[jeffbee]

Most shops that offered still photo rentals in my city have gone out of business, and it's a major city. I used to be able to count on renting a big telephoto that I didn't need to own, for a few hundred per weekend, but these days I'd have to take a long drive to get to the one remaining shop.

[dylan604]

Yeah, online rental places have pretty much made the locals fade away. The one in my local area requires a "deposit" worth the full sales price which makes it out of the reach of anyone but those well off.

We used to joke about the B&H rental by taking full advantage of the 30-day return policy. Even Amazon's return policy qualifies now. You just need to the up front funds available and hope that wear&tear is not noticeable to make the return acceptable. It's hard for local shops to keep up with that.

[genewitch]

Hard for local shops to keep up with fraud? You don't say.

[dylan604]

I like how the messenger is getting shot. It's as if my reporting of what actually happens is being interpreted as that's what I do. Just because I know of how the system gets played does not make me a player.

[genewitch]

I get upset when people defraud my neighbors and friends in my community. that's what a local shop is. Just today i went to my local pharmacy to look for l-theanine based on some commentary on HN yesterday. I could have gone on amazon, or to walmart, or to CVS. People interfering with that business aren't cool, regardless of the motivation.

let me put it this way - i never even thought of using amazon as a rental service. even though amazon loves me, and i could get away with it, my brain doesn't spend time thinking about unethical things to do.

read this as: "Someone should have gotten upset before the deposit went up from jerks either breaking or stealing the rental equipment" - as my sibling says, this is why we can't have nice things.

[igouy]

aka "This is why we can't have nice things"