Turo is a total scam. My buddy and I planned a ski trip and made the mistake of "renting" a car from these geniuses. I paid for the vehicle on MY CREDIT CARD and I was listed as a driver. We also secured the premium insurance package to cover us both and the car. No ordinary coverage on the cheap; the insurance alone was about $300. In the days before the trip, my buddy had a family emergency and can't go. So, I forge ahead and contact the vehicle owner to determine pick up, etc. The vehicle owner (who was great and nothing like the low lifes at Turo) says he can't give us the car. When we booked, my buddy happened to put himself as "primary" driver by merely typing his name first. I laughed and told him that I paid for the vehicle, was a listed driver and fully insured. He said that TURO makes the rules and I'd have to call them. In the meantime, I had paid nearly $1000 for a vehicle I could not pick up. Calls to Turo were horrible and I spoke to everyone in Pakistan and India. Finally, one guy says that this "primary driver" thing is an internal rule and the fact that we weren't told about it was of no moment. But, since I had paid for the vehicle, he said he could cancel it, and then I would simply rebook the vehicle when it became available by the cancellation. And therein lies the scam. When I did this, the car price jumped up $260! I'm about to go to the airport so there is nothing I can do. I pick up the VERY SAME VEHICLE I RENTED ORIGINALLY, but now for $1270, and raise hell when I arrive at my destination. It is there that I also discover they charged me an additional $156 CANCELLATION FEE! YES AN ADDITIONAL SCAMMER FEE! They finally take me out of India and I speak to a somber guy by the name of Vladimir. He said that what agent in Paskitan/India did was improper and immediately took off the $156 cancellation charge. I also told him the ridiculous story of how we simply typed in my buddy's name first and that I had paid for the vehicle, and was a listed and insured driver. He said that he could understand why I would be upset and that he would put everything in the "notes" for the case, and get the difference refunded. His words: "that other agent should not have done that." I thanked him and asked him to also email me these notes so that I could be sure that Turo honored his promise. No email came nor did the refund. After numerous emails, another supervisor emailed me and said it was all my fault and the refund would not be awarded. So, there is my tale of woe, and BUYERS BEWARE. This has been an expensive nightmare and YOU ALL SHOULD STAY AWAY...

This is our experience:

Our first vacation since Covid with a planned agenda of visiting our 97 year old aunt in Long Beach for 5 days and then going on a sightseeing trip to Death Valley.

We rented a Fiat 500. The car (which we only used for about 150 miles) started displaying an airbag failure warning on day 5, so we alerted Turo and they arranged a backup car for us so we could continue on to Death Valley. Figuring out the logistics took more than two hours of phone conversations and waiting on hold that day.

The second car, also a Fiat 500 - provided by a different host - broke down on us on the first day in Death Valley. Luckily we had pulled over at one of the resorts that also had a adjacent car repair shop. After running several tests the mechanic determined that we were dealing with a failed battery and that it could not be recharged, so anytime we made a stop and turned off the car, we would not be able to start it again.

After another two hours on the phone with Turo and finally being taken care of by one of their supervisors, we found out that Turo could tow the car and set us up with another backup car provided by a local host (near Death Valley and probably from Pahrump, NV). However, per Turo rules, the car can only be dropped off at the same location as it was picked up. Regarding my question how we would get back to Los Angeles, since we had to drop off the car again in the Death Valley region, the supervisor had no solution. He said Turo provides a maximum of $60 worth of Uber vouchers, but there would be no other way to get us back to LA using a Turo car. The supervisor admitted to the dilemma and gave us permission to have the car checked and fixed so we could get back. The Death Valley mechanic could not replace the battery since he had none in stock and Turo roadside assistance were not willing to deliver a battery to our location. They only tow or jump start cars. At this point we had spoken with two separate supervisors who both were extremely sorry for the inconveniences we suffered and agreed that our options were limited and that this was not ok. Though neither could help us in this case.

So we had our car jump-started and drove ourselves all the way to Pahrump, Nevada through Death Valley with a failed battery. A 112 mile round trip. We contacted the host and let her know that her battery failed and informed her about all the details involved since we were under the impression Turo and their hosts are one and the same company (more about that at the end of the review).

We spent $225.95 on a brand new battery. We have not been reimbursed to this day. When we arrived back to Seattle from our trip we found a charge on our account for $19 for going over the allotted mileage. A) We had to drive an extra 112 miles to get to the closest place that had a battery replacement and B) we booked a car for 10 days at 200 miles per day. With receiving a backup car the mileage started over, so for the 4 days on the backup car we lost over 1000 miles of the overall booked 2000 total since we only used the first car for about 150 miles. Eventually this charge was refunded. However at the cost of us spending at least another two hours on the phone with agends and on hold to have it resolved.

We also found that our host had sent us a very unkind message on the Turo site that she had to spend $80 to have her car checked since we reported the battery and brake issues. She claimed that the brakes were brand new and that was the reason why they made creaky sounds and rattled the car when you pushed them. Note: We never met the host herself since one of her friends dropped off / picked up the car. The host also left a slanderous review on my Turo account accusing me of "hitting my own children behind the corner" (? I don'have children btw.) and that I alledgedly tampered with her headlight. The right headlight did not work when we returned the car. We pointed this out to the person who picked up the car (who wasn't the host). Since we never drove the car at night (and only drove in the dusk one time) we did not notice. The light might have been out from the very beginning. My responses to her were always very civil and polite. What set her off was the fact that Turo required her to have her car checked (which cost her money). She fabricated several other points in her review and we will now have to have Turo remove it. We have all this in the messages on our Turo site. If a Turo agent took the time to read through the messages (that was our only form of communication with her) and the hosts review they will see the false statements that were made.

We were promised a refund via a voicemail by one of the supervisors right after we returned on May 17th (we have it on file still). After nothing happened for a week I contacted Turo again and they then promised the refund within 24 hours in writing on May 24th. Nothing. In the meantime I had to travel to Europe for three weeks and did not have time to deal with Turo from over there. When I got back I made three more attempts to be reimbursed, two times I was told again that the refund would be there within 24 hours and the last time, just a couple of days ago, the Turo agent told me that the Executive team "still had not made a decision on the refund". In the meantime Turo first billed the first host for the battery that we bought for the car of our second host. I contacted Turo to make them aware of their mistake after our first host was stuck on the phone with them for over an hour to try and resolve that it was not his car that needed a battery replacement. Turo then posted on my account page that they would be charge ME for the $225.95. We got charged for the battery that we had paid for out of pocket (mind boggling!). We had to put our credit card on hold so the charge would not go through.

Yesterday we contacted a lawyer for guidance. And today I am starting to submit our experience to review sites and the social media. We will also be reporting this to the California Attorney General office. I have no more patience.

Here are the key points:

Turo sent us out in car with a failed battery and brake issues. We do not believe that the issues came from the brakes being brand new. This could have ended up potentially very dangerous for us since we had to cross Death Valley in a compromised car (and yes, Death Valley is one of Turo's advertised destinations in the region, see the offical site).

Turo's regulations do not allow to drop off a car in a different location than where it was picked up. If you drive a distance away from your pickup location and anything happens to the Turo vehicle you rented, Turo can provide you with a backup vehicle, but you will need to drop it off where you picked it up. Turo does not have a solution on how to get you back to your starting point.

It does not appear that Turo reliably knows the condition of the cars provided by their hosts. The car we rented had an old reconditioned battery in it (as confirmed by the host in writing) that failed us.

We spent 15 hours total on the phone with Turo since. This is the combined time of speaking/ texting with agents and being on hold. We have copies of our phone records and all the Chat emails and screenshots.

The Turo agents all were trying to be very helpful, I have to give them big points for that. But they could not help us because of the above mentioned Turo regulations and because the executive billing team was unresponsive.

I asked to speak with an agent over the phone a few days ago, but Turo has changed their contact options. You cannot talk with an agent over the phone directly anymore.

It is beyond frustrating to have a company just not respond when it comes to an owed and promised reimbursement. I also do not believe it is safe to drive Turo provided vehicles. I am sure there are many good, responsible hosts out there (like our first host) that take care of their cars and care about their guests, but the fact that we were sent out with a potentially dangerous vehicle leads to the assumption that there may be many more cars in their fleet out there that have not been appropriately checked for road worthiness. I would also urge Turo to check the remaining fleet of cars our host has with them. She claims to have 13 cars total working for Turo.

And if a Turo representative reads this, the reservation number associated with this review is *******. You will see that all that I stated here is correct and has been reported to Turo several times.

11/20/2021 - We have friends that use Turo when traveling. We decided to try it. My wife went on their website and reserved a Chevy SUV from Michael M in Tampa Florida. We live in San Diego. Got up at 3am to catch our flight, had a layover in Houston, got to Tampa at 6pm. My wife had been in contact with Michael a couple of times letting him know when we were going to be picking it up. The day we flew in, we could not get a hold of him. He did not answer our texts nor return our phone calls. It costs us $35 ($30 Lyft ride + $5 tip) to get from the airport to his place. He was nowhere to be found, it was now 7pm and it was not the safest neighborhood. If my wife were by herself, it would not have been a good situation. We called Turo, they couldn't get a hold of him and now we were at the mercy of the "Legit" car rental companies to hopefully get a rental. My wife called Lyft and back to the airport (another $35) we went. Was able to get a rental from Thrifty (BIG THANK YOU to THIRFTY) and headed to our hotel in Clearwater. Turo said they will reimburse us for the rental (really, I'd hope so, they were talking about giving us a credit for future rides, HAHAHAHA) and $50 more toward the Lyft charges. We wanted to leave a review about Michael M on their website so the next person would know, but there is NO place on the Turo website to do that. We even called Turo the next day inquiring how to warn others; we were told there is no way. Bottom Line: if you use Turo, you have no idea who you are actually renting from or what area you are going to be picking it up from or even if they are going to show. If it weren't for Thrifty we would have been in a real crisis; renting from Turo costs us two extra hours of an already long day and (as long as they follow through with reimbursements) $20 in Lyft charges (they would only reimburse $50).