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it was the first time Lee Godwin says he booked a car on turo he says despite doing his research on the peer-to-peer car sharing platform nothing he said could have prepared him for what he experienced while vacationing in Europe and why he needed consumer matters to step in and help it was full of hail damage there was a wheel cover missing that’s will Lee Godwin describes the condition of the vehicle he recently booked on turo as long as it ran good that really wasn’t a concern for me back in May Lee gave the car Sherry a try during a day trip with his family in Paris he says turo seemed promising especially when the host the owner of the vehicle came with a glowing All-Star rating and the rental costs was 30% cheaper Lee says than a traditional rental car agency but as he drove from Paris to the beaches of Normandy less than an hour into his journey Lee says he had car trouble all the warning lights went off and it basically lost power Lee says the car restarted but 10 minutes later he hit another road block when one of the tires went flat what’s worse Lee says there was no spare tire he eventually got the tire fixed but says he lost confidence in the vehicle and decided to drive back to the hotel never making it to Normandy it was pretty disappointing to not be able to see what we wanted to see as he headed back to Paris Lee says the car lost power again forcing him to Coast to a nearby dealership where it was discovered the vehicle had very little oil the mechanic just started looking at things and realized our brake fluid was low our engine coolant was low and he topped up our washer fluid and he’s looking at the condition of the brakes and the tires and he’s looking at me and shaking his head in disbelief that this thing’s on the road after dropping off the vehicle Lee says he never heard from the host again so he reached out to turo seeking a refund for the rental and repairs but says he wasn’t getting anywhere with turo because a host was odd responsive and it eventually turned into there’s nothing we can do for you here his phone number you call him and see if you can get him to refund you at that point I felt like I had run into a impenetrable wall consumer matters reached out to turo on Lee’s behalf and in a statement apologized saying in part we have refunded him for the trip are working on reimbursing him for his maintenance costs and have offered the guest Future travel credit so he can book a new and improved turo experience incidents like this are extremely rare on our Marketplace it was quite remarkable that once consumer matters contacted them that all of a sudden I started to make some progress and started to get somewhere with them Duro also told consumer matters the vehicle is unlisted and is not being rented to other guests at this time as it continues its investigation it was our first experience and it was the most awful experience I’ve ever had with a big company so for me I I will never be using them again and before booking a vehicle on turo it’s recommended you do your research sometimes the cost isn’t always less than tradition additional car rentals also make sure you check with your insurance provider to ensure you have full coverage when using turo find out what is covered and what isn’t covered the company States on its website it’s very unlikely your credit card company provides coverage for damage to a car booked through turo and less likely it provides liability coverage for injuries and if you have a consumer issue for me you can email me at consumer matters at globalnews.ca
Regular vehicle renters may have heard of Turo. Described as the Airbnb of car rentals, the vehicle sharing platform allows customers to use a person’s ride at prices which may be cheaper than a traditional agency.
But as Consumer Matters reporter Anne Drewa found out, a European rental came at a steep price for one B.C. man.
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