Hi GoKunmming community, I'm a native Kunmingnese living in Chicago, IL. Me and 2 buddies just launched this site called RentEver rentever.com
The basic idea is that instead of buying things you rarely use, you can rent them from people around you. Examples: drills, gaming console for a weekend party, camping equipments, etc.
Another scenario is that before you commit to buy something, you want to try it out in depth. So you can rent it first to see how you like it. This might not be an issue for customers in countries like the US where no questions asked returns are easy, but for China, at least at the time when I left for the US (2008) it was almost impossible.
I'd like to invite all of you to try this site out - there obviously has no items in Kunming right now since we just launched it last week, but hey if you post something you'll have the great exposure in the Kunming area :)
Thanks in advance for you attention and I look forward to hearing your feedbacks!
Best,
Cheng
Nice, I saw this on hackernews yesterday. Good luck with it!
Probably not a big deal in practice, but letter of law would probably prevent most foreigners from doing this kind of renting business (however small) legally in China without proper permits.
After all, it would be income derived from and within China.
It's a nice thought - however care and maintenance of private property is an issue. In my lifetime, I've loaned cars, tools, etc to friends and family - and I just don't do it anymore, because things are returned showing an utter lack of respect.
Example - when I've loaned my car for skiing trips - it's always clean inside and washed and waxed outside. EVERY time it's been returned - the interior is filthy, loaded with trash and the exterior is similarly filthy, requiring me to wash, wax, and clean the thing myself AGAIN.
That's not only disrespectful, but abusive of the relationship.
China, at least the China I see - is full of selfish people - it's overtly apparent in the way people drive - especially in Kunming. I SERIOUSLY doubt anyone would treat anything I loaned them with respect and would not be surprised if the products or services were used abusively.
I was always taught - if you borrow something - return it in the same or better condition. I seriously doubt that culture exists here, although I've seen glimmers of hope at fast food restaurants - when observing young students bussing aka throwing their own trash away.
Regardless - good luck with the venture.
yes, but maybe it's not the same as lending something to uncle bob.
first of all, they need to leave a deposit, don't they? doesn't that act as a deterrent to treat the merchandise like crap?
i don't know, but just saying there might be workarounds to that problem.
Thanks all for your inputs.
Yup, the deposit is for this purpose:
rentever.com/document/faq
In case of damage or abnormal wear of the item, owner is entitled to deduct a portion of the deposit refund to the renter.
The tricky thing is the deposit itself: setting too much, nobody would rent the item; too little, it doesn't provide full protection for the owner.
If our site were to provide the insurance and payment handling, then it will incur much more complexity and responsibility for us: dispute resolution/customer service, taxation of owners income, etc.
For now due to our current resource limitation (all 3 of us have regular full time day jobs), we will leave the transaction to the users themselves. We just provide all the free tools for them to go through the whole process more smoothly.
Agree and see that often people often don't take good care of their own things.
Regards disputes. This is a culture of both blame and refusing to take responsibility for ones own actions, it is always someone else's fault.
tiger and laotou's points are valid.
yet, how do car rental companies manage to stay in business? or maybe cars are different and the comparison is not valid?
just saying...it may not be the ideal place but it doesn't mean there's no workaround and it's not doable. you may have to hold your ground and refuse clients who act unfairly and try to take advantage of you. or something something.
