Rent A Center Changed due date without warning Cheektowaga New York
With six months to go on the contract, our due date each week was changed without warning. We began receiving threatening phone calls, numerous calls a day, informing us that we were late with our payment.
We made a point of telling these people that we weren't late and that our due date was still 2 days away. It took a few weeks to finally find out that they changed our due dates from Mondays to Saturdays. In addition, when we paid on Mondays we were being charged late fees since they said we were due on the previous Saturday. They would begn calling at 9:30 in the morning even though we asked them not to call until the afternoon because I work the overnight shift and try to sleep in the mornings. They continue to call in the early morning. First they call the house phone and leave messages. Then they immediatey call the cell phone and leave messages there too.
It's funny how they refer to these calls as "courtesy calls" or "reminders". We are reminded every day of our contractual obligation every time we turn on the TV. This is not a courtesy. This is harassment.
We even went as far as to call the Corporate Office and was told that the District Manager would contact us within 24 hours. It's now been two days and have not received the "courtesy" of a return call. Ah, there's that word again! Maybe someone should look up the word courtesy in the dictionary.
Thank you making this site available and letting us blow off some steam. Let us know if anyone else has had the same problems as us. We will never go back to Rent A Center again. We would rather go without then be put in this same situation again.
Scott
Cheektowaga, New York
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Devin
Washington,Missouri,
U.S.A.
Most Likely Reason your Due Date was Changed
#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, July 01, 2009
As an ex-employee, I'll share with you some inside light.
It's all about numbers. The closing week for RAC (Rent A Center) falls on Saturday and Opening of a new week is on Monday.
If a particular Store such as the one you have an agreement with has a vast majority of past-due accounts, (which i'm sure it does) then the closing numbers are high. This is referred to as Past Due Credit or Credit.
Company wide, payment due dates are always on a Saturday. Why? Most customers are paid on Friday. The sooner the due date to a customers paydate, the more likely that customer will come in and make their payment. In some instances they will allow for a different due date, but that is rare.
So at the beginning of a new week, Monday we have a report. This report will show us the % of Past due customers. This includes people who are due that day. So, if credit was high for last week and the store had a horrible close on Saturday then the Monday open is high and is unacceptable for any store. (per corporate standard)
The store Manager on Monday morning would probally get a nasty call from the Market Manager (his boss) wanting to know why the Monday open was high and what he was going to do to correct it, afterall his *BONUS* is on the line.
The Manager will automatically change all due dates back to a Saturday, making his Monday Open lower in % after each account he adjusts. He would probally give you a free week in the system and adjust your due date to the following Saturday, and you have no clue at all.
So here comes Saturday. The Account Managers have been beaten up all week because Credit is high. Keeping in mind that most customers are now due on Saturdays, they have to do what ever it takes to get that customer to come in and pay on their account. This is done by calling and calling and calling over and over again untill you are fed up and pay them.
In short, RAC has trained it's employees to get you as a customer to make your rental payment a top priority. They want you to make RAC it's top priority, next to rent, utilities, ect, ect. They will harass you and harass you untill you have had enough. Why?
RAC has over 3,800 Stores nationwide. The Avg store has 350 customers. If 50 of those customers are past due, that is a lot of $$$ they are missing. For Example: We'll use a Couch. A typicall couch is 19.99 per week. add the liability waiver of 3.50 and the Benifets Plus of 5.00, thats $28.49 x 50 people = $1424.50 per store x 3,800 Stores = $5,413,100.00 loss for one week. Thats Apples compared to an avg weekly gross of over $87,400,000.00 Yes 87.5 MILLION.
I could go on and on about RAC, but then I would be blowing off steam. I resigned from the company because I was tired of taking advantage of people and being forced to harass people. Treating people like you the way you were treated. It's not right but thats the real world. $$$$, it's what makes the world turn and soon enough it will stop it from turning.