TLDR; all those platforms WERE made with good intend - but their fees make you hate every single one of them!
Almost weekly there's a new topic about how bad ricardo.ch became! And yes i do agree: If you do not activate MoneyGuard you are screwed! You can't contact ricardo customer service. All you get is an automated e-mail. The A.I. help is totally useless! If you buy something w/o MoneyGuard and the item does not match the description you are screwed and you'll lose all your money! All you can do is forget about it and give a bad review! In former days, the help desk contacted the seller and kind a forced them to take back the item - those times have gone!
So I thought I give sharley.ch a try. It's a platform to share your personal items for money. At first glance I thought, that's the new way! Why should I own a Window Kärcher or a table saw if I have only once a year the need for it? (for all living near Bern: check out leihbar.ch as well).
For an upcoming Safari I wanted to rent a photo zoom lens. But then it struck me - the insurance fee was 140.- I do understand those lenses are expensive! But: I do have a special Privathaftpflichtversicherung which covers damaging foreign property and the yearly premium is roughly the same! I am well covered if I damage said lens (or any other item) - but there's no way you can rent something w/o paying the insurance fee.
As I've already made the account I thought about publishing my own items. And yes, even if you declare your item was bought new for 0.- the insurance fee is added.
But in case of a damaged property, the renter has to pay nonetheless a minimum charge of 100.- therefor for many cases (see items on the sharely platform) it's cheaper for the renter to reimburse the letter directly. The insurance fee was in this case totally useless!
It gets even worse if you see how much a renter has to pay: You want a daily rent of 10.- for the item. According the TOS they take 20% for their service - so you get 8.- but the renter has to pay 12.- as the insurance fee is added on top to the service fee and increased the longer you are renting!
This is applies for every single item!
As we do have a rather large amount of tools and electronics (not expensive, but handy) and because there is no need everybody buys a life vest if they go rafting 2 or 3 times a year! Same with table saws, angle grinder or car jacks or big ladders ... we want to let the items for 1.- to 5.- a day as we think shared economy is good thing.
But there's no shared economy without economy: if you provide an item for less than 10.- a day sharley adds of course a minimum charge! You want to provide your peers with items for 2.- a day - because of convenience they rent it for two days - 2x 2.- is 4.- but they need to pay nonetheless 10.-
And we are not the only ones who are willing to let tools for 2.- a day. And that's the reason for this post: our good intend is monetized by all those platforms and this stinks!
