating in many US cities. The advertising proclaimed that Maven was: “Designed to do it all. From selecting the right car for you, to getting in with a simple press of the “unlock” button as you approach the car.” The site made it sound so simple, so fail safe, and it turned out to be easy to sign- up online and get approved.

Within 24 hours, my daughter loaded the Maven app on her phone, selected the car we wanted at a convenient parking facility. We reserved the car for four hours for $40, enough time to get crucial move-in errands completed at a great price. If we needed to extend the rental time frame, we could do that easily on the Maven phone app. No airport car rental and an opportunity to try new technology.

As we approached our reserved car in the neighboring parking facility, my daughter simply tapped the app and unlocked the car. No key needed.  To get out of the garage, the prepaid parking ticket was in the visor along with a fuel card. At this point in the experience, everything was running smoothly with our ‘car share’. We felt confident that the GM technology would assist us in accomplishing the move-in with no hitches.

It started to rain hard as we neared our first destination: the storage unit in a friend’s apartment building where we would load boxes, lamps and household items into our Maven.  We navigated through several subterranean parking levels, unlocked the storage cage, and loaded the car. The GM Maven app was called into use numerous times to lock, unlock and restart the car.  The deep bowels of the parking site posed no problem for the Bluetooth technology.

We got cocky.  We went up a few levels, parked the Maven near Trader Joe’s, locked it, shopped, unlocked it and drove back to the apartment loading dock.  Our Maven sat in the loading area of the apartment complex, locked with the engine off for nearly an hour. Re-entry and restart went swimmingly, and we headed to Target for our last chore. With just one hour left on our Maven rental, we extended the rental time frame on the app.  That option worked effortlessly. Smiles all around.

Three cartloads of towels, sheets, cooking utensils, lamps, mirrors, pillows had the two us giggling as we exited Target into the indoor mall. The elevator took us down two levels into the underground parking shared with other superstores.  Our Maven was parked on the first underground parking level, in eyesight of the entrance ramp where the busy traffic on 14th Street was visible. Our stall was also about 100 feet from the security office, which turned out to be a lucky break.

As we rolled our loaded carts to the Maven, the app failed to unlock the car.  No service. My daughter went up the parking ramp while I stayed with our carts and tried the unlock feature again.  Nothing. Again, again and again, the car refused to open. It was looking like we needed Houdini. With a rapidly declining cell phone battery due to circling for connection, my daughter called Maven customer service.  Forty-five minutes later, after being on hold several times, being disconnected, and retrying the unlock feature remotely, customer service deemed that our vehicle “had fallen asleep”. They offered to pay for our LIFT ride home, tow the car and return our personal items still locked in the vehicle.  Two very favorite jean jackets have still to be returned to us.

With our Maven unavailable, we shoved the three carts into an elevator to exit the garage at street level to wait for our ride.  If any of you have tried to exit one of these urban facilities with a shopping cart, you may have experienced the new technology preventing the theft of shopping carts.  The wheels lock on the carts within eyesight of the exit. Shuttling our purchases to the street was a sweaty ten-minute nightmare. Furthermore, we still had to load the Lift, unload on the street at the apartment, and get in the apartment elevator.  Let’s just say by the time we deposited the Target purchases in the apartment, our Maven experience had moved on the spectrum from bliss to heated dislike.

Here’s the point.  Beyond the lock/unlock feature on the app, Maven lacked a contingency plan for entering our vehicle.  No keyless entry option. When I checked the Maven website, the company was growing but advertised only 40 employees.  I suspect they were remotely located and couldn’t send a person with a key. Their immediate solution was a tow truck. I won’t go so far as to say, I will never use a ‘car share’ vehicle again. If there is a next time, I will try a Maven competitor only after I verify their contingency plans if the mobile app fails.  Technology failed us in DC.