"Brighton experience - 2/10"

I live in Brighton, the bikes were brought in on a pilot in some central areas earlier this year and they’ve just last month expanded to more docks and a wider cycle area covering Brighton, Hove, Rottingdean etc.

The good:
- lighter than some other hire bikes and closer to riding a regular road bike
- the electric bikes are the fastest way for me to get around Brighton

The bad:
- the unlocking experience is CRAP. I’ve been successful on first try maybe 2 out of every 10 tries on average - I’ve been using the bikes (or trying to) since April.
- the price. It’s ridiculous. £32 a month PLUS a £1 fee every time you unlock an electric bike on top of that?! That’s wild and unaffordable. I’ve had to really reduce my usage and just go pay as you go when I absolutely need to get somewhere in a rush as it’s just too expensive.
- the app and bike connection and communication is quite slow. It leads to issues with locking, the app realising you’re in a dock and not charging you, all sorts.

Overall, I’m really disappointed and it’s a mode of transport I would absolutely rely on otherwise. A shame.

Follow-up to Beryl's reply below: I'm with EE and have a relatively new mobile device with 5G capability and very good coverage all over Brighton. While I appreciate connection can play a part for some devices/networks, in my case, I don't think this applies. It's more likely further bug fixes and improvements needed from your dev team to the app and bike connection; as well as the NFC functionality on the bikes. Also, while the NFC might work, the actual locks themselves are very frequently stuck in the locked position and require added force to be able to be able to slide unlocked.

"Just a terrible user experience here in…"

Just a terrible user experience here in Plymouth. Unlocking bikes works perhaps 1 in 10 times, quality of bikes is really hit and miss, customer service just churn out the same lines. It’s such a shame that can’t improve their service - hopefully Plymouth will see a new provider in the near future.

"I was very happy at the beginning but I…"

I was very happy at the beginning but I think this is the shittest company I have seen tried to unlock the bike doesn't even unlock I am wondering how people are using it

"Beryl/Blaze top notch, ensuring our safety"

Beryl, the newly rebranded Blaze lights. I purchased my lights back in 2014 when Blaze was founded and nearly 10 years later they are still serving me strong.

Beryl staff were incredibly helpful recently when I needed replacement parts (my fault I lost them in a house move). They went above and beyond to ensure their customers are safe on the road.

Also of note their laser likes on London's pay as you go bikes, incredibly helpful to other road users that you can see the distinctive green lights moving through the traffic.

Well done team Beryl, ensuring our safety as we cycle the streets of London and other cities. Here's to another 10 years of great ideas.

W

"WORST COMPANY"

WORST COMPANY. I have had an accident on one of these bikes and caused some serious injury to myself and broke my watch. After filing a report they took forever to get back to me with a result. They blamed me for not checking the condition of the bike and because I had to have it fixed myself they said they can’t take any liability. I’m down £130 for my watch and the payment of that ride. No care for their customers and a huge rip off.

"Terrible rip off company avoid at all…"

Terrible rip off company avoid at all costs

"DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!"

I've been using Beryl for the last 10 days and I really wanted it to work for me as I have a dock across the road from my home - I've unlocked bikes on 6 separate occassions and it has never been seamless. App saying it's unlocked then no bike unlocking and minutes running, broken chain (twice), broken saddle, bike unavailable for hire, contactless currently not working... yesterday I was in one of the docks for 15 minutes: first attempt to unlock a bike I took and then when I tried to ride noticed the chain was loose, returned, got another one only to realise the lock never unlocked, finally could return, and the only remaining bike on the dock said it was unavailable for hire. The only good thing is customer service which are fast to respond and refund money when there is an issue.

"Rip off be careful"

the scooter stopped when it was 10% battery. i had to leave the scooter there, and it charged me an extra 5£ saying its out of the zone. But people were passing by with the beryl e- scooters. I contacted with help but they did not help.

"These bikes are honestly the worst…"

These bikes are honestly the worst addition to brighton. Every single time I have tried to get one out it has taken my money and not released the bike. HUGE waste of money, leading to more use of polluting transport. Sort it out!

"Complety desorganized company"

Complety desorganized company, I was charged 12£ for a 8 min trip which I parked in. Beryl bay were bikes and scooters around, and I spoke with customer service and no help was given whatsoever. Not using anymore and don’t recommend