Rentobile gives junkies their fix, offers handset rental service
Every once in a while a startup comes along and offers a service that makes you sit back and think, “why didn’t I think of that?” Such is the case with Rentobile, a mobile phone rental company based in New Jersey. The premise is simple – people like new toys. Rather than sit around and wait for your 2-year contract to expire so you can purchase a new handset at an affordable price, Rentobile provides a wide variety of handsets on a per-month basis. Simply order up a new rental, pop in your SIM or activate it on your account and your done. Once you grow tired of the device, whether that be one month later or one year later, simply return it to Rentobile and rent a new one. Shipping totals $10 for each round trip and a fair insurance fee is applied to each handset in case your dog mistakes it for a chew toy. Rentobile membership costs between $5 and $10 per month and affords users a discount of up to $18 per month on handset rentals. Members are also notified as soon as new handsets hit Rentobile’s warehouse so they can be among the first to rent them. If you just want a taste however, there is also a member-ship free rental option.
Rentobile supplies handsets for each of the four major carriers – Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint – and even has a selection of a few unlocked handsets for you to choose from. Oh and don’t worry, you’re not limited to one device at a time. If there are five handsets you want to play with and you want them all right away, Rentobile is happy to accommodate you. The only thing we see missing for the time being is a rent-to-own option; there should be a purchase price set for each handset and if you keep it long enough to reach that point, the handset should be yours to keep. Of course, we doubt the type of person who would use this service will ever keep a phone for that long but it would be nice to know the option is there.
[Via Phone Scoop]
yea it’s a novel idea and maybe something carriers will pick up?? but then we’d be renting phones from the carrier instead of owning it much like a lease..
i shudder to think what might happen if that day comes…
This reminds me of an old episode of Martin…
‘Rental spoons! We give them the soup for free, but they gotta rent the spoons!’
Lmao… classic
I asked why they needed an SSN and they said this.
“SS# is needed for fraud and scam prupses. Please question if you have more.”
Sounds like some scammers using a translator.
I posted same comment on engadget to….
I have rented storm from rentobile.com but didn’t have any problem.
and I also asked them about SSL & SSN issues…..but they already took out SSN# field from registration process and said they are middle of updating their site with SSL….
it seems ok for me.
I guess if they get rid of the ss issue I would try it to compare two differant phones side by side. Cause I tried upgrading for one modle and then had to wait over a month before they would reverse the upgrade for me to get something else. So this would save me that hassle and make it easier for me to dised what phone to upgrade to.
If you loose a phone is there a deductable like there would be with any other type of insurance?
I think insurance covers damage only…i don’t know…
everyone who says its to expensive your obviously not the clear voice of the internet, they are out of stock of every phone they control.