Complaint Review: Rent-A-Center - Stockbridge Georgia

I spent several years as a Rent A Center store manager, so to the moron who stated they don't get t.v.'s at that cost you can go **** yourself. I accepted in merchandise on a daily basis. Most 50" plasma t.v.'s had a cost of around 600, 42" plasma's were around 450, 42" led were around 680 and 42" lcd's or lcl to the rent a center guys were around 590.  You are right, RAC does prey on subprime customer by overpricing everything. They want five turns out of all new products, and anything used four turns. So if they purchased it for 600 the total payout would be around $3000 and the 90 days same as cash would be $1500. And before anyone starts talking trash about me not being any good because I'm not working there anymore I will tell you why I'm not working there. I fulfilled my no compete clause rent a center made me sign stating I would work for any competitor for one year. Now I own a rent to own store. I placed my store across the highway from the rent a center I used to manage. I undercut rent a center's prices every day , and I carry LG, Sony, Lane, Ashley, Dell, HP, Compaq (came with hp contract), and many other's. If rent a center's 50" tv is on promo for 19.99 a week for 98 weeks, mine is $15.99 a week for 65 weeks. I've had my store open for almost a year now and two of my former employees at RAC are now working for me. They said the BOR count has dropped from 715 to below 500 since I opened my store. My goal.......close this store down and start opening more up like them. SUCK IT RAC

Hi I work at Rent-A-Center and Im sorry that you feel this way. While I agree that renting isnt right for everyone, I know our customers use us because they can make small payments that are manageable for them without ever using credit. And if for any reason their circumstances change, they can return the merchandise at any time and owe nothing more so theyre never stuck with a payment they dont want. Please dont hesitate to call our Customer Care team at 1-800-422-8186 with any questions or concerns that youd like to address. Thanks.

I bought a 42 inch LG led tv from my local Ridgecrest Ca, Rent-A-Center and the 90 day same as cash came out to be 909.00 plus tax and recycling fee. I was so upset because the next day i had gone to my local wal-mart and found the exact same tv in the box unlike Rent-A-Center they didn't give me anything for the tv except for the tv, power cord, and the remote. no instructions, no box, nothing else.

While I was at Wal-Mart I found the exact same tv for 548.00 plus tax and recyling fee. and it would have came with everything.

Rent-A -Center is a rip off beyond belief. I dont mind paying a little extra for tv considering they are nice enough to let you make payments. but this tv was marked up 361.00 from walmarts price. now common guys i dont mind paying an extra 120.00. but right now I might as well be bent over and taking up the a$$ a rip off beyond belief. the one and only time you will ever recieve business from me.

If anyone else may have any extra information on how to send this to a local store, please let me know thanks.

Kimberly, First of all, congratulations on your tv purchase. You didn't say what the 40" tv was, but your husband appears to have an eye for good electronics. The LG tv's we carry are, in my opinion, some of the best. Please understand, you are not the "typical" Rent-A-Center customer. When it comes to the big ticket items, most people come to us because they want something that they can't afford to go buy outright. It's a trade-off of sorts. We give our customers the merchandise they want at a rate that they can afford. We provide superior service during the contract and give you free delivery and setup in many cases, same day for no charge to you. For our customers that pay out full term on such items, they actually receive better, longer service than many warranties today. If the item has problems, we give a comparable loaner to use while our service centers repair their equipment at no cost to them (Ever dealt with a big-box retailer's service? It can get ugly.) You also have the right to decide to not keep something you aren't happy with and return the merchandise to us. No restocking fees or any of the other charges that the retailers may decide to take out of your refund. We have a couple early pay off options for those looking to save a little in the long run. There are many other value added services and features to your Rent-A-Center purchases that anyone in your local store is up to speed on providing you with details. While talking to them, ask about Benefits Plus. This has a small cost, but increases the value you get with your rental purchase tenfold. As far as asking your husband if there was anything else he wanted, this is normal and expected by us. You made payments on an item and payed it off. We as a company want to keep you as a customer and we have incentives for you to rent again. In closing, I would like to thank you for being a Valued Customer, even if it is not the location I personally work for. Employee in Ohio.

Jason-I am sure you can read !!!! I stated the guessing price that "RENT A CENTER " pays for the tv----not the consumers. I even qualified it with the volume that a company this size gets----What part don't you get? Just so you know, I was around when Al and Bud Gates implemented the initial growth of RentaCenter and worked in the industry for decades until just last year. I believe that qualifies my statements with value and knowledge.

Hey show me where i can buy a 42 inch tv for $600 and I'll go buy them all day long. If you were a good employee you would know we never get the tv's that cheap. I don't think we're cheating customers. If they could pay for a tv all at once they wouldn't have to pay our prices.

You hit on another thing that I forgot to mention in the post you rebuttled to. When I went to Best Buy the manager there asked me did I have the Owners Manual to the LG t.v. I had from Rent-a-Center. I told him I did. He told me to look at the manufacture date..year etc on the manual. He said the reason the had the LG LCD t.v.'s on clearance was because they were new models they had gotten in "Last" year during the summer. He said they had sold the same models throughout the holidays and that's why they were clearancing the rest of the stockas any other retail store does..whether it's electronics, clothing etc. I "know" for a fact that Rent-A-Center applies their own made up prices for this merchandise. When I spoke with a District Manager over the weekend she gave me some bull crap reason as to why the t.v. was so high. Their reasoning is not justifiable. I also know that Rent-a-center purchases in bulk just like anyone else. When they purchase the purchase is not made for that one particular store. The purhasees are made and then the merchandise is distributed to many different stores. That's why at times when you visit these stores and ask them for a particular item they call another store to see if they have the same item in stock. They are full of crap!

RentaCenter exploits an avenue of pricing that LAWS have not addressed. You folks are smart shoppers and THANK YOU for this post. I spent years working for RAC and agree with you on their misleading advertisements---ie=price matching, competitive, etc.. RentaCenter currently has over 2900 locations, lets factor 10 of those tv's being purchased per location-----29,000 tv's right! Anyone want to bet what they really pay pay per unit?? ( maybe? $600 for that TV) Here is RentaCenter way of price-fixing. The disclosed figure on your rental/lease agreement is an at-will retail price that RentaCenter attachs to each item. NEVER TO BE REDUCED IN A LIFETIME. Their corporate office uys in volume, gets the maximum discounts and rips off the consumer....by literally creating a "retail price" of their own----many times more than manufacturers suggested retail price. This base retail is held forever on that make/model/item. Even though legislators in each state have been told of this hidden retail cost fixing, no state has taken issue with it and made it illegal----RTO lobbyists get paid well by APRO and REntaCenter to keep it that way. (read individual state laws under RTOonline) Its just another way of RentaCenter rips off customers on a 90 days same as cash sale, OH BTW...you mentioned Best Buy had it on clearance, too. Anyone question why BestBuy is closing it out , already and RentaCenter is just getting it NEW?? They wait until the end-of -the-run.......reducing their costs even more while exploding the retail value to the consumer