ConsumerMan: Rent-a-Center ‘unfair’?

For more info on RAC - Go to the web site - WWW.RIPOFFREPORT.COM

Pretty much. If I needed a secondhand TV or laptop, eBay is the way, not the Rant-A-Center racket.

I hope the guy wins his lawsuit against the RAC. I never rented anything from them, but I did know someone who did. The tactics explained in this article are true. I don't think it matters where you live. I think it is crazy that the collection/employees get away with this. If neighbors see this happening call the police, these people can't just come to a persons door and be trying to kick it in. I would call the police and say there is a possible home invasion going on and then let them explain that. They can not do this legally. And if there are any people out there that are having this happen to them, don't open you door, call the police tell them a strange person is outside trying to kick in your door. These people at that company need to go through proper channels to collect the bill.

Consider this social darwinism. It keeps the poor, impulse buyers and people with weak math skills on the bottom of the social ladder. Prevents the undesireables from succeeding otherwise would have been killed in another society.

If you are dumb enough to get taken advantage of by these crooks then you deserve it. Its harsh but everyone forgot that grown adults signed an unfair contract.

Well, If you need a washer and dryer, yet you dont have the money, wash it by hand and hang to dry. Period. If not, then use a laundromat. Its still way cheaper than renting some p.o.s. washer from RAC. With all the money you save, get on craigslist or something and buy a good cheap one. For the computer, well, I think a computer obviously can wait. Now for a high end TV, then well, read a book. Wait till you have the money also. If not, there are good tube tv's out there for very little. To me, people who are willing to spend thousands of dollars for a cheap pentium III pc at RAC deserve to get ripped off just like the people that send all of their life savings to the Nigerian scammers.

You must have worked at the RAC that I dealt with for years. When I was a younger, newly divorced, single parent, I needed basic furnishings that my ex had taken, but there just wasn't the used market like there is today. I was able to get living room furniture, a bedroom set & even a washer & dryer (one room at a time, mind you) at a monthly payment amount that worked for me. Never did I have anyone harass me, call me, threaten me, etc. Oh wait! Maybe because that was because I kept up my end of the SIGNED CONTRACT and made my agreed upon monthly payment every single month ON TIME! Maybe the people that are complaining would agree to have their contracts and payment records made public. But I bet not.

I rented from RAC.And never had the problems that Karen L. had. I needed a kitchen table and chairs.I tried to get on credit at the other furniture stores But because I didnt have good credit ,I was turned down.So I went to RAC.No problem got my kitchen set that evening. Then my son waned a stereo well they had one on sale.Paid it off in a few months.Then I bought a living room suite that was returned.And it was in vey good condition.It looked new.Then paid all that off.I needed a washer and dryer.My son bought it for me.It was one of thoses front loading machines.Well my son lost his job.So I had to take over payments.Well I didn't think I could make them.And asked if I could get one with lower payments.So I wouldn't have to return the set They were nice enough to lower our payments.I was late a few days.And they never was mean or harassed me.And like Paula said maybe the people who are complaning didnt make here payments and never bothered to ask if they would wait a few days for there payment.I was never harassed.And as far as buying used appliances I did ,and ended up with a piece of junk.And when you have children you cant wait and save up for a stove,refrigerator,washer and dryer.When you need it now.And if you dont have perfect credit forget about going to Sears,JC Pennies,or any other big store.

Instead of berating these people, why don't you pass on correct information? You are being overly critical but I'll bet you would never offer any of these people a bit of sound advice. It's easy to sit back and criticize them and accuse them of being so "simple" that they only tune into a radio station that plays music.

Not accusing you, but I noticed that those in more privelaged positions are swift to judge others but do nothing to assist them. In the past, I fell victim to various scams and dealings similar to this. I am also college educated and came from an upper-middle class home with a self-employed father.

If no one tells you different, how are you supposed to know your alternatives?

Lyn, it's called a calculator. No one ever told me not to rent to own consumer goods. I never did it because I know how to multiply and add.

I would think that it would not be that hard to figure out that Rent-A-Center and other stores like them are scamming people. No one has to have the top-of-the-line washer or dryer and I'm sorry, but a camcorder or big-screen TV is NOT a staple item. They are luxury items. A fridge and stove are necessary expenses, but you don't have to buy brand new and you can get deals with local stores if you look. If you have bad credit, you just might have to save up and pay cash for something even if it is used. That's the trade-off if you have not paid your bills on time. I think many people who use places like this are the same ones who use those check-cashing services where the interest rate is triple about anywhere else. People need to be educated about things like this. It isn't rocket science.

yeah places like RAC shouldn't exist. If you can't afford things, don't find roundabout ways to get them, just save and buy them when you can. It's just another way for people to live beyond thier means. If you're poor, you're poor, work your way through it. I did.

payday loans are as bad or worse.parasites of the poor.

I also used to work for RAC. I was a store manager. What Kevin is saying is true. My store rarely hit our "collection numbers" because I would not allow my employees to act unprofessionaly. I only lasted as store manager four months before I quit. However, before I was a manager I worked for other store managers and they did hit their collection numbers. I knew of an employee that stole part of the electric meter (cutting off the electricity) to a habitually late customers. I have heard of employees boxing customer's cars in until they allowed a repo. I knew of an employee that partially jacked up a customers car and moved it right in front of a fire hydrant. That employee then called in so that the customer got a parking ticket.

RAC says that they do not allow these practices and true they directly do not. However their strict policies of only 5.9% of customers past due is nearly impossible. They rent to people afraid of credit checks. I worked for a major crdit card company and an average of 5-6% of their customers are always past due. How can RAC expect these numbers without some wild collection practices? Yes RAC will call customers several times a day even if they are only 1 day past due.

Sounds like you guys were lucky that you were not shot!

I've been feeling particularly frustrated lately. Maybe I'll go get something from RAC and not pay the bill. Then when someone shows up I can relieve some frustration.

I can't imagine how these "collectors" keep from getting the literal sh-t kicked out of them. Try that crap at my front door and we would be in fist city damned quick. I would imagine they are "bravest" when dealing with women. I can't imagine any man with a single hair on his ass putting up with these overbearing tactics. Now that the cat is out of the bag relating to Rent-A-Center, being a "collector" for them just might be a high risk occupation. I'm with Darrell ~ I may just rent something and be a day or so late on the payments in order to "meet" some of these characters.

I've been given the green light by my store and district manager to kick in the doors of some homes and get our mechandise back and also mess up the home to look like the RAC stuff wasn't the only stuff taken. Then when the customer calls and complains they will say that the company has insurance and it will be paid off and now to worry.

Well, Kevin & Geoff: you do know that what you did (and condoned) is illegal-as in breaking and entering, burglary, insurance fraud, don't you? You are so very lucky that you never got caught. Too bad you felt you were in enough of a "job-needing" situation that you couldn't stand up to those bosses and tell them that your jobs weren't worth going to prison for if you got caught. Because you know darn good & well that when it comes down to it, those in charge are going to deny everything & blame it on a few rogue employees.

@ Jim in texas,

I used to work for the company for 5 years and although we on occasion run into people like you and your whole "fist city" garbage, most of the employees who In this company arent exactly what you would consider "small guys" in the first place and rarely does your little rant intimidate us. 2nd of all from my 5 years with the company i will tell you that more often than not the men we dealt with often took care of their responsibilities and paid their payments a large majority more often than women.

The worst thing Ive really seen from male customers is they had a tendency to go blow their money at the bar and then come up short on payments, this is obviously just bad money management, however most are reasonable enough to realize they got themselves into this position of not being able to afford it and will turn the merchandise back over without issue. Afterall if you return the merchandise for non-payment rent-a-center will hold the items and you can come back and pickup your stuff and continue right where you were on your contract, you do not have to restart from the begining.

Women on the other hand Ive seen like to go spend their money as well but the difference is women might not be able to afford the payment due to bad money management but they dont see the logic in having to give it back when they cant pay. Alot of them assume they will be able to keep the items in their home and we will just go away, this does not happen. The way I would explain it to a customer is the same way I will explain it on here... " If you are 3 payments behind on your house or 3 payments behind on your vehicle and you havent made any attempt to contact or pay that company and are intentionally ducking them when they attempt to contact you they would attempt to repossess or foreclose on you, This being sound logic, why would you not expect us to follow the same course of action when you are that far past due with us? "

Moving on ...

The store manager that commented on here saying 5.9% delinquent accounts is impossible to reach couldnt manage his way out of a box. the store i was an assistant manager at was ranked 3rd out of over 4000 store for the year of 2008 and we closed at under a 5.9% every week the entire year, we did not use these collections practices at all and we got the job done. It comes down to how you treat your customers, they will in turn treat you accordingly. Ive also worked at other stores and seen people come in with the full intention to steal the merchandise, so its not always the fault of the employee when this kind of thing happens. When you cater your business to those who have horrible credit history you also attract this kind of thing as well.

As for the guy who posted about a customer trying to keep his merchandise under Bankruptcy, LOL fat chance. Rent-a-center is a rental agreement and is not a lease, therefor we do not fall under bankruptcy laws. What you should do is simply leave the customer and his weasel lawyer to think they are going to pull this scheme off, there is a debtors hearing for all bankruptcy cases, all you have to do is go to the debtor hearing and provide your contract to the judge, he will see it doesnt fall into the filings and will tell the customer and his lawyer they have to either resume normal payments or return the merchandise. they can not rip you off this way if YOU know your job and do things correctly.

Also most rent-a-center stores are lazy, the proper way to handle the situation with these customers who intentionally duck you is called Small claims court. You are entitled to your money as was agreed on the contract, You do have to provide the proper notices and opportunities for the customer to pay or setup an arrangement, you must also allow these efforts a certain amount of time before you can procede into court, however we would fail claims on every single customer who was intentionally trying to steal the merchandise and in every single case during my tenure at that store we were successful in getting a judgement against the customers.

One last thing I would like to comment on about the article is the whole issue of "not being told the full price" Thats for all purposes Bull@!$%#, when you go into a rent-a-center and you get something , right on the pricetag there is the amount of the cash cost as well as the amount of the full term contract, the only things that are not included on the final amount shown on the pricetag is the sales tax and the liablity waiver, the liability waiver is like an insurence on the items, however it is an optional item they can not FORCE you to agree upon. Furthermore, you have to sign a contract, a contract that you recieve a copy of, on this contract it clearly tells you how much you will end up paying for this merchandise if you pay the full term cost. You knew it and you signed for it, so dont complain when you have buyers remorse or a spouse yelling at you 4 months down the road. You can return the merchandise at anypoint during the contract with no further obligation, it amazes me how many people say "well Ive paid $500 into it I dont want to lose it" well sir you rented it and thats what you paid in during that period. no one ever crys about how they rented a car for a week and now they dont want to give the car back so why do it with rent-a-center.

What drives most of these problems is the american consumer. I know we dont like to point the finger at ourselves but too damn bad, its YOUR fault you didnt read the contract, its YOUR fault you are impulsive and had to buy something you couldnt afford, its YOUR fault you opt to pay double what somethings worth because you dont have the self restraint to save your money and buy it at a better price, its YOUR fault you blew you money on something stupid and now cant afford to pay the bill, its YOUR fault you went into RAC and got a whole house full of stuff and didnt think about the longterm cost this would incur you. and now its YOUR fault when they are having to knock on your door because you wont answer your phone after your late on your payment.

I worked 50+hours a week and let me tell you, we have alot better things to do then to come to your house every night about some money because you are too chicken@!$%# to answer your phone and man up to your responsibilities. There were many nights Id have loved to have gone home at a resonable hour and played with my kid, but instead i was riding around in that rent-a-center truck having to stop by YOUR house. So before customers want to cry foul about the evils of rent-a-center, just think about how it was YOUR choice to do business there and if your so against it then return your crap and go somewhere else. your not locked into a longterm deal like buying a car, you can stop doing business with them at anypoint and go somewhere else. what you CANT do is have free stuff and not pay your bills.

So next time your late and an RAC guy stops by your house, how about you appologize for wasting HIS time he could have been at home with HIS family instead of bitching about the fact he's interupting YOUR time with YOUR family gathered around that bigscreen tv YOU cant afford.

Jcampbell1733....Everything you said is correct. I used to work at a RAC many years ago in Newport News, Virginia...near a poor, section 8 neighborhood. It's one job that I was glad to have been fired from after 6 months.

There are two sides to every coin, but the point is that it's a crappy situation from the get-go. One can choose to be a part of it, or have some dignity and integrity and stay away from this kind of "business."

Save your pennies, folks, and buy what you can afford. Stop making these companies profitable and giving them a reason to be in business in the first place!

Or maybe they are one of the 1/4 of the population who has a serious MISTAKE on their report that would cost several thousand dollars to fix. The credit bureaus are a joke. They cause millions of dollars of damage to otherwise great customers in the forms of higher fees and interest, if they can even get credit. Fixing anything is a chore, you can send them notarized statements and letters FROM the creditor and they still won't remove their errors. You have to hire an attorney often at far greater cost to get your report fixed.

Learning how to manage a budget would be helpful to the victims of the predators. Lower income people have quite a time getting credit and firms like these prey on them. People need ot learn how to prioritize and live within their means. Charging consumers many times retail price is immoral in my view and the owners have made a decision to exploit these people. It seems to me our country is in the same situation. Everybody wants everything but we give little to no thought to repaying the loans. Soon we will have collectors on our doorstep.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but asking these people to "live within their means" is like telling you to piss in a bucket and imagine it's a comfortable toilet. Many of these people want nicer things in life but simply do not have the means to acquire them. Everyone on here posting comments has internet access, a computer, resources, and even time to respond to this article. I'm willing to bet that 99% of the people posting to an article such as this have a luxurious life, vehicles, and nice homes and or apartments. Stop telling another person that they have to be miserable to simply get the point across that they should "manage their money".

How far does $11/hour with a 35-hour work week stretch? Seriously. You are questioning them buying a big-screen television? It's not like they are buying diamond-encrusted goblets like Little John does.

It probably means we are better off than the people this article is written about.

All of you here are living in a glass house. Put the stones down. You don't know where you will be financially in the future.

Lyn, you seem to be implying that regardless of what someones income is, that there is this inherent right to a certain level of luxury. I'm sorry, it doesn't work that way. One must make purchases based on means to pay for such purchases. Why is that such a hard concept for you to grasp?

You are questioning them buying a big-screen television?

Damn right I am. I purchased my first big screen TV at the age of 50, only after I was 100% sure it made financial sense to do so. Needless to say, I didn't go to one of those stupid be-an-idiot places to get the TV.

How far does $11/hour with a 35-hour work week stretch?

Not far enough to buy big screen TVs so DON'T DO IT.

For 8 years I lived across the street from a RAC and I never went inside. Why? There's always another option. Pawn shops, yard sales, clearance sales, estate sales, friends of friends who want to get rid of stuff. You can always buy used goods that work, and you only pay once. I didn't have the latest stuff, but I had a full apartment of goods that were paid for.

People have always sold used goods. You didn't need a computer or even a newspaper to find it. Just walk around your neighborhood and look at the home-made signs. You can find low-prices if you do the footwork.

For people who can't wait, don't want to work for anything, want to act like they have it all, there is RAC.

bobmck and Stu:

Stu you are right as far as you went, but 3 out of 4 credit reports contain errors - your 1:4 ratio does apply to the most serious mistakes. Fixing those mistakes can take months or years and in the meantime, the victim of that bad business practice ends up paying a lot more when going out to buy anything.

bobmck: There are a lot of reasons why people come up short on payments, many of which have no bearing whatsoever on irresponsible spending. Let me remind you and everyone that a credit contract is based on the assumption by the lender that the person receiving the credit will continue to be employed, at least at the same wages, and that no crises will develop. THAT is the risk the creditor takes but that is never considered when a customer defaults. It's a very lopsided business model. As for those other reasons, just to name a few: a person is unexpectedly laid off (like what, 7.5 million were in the last year?), the company declares that it is giving everyone unpaid days off or reducing salaries - with no adequate notice so people can work out something with their creditors, a business just shuts its doors, a paycheck bounces or doesn't arrive in time, the bank screws up a direct deposit, and of course, there's the pesky child support that comes in for a while - the custodial parent begins to trust that it will continue to come in - then the NCP yanks it with some bogus excuse (or has just suffered one of the circumstances I just mentioned).

Not all people are deadbeats, bobmck, including some NCPs. And while RAC is one of the least viable purchase options anyone can exercise, it may be an emergency situation - some natural disaster, etc. For those who depend on it as a means of buying large ticket items, well, they do know the contract structure, but it's very likely (prepare for sarcasm here) that they weren't told they'd get their doors busted down if they missed a payment.

And let's just get this out there: with credit reporting agencies producing 3 out of 4 products containing errors and almost everything in our lives dependent on those error-ridden reports, we should all contact our Congresspeople often to get that changed. We all know it exists but we all sit back and let that happen to ourselves. Why? What is it about credit bureaus that exempts them from doing an accurate job? What other industry do we know of that has a 75% error rate and continues to stay in business?

bobmck, would you keep an employee that screwed up 75% of what went out your shipping door? Likely not. 

JSteve, I'm willing to bet you went out to try and find an older tube TV model and found out they don't even make them any more and THAT's why you bought one of the newer models. What you spent on it, of course, was based on your financial consideration.

If you went into a store and grab the manager he should have filed charges!

ok..who are you going to believe? A national company with millions of happy uncomplaining customers or a few that did not pay and don't want to give the items back. I do not believe that their employees went and kicked down a door or went after someone for being 1 day late...get real.

mary, you might want to look into that, they are pretty aggressive. A rental contract does not have the protections of a contract to purchase.

two years ago, I tried to buy a TV through rent a center. when they finally let me know that the final price for my $1200 TV was over $4800, I changed my mind and left without signing any contracts.

a few weeks later, they began calling me, telling me I had a late payment. they called my employer and complained that I was a deadbeat. keep in mind, I NEVER BOUGHT OR EVEN SIGNED ANYTHING. they finally showed up at my house to reposes the TV that I never bought. they accused me of buying it and selling it, and called the police. As they could not produce ANY evidence that I had ever entered a contract, or recieved the property, I was not arrested, but I still, nearly 2 years later, occasionally recieve a bill from them. for $7600.

nearly 2 years later, occasionally recieve a bill from them. for $7600.

Save the bills, take them to your local district attorney's consumer fraud division, send copies to your state attorney general's consumer fraud division, if the company is engaged in interstate commerce, take copies to your local US attorney. Without a signed agreement bearing your signature, there is no enforcable contract of any sort. You are the victim of high stakes attempted extortion and you should pop their butts. Any second semester law school student could successfully prosecute this case ~ and prevail at trial and on any appeal. Go for it. Then sue the literal sh-t out of the offending company AFTER government prosecutors make their cases stick. I think it was an old Texas ranger who summed things up ~ ~ "nobody can stop a man in the right who just keeps on a-coming."

Mary, my guess is that you've spent hundreds, if not thousands more dollars than you needed to on furniture and appliances. RAC charges a weekly rental rate that sounds great, until you figure out the monthly rate and then damn near die of a heart attack when you figure out the yearly rate.

My company used them a lot to furnish apts. in the cities in which we worked. That seemed to make a lot of sense. But for my individual purposes, I found if I could save $29,99 a week, I could buy a whole lot in a year and never have to worry about late payments or paying too much.

But RAC makes their money on pitching to people who can't afford things and don't have the discipline to save. Yes, people should learn that and be responsible, but RAC does nothing to educate them - they simply pitch how much the "deserve" to have good stuff. Nobody deserves anything, we earn it.

IMHO, they are no better than the mortgage scammers of recent years.

Kelso..so you are saying I do not have enough sense to save...you are sooo wrong. I am very good at managing my money, not that its really any of your business. I deal with RAC because they make it very clear up front what I am getting and how I can pay it off early and how much I will pay in the end if I do or if I don't. I also get really good cash sale items from the stores also. Nice people to work with for things I need...not just things I want and as you put it "not discipled enough to wait" for. I am very discipled and I have earn everything I have by good old honest work!!

. I am very discipled and I have earn everything I have by good old honest work!!

With such a glowing review and promotion of R-A-C, just have to ask, Mary. How long HAVE you been an employee of Rent-A-Center?

It's the American way, BD.

"Hey, I make $40,000 a year, can you get me into that million dollar McMansion with no money down? Ya? Cool, I'll take it!"

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

Say no to credit unless it is a true emergency. PS: running out of beer and cigarettes is NOT an emergency.

Hey now ~ ~ ~ There's giving good financial counsel and gross meddling. Libra, I think you may have crossed the line. <grins>

Good one. But I'm betting 90% of RAC's customers barely graduated high school and read at a 5th grade level, if that. I can just see them slogging through a RAC contract and questioning the great salesguy who really does seem trusting.

RAC's in business because they count on people not reading, or calculating. Yes, everyone should, but very few do - or even know how to.

Speaking of payday loans, RAC also has a financial services department where people can get loans also. I was just on their website before posting, and they have in small print: "14-day single payment loan APR of 521.43%" Holy cow, talk about mafia rates!!!