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

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

#81

Post by SnowHill9902 »

Adrox wrote: post #20
forgotmysn wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

What if the final price depends on your entity status as a purchaser? E.g. delivery city, whether you are a business or an individual. Taxes and shipping trivially depends on that.

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

#82

Post by tortilla »

paxys wrote: post #77

I have never seen the appeal of services like Turo for the owner. I bought a nice car last year and it stays in the garage most of the time. I could still never imagine renting it out to random strangers for weekend trips regardless of profitability (which would be tiny considering the cut they take). If you have a clunker that you don't care about then sure, but Turo prides itself on its upscale selection. Who is re…

People who rent out their non-primary cars. Some are just running a mini car rental business.

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

#83

Post by tsunamifury »

CPLX wrote: post #73
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…

Doesn’t make sense. All the transactions are electronic and done with credit cards which means that money is already laundered for the most part. The idea of money laundering is to turn cash into legal income. There’s other kinds of money laundering too including cross-border type transactions like you might see with art or collectibles but it’s hard to see how this makes much sense via Turo. If the buyer has the abi…

Sell illicit goods by renting a fake car on Turo. Easy peasey instant launder.

All these others are thinking to hard. I see it on the airbnbs in the LA hills that are all fake with fake pictures etc. just there to rent to instantly launder a transaction from what I’m guessing.

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

#84

Post by JJMcJ »

azinman2 wrote: post #72
JJMcJ wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bob has a business with lots of cash coming in and can fold Beth's cash in without it being too obvious. Or Bob knows people who know what to do with suitcases full of $500 Euro notes without alerting legal issues. Presumably Beth pays Bob for this service. Then Bob may have to pay his friends. This can be done with varying degrees of sophistication.

You just described money laundering. But where does Turo fit in?

Often it's more for tax evasion. Beth pays for cars as a business expense.

Bob just happens to have the Cayman Islands as the business location.

Money flows from U.S. business as a deductible expense, to the location out of the IRS's reach.

Or there isn't one Beth but lots of people with dodgy credit cards from banks in weird places. Those card holders indeed get their money in suitcases full of folding money, pay for their "rentals" and so the money flows into legitimate commerce. Bob of course pays for this.

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

#85

Post by paxys »

Airlines were notorious for these practices (super low advertised price followed by a dozen surcharges at checkout), then a single law made them declare the full final ticket price up front for all reservations. The result – airlines are happy because all their competitors have to abide by the law as well and so everyone is on a level playing field, and customers are happy because their experience is infinitely better.

This law should really apply across the board for all purchases.

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

#86

Post by justin_oaks »

bound008 wrote: post #58

While I absolutely loathe dark patterns, I just wanted to share one thought. They may have to "add" you to their insurance plan or carrier before renting you the car. That infuriating service fee might actually be personalized for your driving record. As for the credit card, it is user-hostile at best to demand this before being able to see a price. I wish there was an easier way to complain about businesses that ope…

Any list price that excludes additional fees should be shown as "Base price" or, better yet, explicitly list what types of additional fees have yet to be added to make up the final price.

For variable fees, you could show a range of prices to show the minimum and maximum possible, or show the base price with an approximate or estimated additional fee.

There are LOTS of ways to be open and clear with the customer about these things without being deceptive.

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

#87

Post by mike_d »

paxys wrote: post #77

I have never seen the appeal of services like Turo for the owner. I bought a nice car last year and it stays in the garage most of the time. I could still never imagine renting it out to random strangers for weekend trips regardless of profitability (which would be tiny considering the cut they take). If you have a clunker that you don't care about then sure, but Turo prides itself on its upscale selection. Who is re…

People who don't need to drive all the time, but want a car that is out of their budget.

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

#88

Post by stonemetal12 »

systemvoltage wrote: post #55
crooked-v wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same happens with hotels and "resort fees", especially in places like Las Vegas.

This is one area America needs to legislate which I am usually against. There is no excuse but sleezy marketing to not show what something costs. I'd go far even to make sure every price sticker is regulated and should include final sales price . That means, all taxes, all tips, everything. There is only one problem I see – sales taxes are state dependent so it puts a lot of burden on ecommerce/online stores to 1) De…

Sales tax is worse than state dependent, they are city dependent.

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

#89

Post by ghaff »

paxys wrote: post #77

I have never seen the appeal of services like Turo for the owner. I bought a nice car last year and it stays in the garage most of the time. I could still never imagine renting it out to random strangers for weekend trips regardless of profitability (which would be tiny considering the cut they take). If you have a clunker that you don't care about then sure, but Turo prides itself on its upscale selection. Who is re…

It probably wouldn't appeal to me, but I just stayed at an AirBnB in Maui for part of my vacation. The owner offered to optionally rent their Jeep Wrangler through Turo if I was interested. I already had another rental (at less than half the price) but for someone who was "Yeah, let's rent the cool Jeep," she'd have approximately doubled her take from the stay given the car rental would have been not all that much less than the room rental.

So, yeah, I get there's some associated risk and effort, but it is probably pretty tempting for some to collect a fairly hefty rental fee on an otherwise unused or little used asset.

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

#90

Post by swozey »

paxys wrote: post #77

I have never seen the appeal of services like Turo for the owner. I bought a nice car last year and it stays in the garage most of the time. I could still never imagine renting it out to random strangers for weekend trips regardless of profitability (which would be tiny considering the cut they take). If you have a clunker that you don't care about then sure, but Turo prides itself on its upscale selection. Who is re…

I've used Turo a lot - most of the people renting cars own a fleet of rental cars, like AUdis, etc. Their entire side gig is renting out those cars. They meet you in a parking lot with their other cars. I've almost always had a better experience with Turo than any rental agency, except one rental that was in pretty bad disrepair and had a battery die on me on the top of a mountain.
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