Complaint Review: Rent A Center

the stores i deal with aren't allowed to re-rent used merchandise/furniture( computers are sold as "certified refurbished" but the rates reflect that). they sell it at a discount( the best way to get high ticket items ASHLEY furniture etc...) and in some cases you can negotiate price depending on how much used stock they are trying to move from the warehouse at the time. i do agree, 3+ computers to be lemons is a bit much to accept lol.

I have to agree You !go to rent a center cause you think you are getting a deal well i got a dryer it was use but the price was right! i ended up pay 400.00 for a dryer that retails for 1300.00 and got 30 days same as cash , so i said ok and got a used tv and didnt really look up the retail and the price sounded good 39.99  a week but then you start to add that up and think you are getting a deal. Well one day i had company and they had said they had bought the same tv asked if i got it at sears. by the way it was 60 in rear projection tv hdtv. I proceeded to tell my guest no i got it from rent a center they said well sears has layway you should of got it there he says i got mine for 699.00 my mouth dropped i have already paid 2500 on the tv, and had another year left to pay! they were charging me 4x the amount of the tv and it was used with no remote can you believe that! Just please if you do rent a center do your math or you will end up out of money like we were. Then i called them to take the tv back and they did, But keep calling for the payment on it! Well they finally got that part fixed, But because of my stupidity i am out 25 hundred dollars but on the other hand got a brand new tv went with the 73 inch for hundred dollars more,and dont have to pay another 2500 dollars to rent a center for about a 400 dollar tv. Will never use them again!

I want to take this time to disagree with this report. I have worked with 5 Rent to own companies, Buddy Bi-Rite, Colortyme, Rent a center, Rentway (out of business), Bestway. I have spent my life working from the ground up in each of these companies. I know that there is no possible way that this gentleman DIDN'T know that they were used items, if in fact they were. I also work with computers; desktops and laptops. Why and what was failing on the laptops? That makes a big difference on what is being covered by your payments. If u spill water on a laptop, that isn't covered on the agreement, and you are liable for all charges to fix said laptop. I have never saw in 8 years of working on computers in my own business, and 10 past that, 3+ laptops of the same grade stop working..! It at that point is safe to say, its user error or carelessness! Now, as for the paying the money or going to jail, that is correct, it is called "Failure to release Leased Merchandise" This is of course as you stated a Felony, up to 5 years in prison, pretty stupid for a "$200" laptop at this point. I have extensive knowledge of the input systems at all of these companies, and there is no possible way for the paperwork to report new and the item be old, without the person receiving the a different item. Now, with that in mind, the 90 days same as cash, is never extended! This only happens if the total time of the item is used during repair. If you had an item, and kept is for a month, u still have to pay on it that month, once u got a new one, it doesn't add another 3 months to that payment plan, its a continuation of the old one! The fact that this buyer made a report on here, says that they are seriously incompetent, and should plead that way during court!

I do want to say, rent a center has a bunch of old merchandise, by no means am I saying they are perfect, this can be demonstrated by the fact that I don't work there now! But one thing I have always known them to be is pretty straight forward! If you owe me money, I'm coming for it! If you bought or are paying on something from me and you owe me money, you have 2 choices, pay me for it, or return it, after that I have 2 choices, take you to court or let you keep it.

I did a little research into this, and the report filer, lied, since he was taken to court, it is a matter of public records now, he was contently late in payments, and after he thought he was wronged, he neglected them, and ended up selling the laptop! That is why he was taken to court, he sold "STOLEN" merchandise and that is why he was being prosecuted!

You can find me by emailing me (((ROR REDACTED))).  We want to see if you're interested in doing a story.


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Can Mike in NSL please email me. I work in the local media and want to see about doing a story on this issue.

Thank you!

(((Redacted))

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Yes the customers can go to jail, however, brentp does have a point because I have seen this happen too many times. A customer will have a payment receive the merchandise and then not pay again. Of course this does result in a first payment default and causes for the merchandise to have to be picked up. Now not even the police can find everyone, so there are too many times that there is a warrant for that customer and them or the merchandise isn't found. So that all in all says that not everyone goes to jail. Althought some should. I am the type of person that just feels like people should stay so far away from Rent-A-Center and other places like this to avoid messes like this. Trust I am not a fan of RentACenter any more than the next person and I personally know about the hardships of today's economy. I also feel that who ever doesn't financially (and I mean truly) struggle can't say anything about where they spend money and how they spend money. Good luck to you and hope there is great success against this company.

I worked for RAC for 10yrs and have sent numerous people to jail for theft of rental property. I does not take anything to turn it in the police do all the work. Tell you what go rent a car and never return it see if you go to jail its the same thing its a rental with an option to buy. All agreements are on a rental not cash nor 90 days SAC. It is not a contract and it is not a secured credit. People who steal from RAC gave me the most pleasure when the called and said can we work out a deal so i dont have to go to jail? Nope sorry enjoy jail!

Will Rent A Center take you to court for a past due account? Can you really go to jail?

Actually I live near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I have saw in the last year at least three customers that were charged with theft by deception and another theft charge for not returning merchandise so yes you can be charged.

Actually I live near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I have saw in the last year at least three customers that were charged with theft by deception and another theft charge for not returning merchandise so yes you can be charged.

Actually I live near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I have saw in the last year at least three customers that were charged with theft by deception and another theft charge for not returning merchandise so yes you can be charged.

Actually I live near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I have saw in the last year at least three customers that were charged with theft by deception and another theft charge for not returning merchandise so yes you can be charged.

Since RentaCenter is the original debter, the FDCPA does not apply. So they can legally call more than 3 times and they can continue to visit you residence in attempts to collect the payment or their property. With these two glaring errors, I would be very suspisious of any other information he is giving. If it were truly so easy to make the first payment and then never make another payment and have RAC (or any other rent to own company) enforce all of their options, all of these companies would be out of business. Since the property belongs to RAC until you make the final payment, if you keep it without paying it is theft and the company can press charges. There may be adollar limit that they feel is not effective to press all the way on, but it would suck to take his advice and find out he's wrong.

I being one of the most successful collections managers in the company in a long time with a ton of returned and written off property repossesed and the only reason I acheived this was because I was one of the handful of employess that actually KNOWS what to do after the account has been written off. Rent A Center wont waste the time or the money to take someone to court or to even attempt to pursue legal action. I can safely say and honestly say I myself could walk into a rent a center and purchase anything I wanted and make my first initial payment and take it all home myself and never pay for it again. What will rent a center do!? Call you more than they are legally allowed by the Fair Debt Collection act. If Rent A Centers calls you more than 3 times per day in attempt to collect a debt ITS BREAKING THE LAW AND ITS FEDERAL! or come bang on your door and tell them never to come back?? If they do come back after being told not to its TRESPASSING and you can then have that employee hauled off to jail. I know this because Ive been there and Ive done that. No Rent A Center will not do anything beyond this. They will attempt to collect a debt for the next 60 days and if it is not paid off or returned by the first of the month after the following 60 days days of past due time has been aquired the district manager writes off the item as a loss and the customers files get filed away in a filing cabinent labled skip/stolen accounts and thats where it sets for the next 2 years (this is how long federal law states that the company must retain their files for) Rent A Center does not report to any credit agencies this is one of their biggest pitches for advertising so with that being said it would be wrong and illegal to sell your account to a collection agency to attempt to collect a debt so now you wont get docked on your credit report and its a civil matter which means rent a center can not and will not report such items stolen because technically they arent theres a rental agreement in affect which means if rent a center wants it back they have to hire a contract lawyer and if they had to do that everytime they wrote off an account the company would bankrupt itself. an average store writes off anywhere from 10-15 accounts a month per store now multiply that by 4500 stores...Its not cost effective for the company. They wont do anything to ya cept you wont be able to rent again...Like thats a big loss anyways...

I am an ex-employee of Rent A Center and I am here to tell you that when you enter an agreement and return that merchandise and exchange it for another because it didn't work, they may tell you that your 90 had started over but it really didn't. They basically gave you a "loaner" your computer may have gone to service. If some how some way they did just go ahead and give you a new one they do not start the 90 days over. If you were to go in and throw a temper tantrum and then called the corporate office they would most likely let you start that 90 days over. They try to get you for every penny they can. They also don't knock of the price of a computer once it has been rented for a significant amount of time. Lets say that there is $40 left on the total cost of the computer. the will multiply that by four. and get another $160 off of it. They always multiply the end balance by at least four when deciding the price of something. The price does go down but they can make you pay as much as they want. The store manager 9 x's out of 10 has the authority in his little code to do so much. I just hope you never get anything from a rental store again. You are paying too much. Just open a savings account that wont let you touch it until a certain time. Save the money and buy that computer with cash. I used my income tax return. I usually save for what I want. Besides I have seen the same furniture etc. so much cheaper at a furniture store. Save your money and do it right. Don't trust the big corporations. They are liars and cheats. They wouldn't think twice about sending you to jail if you missed a payment. You could have a very small amount left on your merchandise and they will take you to court.

I worked for another national rent-to-own company as an account manager. The problem was, I was spending more time doing repos than anything. The guy before me had about 100 accounts or so (this was about 10 years ago, I don't remember exactly). Out of these accounts a large majority were delinquent. Kinda like the financial situation that got America in the mess were in now. Just approve applications to get the numbers up. There is great pressure for numbers in the intense world of rent-to-own. There is a great amount of pressure placed on a store manager to keep his numbers up and higher than the other stores and that pressure trickles down to the account manager. Hence the lack of oversight of potential accounts. Mind you the account manager does not make much, he is doing his job and basically trying just to not get fired as there is a high turnover rate. A lot of corporate reshuffling in the RTO world.I believe Khdafi was right when he said that we as Americans feel like we need stuff NOW and aren't willing to save up to get something. If this wasn't true, how could all these credit card companies be so huge? On the other hand, these RTO companies can be a short term fix for people in a bind. Let's say you got a presentation to do, like I will in a couple of weeks. It is financially sensible for me to rent a projector and a big screen tv from a company that will set it up and remove it after I am done, rather than spend thousands for something I'm only gonna use once. I think we should just be a little more conscious of our finances and be responsible with our money.

As a recently "former" employee I can tell you that not every store runs the way your describing, however a bunch of them do. The computers you were given on the contract itself will disclose if they are new or used at the top. this contract you do get a copy of. Now if your sales person was not going over the contract properly that might explain why you were not aware of this. Also even used computers, its the law that upon return they must be wiped clean of everything from the previous person and restored to factory out of box state, so being used would not affect the performance, i would believe that you just had some bad luck with some bad models of computer.

Rac does not make a habit to carry high end computers they are normally somewhere in the midgrade range but for high end prices. for example the corporate company buys some things in bulk discount, if they bought the cpu at $250 they will in turn sell it to their own local stores for $500 so they have doubled there money automatically. Once the store buys it at $500 they mark it at $1000 90days cash with roughly $2000 full term payout price. Thats just the money numbers assuming the first person who rents it ends up owning the merchandise. Roughly 8 times return on the product. Now they stand to make even more money if that person fails to pay or voluntarily returns the merchandise. They then mark the product back up and collect even further from the next person who rents it. Doing business with rent-a-center is going to cost you ALOT of money. I know what they sell things for and what they buy them for. There are many places you can purchase the same products for alot cheaper and get the same models.

The reason rent-a-center is so successful is because the nature of americans. You as consumers have to have it now and do not want to wait and save your money. Which in turn allows them to sell you a cpu that retails at $599 for over $2000 in their stores.

I just left the company 2 days ago and ill tell you that after almost 5 years with them, they are no pleasure to work for either. Please anyone reading this just remember one thing, Policies come from corporate and are passed down from there. the average guy trying to sell you something isnt intentionally trying to screw you over, hes trying to pay his bills and thats just where he ended up getting a job. If he does a bad jobs its more likely because he was poorly trained in what hes doing. the crookedness and desire to make money hand over fist comes from above. We dont see an extra dime from ripping a customer off or giving them a good deal.

Mike you have a very interesting story and I would like to hear more about this. I was with Rent A Center from August of 2005 until October of 2008. I was with them for 3 years I was an assistant manager and I have extensive knowledge into the company I would appreciate it if you were to contact me with more at (((Redacted)))

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I went to RAC's website and looked at their laptops just to see exactly what they offered. Last summer, I purchased a laptop online for $350 that beats EVERY spec of EVERY laptop RAC offers. I can see renting an item for a couple of weeks to "try it out" before purchasing, but any rent to own's retail prices are going to be 4 times what you can purchase it for elsewhere.

Why pay 1,200.00 for a computer that goes for 499. Why not wait until you have the money? I just don't get why people Rent to Own.

If that same Laptop retailed for $499 at other stores why did you buy it from a place that was charging $1200. That's about $400 a month you would have had to pay to save the interest. So in a little over a month you could have gone to the store that was charging $499 and paid it in full?