Rent-to-Own

[Lester Sasquatch]

Rent-to Own

I don't know if anyone here purchases anything at Rent-to-Own places but I think they are legalized thieves. Like a mountain lion waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting lamb, these predators target the poor and weak of mind.  Their products are of inferior quality and by the time the victim has paid rent long enough to take possession of a product, they have paid the retail value many times over. Within just a few months of payments, the store has recouped their actual cost of an item and the rest is all profit. If a customer is in arrears, these land sharks send out their collection agent to either bully the client into making a payment or repossess the item. If the product is repossessed, it is resold at a purported discount and the cycle starts again.

I have a relative who, without my prior approval, gave American Rental my telephone number as a secondary contact. Sometime not long ago these mental midgets must not have paid their phone bill and it was disconnected, then I started to receive an unwelcomed call about every two weeks from these legal thieves at the Rent-to-Own place rudely demanding a payment. Then a few years ago I was sitting in my van while my close personal friend went to a yard sale when an American Rental truck pulled up next door and the driver went to the door. He began cursing and screaming at the woman and said something along the lines that, if he didn't have $22 in his hand by 3 PM, he was going to take their television and stereo. It wasn't so much as what he said as it was how he said it. I wouldn't treat an animal the way he talked to that woman. Now you would think that this lack of compassion and rude behavior on the part of the Rent-to-Own employee would stop my relative from doing business with these predators but no, they are soon signing another contract for another piece of crap. This time it was a Dell laptop for over $1000 (not counting the substantial hidden fees) and, since she is computer illiterate and can barely read, the only thing she uses it for is to play solitaire.

Furthermore, with the recent epidemic of bedbugs that has spread like wildfire across the nation, I wouldn't even think of purchasing or renting a piece of furniture from a place that repossesses items that can harbor these pests. Imagine this scenario, it is late at night in the Rent-to-Own store and bedbugs are crawling out from their nest in a recently repossessed couch, looking for a meal of blood from an unsuspecting victim. Not finding a source from which to feed, they crawl into a brand new recliner that was just unpacked that very evening. The next day an unsuspecting customer sees the recliner, signs a rental agreement, and then goes home to wait for delivery. In the meantime, as the driver makes other deliveries, several of these nasty bugs crawl out and hide themselves in other upholstered furniture inside the dark bed of the truck, infecting every piece of furniture. Later the driver delivers the recliner and the customer is pleased but as soon as night falls, a restless bedbug, possibly with a full egg sac, wanders out again this time scenting the carbon dioxide emitted by a living creature, in this case an occupant of the house sleeping on a nearby couch. The bedbug crawls across the floor, up the leg of the couch and starts to feed. When it is done feasting on its victim's blood, the bedbug scurries to the closest place to nest, under the cushion, and promptly lays a few hundred eggs. Boom, another home is infected with bedbugs and the average cost to eradicate a home from these evil insects is $5000. Not only has the purchaser of the recliner been infected but everyone that had a piece of furniture delivered that day got a "bonus"!

If there are members here who are Rent-to-Own customers and take offense at this post, I apologize but the truth is you are being taken advantage of and need to wake up and smell the bedbugs. As long as these places are allowed to thrive on the misery of the poor and uneducated, the cycle will continue.

[Sandy Eggo]

I've always thought of those types of places being akin to the payday loans/cash advance places that pray on the poor or not very bright:

Advertisements for payday loans make them seem like a fast, easy, no-nonsense way to get money when you're in a financial bind. They tell you getting $100 is as easy as showing a recent paystub, a copy of your driver's license, and a blank check. They don't tell you that for many people, paying off that $100 can end up taking months, even years, and costing thousands of dollars to pay off.

http://credit.about.com/od/avoidingdebt/a/cashpaydayloan.htm

[Lester Sasquatch]

I've always thought of those types of places being akin to the payday loans/cash advance places that pray on the poor or not very bright:

http://credit.about.com/od/avoidingdebt/a/cashpaydayloan.htm

I agree with you 100% Sandy. Before I became a total recluse, I had my hair cut at a salon right next door to a PayDay Loan office. While I waited my turn in the chair, I watched people going in and out of the place expecting the customers to be young and naive. Much to my surprise I saw mostly middle age and elderly men going in and out. The only women I saw were accompanied by their husbands both being young. Do you think women in general are better money managers?

[The Troll]

I agree with you 100% Sandy. Before I became a total recluse, I had my hair cut at a salon right next door to a PayDay Loan office. While I waited my turn in the chair, I watched people going in and out of the place expecting the customers to be young and naive. Much to my surprise I saw mostly middle age and elderly men going in and out. The only women I saw were accompanied by their husbands both being young. Do you think women in general are better money managers?

  I don't know if all women are good with handling money.  But you take my wife, she's low maintenance and tight with a dollar.  She can squeeze a penny so hard she can make a quarter of a mile of fine copper wire out of it.  Hell, to get her to give me any money, I have to sign a  promissory note to get it, a kiss and a please.

  All of these companies you have been talking about are criminal and should be shut down.  Talk about usury.  With their fees and interest, the loan with cost the victim over 300%/400%.  They must be paying someone in the state and federal government some real big money to keep in business.