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Turo Requires a Driver's License Number and Credit Card to Show Full Price

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Turo Requires a Driver's License Number and Credit Card to Show Full Price

#11

Post by arcticbull »

forgotmysn wrote: post #4
standyro wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My trick with their system is to just look at every car, click through to the final receipt screen and then go back to find the cheapest one. It's a bit tedious and deceptive to the customer to present variable fee at the last part of the checkout process. Probably the worst modern "dark pattern" that I hope regulators take a look at.

I share your sentiment, but I'm not sure there are any legislators I trust to understand or regulate dark patterns effectively.

Really? They sure successfully nailed airlines on the practice a decade ago. [1]

It doesn't take a world-leading regulator to say "it is an unfair and deceptive business practice not to list the total price in a search result."

I think a regulator may be able to handle this one.

[1] https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviation-consumer...

Re: Turo Requires a Driver's License Number and Credit Card to Show Full Price

#12

Post by rodonn »

forgotmysn wrote: post #4
standyro wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My trick with their system is to just look at every car, click through to the final receipt screen and then go back to find the cheapest one. It's a bit tedious and deceptive to the customer to present variable fee at the last part of the checkout process. Probably the worst modern "dark pattern" that I hope regulators take a look at.

I share your sentiment, but I'm not sure there are any legislators I trust to understand or regulate dark patterns effectively.

DC is currently suing Doordash for this sort of deceptive pricing arguing that it violates existing laws. https://www.npr.org/2022/03/22/1087988691/washington-d

Re: Turo Requires a Driver's License Number and Credit Card to Show Full Price

#13

Post by dont__panic »

FireBeyond wrote: post #7

Turo is a haven for money laundering. In my area you can "find" multiple Chrysler 300Cs for rent for $600/day. I say "find" because many of them are unavailable for days or even weeks on end as being rented. Good scam if you're, say, a dealer. Have one of your customers "rent" your car through Turo at an inflated rate. Bonus: you don't even have to let them have your car. They're just paying you and saying they rente…

Makes you wonder how many tech companies are (unknowingly, hopefully) laundering money. You could pull off this kind of money laundering through a lot of services -- Etsy, Taskrabbit, tons of others -- by simply listing extremely overpriced items that nobody would ever buy legitimately. And I suppose if any poor sap ever wandered in and actually bought the thing you're selling, instead of just laundering money... you could always just provide that service anyway.

Re: Turo Requires a Driver's License Number and Credit Card to Show Full Price

#14

Post by tyrfing »

forgotmysn wrote: post #4
standyro wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My trick with their system is to just look at every car, click through to the final receipt screen and then go back to find the cheapest one. It's a bit tedious and deceptive to the customer to present variable fee at the last part of the checkout process. Probably the worst modern "dark pattern" that I hope regulators take a look at.

I share your sentiment, but I'm not sure there are any legislators I trust to understand or regulate dark patterns effectively.

https://www.adlawaccess.com/2022/02/articles/dark-patterns-a...

https://www.adlawaccess.com/2022/02/articles/dark-patterns-a...

Marriott has settled a lawsuit over similar pricing "dark patterns": https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Hotel-News/Marriott...

> Among other provisions, the agreement requires Marriott to prominently disclose the total price of a hotel stay, including room rate and all other mandatory fees, on the first page of its booking website as part of the total room rate.

Seems to mainly be a matter of enforcement, it's probably worth contacting your state AG with something deceptive like this. Hard to expect them to take action on something they don't know about!

Re: Turo Requires a Driver's License Number and Credit Card to Show Full Price

#15

Post by not2b »

forgotmysn wrote: post #4
standyro wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My trick with their system is to just look at every car, click through to the final receipt screen and then go back to find the cheapest one. It's a bit tedious and deceptive to the customer to present variable fee at the last part of the checkout process. Probably the worst modern "dark pattern" that I hope regulators take a look at.

I share your sentiment, but I'm not sure there are any legislators I trust to understand or regulate dark patterns effectively.

"Understand" in the sense of the Upton Sinclair quote: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

Or, in this case, his/her campaign contributions.

Re: Turo Requires a Driver's License Number and Credit Card to Show Full Price

#16

Post by nickpinkston »

FireBeyond wrote: post #7

Turo is a haven for money laundering. In my area you can "find" multiple Chrysler 300Cs for rent for $600/day. I say "find" because many of them are unavailable for days or even weeks on end as being rented. Good scam if you're, say, a dealer. Have one of your customers "rent" your car through Turo at an inflated rate. Bonus: you don't even have to let them have your car. They're just paying you and saying they rente…

How would that be different that doing this on any eComm platform?

I don't understand what's unique about doing it through Turo.

Re: Turo Requires a Driver's License Number and Credit Card to Show Full Price

#17

Post by saddestcatever »

It's an interesting dark pattern...

I understand when products are compared directly: Uber vs. Lyft, Uber Eats vs. Grubhub, etc. Often consumers are looking at the exact same product and purely deciding based on price. I can see what a company would add that dark pattern to squeeze every dollar they can get.

AirBnb, Turo? I don't get it, are folks comparing the purchases directly to "other" products?

Re: Turo Requires a Driver's License Number and Credit Card to Show Full Price

#18

Post by site-packages1 »

I have had good experiences renting on business trips with Turo itself. I wanted more exotic cars than what I might get at Hertz so created an account and all that. It's true the price goes up substantially from the originally stated rate though, maybe I didn't quite see the discrepancy because I had already created an account.

My biggest gripe with Turo, and the reason I don't use it much, is it's really inconvenient, even though you book through the app. For example, I land at SFO. With Turo turns out to get the stated rate you need to go to the car's location, which ime is usually some inconvenient neighborhood where the owner lives. SO it's kind of weird Lyfting to some neighborhood to get a car. Otherwise it's like an extra $80-150 to have the car waiting at SFO (or whatever airport). Then returning is the same ordeal.

I am a bit used to the dark pattern in the app they and places like AirBnB employ, for better or worse I'm used to it, and so never really get my hopes up until I see the final checkout price right before hitting "Reserve" (which adds friction because the fees are never the same across cars/homes). One thing that I think would make Turo viable for business travelers like me in the future would be a much more frictionless delivery process, perhaps acquiring a rental area at airports like the regular car rental companies have and not adding giant fees to avoid inconvenience. Put the onus on the person providing the car to have the car at the expected place at the expected time.

Re: Turo Requires a Driver's License Number and Credit Card to Show Full Price

#19

Post by wardedVibe »

dont__panic wrote: post #13
FireBeyond wrote: post #7

Turo is a haven for money laundering. In my area you can "find" multiple Chrysler 300Cs for rent for $600/day. I say "find" because many of them are unavailable for days or even weeks on end as being rented. Good scam if you're, say, a dealer. Have one of your customers "rent" your car through Turo at an inflated rate. Bonus: you don't even have to let them have your car. They're just paying you and saying they rente…

Makes you wonder how many tech companies are (unknowingly, hopefully) laundering money. You could pull off this kind of money laundering through a lot of services -- Etsy, Taskrabbit, tons of others -- by simply listing extremely overpriced items that nobody would ever buy legitimately. And I suppose if any poor sap ever wandered in and actually bought the thing you're selling, instead of just laundering money... you…

I mean, there's a lot of speculation that this is exactly what NFT art is most commonly used for.

Re: Turo Requires a Driver's License Number and Credit Card to Show Full Price

#20

Post by Adrox »

forgotmysn wrote: post #4
standyro wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My trick with their system is to just look at every car, click through to the final receipt screen and then go back to find the cheapest one. It's a bit tedious and deceptive to the customer to present variable fee at the last part of the checkout process. Probably the worst modern "dark pattern" that I hope regulators take a look at.

I share your sentiment, but I'm not sure there are any legislators I trust to understand or regulate dark patterns effectively.

It's actually illegal in Europe (EU) to NOT display the final price, and the price shown on the search in Airbnb or airline searches is the final price.

Specially because in EU all the prices shown in stores/everywhere is the final price, with VAT, service, tip, etc, etc...

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