FAQ – Photo & Video Equipment Rentals | Pro Photo Rental
FAQ Topics
- Well, it's actually pretty simple! Browse the selection of gear until you find what you want. Click on that item to pull up all of the juicy details. Each product page has a reservation calendar for you to select your dates.
First, select if you want to pick up locally or if you want your equipment shipped to you. Now, if you want to have it shipped, you get to choose your shipping speed depending on how soon you need the gear and what your budget will allow. Move along the page to select the quantity of that item you need. Then you select the date you want to receive your gear and the date you want to return it. Our system will do some math and number things and determine what the price total will be. Ta-da!
Once you've selected the item and the dates for your rental, you can repeat that process for anything else your heart desires, or just continue to checkout from there. The checkout process should be pretty self explanatory and feel familiar to you if you’ve ever used other online shopping sites. Easy peasy, but we’re also here for you if you need any assistance.
There are a few things to keep in mind:
a) We do not charge your card until we ship your order (or you pick it up)
b) There is no penalty for canceling an order at any time before it is shipped or picked up
c) All items in a single order must use the same shipping/pick up method
d) All items in a single order must have the same start/end dates. - We like being creative and efficient when it comes to customer service, so we put our thinking caps on and came up with a new way to work the traditional camera rental pricing structure. First thing’s first, don’t think about the typical “day rate” structure for equipment. We are “anti-day rate”. Whoever came up with that complicated the whole thing by changing "day" to mean something other than 24 hours. We don’t do that. We believe we can do better than that. Trying to explain a new system may sound complicated, but in the end - it really isn’t. Just take a deep breath with me, and let's talk about what WE do instead.
We don’t charge a set price per day and then multiply by the number of days. Instead, our prices increase by a incrementally smaller amount for each additional day.
“But what does that mean???”
Alright, say you’re renting a lens for a single day and it costs $10.00. Now say you need to rent that same lens for 3 days, you might assume that rental is going to be $30.00, right? Wrong! Gotcha, trick question. It’s actually going to be closer to $14.50. Pretty sweet, huh? So how do you know what the price is going to be for your rental? Our handy dandy calendar system will tell you the total price when you select the dates for each item. So feel free to play around with different rental periods to see how the pricing changes.
The beauty of this system is that you don’t have to work out if you should rent longer term in order to reach a new discount level. It also guarantees that you never pay for more time than you need. Finally, it uncomplicates the question of “How many days is that?”. We’re not about counting days. We're about actually saving you money. Our pricing structure does exactly that.
We know that our new pricing structure might be confusing at first if you're used to it! If you’re asking yourself “how many days is my rental?” in order to work out the price, you’ve got to toss that thought to the side. When there’s not a daily rate on the gear, it doesn’t matter! Luckily we do all the math for you (because math can be hard) and the price will instantly appear above the “add to cart” button. Now you don’t have to wonder how much it will cost you, you’ve got the answer right there. It’s like actual wizardry. - Best wishes for a successful shoot are definitely included with every order.
The rest of the inclusions are typically listed on each item's page.
Generally, here's what some of the standard rental items come with:
Camera Bodies: battery, charger, neck strap, memory card
Lenses: front cap, rear cap, hood, tripod adapter (when applicable)
Speedlights: rechargeable batteries - Look, I'll let you in on a little tip. It's going to be much cheaper for you to purchase an item on a credit card and pay it off that way. Rent-To-Own is just a very expensive way of financing. We don't want to cheat you that way, we'd rather stay friends.
Don't believe me? Our equivalent APR would end up being in the 30% - 50% range, and most people don't want to pay that much (like me). Even the worst credit cards out there are generally no higher than 22%.
As you can see, we're getting into all sorts of rates and percentages. That's a bank's job... not a camera rental company's. We'll stick to what we know best. -
Yes you can...with one restriction. That is, we cannot always guarantee an extension. I know that doesn't seem right, but if someone reserves the gear you have out and we're counting on your return, we wouldn’t be able to extend it. That would just be unfair to the next person, and we’re all about being fair to everyone.
So the earlier you let us know you need to extend, the better chance you have of extensions. Just contact us and we'll get you all set up. Even if we need the equipment back, we will do our very best to help you out and make sure everyone is happy.
You’re probably wondering how much an extension will cost, especially since we don’t follow the typical “day rate” pricing structure. There are two different ways we price extensions.
If you let us know BEFORE the last day of your current rental
Yes! You win! Since you planned ahead and gave us notice, we pass along the savings to you. In this case, we charge the difference between what you already paid and how much it would have cost to rent the equipment for the total amount of time. For example, let’s say Jared paid $30 to pick up an item on Tuesday and return Thursday. On Wednesday, he realizes he needs to keep it over the weekend, so he calls and asks to return on Monday. The Tuesday-Monday rental would have cost $62, so we will only charge $32 for the extension. Jared is happy! Be like Jared.
If you let us know on the last day of your rental or later
This situation is going to be more expensive. In essence, we treat this like a new rental. So keeping with the example above, let’s say Jared did that same Tues-Thurs rental for $30. But this time he waits until Thursday to let us know he wants to extend over the weekend (return Monday). In this case, we would charge this as a new Friday-Monday rental, which is an additional $51.25. Jared’s total for the two rentals is now $81.25. Jared is sad. He paid almost $20 more because he waited too long to extend. Don’t be like this Jared! -
We understand. Accidents happen. The bottom line is that ultimately, you are responsible for everything you receive from us. Our equipment does not like to break, they've told us it's quite painful. So we ask that you please do your best to protect and take care of the gear you've rented. Repairs or replacements are going to be your responsibility.
If an item does get damaged or lost, we will work with you and our repair centers to find the most cost efficient solution. We don’t make any money off repairs because we believe in being good and reasonable humans.
We offer a damage waiver on some items. When available, that option can be found on each product's page. You can add that to your rental if you feel like the responsibility is beyond your comfort level. Please see our Rental Agreement or the damage waiver section in this FAQ for more details. - We have to be careful since we can’t officially use the word “insurance”. That’s a term that you can’t use unless you’re a licensed agent, so we call it a damage waiver. “Damage waiver” are words we are allowed to use without fear of being hunted down by the powers that be. In any event, here’s how it works.
You purchase our damage waiver as a one-time charge that covers your whole rental period. We don't charge you per day for it, or make it cost more for longer rentals. That would be mean.
The damage waiver works as a liability limiter. It covers all non-abuse related damage except complete immersion in water. It also does not cover loss/theft, so if your camera bag gets run over by a train, please bring us an identifiable piece of our gear in order to be able to apply the waiver.
The way our system works is like a premium and deductible system, similar to the way car insurance works. You don't have to stress about paying for the full replacement value of the item. We only charge what it takes to repair it or 12% of the item's value (whichever is LESS). Let’s look at an example to help explain it.
Jared rents a lens that costs $1000 and dropss it (bad Jared!). It's going to cost $250 to repair the lens. Jared is sad. Don't be sad, Jared, because you paid $15 for the damage waiver! 12% of the cost of the lens is $120. Since he already paid the cost for the damage waiver coverage, that means he only owes an additional $105. Jared is no longer sad. He just saved $130! If Jared dropped the lens and got lucky, the repair cost might be less than $120. In that case, he would only pay the repair cost instead. To sum up, Jared's total out-of-pocket liability maximum is $120.
By the way, you don't have to use our damage waiver. There are a number of other companies that offer professional photographer and productions insurance and will cover the things we do not. Since we strive to be awesome, we’ve put together a short list of insurance companies below. We aren’t affiliated with any of them, and we have not used them ourselves - but we have clients who have and we thought this might shave off some Google time.
As a matter of fact, sometimes your homeowner's or renter’s insurance can cover the equipment up to a certain amount. So you should read your insurance policy to see if this applies. Just be sure that it calls out *rented* equipment in your policy. -
Please try not to be late. We count on the equipment to be back on time because we schedule upcoming rentals. If we can't make that rental, it's not a pretty scenario. For you, them, or us. Everyone is sad. No one wants to be sad. So pretty please let us know ASAP if you need to extend your rental.
That being said, if you're late and we have not discussed an extension, the late fee is three times the 1-day rate (not the discounted rate, even if your rental was long enough to fall under a discount category).
That means an item that is $10 for a 1 day rental is now $30 for every day it's late. So don't be late, because it’s going to get expensive in a hurry.
Equipment is considered stolen after 7 days from the end of your rental period with no contact. In that case we will charge the full retail price of the item in addition to late fees. We are not like an ex after a bad breakup, so please don't avoid us. Open communication is the key to all of this. We won't berate you or make you feel bad. We just want to know what's going on. If you return the equipment up to 30 days after the end of your rental period, we will refund the retail price but NOT the late fees. After 30 days, you're just out of luck.
We don't want to charge late fees. Please always keep in touch with us if your plans change. We believe in all forms of communication. Call, text, or email. Even if we're closed, you can still leave a message, text or email. Write us a postcard, just do something. Call or text us at (303) 588-6799. Email us at [email protected]. Send all carrier pigeons to Pro Photo Rental, Inc. 1644 Conestoga St, Suite 5, Boulder, CO 80301. - We thoroughly test the gear when it comes back from a rental, clean everything completely, and then leave it on our shelves for the pit bull to keep careful watch over. When it’s time for that gear to go out again, we double check to ensure it’s clean and that everything works like it should before we ship it back out. It’s a pretty intensive process (twice).
It is very rare for something to go wrong, but our crystal ball isn’t quite good enough yet to prevent against everything. Even though we ship in Pelican cases, sometimes things can get jostled loose in shipping. There could be a tiny internal piece that gives out without our knowledge. And we are human, so very rarely, there’s something we miss. For all these reasons, we always encourage you to test the gear immediately after you open the package. That way if something did happen somewhere between our facility and yours, we can do everything possible to fix it for you ASAP.
The bottom line is that we never knowingly give out gear that isn’t 100% functional. If for any reason you receive equipment that doesn’t work correctly when you take it out of the box, then you don’t pay for it. That’s a promise. - No worries. We understand that sometimes plans change. Just email, call, text, or otherwise get in touch with us. As long as the order hasn't left the building, we can cancel it with no charge to you.
- Short answer: Sometimes.
We struggled with this one for a long time. When we first opened, we were strongly against the use of UV filters as protection for the front of the lens. After all, that's what lens caps and hoods are for, and it just wasn't worth reducing image quality. Alas, over the following 10 years, we had to change our tune. We discovered that many of our clients just weren't using the caps and hoods and we were getting a LOT of front element marks & scratches. So we are in the process of putting filters on all of our lenses that take them. The fast telephoto and super wide angle lenses usually can't use thread-on filters, so those will not come with them. That's ironic, considering those lenses are the ones with the most expensive (and most exposed) front elements. But I digress.
You will find that most of our lenses will come with a filter, which will be much less expensive than a new front element if something scratches it. If you don't like filters interfering with your lens, then please feel free to carefully remove it. We simply ask that you be careful with the filter and the newly exposed front element. -
>>LOCAL RETURN<<
If you rented for 1 or 2 days, then your rental is due back at the same time that you picked it up, with a 1-hour grace period. Example: You pick up at 3:15 PM on a Tuesday and ended your rental on Thursday. As long as you return before 4:15 PM on Thursday afternoon, you'll be all set. Alternatively, if you picked up at 9:30 AM Tuesday morning, then it would be due back no later than 10:30 AM on Thursday.
If you rented for 3 or more days, then life is good....you just have to get it back to us before we close (5:30 PM) on the last day of your rental. Winning!
>>SHIP RETURN<<
The package is due back to UPS *before their last pick up* on the last day of your rental. In general, their last pick up is ~5 PM, but this can vary by a huge margin, especially if you're in a rural location. The best bet is to give us a call and we'll help you figure out the final pick up time for your location. You can also get that information from UPS.com.