Complaint Review: Turo Rental Car Agency -

In 2018 I rented a car from Turo. A 525 Convertible BMW for a weekend business trip in the Bay Area.

We took an uber to the location on our confirmation but when we arrived with all our luggage, their location had changed and nobody was there. We took another uber to the new location after waiting for 30 min for customer service to get us the right address.

When we finally arrived, 2 hours later than planned and already very late to the conference we were attending, the car was not a 525 Convertible BMW, it was a 325. Much smaller and barely fit the three of us and our luggage. It was dirty. Not like bachelor party dirty but dirty enough that I needed sanitizer wipes to clean it up, just in case. We picked it up at noon.

I told them I was confirmed for another car, a larger car, but cars are owned by individuals so they can't just swap it out. We were already late so he said he'd note the account. We went to the conference and noticed there was a problem with the suspension making the normally Ultimate Driving Machine rough and jarring to drive on anything but a freeway.

We tried to call customer service but they never answered and the conference was in full swing by the time we got there.

Then the owner, who refused to acknowledge he had given us the wrong car or address the suspension issue called asking if he could have the car back early. He offered a small (really - insulting considering he listed the wrong car) refund if I'd give it up. I said I was in SF and if he wanted it back the night before he could come pick it up. I left him a message. And I left the keys at the hotel front desk in case he did. By morning he hadn't picked it up, so I returned it.

Here's the part that went sideways. There was a parade in SF and it took us 2 hours to cross Market Street and get back to the Turo lot. We were seriously late for our flight by then and the clerk at the place said he'd do the return for us. I thanked him as we ran to get an uber to flight. We barely made it. I called customer service to inquire about what to do with the car owner since the suspension was broken and it was the wrong car. They said they'd look into it.

Then I get the bill for a late rental return. Ummmm, they claim I returned the car while I was on the airplane. I have flight records and an uber bill to back it up. I repeated asked what they were going to do about the car itself, being the wrong model listed and the broken suspension. They never did anything, just kept asking me to pay the late return. I didn't late return. I rented the car (ok this is approximate because it was almost 2 years ago) at 2:00pm ish, and I returned it at 11:30am ish.

The guy who checked us out said our return time was 2. Clearly he came from the real rental world where you get a car for the full 24 hours. But not in Turo land. They caused the delays with moving locations without informing us. They had no options for a larger car when we arrived and there was the wrong model. They did nothing when the car was not as described with a suspension issue. Then all they did was try and grab more money.

Yeah, this is supposed to be the Airbnb of car rentals. And on paper maybe, but not in terms of execution and certainly not in terms of customer service.

So why am I now filing a ripoff report? Because they just sent me to collections. So, anyone interested in a class action lawsuit, game on, I see hundreds of complaints and they are all the same. Customer service is a money grab and sides with the car owners to get more money. Not the customer. But that's not how their marketing reads. 

Do I have time to deal with this nonsense? No, I'm out saving hospitals from running out of supplies. And Turo is spending their quarantine time scouring the books for people to send to collections. Because you know, now is the time to ruin people's credit and go for yet another money grab. So for the thousands of customers that just got hit with yet another stressor of a greedy company trying to take the cash you likely don't have, I got ya.