Is Vibe Rides a Scam?
If you are part of any Facebook driver group, you have likely heard about Vibe Rides, a ridesharing company that basically promotes itself as the party friendly Uber and Lyft, that is claiming to have a launch party on Friday, here in Houston. While I am a champion of new rideshares coming to town, I do not want ya’ll to end up up signing up for a company that may be out there for your personal info. I have dug deeper on this one, and really have not found much.
Here’s the deal about Vibe Rides:
Every single person has promoted Vibe Rides in these local Facebook groups are not drivers in Houston. This really comes off as a red flag and gives off a bad vibe (pun intended).
From what I can gather though, Vibe Rides is really a MLM scheme. They promise you can make passive income by referring both drivers and riders to Vibe Rides. On their website, they state you can make money every time a driver or rider you referred takes a ride, and from their referrals.
These “spammers,” are not truly spammers, but rather people who bought into Vibe Rides in order to promote it. While it is possible to make money, similar to Herbalife, Avon, etc., only a select few will actually be able to make it to the big leagues. Already, we have seen over a dozen of these come in to the groups. (I have blocked quite a few from the groups I run.) These promoters show off fancy advertising, wrapped cars to “legitimize” the business. That does not persuade me to sign up. Anyone with enough cash can do the same.
It should be noted that Uber and Lyft used referral marketing as well (and still do.) The difference is, that one time payout you get from each rider/driver.
I decided to reach out to Vibe Rides for comment, but guess what? It has been over 48 hours and I have not heard from them. To me, that is a huge red flag. I sent a email through both their driver and rider support channels. If they contact me, I will update this page, but riders especially are not going to like the slow support, which will end up hurting them.
A couple other things I can’t find on their website:
Rates (this is really important)
Insurance information (TNC companies in Texas must provide insurance for drivers)
I did find on TDLR that they are licensed to do business here in Texas, (which means they should be providing insurance) but their license expires in May. Why have they not renewed? It can be for a number of reasons, such as TDLR may not allow a license to be renewed this far out. Remember how those “promoters” tried to legitimize the company by showing fancy advertising? Showing that they are licensed to do business here in Texas, would of been the best way to legitimize Vibe Rides.
It should also be noted that Vibe Rides has been acquired by a company called “ibummerang”. Is the TDLR license still valid based on it is another company now?
Will I sign up for Vibe Rides?
As you may or may not know , I will never, never recommend a product or service that I do not use myself. MLM’s fall at the bottom of my list of companies I want to deal with by default. As stated earlier, support is non existent or really slow. (Vibe Rides claims to be ready to launch, so support should be working faster right?).
As of this writing, I will only sign up for Vibe Rides if riders start talking about it and I recommend you hold off on it as well. I for one.
P.S. Any rider that tries to get you to sign up on the spot, is simply trying to put you under their MLM pyramid. The real riders are the ones who mention it, but do not give you any kind of referral link.
I really do hope that Vibe Rides can break into the Houston market. Time will tell, but like the now defunct Get Me, they are going to learn quickly that customers happiness truly matters. (Get Me struggled with making the app reliable when Uber and Lyft left Austin, and eventually lost the market to the rideshares that came a few weeks later because customers were not happy, with the app) Vibe Rides lack of support really reminds me of that. Don’t get me wrong, Get Me was awesome for drivers. They paid us Taxi rates, but they also responded to our inquiries in a timely fashion. Michael V. (the Houston Manager) would also respond personally a lot of the time. That’s the difference.
Our Recommendation?
We give Vibe Rides a 1 star review, meaning, you probably shouldn’t sign up.
Also been multiple reports in other states to BBB. You need to research boomerang. They are connected. There was a buy out. Everything has been on hold since then. Otherwise spot on.
Thank you for that info. This is for sure a company I do not want deal with, nor do I recommend anyone to do so at this point.
I picked up an older black couple on yesterday promoting some travel business type thing. They mentioned becoming a Vibe driver by invite. I was given a code and put in my information. I am so upset now. I’m sitting in front of their Westheimer “corporate” office listed on their website. I’m going to make a video for people to see on YouTube channel “MaryMac Investigates. I’ve just started this, but this is my first real scam as it appears because
this is an IN-N-OUT Shipping! Check out MaryMac Investigates on YouTube.
I absolutely hate when people take advantage of others. I hope you don’t mind me sharing this to our Facebook Page! Good video though. Please keep us posted on the Chimney Rock location!
Do you still have the video? Couldn’t find Marymac on YouTube.
I went back to our link on the Rideshare Houston Facebook page and it says the video is unavailable.
Mary, please tell me you didn’t delete it. You did great with that video.
I am so glad vibe is dead!
It was a scam and thousands of people lost there money.
I did also 250.
Talk to some people that lost 1200 dollars.
I bumm should be next!
The hole company is a scam!
Pyramid MLM don’t belong in rideshare
Their Westheimer address is a P.O. box. I went to office on chimney Rock. The guy there say he works for buunerang and sells their merchandise. He said they were working on the app. Then invited me to a meeting at the Hilton Post Oak.
This whole thing is complete bull****! I fell for it too. I was approached at the airport and before that from some riders I picked up in midtown. Why get drivers with no app up and running? They are either scammers or idiots. Either way they are not going to challenge Uber or Lyft for Houston.
They scammed me out of 180 dollars which it could of been worse they were pushing me to do 250 under there ambassador plain!
I worked 4 months no rides!
I was pushed by a ambassador to do the 250 I didn’t have the money because of coronavirus.
Sent emails to vibe multiple times to complain about Mario and no emails back!
Scam!
I worked 4 months no rides it’s a scam lost 180 dollars!
If you worked for months with no rides you are a special kind of moron sir
Can we get a March 2021 update on the company please? I heard they’re celebrating 2 yrs with over 1million customers.
April (March) 2021 Update – Still an MLM scam, if they had over 1 million customers, they would be on the news as a potential Lyft/Uber competitor.. at the very least it will be ranked by outside sources as one of the fastest-growing start ups. (1 million is not a small feat for any company over a decade, much less 2 years) =)
Seriously, with them claiming 1 million customers, it screams scam that much more.
I’m a driver for Lyft and Uber here in the Tampa, FL area. I found the Vibe app about this time last year in the Google Play Store, and I thought: “Cool. Another way to make some money!” So l downloaded the app but never used it because they had a form that I insisted I take my car into a mechanic and have them fill it out to prove my car was road safe. I figured that if Lyft and Uber didn’t require such nonsense, why do they? So, I never used it. I just received an email from them that states the following:
“Dear Valued Vibe Rides Drivers and Riders,
We are sending you this message to inform you that we have temporarily suspended the Vibe Rides app for drivers and riders.
Effective immediately, we will not be able to complete any ride or delivery requests until further notice.
Thank you for your support and patronage. We are very grateful for having you as a valued driver and rider.
Please stay tuned for any further updates regarding Vibe Rides.
Sincerely,
Your Vibe Rides Team”