Star United Rent-to-Own Ripoff Repossessed our Furniture With No Prior Warning Hillsboro Oregon
My husband Jason and I have been renting to own furniture and electronics from Star United in Hillsboro, OR, for 6 years. We had been working through them to rebuild our severely damaged credit in hopes to begin getting ourselves back on track. When we first rented through them, we were on a month-to-month basis, and after the first 10 months they financed us, meaning that any future rentals resulted in lower monthly payments.
Things were working out great until September when we both lost our jobs, resulting in a bounced check to Star United. We had no way to recover from this, and as such we fell behind on payments more than 2 months. We are still jobless and trying desperately to make ends meet as Oregon's economy is seemingly bruised beyond repair and getting any job established is like finding a needle in a haystack.
We received the second delinquency notice in the mail on Tuesday, November 9, regarding the Star United accountand we have not even received a first notice. On Wednesday, November 10, two representatives from the company came to our home and stated that they wanted either a cash payment in full of $576.20 or their items, which were a sofa/love seat pair, a computer and monitor, a digital camera and accessories, a laptop computer, and an XBOX game console. They claimed that they have been calling our number and leaving several messages on our machine. We have not received any of these messages.
We did not have the cash to pay them, so they collected most of their items. As of right now, we are missing a sofa/love seat and a computer from our office. All of the other items have been lent out to friends, and as such they gave us until Friday, November 12, to return them to their store or else they would call the Hillsboro Police Department and report these items stolen.
They took these items from us regardless of the fact that we had not even received a final noticeor a first one for that matter. We have been a loyal customer of theirs for 6 years, and this is how they repay us? They totally refused to work with us on this matterthey just came in without prior notice, woke us up, and took our stuff. What kind of company is this? I certainly hope for other customers' sakes that they do not regularly do business this way.
Angela
Hillsboro, Oregon
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Jonathan
Vero Beach,Florida,
U.S.A.
Read Your Letter. The only notice would have been you noticing that you had no more furniture.
#2Consumer Comment
Sun, January 23, 2005
I must ask that you read your letter back to yourself and ask again why these items were taken back. It does not matter how long you have been doing business with someone, the fact of the matter is that this is a company that thrives off renting merchandise to paying customers, if you are unable to pay, you are stealing the merchandise. I would suggest when you hit hard times that you turn the items in and save yourself the stress of having the reps knocking at your door. I would also like to revisit a couple of your comments that I did get a chuckle out of. First the second notice of delinquency that was sent to you was probably the final notice, the first notice you say you did not receive was probably in the form of a past due bill. Also I thought it was funny when you said they woke you and your husband up, that is your problem. If you and your husband were sleeping during business hours it seems like finding that needle in the haystack might be more difficult. Just do everyone a favor, get the merchandise out of the pawn shop, return it to the business, get out of the bed and find a job and stop expecting everyone to take in consideration how rough it is for you. Everyone has it rough , but we still pay our bills. You might ask yourself "Is he a employee of this company?" and the answer is no, because if I were I would have been on your doorstep the first day you were late. The only notice would have been you noticing that you had no more furniture.