Bruno
roanoke rapids,#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Mon, January 18, 2010
I would like to address the complaint that was listed on this site back in November 2008. I have never heard of this site and therefore had no knowledge of such a complaint. But it's never to late to clear things up.
I'd like to address each concern listed by the writer:
1. It states that we called the customer about 1 week before the payment was due.
We only call customer's on the day that they are due as a friendly reminder, we don't want people to pay late fees either. Most people are ok with that. If they ask us not to call as a reminder then we stop.
2. We charge crazy late fees and charges. We do charge a $7.50 late fee when your late. That's stated in our contract. We explain to customers the many ways to avoid late fees. But if your late, we have to charge late fees. If we don't hear from a customer after several attempts we will go to their house and there is a $5.00 trip charge. Those charges are fully covered in our rental aggreement. While we charge $5.00 to go to a customers home, it cost me about $10.00 in gas and man hours to do so.
3. Customer states that we came up with a "balloon payment". In our state, you are simply leasing the merchandise for a specific maximum amount of time, say 18 months. At that time the lease is over and the merchandise can be purchased for a predetermined amount called a balloon payment. The balloon payment is displayed on all our price tags, in the rental agreement and discussed at the time the agreement is signed. It does not just appear or is made up as the writer states.
4. The writer states that the merchandise was not so great. We don't make the furniture, so if your not happy you will not hurt our feelings by telling us, we want long term customers. Most products are made by good, name brand companies, but can have defects. In some cases we have to wait several weeks to get a special part, we try to keep the customer informed of the status. They always have the choice, if they want to exchange it for another product if they desire.
5. Phone calls: We do call customers who are late, if they don't return our calls after several, we do call the references that the customer provided at the start of our relationship. These references are given as possible contact numbers in the event that we cannot reach the customer.
6. Writer states that we were nasty and rude. We are sometimes stern. Some customers will ignore us, tell us falsehoods and even cuss us out. We are human, and sometimes may not respond to being cussed out too well. I don't know the circumstance of the writer, but I can tell you that many of my customers are having financial problems. When they come to us and discuss the situation, we work together to find a solution. This happens all the time. But who writes about those.
Bottom line if a customer has a complaint or having a hard time making payments, we are here to make money and can't if people are unhappy. Just come in and talk to us. It's a two way street.