armchair lawyers opinions needed
 

my photog John is down in the US shooting some new girls - we rented a house for a week for $2K - the photos of the house online looked good. when you rent a vacation house rental they want the money upfront, so that was paid with VISA/Paypal. the problem is in the light of day the house is definitely not what it looked like in the photos, he says it's shabby, the furniture worn and not clean. so he wants to bail on it. if the home owners don't give us a substantial refund - and I charge back what are the odds I am in the right legally? they can say 'a deal is a deal - we could have rented the house to somebody else and had no issues - no refund' and contest the chargeback.

I'm kind of thinking that you guys are being more picky than an average person would be because you are going to be using the House for commercial purposes... could be more tricky.

Do a chargeback, false representation of the house's condition.

depends on what type of contract you entered and what it stipulated about refunds. I am guessing it was a verbal contract? In that case it's your word against his on the condition and your acceptance of it for the project you were working on. You have a great leg to stand on if you get your guy to take pictures of how it REALLY looks and compare them to the advertised pictures when you go to small claims court. That's how it should be handled if they don't give you your money back or at least most of it. But as I said it all depends on what was stipulated when you entered the agreement. :2 cents:

you dont have a chance.

next time never prepay. pull the cash out only when you see the place in person.

Ask them what camera and lighting they used to make the place look so awesome.

i'm ok with giving them $500 for their inconvenience - i want the $1500 back though.

i have a feeling they would be in the right legally though to refuse a refund - the house isn't a complete mess, there were no pictures of the bedrooms, should have asked to see those.

i will charge back if they don't give at least offer half in a refund. but i'm sure they will contest the chargeback. just wondering if they will win or not.

it's not that awesome - looked nice though in the photos they have online - but there weren't close ups of the furniture and they obviously left out any photos of the bedrooms for a reason.

no different than any form of marketing including porn sites - u put the most flattering photos on a tour, you put the best parts in a trailer.

If you do chargeback, make sure to take pics and compare them to the on-line pics when dealing with your credit card company.

If the pics side by side look pretty similar other than a few small details, you may have a tough time.

But the CC reps are just looking for proof so they can close the case either way, if the photos show a big difference, they'll issue the chargeback.

At the current rate of home depreciation you'll be able to buy the whole house in 11 weeks. Hold out and ask for the house in return.

the place is 2,000 miles away - when u rent vacation homes you have to put up a substantial down payment (wire, check, credit card) - then when you get to the place, the rest plus a security/cleaning deposit. it's very awkward to tell people who actually own/live in a home to their face that their house is disappointing and shabby.

ok he took some photos for me - before i saw them i thought maybe i wouldn't charge back. now i am going to charge back and probably stop payment on the security/cleaning deposit. this was a misrepresentation of this house. it's presented as a luxury beautifully appointed vacation home.

here are the photos they made available to be seen.

http://www.thisyearsmodel.com/gnd/vrbo_1.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.com/gnd/vrbo_2.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.com/gnd/vrbo_3.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.com/gnd/vrbo_4.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.com/gnd/vrbo_5.jpg

now here are the real photos

http://www.thisyearsmodel.com/gnd/house_1.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.com/gnd/house_2.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.com/gnd/house_3.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.com/gnd/house_4.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.com/gnd/house_5.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.com/gnd/house_6.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.com/gnd/house_7.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.com/gnd/house_8.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.com/gnd/house_9.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.com/gnd/house_10.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.com/gnd/house_11.jpg

I think you have a fair case. You're right, the photos represent it as a luxury home... those bedrooms and bathrooms are disgusting. All that bathroom needs is a basic cleaning job and it would take care of that mold... totally lazy. And the one bedroom has a futon? The decorating looks like it's from the early 90s.

But it has a state of the art TV!!

total misrepresentation - imagine renting that house for a honeymoon or a romantic couples vacation. the house isn't cheap - $2,000 a week off season which is now, $2,800 in spring/summer.

maybe if you can't get out of it you could sub rent it out to BVF?
He could do a few shoots there. lol

:1orglaugh

for our honeymoon we rented a cabin in the mountains. it was the prepay bullshit and it was a piece of shit. The lady said basically fuck you and we charged it back with amex. The night we were there we wanted to pay for but the rest of the prepaid week I wanted back.Amex credited us back.

That is fucked up, I hope you get some $$ back Can you do any shooting anywhere there? I mean if you can use some part of the house/yard you might as well use it.

:)

make pics from the same perspective as the advertised ones, that will make your case

Doesn't look very clean at all.