Complaint Review: Rent-A-Center Rent A Center - Auburn Washington

Three months ago, I brought in an X-box 360 I bought out in July of 2007 to the Auburn store in Washington. It had the red ring of death. I was told by the store manager Chad Criss, that he could send the x-box to service but it was no longer covered and I would have to pay for the repair. I had paid on the Benefit's Plus program until I bought out my product.

I was confused since I was told while I was renting that as long as I paid on the Benefit's Plus while renting when my buyout date came it would be covered. Chad did explain and even showed me a Benefit's Plus book (which I was never given to begin with), that the benefits only covered the merchandise for one year after buyout "as long as I continued to pay the extra 3.27 a week for the year after buyout". I was not mad at him at this time since he nor the crew currently working there were any of the people I had originally rented from.

I decided at that time since he appeared to be helpful, that I would send the xbox to their service center since it would be faster than waiting for Microsoft to send me a special box to have it repaired. He also did make a deal with me stating that if I rented one of their current xbox 360's for 14.99/week that he would waive the repair fees when it came back and I could have something to use in the meantime.

He also told me something I had never heard of before, it just seemed odd that he would give out this information. That he would also waive the required deposit of 500 dollars since it was going to be a short term rental, because this was a service issue. I all my time renting with Rent A Center I never have had to pay a deposit for any short term rental.

Almost three weeks went by and I had no word about the X-box. No one was even returning my calls. So I went back down to the store for information. Chad seemed to be kind of dodgy in the store when I went in. When he finally came over and talked to me he said the x-box had gone to thier service center and that it was junked as "unrepairable due to heat sink malfunction". He then apologized and said there really was nothing he could do. I asked to have the xbox back so I can send it to Microsoft for a second opinion.

He then told "um no, when our service center junks an item, they keep it for reclaimed parts to fix other x-boxes with"

I asked for his corporate number, he was very reluctant to give it to me. Oh if any needs this number that you get no help from it is 1-800-422-8186. I got no response from this number as the company was in between finding a new district manager. So why did no one above that position call back?

Well I was refusing to pay or return the one he let me rent until I had mine back, I felt that was fair.

That is when the constant harassing started. I had hundreds and I mean hundreds of door hangers thrown in my yard. On a day that it rained they had even gone so far as to get the door hangers wet and stick them to the glass on my bay windows at my house, my wife's car and they were dried on by the time I got home. They stuck them to my tailgate on my truck, hung them on my antennae. They made large numbers of calls to my work and family members. Chad and another employee named Matt personally somehow found my sister's house and harassed and stuck his foot in the door when she tried to shut it. He drives a grey/silver nissan titan with some modified body work.

Well bad news is that my sister's husband found out they basically tried to forcibly gain entry to his house, by that foot move. He went down to the store in Auburn to face Chad about his behaviour. My brother-in-law was being quiet and sitting on one of the couches in the store waiting for Chad. When he heard Chad bragging about some brand new t.v.'s he typed into fake rental aggreements to his friends. He said to his friends in the store not worry no one would ever find out that he entered the serial numbers wrong in the system when they arrived so they can't be tracked and he altered their I.D. with a photoshop program.

When my brother-in-law confronted chad about this, and what he just heard I guess Chad got scared, since my brother is pretty big, and he admitted that he switch "serial number" stickers on the back of my xbox and a different one in the store, and that the x-box was actually fixed and he sold it. Therefore creating a new item that would not be on their inventory, so he could pocket the cash. He told my brother to tell me to keep the one let me rent to as a "shut up" item and he could take care of the rest.

My brother-in-law was so shocked that he left and told me. I was not okay with this idea, I returned the x-box past that point, and they next morning it was in a box on my porch! I once again called thier customer service number and I couldn't get any help, I didn't know if he x-box I had was even "another stolen" item and wanted nothing to do with it.

The next day my brother went to go gas up his truck the next day at the shell station in the same mall as the rent a center and saw Chad there. Chad was gasing up his truck with the company gas card and asked my brother if he wanted a free tank of gas. He replied no and Chad was trying to insist on it.

Now I and my brother-in-law are scared to call the police knowing they know how to find my family, where we work or anything. Chad already tried to enter my sister's house!

I happened to attempt to go talk one more time to Chad and found out this week he had quit after the other guy ( Matt ) had been fired. The employees in the store seemed to be in turmoil.

I have no idea of what to do or who to talk to about this. Or what to do with this x-box. Should I just let this go? I rented from Rent A Center for years and this kind of stuff never happened before, or at least to this degree.

Reportwa

Auburn, Washington

U.S.A.