Forest - eBike Sharing

Unbelievably expensive. I do not recommend

Worst bike travel whatever it is app A problem LITERALLY EVERY TIME I OPEN THE APP HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE WOULD NOT RECOMMEND

Definitely now my preferred method of transportation. I particularly appreciate it for its pricing and how much cheaper it is compared to taking a train. However, for me, there are a few drawbacks. One issue is that the app can be somewhat unreliable. It does not make it immediately clear, but there is a £5 pre-authorisation charge for each ride, even if you have pre-paid minutes. While this amount is refunded, it can be problematic if there are insufficient funds in your main account. As I manage my finances by keeping money in separate accounts (with little to no funds left on my card for security reasons, such as theft), if the £5 charge is declined, you cannot immediately hire the bike. Instead, the app displays a ‘conflict’ error, which can be frustrating. Another issue is the ‘locate me’ button, which does not always function correctly and occasionally defaults to a random location in London. This can be quite inconvenient, especially when trying to locate nearby bikes. You are forced to zoom out on the map and manually locate the blue GPS dot. I also understand the need for ‘no parking zones,’ but it can be inconvenient when you end your ride in one. You are not notified until you attempt to complete your journey, at which point you must get back on the bike and search for an approved parking zone. This is particularly troublesome as many areas in London have ‘no parking zones,’ which makes riding into the city more challenging. Despite these issues, I genuinely love the concept and will continue to use the service. I hope these concerns are addressed in the future to improve the overall experience.

This company was good at first but then they lowered down the quality not servicing their bikes, putting customers in life danger for profit, as broken bikes should not be in use at the first place. Almost every single bike is in bad condition. Sometimes i found bike with no pedal or no brake of the seat would be unadjustable or it would move left and right while riding, very bad condition of bikes. They stop pedalling in middle of the road, app shows different times on the ride report. App is filled with wrong reports. They took 1h and 20min of my 11min ride. Bikes are not properly connected to app obviously. App is filled with bugs and errors, customer service explains that in email to me, we are sorry our app is continuosly showing errors wrong times and bugs, but they do nothing about it but say sorry. That is not a professional business. Customer service does not help at all they just repeat that they are sorry. I used these bikes over 3k miles in a year, and i am stopping today as to put my life in danger knowing the bike can stop anytime,my money is worth more than me paying to risk my life. Absurd very absurd. Terrible company, going back to Lime bikes. Oh also they took out the promotion they had but still keep it on bikes, 10min daily and 3min daily rewards if you use the package. So you will never have those 10min daily if you have package, which is again taking customers for granted telling them lies, promising service they stopped offering. Very very bad experience. I see people who service these bikes i live next to their garage, i have to say it is very visible they employed people who have no experience with electric bikes. Come and see Southwark Bridge rad garage, 5min is enough there was a fire also like 10days ago in the same garage, very risky company, of 10bikes in front of garage, 5 to 8 are damaged. Very bad company. Hope this helps someone.

Rather unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the engineers of this app use it themselves. Cycling in the city and need to park in a specific spot? Good luck having the app let you park in that spot if it’s surrounded by no park zones! Need to talk to chat? Good luck, you can’t do it in app. App updated? Great, log in again because we don’t seem to be able to have the technology in 2024 to remember login sessions.

Your company didn’t talk about upfront costs and charged me £0.60 out of nowhere without consent .That’s why I didn’t rent a bike .there is no where to look for a refund.

Excellent , smooth ride with excellent response & speed

DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS APP. HALF OF LONDON ISN’T AVAILABLE TO PARK IN. A ten minute bike ride ended up taking an hour as we had to go all the way back to return the bike to the green area. There is no warning you are going out of the zone.

Used to love Forest, the 10 mins really was free, the bikes were in good nick, good social principles etc. However recently… loads of broken bikes with flats, pedals that have been crushed under the weight of the bike as it’s toppled over, jammed clamp-style seat adjusters, bikes dying while accelerating (pretty dangerous), messages saying the pre-charge of £5 has failed although it has not, which when you see it flash up, brings fears of a major stall at a busy junction. Absolute worst of all is about half the time not being able to end a ride despite being in the correct parking zone. Cue 10 minutes fannying around with online chat which negates the whole raison d’etre of efficient point to point bike rental. On a couple of occasions I’ve had to abandon the bike unlocked and still open to my credit card whilst trying to deal with customer services under the table on my phone in client meetings. App has got to work properly and bikes serviced properly as it is more expensive than getting the bus… I really want to keep using you but you’re making it harder. Plus the new bundles are much less appealing to your average 40% working week office/ 60% work from home worker. Edited after anothe r frustrating day. The mysterious invisible (until you park up) grey zone now covers the loutside of Vauxhall station front, meaning you have to walk round the back of the station and down the road to park up. And then… even when in the zone to park I am told I cannot park there because the stupid laggy app hasn’t clocked I’ve moved to a parking area. Opening/closing/trying again, repeat repeat, miss train, and then get customer support telling me I’m in a no parking zone. Which i am not. Absolutely infuriating. I’m out.

I used to love Forest Bikes. Although from beginning I disliked that you could see gray zones on the map only after you’ve unlocked. What’s the point taking the bike if then turns out that I cannot park at my destination?! The new changes to using the free minutes in order mean that we loose so many free minutes when buying bundles. They say that you still get your 10 minutes free if you use up the bundle minutes but this happens only if you still continue riding. Yesterday I used up my bundle minutes but still had 12 left from “daily free” and watching adverts, and was charged unlock fee despite my bundle being active for another 3 hours. When contacted Customer Service they said that the unlock fee was taken because I used up bundle minutes by then. Why there is no clear information that this would happen? If the bundle gives you 24 or 72 or whatever number of hours of free unlocks then it shouldn’t matter that my bundle minutes were used up. Please, improve and update your terms and conditions and charges information.