Turo in general is sometimes a mess lately but in Denver it’s a downright sham and scam in my experience. I’ve been using Turo since shortly after it was founded, had lots of good and bad experiences. Yesterday it wasted hours of my time, lied about vehicles being at the airport, made me miss the event the entire trip to Denver was for, and tried to rent me a car that wasn’t available and another that was unsafe.

I had a quick turnaround planned yesterday getting into DEN at 6:30pm and needing a car to get me to an 8pm meeting downtown. Rental cars were crazy priced/not available this weekend. A bmw on Turo was advertised as pickup at the terminal for a good price. Booked it 24 hours before pickup and crossed my fingers. Host contacted me the next day to let me know the car would be unavailable and said he’d cancel the trip in a few hours. I asked him to cancel then and he declined.

I called Turo support (I appreciate that their support still has human beings!), reported the situation, and over the course of an entire hour or so on the phone was able to re-book with a bronco. Turo covered the increased price, which was appreciated. My criteria was only that the new car be “cool and actually at the airport.”

As I was almost getting on my flight the host of the Bronco texted me to say that the car was actually off site at a parking lot and reachable via a 8-12 minute shuttle. I’d also need to pay the $39 parking fee. I called Turo to complain that the parking fee was insane and the vehicle was not at the airport but offsite. Neither the end of the world, but also not what I’d contracted for. Off site is not at the airport and $39 for parking is about $30 more than I’m willing to pay for a car I didn’t park and that isn’t mine. I was told I could be reimbursed for the parking fee but that all Turo vehicles parked at DEN now require a shuttle off site because they aren’t parked at DEN. That doesn’t seem legal, but it was too late to adjust my plans and still make my meeting.

The “8-12 minute” shuttle took an hour and fifteen minutes to get me to the lot. An hour and fifteen minutes, just waiting. I landed at 6:32, I was at the shuttle pickup at 6:52, and I didn’t get to the car until well after 8. Every other offsite parking lot sent shuttles around 2-6 times before anyone saw the one to the lot Turo has people use. The growing crowd of waiting people were pissed.

I got to the Bronco insanely late for my important meeting, and started the check in process. The host texted me telling me to ignore all the warning lights on the dash as I was taking and uploading photos. As I got to the drivers side front tire I realized that this off-road vehicle in a giant gated parking lot in the middle of nowhere, which I’d planned to drive on the freeway to an event and then spend a day or two driving through a national park, only had 3 regular wheels and tires and one space saver spare. Big bold letters on the tire warned me to never exceed 50mph. I let the host know I was leaving for that reason, called Turo, and was told they’d refund my money (and nothing additional) and that a supervisor would call me asap. I’m still waiting on that call 25 hours later. Took a few tries to convince Turo phone support that a small 50mph spare isn’t safe or what I ordered.

What sort of moron(s) think any of this is ok? To market cars as “at the airport” when you have to take a shuttle off the airport to pick them up? To use the worst shuttle service at the airport? To charge people $39 for parking a car they didn’t park? To try to knowingly rent a car with a small spare tire rated at 50mph max? I hope they all get sued into oblivion before they get someone killed. The host is an LLC that apparently rents many cars. Either they didn’t look at the vehicle between rentals or think it’s ok to rent a car with a spare. They didn’t seem at all surprised or bothered when I said the car had a spare, and the old wheel wasn’t in the vehicle anywhere, so I assume they knew.

Thanks for costing me my meeting, leaving me without a car for my trip, and doing nothing to make the situation any better, Turo! You ruined my trip and I hope you clean up your act and platform before you get someone killed!

TLDR; Turo took two tries and several hours to get me to a vehicle in the wrong location and without all its wheels and tires.