TRS, Ashley Furniture Store Ripoff of financing agreement Mesa Arizona
I purchased some furniture from Ashley Furniture on a rent-to-own basis. I went past the time allowed on the "same-as-cash" basis. Now they say I owe a lot more money than I think I should. I cannot get a printed letter stating how much I have paid, and how much they say I owe in a way that a normal person can unterstand it. And they will not respond to my letters or calls with a printed explanation of how they calculated the amount they say I still owe. It's this refusal to give me a letter or a printout of my billing statement that makes me think that there is something illegal going on with this company. They will not quote a percentage or interest rate as that would be an illegal amount. I think that is what they are calling a fee. I also bought all of my furniture at the same time, from the same manufacturer and I got three seperate contracts. Each with it's own extra costs. I do think this company rips off the consumer and that's why you can't get anything in writing from them.
Kathy
Mesa, Arizona
U.S.A.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
Jason
Elizabethton,Tennessee,
U.S.A.
Former TRS manager responds....
#4UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, May 30, 2008
I was a manager of 2 stores in Tennessee for over a year for TRS. I have recently finished legal filings against this company so I can now speak about it.
The training process for this company promotes this ripoff mentality. Employees are constantly subjected to a "Rip them off, repo the furniture or you are fired attitude".
I am struggling now with my time spent moving up the ranks in this company and the honest consumers I have hurt during my time with this company. The district managers for this company are very rarely seen and we were told that they were not there to deal with customers. However for my district, when you would see them they would be visibly drunk which in turn lead Ashley Furniture to discontinue their association with TRS in our area.
I am not saying this because I have ill will towards this company or anyone associated with it, I simply left on good terms for a better paying job. However, now that I have, I would just like to advise customers to steer clear of this company.
The Damage Waiver is essentially a complete rip off which just goes directly to the bottom line of the store managers revenue. It is not insurance, just a complete rip off that we were trained and I, myself, trained employees how to hide this from customers. We were trained never to tell the customer we are a rent-to-own company but to represent ourselves as "Finance Managers" to the turned down Ashley customers. Therefore the consumer would trust us, as representatives of Ashley Furniture, to put them in the right program for their credit situation. However, the ultimate goal was to just get them to sign on the dotted line, because after that, we owned the customer.
TRS store managers are compensated directly on their production and their delinquency. A store manager must sign 79 "deals" a month, which leads to seperating pieces of furniture on to seperate contracts, each with it's own fees, in order to make their "deals".
TRS district managers make their bonuses based on weekly delinquency requirements so this leads employees to harass customers and repo their furniture if they are as much as one day late.
The consumer will always lose with this company because of the way that the store employees are trained. They are left in the dark as to what the company they are working for represents until they are so far into it, they begin to by into the "rip off" mentality.
I feel deeply sorry for the employees employed with this company because of the fact of working at a job you go home every night and know that you not only didn't help a customer, but lied your way into deeply hurting a customer.
This company sets up your account based on a multiplier. They take the cash price of the furniture and multiplies it by 3, and then divides it by 24 months, and that is your monthly payment. The company expects you to pay THREE TIMES what the furniture costs on the floor, not including a littany of fees thrown in there.
I advise any consumer to be very wary of TRS Home Furnishings and be wary of any individual you are introduced to by an Ashley Furniture HomeStore employee after you fill out a Citi or Wells Fargo credit application. You will end up very confused and trapped in a situation that is hard to get out of without paying much more than you should.
Angelicak87
Tucson,Arizona,
U.S.A.
I Know what you mean
#4Consumer Comment
Thu, April 03, 2008
I Purchased furniture from TRS For around $950.00 total My Payments wore $127.00 monthly six month later my balance was around $600.00 and i even paid $200.00 extra Plus the Fisrt paymet when you sign the papers its was like $189.00. I paid my furniture off in 6 months the pay off was $560.00 some dollards and i still paid around $1,600.00. Dont buy from this company its a BIG RIP OFF
Esteban
Fresno,California,
U.S.A.
READ YOUR CONTRACT CAREFULLY
#4UPDATE Employee
Sun, April 01, 2007
FIRST OF ALL THE SAME AS CASH OPTION DOES NOT EVEN EXIST WHEN YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT LEASE PURCHASE PROGRAMS SUCH AS TRS. WITH LEASE PURCHASE PROGRAMS THERE WILL BE A LEASE FEE WHICH IS BASED ON THE DOLLAR AMOUNT THAT THE ITEM IS VALUED AT. SECOND, THERE ARE NO SUCH THINGS AS INTEREST RATES WHEN YOU ARE DEALING WITH A LEASE PURCHASE PROGRAM. INTEREST RATES ARE ONLY APPLIED TO REVOLVING CHARGE ACCOUNTS THAT BELONG TO COMPANIES WHO RELY ON CREDIT SCORES TO DETERMINE WHICH INTEREST RATE YOU ARE TO BE QUALIFIED FOR.
THIRD, IF ALL YOU WERE THINKING ABOUT, THE DAY YOU OPENED THE ACCOUNT, WAS WHAT TIME YOU WERE GOING TO BE ABLE TO PICKUP OR HAVE THE FURNITURE DELIVERED, INSTEAD OF PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE EXPLANATION OF THE LEASE PURCHASE CONTRACT, THEN YOU ARE AT TOTAL FAULT FOR NOT KNOWING HOW TO READ YOUR ACCOUNT BALANCE, SINCE IT SPECIFICALLY TELLS IT TO YOU IN THE CONTRACT'S " CASH OPTION CHART".