Archive for the ‘Members’ Category

And the survey says?…

July 2, 2009

Thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the Flexicar survey we sent out recently. Around a quarter of our members completed it, which is fantastic, as it ensures we get a great cross section of experiences and comments.

So what did everyone have to say?

Well, you’re a social bunch, with most people using Flexicar to visit family and friends. And then you like to shop, with the next most popular category being using a Flexicar for a big shopping trip. Then there were some uses we hadn’t thought of, like: getting toys back to toy library, rehearsals for a band, setting up an exhibition and even getting to the waste transport station (formerly known as “the tip”!).

We also learned just over half of you don’t have a car, but that 10% have sold a car since joining Flexicar and another 20% have avoided buying  car. And we had some good suggestions on car’s you’d like to see in the fleet, although we appreciated that the person who wanted to add the Audi T was just kidding. Lot’s of enthusiasm for the Hybrids, so we hope you all get a chance to drive one this year.

You also shared TONNES of suggestions, topping out at around 200 ideas. Here’s just a few (and answers from us for some of them).

Put more cars in the CBD

We are working on this at the moment and we have several spots we’ve requested being evaluated by our friends at the City of Melbourne to allocate these. Needless to say, it’s a high demand parking area.

Please dont paint any more cars bright yellow

Now whilst we’d love to take the credit, Honda delivers them that way! Seriously, though, we get even MORE people asking for more visible cars, so this is a tricky one. But you will notice there’s a few more white, black and silver cars appearing later this year.

Love Flexicar but your booking site needs an overhaul to make it more user-friendly

Yes, we definately hear you on this one. The Flexicar back end is actually much more complicated than you might imagine. We’ve been working on a “new and improved” version for over a year – and it will probably be another year before a complete overhaul will be complete as we are trying to keep costs down, thus ensuring your rates don’t go up. But we are making incremental improvements all the time, so please bear with us!

Great customer service during the day but sometimes people overnight seem a bit grumpy

We’d like you always to get a happy person at the other end of the phone. But what you may not know is that the people manning the phone overnight are the same ones that man them during the day. We do this as we don’t get a lot of calls and so it allows us to keep our costs – and your rates – down. So that’s why we ask that you don’t call between 11pm and 7am unless it’s an emergency, as you’ll actually be waking someone up.

We’d also like to thank you for all the encouraging comments we received. Here’s one lovely one we wanted to share (and it wasn’t even written by anyone’s mum!):

“I am consistently impressed with Flexicar – the professionalism, business model and responsiveness. I have recommended you to many people and would love to see this model become even more widely used. It benefits the environment, counters the need for unnecessary consumerism and, I think, helps social connectivity. Keep up the good work all.”

Winners are grinners

June 2, 2009

Remember our Little Big Shots Film Festival competition?

Little Big Shots Film Festival is Australia’s major annual and travelling children’s film festival, running from June 3 to 8 in Melbourne at ACMI, and Flexicar is proudly sponsoring the event this year.

We had 20 double passes to give away for the Festival, and all you needed to do was telling us your favourite kids film of all time.

Well, the competition was quite successful, and we’d like to thanks all participants and send our warmest congratulations to the winners.

We had some interesting entries and all kids film’s genres were covered, from Japanese mangas (My Neighbour Totoro) to contemporary classics (Toy Story, Nemo…), and also some rare jewel like The Red Balloon.

Personally, I was a big fan of Princess Bride – memorable characters (Ah Inigo Montoya…Buttercup and Wesley’s love story…) and memorable quotes – and Walt Disney Classics such as Aladdin or The Jungle Book.

And for those who’d still like to attend the Film Festival, cheer up! There are plenty of tickets and plenty of sessions to satisfy all kids and kids at heart!

For tickets and sessions, visit the Little Big Shots website: http://www.littlebigshots.com.au/

Our lucky winners, and their entry:

Samantha de Forest (Mary Poppins)

Daniel  Walls (Cabin Boy)

Greg Muller (The Wizard of OZ)                                  Little Big Shots, 3 to 8 June

Mark  Donnellan (Spirited Away)

Sally McHugh (Milo and Otis)

Helen Grist (Back to the Future)

Fritz Balkau (Happy Feet)

Patricia Boyce (The Princess Bride)

Teena  Lawrence-Brown (Nemo)

Nick Calpakdjian (Sandlot Kids)

Mark King (The Jungle Book)

Sandy McLeod (The Princess Bride)

Sumi Fleming (Beauty and the Beast)

Clive Bourne (Kes – Ken Loach)

Nic Kocher (Toy Story)

Darren Osborne (Muppets Take Manhattan)

Kirsten Slifirski (The Red Balloon)

Margaret  Young (The Red Balloon)

Anthony Legg (Ice Age)

Caroline Blackburn (Mary Poppins)

Thomas Greig (Toy Story)

Emily Sims (The Princess Bride)

Congratulations again, and happy Film Festival!

Greg@Flexicar

Does the fine fit the crime?

April 24, 2009

I’ve been clocking up the fines this month - so now I’m not only now poor, but I’m annoyed.

I didn’t validate a 2 hour ticket I’d just purchased and I was fined $167.

I returned to a parked car literally two minutes late and copped a $57 fine.

Apart from a bit of general whinging, what’s annoying about these fines is that they don’t seem “proportional” to “the crime”.

I mean, $57 for 2 minutes of parking? And I thought private car parks were steep!  

So when it comes to fines at Flexicar, I like the way they’ve been set based on proportionality.

You inconvenience another member by not returning a car on time and don’t tell us?

Well, Flexicar then has to call the member and pacify them, we need to help them make another arrangement (usually a taxi when it’s last minute), Flexicar doesn’t get the booking revenue from the next car, the member has to send us a receipt, Flexicar then pay for the taxi and have to handle the paperwork associated with this.

You start to see why the fine has been set at $75. Realistically, this could often be LESS than what the late return ends up costing Flexicar.

So here’s to a fine that matches the offence, people!

Thanks for letting me share my pain.

(And yes, yes, I now know you need to validate your ticket EVERY time you buy one or even think about getting on a passing tram!)

Kimberly the (poorer but wiser) marketing chick

Man joins Flexicar for Wife’s 40th!

January 29, 2009

I heard the most gorgeous story the other day about the most romantic Flexicar member in existence.

The man in question was planning something ultra-special for his wife’s 40th birthday present. He had purchased for her (at great expense) front row tickets to Elton John’s concert at the Werribee Mansion last January. And he planned to personally chauffeur her to the event aswell.

So, he signed up to Flexicar and booked a vehicle so that he could deliver his wife in style and comfort to the Elton John concert. He dropped her off right at the front door then cruised back to the car park to wait for his wife.

During the concert while the lucky wife rocked out with her friends to the tunes of Elton John, the romantic husband waited in the carpark with his Flexicar. At the end of the concert he whizzed right up to the front door before the post-concert rush, picked up his fabulous wife and then they whizzed straight back to the city in record time.

The whole story must be true because I heard it from his Wife!

-posted by Ruth

p.s. If you have a more romantic story involving a Flexicar then I challenge you to send it in to us.