DRAPER — Imagine returning a rental car without so much as a scratch, but then you get charged hundreds of dollars for damage that was made up — completely fictional.
Hope Orr said an unscrupulous host on the popular peer-to-peer car rental platform, Turo (sort of an Airbnb for car rentals), accused her of returning his car with a screw embedded in a tire. He sent her a photo as proof, but she said it only proves fraud.
"I woke up and discovered that there was a claim against me for a nail in the tire and for smoking in the car," Orr said of the day after she returned from her vacation in Miami.
"Was there a nail in the tire?" we asked her.
"No," she responded.
"Had you been smoking?"
"No," she laughed. "I don't smoke."
When she disputed the charges, that's when the car's owner sent her that photo.
"It was a very close-up photo of a tire with a nail in it," Orr said.
Also included were photos of a lighter on the floorboard, a spot of ash, and some loose tobacco.
"Once I saw that smoking violation, I realized that the tire was fraud," she said.
Turo wasn't convinced.
"They said that they were going to post a $500 charge on my account and that they would get an estimate from the host and then let me know how much it was actually going to cost me," said Orr.
That's on top of the $165 charge she got hit with for the smoking claim.
She said the host tried to pressure her into settling with him directly, instead of through Turo.
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