Bird Scooters Have Landed

Transportation topics in KC
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KCPowercat
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by KCPowercat »

Drop app is way too slow. Bird and soon apps are pretty similar.

Ridekc is my favorite device by a wide margin.
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DaveKCMO
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by DaveKCMO »

Bird raised their prices again.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by gfenn11 »

DaveKCMO wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2019 7:10 pm Bird raised their prices again.
$3 min + tax. Yikes!
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JLowe2018
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by JLowe2018 »

gfenn11 wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2019 7:19 pm
DaveKCMO wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2019 7:10 pm Bird raised their prices again.
$3 min + tax. Yikes!
This is ridiculous. Their price hikes are why I hardly ever ride anymore. They've price-increased themselves from an affordable, attractive form of alternative transportation to now being just an expensive, luxury toy. I used to use them as a cheap vehicle for short trips instead of driving, but now I only ride when I'm hanging out with friends because they've just gotten too expensive.

And yet they'll still only pay like $5 per scooter to chargers? It's hardly worth it.

Is Bird making money or still losing money like other unicorn companies?
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by earthling »

Drop scooters (RideKC) are still 15 cents/min. They need to do a better job getting the word out. And maybe put "15 cents/minute" bumper stickers in big letters on the standing part of scooters. Yes they may tatter but will get the word out. The bus digital panels promote Drop scooters but do not show the price, which it should.

Download Drop Mobility app.

Spin is showing 33 cents/min on app.

Probably matter of time the others raise rates but go for these for now.
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JLowe2018
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by JLowe2018 »

earthling wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 11:43 am Drop scooters (RideKC) are still 15 cents/min. They need to do a better job getting the word out. And maybe put "15 cents/minute" bumper stickers in big letters on the standing part of scooters. Yes they may tatter but will get the word out. The bus digital panels promote Drop scooters but do not show the price, which it should.

Download Drop Mobility app.

Spin is showing 33 cents/min on app.

Probably matter of time the others raise rates but go for these for now.
I have the Drop Mobility app but can't use it because Drop is based out of Toronto so my debit card registers the transaction as an international transaction which triggers fraud alert on my card. Furthermore, I can't whitelist Drop because my bank does not allow whitelisting of individual groups/companies. This makes the Drop app functionally useless to me.

I brought up this issue on here back when the Drop scooters/ebikes "dropped" and thought it would have been fixed by now because I imagine this impacts a lot of would-be riders. Drop needs to establish a "stateside" billing address for their "stateside" business.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by earthling »

Yeah recall that. I don't have that issue but agree they need to do just that. Spin is an option for you in meantime at 33 cents/min.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by DaveKCMO »

JLowe2018 wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 12:18 pm Furthermore, I can't whitelist Drop because my bank does not allow whitelisting of individual groups/companies. This makes the Drop app functionally useless to me.
They use Stripe for payment processing. Stripe is an American company. I find it curious that your bank refuses to whitelist a company that you want to spend money with. Some have reported this issue, but this is the only report of a bank refusing to whitelist the transaction for a customer after it was reported. Have you considered a prepaid credit card?
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by KCPowercat »

I've had them hit me for a lot of $250 holds per device checked out. It seems a bit clumsy in how they hold/charge cards vs. other scooter companies.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by DaveKCMO »

KCPowercat wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 9:08 pm I've had them hit me for a lot of $250 holds per device checked out. It seems a bit clumsy in how they hold/charge cards vs. other scooter companies.
This happened to you more than once?
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KCPowercat
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by KCPowercat »

Yeah. I've checked out bikes for friends a couple different times (3-4 bikes) and each device hit the CC and flagged a fraud alert.

It hasn't been a big deal but like I said just seemed clunky.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by JLowe2018 »

DaveKCMO wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 8:05 pm
JLowe2018 wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 12:18 pm Furthermore, I can't whitelist Drop because my bank does not allow whitelisting of individual groups/companies. This makes the Drop app functionally useless to me.
They use Stripe for payment processing. Stripe is an American company. I find it curious that your bank refuses to whitelist a company that you want to spend money with. Some have reported this issue, but this is the only report of a bank refusing to whitelist the transaction for a customer after it was reported. Have you considered a prepaid credit card?
My bank (BankLiberty) has very inconvenient whitelisting procedures. They only whitelist ALL international transactions on a day by day period, meaning I have to call ahead for them to give approval to international transactions for the specific days I plan them or I can call the day of (but only during banking hours). Hopefully these policies will change however after they finish merging into Central Bank of the Midwest. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by wahoowa »

yeah that's on the bank being dumb not the scooters.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by earthling »

RideKC has an ebike/scooter survey...
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QHG6998

Relevant to RideKC/Drop scooters, not Bird/Spin scooters.

Methinks they are making a mistake by not promoting the 15cents/min rate when the others are much higher.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by DaveKCMO »

Bird and Spin are gone, victims of COVID 19. RideKC Bike and Scooter remain.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by KCPowercat »

birds are back
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by WoodDraw »

These scooters were a bitch this weekend. Lots of young kids, almost always riding them on the sidewalk, dumping them there too.

I don't spend much time in the rest of the urban areas, but downtown there is zero enforcement and it feels like they dumped a shit load of these in the past week or so.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by Critical_Mass »

Users have also figured out how to use the tires to create scuff marks all over the sidewalks. They are getting creative. I saw a fairly accurate portrayal of male genitalia at one location.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by DaveKCMO »

Critical_Mass wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 11:53 am Users have also figured out how to use the tires to create scuff marks all over the sidewalks. They are getting creative. I saw a fairly accurate portrayal of male genitalia at one location.
Between that and the donuts motorcycles are leaving all over -- including in the middle of the Bond Bridge! -- we are at peak scourge.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by Eon Blue »

Saturday night I saw some motorcycles trying to scuff up the 10th & Baltimore BLM mural (with some success).
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