When Sean returned a rented truck to Budget Truck Rental nearly a year ago, he went through the standard inspection with an employee, who then signed off on the return. Now the company has sent a $500 bill to collection for damage they refuse to provide evidence of.
renting
Four Unexpected Situations Where Bad Credit Hurts
By 2.15.09
If you aren’t planning on getting a big loan in the next couple of years, you probably shouldn’t be worried about your credit score right? Wrong.
$10 Check From Budget Secretly Signs You Up For Costly Club
By 1.29.09
If you’ve rented from Budget and get a $10, check in the mail, don’t sign it, reports Upgrade Travel Better. The fine print says doing so gives “Trilegiant” permission to sign you up in a monthly “discount” club with a monthly fee. Worse, it allows them to use the credit card you rented the car with to start charging the fees. Pretty sleazy.
By 1.15.09
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Need to save money on textbooks? Textbook Media offsets the cost of its digital copies by inserting ads at chapter breaks. BookSwim rents textbooks. Also see these old suggestions, and today’s morning deal.
Fannie Mae To Stop Evicting Renters From Foreclosed Properties
By 1.13.09
As a rule, banks generally consider renters to be a liability and want nothing to do with them. When a property goes into foreclosure, these renters are usually unceremoniously tossed out and the building resold. Now Fannie Mae has announced a new program whereby renters in good standing will be allowed to stay in their apartments — if the property is owned by the government-controlled home funding company.
Fannie Mae Lets Renters Stay
By 12.15.08
Good news for renters who’ve been dutifully paying their rent while their landlords failed to make the mortgages, and were facing eviction as a result: Fannie Mae will sign new leases with them. [NYT]
When Your Landlord Won't Refund Your Security Deposit
By 12.9.08
What do you do if you were a perfectly fine renter, left the place in great shape, but your landlord won’t refund your security deposit?
Walmart Shuts Down Music Store, Deactivates DRM-Protected Songs
By 9.30.08
Last week, Walmart sent out emails to its online music store customers letting them know that on October 9th, 2008, they will no longer be able to play any DRM-crippled tracks. Unlike Yahoo, which did the right thing by offering free replacement downloads of unprotected songs when they killed their DRM program, Walmart simply brags about its new unlicensed model and tells you to burn your protected tracks to CD if you really want to listen to them in the future. Good job, Walmart, there goes another betrayed consumer into the welcoming arms of digital piracy. And another. And another…
Beware Of Apartment Scammers
By 9.24.08
In the course of searching for a new place to live in Minneapolis, I found a great condo right in the area I was looking for, renting for $900/mo for a 1 bedroom which included electricity, gas, water, sewer, garbage, cable, and high speed internet! Sound too good to be true? You bet…it was a scam.
How "Serial Evictees" Game A System Meant To Protect Renters From Abuse
By 8.14.08
There’s nothing we dislike more than people who scam a system put in place to protect vulnerable consumers from abuse, but the sad fact is that they do exist. SF Weekly has an article that tracks the exploits of a serial evictee, a “renter” who leases apartments with no intention of paying rent, and then games the system in order to stay rent free for as long as possible.
Uhaul CEO Gave Out Cellphone Number On National TV, But Never Picks Up Or Returns Calls
By 7.28.08
In what looked like a daring move, the CEO of Uhaul, Joe Shoen, gave out his “cellphone number” on national TV and invited customers to call him with their complaints. The problem is, when you call, he doesn’t pick up. If you leave a message, it’s not returned. You get to hear Joe’s gruffly charming voicemail message, but can’t leave one of your own. His mailbox is full.
The Worst Landlords In The World
By 4.28.08
Suffice to say, landlords aren’t allowed to do those sort of things just to get you to skedaddle. What’s the worst landlord you ever had and how did you deal with them?
Landlord's Crappy Boiler Costs Us Big Time
By 4.25.08
Marcie writes:
I live in a 750 square foot apartment in Brooklyn, NY. Per the lease agreement, my roommate and I signed to pay the heat separate from the rent. The first gas bill we received was $750, and the following gas bill was roughly the same amount. We knew that the price of gas was expensive, but for two people who make great pains to use the heat only when absolutely necessary, and occasionally use the stove to boil a pot of water, this seemed ridiculous. For all of 2007, we owe roughly $2000 in gas costs.
Manager Defends Retail Renting As Valuable Sales Tool
By 3.29.08
A former camera store manager came forward to defend retail renting as a common tactic that helps drive sales. Retail renting is when a customer buys a pricey item like a prom dress with the intention of returning it later. Our completely unscientific poll shows that 70% of you disapprove of retail renting, but our tipster insists that it is a victimless crime and a valuable sales tool. Our enlightening chat with the former manager, inside.
By 3.20.08
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The FCC banned apartment buildings from signing exclusive deals with phone operators, allowing tenants to exercise consumer choice. [NYT]
Budget's Free Frequent Flyer Miles Promos Will Cost You
By 3.3.08
Michael writes, ” I was just reserving a budget rental car, and for some reason decided to actually read some of the fine print.” Buried in the text was something called an “FTP Surcharge,” which basically amounts to a participation fee for any frequent flyer promotion they offer their customers.
Uhaul CEO's Cellphone Number
By 2.28.08
The CEO of Uhaul gave out his cellphone number last night on an episode of Inside Edition, inviting consumers to call with complaints or questions. Joe Shoen explained saying, “People can’t get this organization to behave, I can.” That number is 602-390-6525.
