According to a recently filed lawsuit, a big rental chain installs physical hardware and software into its rented computers, capturing the keystrokes, screenshots, and even webcam images of unsuspecting customers. The only way to disable it is by waving an electronic “wand” over the device. The spyware was revealed when a store manager for the chain showed up at renter’s house to try to repossess the laptop and showed the renter a picture of him taken by the webcam, unbeknownst to him, by the leased laptop. [More]
rentals
How Can I Get My Fridge Fixed If I'm Never Home?
By 4.6.11
S. rents a house in Florida, and the refrigerator needs repair. Her dilemma is that her landlord wants to use a specific repairman, who is only available when S. and the rest of her household aren’t available to wait around. The landlord has offered to let the repairman in, but S. isn’t comfortable with having anyone in her home when she’s not around. What would you do? [More]
Surviving And Thriving As A Long-Distance Landlord
By 4.3.11
Being a landlord can be a dream, with an easy stream of income with little ongoing effort required, but the career can also be a nightmare of repair bills and troubling tenants. [More]
Split The Rent Helps You Calculate Rent Fairly
By 2.18.11
Do you share an apartment or house with multiple people, but aren’t sure how to divide up the rent? Not all bedrooms are created equal, but the Split the Rent calculator can help you figure out who owes what. It accounts for variables like bedroom size, private bathrooms, windows, closet space, and the amount of common space in the home. [More]
Did You Rent A Foreclosure-To-Be?
By 2.3.11
Personal finance blogger Romeo of How We Prevent Wealth recently had a lucky near miss: he put down a deposit on a new rental home, then purely by chance learned that the same home was about to enter foreclosure. He was able to avoid the situation and get his deposit back, but he might not have been so lucky. [More]
Too Good To Be True Rental Listing Leads To Credit Score Scam
By 1.20.11
We’ve been getting a few emails about a new kind of rental scam where they try to lure you into giving over your credit card and personal information to a “free credit score” site. One was from Reader Benjamin, who was looking for a house to rent when he and his wife stumbled across a too good to be true deal, a fully-furnished 3-bedroom house in Maryland for only $1200. Seeing as they had nothing to lose, they emailed the lister, just to see what would happen. [More]
What Do I Need To Pay When I Break My Lease Four Months Early?
By 11.4.10
Shannon in Alabama recently got engaged, and she’ll be moving into the house her fiancé owns after the wedding in December. The problem is her current place, which she just leased in April. She wrote to Consumerist for help figuring out what to do, since her landlord doesn’t seem too clear on the procedures, either. [More]
Priceline Promised No "Young Renter Fee," But Avis Says Pay Up
By 9.29.10 — Updated: 9.8.16
When Lauren reserved a car rental through Priceline last week, she checked out the fine print to see if she’d have to pay any age-related extra fees, and according to Priceline what she bid would be the total price. Now Avis is telling her Priceline is wrong and she’ll have to come up with more money at the rental counter. [More]
Book Car Rentals Early, But Then Keep Checking For Pricedrops
By 9.7.10
Here’s a strategy for saving money on your next car rental. [More]
U-Haul Makes You Drop Off At Other Location, Then Charges You For It
By 8.31.10
Christina went to return her Uhaul rental, but when she arrived at her scheduled time, she found the lot was already closed. Customer service told her to return the truck to the nearest nearby Uhaul place, a chore in and of itself. Then she got charged for returning it to the “wrong” location, and all-told her $19.99 rental has blossomed into $220 that navigating the twists and turns and delays of customer service hasn’t gotten her refunded. Here’s the letter she wrote to Joe, the CEO of Uhaul. [More]
NYC Slumlords Outed By Public Advocate's Worst Landlord List
By 8.30.10
Not many renters in New York City are in love with their landlords, but only a handful of the city’s landlords deserved to be called out in public for repeated violations and ignored complaints from tenants. Starting this morning, the city’s Public Advocate has decided it’s time that the worst offenders be forced into the spotlight with a public, searchable database. [More]
Netflix Now Streams To iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
By 8.27.10
Adding a feature Apple junkies have been clamoring for, Netflix upgraded its App Store application to allow it to stream movies and TV shows for subscribers. [More]
Blockbuster Charges Me For Membership I Didn't Want, Won't Refund My Money
By 8.24.10
Chris tried Blockbuster’s rent-by-mail trial period and says he was mistakenly charged for the final three DVDs, which he had returned. He didn’t notice the screw-up for months, then once he finally got Blockbuster to reverse the charges he was billed $43 for months of a membership he never used. [More]
Blockbuster Chases GameFly, Offers Game Rentals By Mail
By 8.10.10
Yesterday we noted that Blockbuster was launching a new DVD-by-mail rental service (which Netflix promptly one-upped by announcing a new streaming agreement), and today we’re getting tips from people that the beleaguered brick and mortar movie rental company is throwing games into the offer as well. FastCompany notes that GameFly offers around 7,000 game titles compared to Blockbuster’s library of 3,000 titles. On the other hand, Blockbuster’s rental plans start at $9/mo compared to GameFly’s $16/mo (both for one disc at a time). [More]
Redbox Rolls Out Blu-ray Rentals Nationwide For $1.50 A Night
By 7.30.10
After wavering between charging $1.50 and $2 a night for Blu-ray rentals during its test program, Redbox has decided to go with the cheaper price as it makes the high-definition discs available nationwide at 13,300 kiosks, with plans to nearly double that number by the fall. [More]
Your Redbox Reservation Is A Sacred, Unbreakable Covenant
By 7.14.10
We touched on this topic last week in a post about a broken Redbox machine, but reader Nick wants Consumerist readers to know something important about Redbox. Whether your local kiosk has been smashed in or you just plain change your mind, there is no power on earth that can cancel your reservation and give you a refund. None. [More]
4 Things You Should Rent Rather Than Buy
By 7.9.10
Budgets Are Sexy argues that people throw their money away on many items they’d normally buy without a thought. Here are four “buys” that you should should highly consider switching to “rents.” [More]
Rent Enterprise Car At Twice The Rate, Get Free Dentures (Check Under Floormat)
By 6.21.10
Timothy rented a car from Enterprise last month when he flew into Newark Airport in New Jersey, and he was forced to pay almost twice the amount quoted in his reservation because of problems with a coupon code and an uncooperative manager. But there’s good news: the rental came with a special, stinky surprise that he and his wife didn’t find until the second day of the rental. (Warning: there’s a big close-up photo below.) [More]
