Complaint Review: RentaCenter - Wichita Kansas

RAC will constantly call and show up at your house even though you have made arrangements with them. Someone put me down as a reference and they were constantly calling that person and me. You tell one representative something and they don't put it in the computer and then another rep. will call. Not only are they overcharging you, but they are harassing you as well.

I am a RAC manager, and this whole thing sounds horrible.  Lack of communication is probably the cause for this.  Whoever you spoke to to make the arrangements probably didn't tell anyone and forgot to make a note of it in the computer.  So, the account managers whilst out and about doing field visits with the customers that are "dodging and ducking" just saw that the account was 6 days past due, and were trying to clear the account by either picking up a payment or the computer.  Just normal people like you and everyone reading this trying to do their job.  Lack of communication lead to that whole mess.  Sounds like you handled yourself admirably by making arrangements to return, and were caught up in the reality of human error.  And by that I mean that unfortunately these things happen.  People hold grudges against companies for things like this, and the fact is that people are people.  We all make mistakes from time to time.  I don't think any RAC employee would be out to purposefully hurt anyone or scare little children, or anyone else for that matter.  Just trying to do their jobs.  As for me I have had mixups like this happen once in a while, and apologies are made when things happen by mistake.  People need to forgive and forget because its just not that serious.  I can't tell you how many times the local burger drive thru has screwed up my order and I drive all the way home and realize I am missing fries and the 3rd cheeseburger, but I understand they are people and make mistakes and I go discuss the situation with the manager and get the rest of my order, problem solved.  But I'm not going to get mad enough to stop doing business with them.  Why?  Because I like my cheeseburgers!  Same concept with RAC or any other company.  Everybody has a bad day from time to time, just accept it and move on.

RAC - Ripoff Another Customer. A-holes. I mistakenly RENTED a POS computer from those guys. I paid it off just to get them out of my hiar but they sent over some bozo to get it anyway. I told him it was paid off and if he came in the house he was gonna leave feet first on his way to the county coroner's office. He left and I never heard from them again. Thankfully. So try what I did. A 12-gauge trumps a computer anytime.

RAC - Ripoff Another Customer. A-holes. I mistakenly RENTED a POS computer from those guys. I paid it off just to get them out of my hiar but they sent over some bozo to get it anyway. I told him it was paid off and if he came in the house he was gonna leave feet first on his way to the county coroner's office. He left and I never heard from them again. Thankfully. So try what I did. A 12-gauge trumps a computer anytime.

RAC - Ripoff Another Customer. A-holes. I mistakenly RENTED a POS computer from those guys. I paid it off just to get them out of my hiar but they sent over some bozo to get it anyway. I told him it was paid off and if he came in the house he was gonna leave feet first on his way to the county coroner's office. He left and I never heard from them again. Thankfully. So try what I did. A 12-gauge trumps a computer anytime.

rent a center is like a group of thugs. they also harrased me on the phone several times a day. they pounded on the door like the police and when i was late they said i dont even want the payment just give us our merchandise back. i was like fine. i have sat in the house listening to tyhem beat on the door and where i live now and where i used to live they left rent a center papers all over my porch and front door. my old duplexmy neighbor she had rent a center furniture and they left stickers all over her door damaging it. she moved out and sold the furniture. (something i would never do!!!!!!)

Well D... I understand that I was late with my account. I made arrangements to have it picked up BEFORE the RAC idiots came pounding on my door. These goons DID have a cell phone because their boss called them and told them to leave. I personally took the overpriced piece of crap back to them AS scheduled on Monday. They had absolutely no right to harrass my child. Their were no problems with the computer, I never stated that in my original comment.So this was not about a technical issue.This was about tact and threatening my son when I was at work and he is a minor at home alone. My 13 year old did NOT set up the computer when I got it in the first place, so how in the world is he supposed to disassemble it? The good thing is that since then I have purchased (yes I paid for all of it) a much much better computer than RAC can offer anyway.

Quote:"I called Rentacenter to let them know that I would need to schedule a pick up time or could I make payment arrangements. ( I was at this point 6 days late )I was told by Mike that they really need to take care of this Today because I was late. However, I couldnt leave work in time before rentacenter closed. Ok..Mike says, Monday between 4-5 pm. Ok, I say great. I then receive a phone call from my 13 year old at home saying that Rentacenter was at the door !! They told him ( I heard him) "Open the door or we'll call the police" Umm... I think Not." In this it says she called in advance and arrange the drop off agreement. It never says that the renter was not going to make a payment it just states that there an agreement to have the laptop dropped off. An I would be outrage if these guys came to my house an bothered my child. I myself dont like RAC because they screwed me out of about 600 dollars. I bought a TV that had side RCA's and S-Video well a couple months and a bill nearly paid off we realized those ports didn't work so they exchange us TV of the same size and make for one that had the ports that worked. Couple months later when out bill should have been payed off. We were told that with the new TV they started us over from the begining again so we left the TV out side and told them to come get the Piece of Crap and we got us a nice TV at ----- best thing we ever did. sorry, allowing you to give a competitors name would instigate others to just file against their competition, to only come back later to suggest their company your comments on this policy are welcome! CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

I would just like to say that the whole picture is not being represented here. First the only reason that you made the arrangements with Mike is that the Rac employees were already at your door, that does not in any way excuse the continued harrassment of the 13 year old, but had you contacted the store before being 6 days past due they would not have been there. Second not everyone has a cell phone. RAC does not provide them and not everyone has one of thier own, so to call the employees may not have been possible. In response to the unsavory goons that RAC hires, you dont know them, it is unfair for you to judge every employee of a company by the actions of a few, most of the employees are hard working people with families of thier own to support. Working for RAC is a lot of things, but it has given me a new respect for those who wok in collections. You have no right to judge until you have done it yourself. The tactics and actions that RAC management pushes on its employees to hit certian quotas is wrong and unfair this I will by far agree, also thier prices are astronamical, but as the customer you agreed to pay it, everything is right there in the agreement that you signed. I would never recommend that anyone ever rent to own anything from any rent to own or lease purchase company the price alone is insane, short term, cash and carry, or 90 days sac mabye, but not rent to own it is way too expensive. E. J. SALEM, OREGON U.S.A.

Apparently you two do not get it. If the customer would've either (A) kept her bill current, or (B) returned the computer back to the store when it was going to become late, then the local RAC store would've never went out to the home in the first place. The employees never entered the home, & how were they to know that only a 13 year old was at the house when the adult customer was avoiding them in the first place. When responding to these complaints, you need to look at the WHOLE picture from BOTH sides.

D says that they work for RAC in a store and that one of their policies is to let people that have had to let their stuff go get the stuff back and keep paying what they were paying. I have read about 6 reports on here that beg to differ. Instead of arguing the point that this consumer may have been trying to keep the computer without paying, D needs to be getting all the big bosses that work at RAC to check this website out and then just make the customer happy. I imagine if the situation was reversed D would not be happy about the fact that after they had just made arrangements over the computer, some of RAC's workers were banging on the door of their house threating their child.

You don't seem to get it, D. The problem isn't that the RAC goons went into the house, as we know they did not. The problem is that they persisted in harrassing and intimidating an innocent thirteen year old, in an effort to get him to make what would have been a VERY bad decision for two reasons: 1) God only knows what kind of unsavory characters are doing RAC repo work. As a parent of three, I can tell you that I'm sure I don't want my kid alone in the house with a couple of RAC repo creeps. And you would think this would be common sense. A parent has an innate right to protect her children from even the slightest threat. Even as the reporter was in default on her agreement, it was HIGHLY inappropriate for the goons to seek access to the interior of a home occupied by a lone child over the parent's objection. If you can't understand why this situation was so wrong, then you're patently underqualified to comment on it! 2) As an above rebuttalist pointed out, PCs are bulky, heavy equipment with many components, cords, etc. A 13 year old kid is not responsible enough to handle such expensive equipment to the extent called for here, may not be physically able to round up the equipment and hand it off, and will likely be confused as to what does and does not belong to RAC. It was ridiculous of the company to even suggest that he should do it. But what's worst of all is that these creeps stood out on the porch for a good 15 minutes while that innocent kid was probably scared to death. You should be ashamed of your company for what happened here. You should be making apologies, not blaming the victim. The reporter defaulted on a credit agreement and took care of it as best she could. Your sleazy company harrassed and intimidated a 13 year old kid who had nothing to do with the agreement. Who's the bigger creep? You be the judge.

You don't seem to get it, D. The problem isn't that the RAC goons went into the house, as we know they did not. The problem is that they persisted in harrassing and intimidating an innocent thirteen year old, in an effort to get him to make what would have been a VERY bad decision for two reasons: 1) God only knows what kind of unsavory characters are doing RAC repo work. As a parent of three, I can tell you that I'm sure I don't want my kid alone in the house with a couple of RAC repo creeps. And you would think this would be common sense. A parent has an innate right to protect her children from even the slightest threat. Even as the reporter was in default on her agreement, it was HIGHLY inappropriate for the goons to seek access to the interior of a home occupied by a lone child over the parent's objection. If you can't understand why this situation was so wrong, then you're patently underqualified to comment on it! 2) As an above rebuttalist pointed out, PCs are bulky, heavy equipment with many components, cords, etc. A 13 year old kid is not responsible enough to handle such expensive equipment to the extent called for here, may not be physically able to round up the equipment and hand it off, and will likely be confused as to what does and does not belong to RAC. It was ridiculous of the company to even suggest that he should do it. But what's worst of all is that these creeps stood out on the porch for a good 15 minutes while that innocent kid was probably scared to death. You should be ashamed of your company for what happened here. You should be making apologies, not blaming the victim. The reporter defaulted on a credit agreement and took care of it as best she could. Your sleazy company harrassed and intimidated a 13 year old kid who had nothing to do with the agreement. Who's the bigger creep? You be the judge.

It is company policy that RAC employees are to only enter when someone over 18 is present. Dana's report does NOT state the RAC employees entered the house. But it seems like something is missing to the story. If there were arrangements made for the computer to come back, but RAC employees are sent out there anyway?? Sounds like to me that the customer was refusing to pay on the computer. If the computer is not being paid on per the rental agreement that was signed by the customer, and he/she is refusing to turn the computer back over to the rightful owners which is Rent a Center, then the Account Managers will be knocking @ the door for pickup. One of the many benefits with RAC is that if you can not afford the merchandise, let it go back to the store! RAC offers a lifetime reinstatement. If you let merchandise go back, once you are back on your feet, you can pick up where you left off of on the same merchandise, or equal merchandise that is of equal retail value. If you go to a regular furniture or appliance store & take out a credit application for these items, you can not just simply let it go back when you can not pay on them & pick up where you left off on. You can @ RAC under their rental agreements.

D -, Dana had the right to refuse admittance to RAC employees when there was no adult present, as you yourself admitted. A computer is a complex collection of hardware, software, and data. A thirteen-year-old kid is in no position to guess what belongs to RAC and what does not. Dana was absolutely correct in her decision not to allow her kid to hand over the computer. The RAC employees were told to leave and they did not. Had that been my kid in the house with people repeatedly banging on the door I would have told the kid to hang up and call 911 immediately. Then I would have called the cops immediately also. In many states the threshold for committing criminal trespass is refusing to leave after being told to do so. Dana and the RAC manager had agreed when she would return the computer. Then the RAC manager immediately sent his goons out to threaten a thirteen-year-old kid. What in the name of God justified doing this? It's just a d**n computer.

First off to Lee Ving's comments, (very funny). RAC doesn't rent a computer like your description & there's no way you would be paying rent on a computer for the last 21 years. Anyway, Dana, when I look at these reports, even though I work in an RAC store myself in NC, I always try to put myself in both the company & the customer's side before I respond back to these complaints. If you are past due on your account, & not able to afford the computer, just let it go back. Either take the computer to the store yourself, or have someone take it back for you, or allow the store to pick it up. Once the computer is ino RAC possession, you won't hear from the store anymore. RAC does have a lifetime reinstatement where once you get back on your feet again, you can start back where you left off from on the same computer or one in simular in retail value. So you will not lose out in what you invested into it. It IS RAC policy where they are not allowed to enter into a customer's home without someone 18 or older that is present, however your son can hand them the merchandise if you allow it by him handing the computer out the door. This can be done without RAC staff entering in the home. But it sounds like you are just keeping RAC's computer without paying on it. If you were paying on it, the account managers wouldn't be calling you on a daily basis & visiting your home. Again, let them have the computer back if you can't afford it & you would end this headache of a problem. As for the service issue, you didn't go into much details about it, but if they said the computer is down, then there is a chance they didn't know what was wrong with it either. Anytime computers go to service, they are sent to a service center that could be a couple hundred miles away & they only hear from the service center once or twice a week at max.

I've been renting the same IBM AT since 1985. It features the Intel 80286 @ 8mhz, 256K floppy and 16MB hard drive with DOS 3.0. I have a 14 inch monochrome monitor as well. I have Wordstar and Visicalc software. I pay $50 a week for this machine, and just 7 more payments it's all mine.

what are the rates or payments you make for a computer from rent a center?

Dana, never call the business back and threaten to call the police, just call the cops immediately. Get them on the way to your home to make sure your child is safe. You then should ask to file a report against these guys for harrasing your child like that and also asked if the police would talk to the store manager. First for not calling his goons to say leave your home immediately when you asked him to and secondly for trying to take possession of the rental propery from a minor, when the renter (you), had already made arrangments for it's return. I normally don't comment on reports such as these as I have never done any business with a store like this. Reading what you wrote in the orignal report frightened me though and I felt it necessary to say something. Rental stores end up making a fortune off consumers. These days you can buy a nice little computer for around 500 bucks and from what I've heard, most of them are able to be upgraded, as you can afford it. Save back money on the weeks you can from your paychecks, the same amount you were giving to RAC and in no time at all you will have the full cost of a new computer from a local retail store.

Tomorrow, I'm taking that overpriced piece of @#$!%*&^ to them. I cant wait to be rid of RentaCenter and their stupid computer. by the way.... sorry for not finishing the story, I was pretty worked up... I told Mike after he told me that " I wish we would have never done business with you" that I was told before I went to Rentacenter in the first place that their employees were rude and unprofessional. He then came back at me saying "we arent rude to our customers, this is our job" I told Mike that I would be taking the stupid computer to him Monday morning, because Id hate for him to do business with me, then I hung up on him. Rentacenter was still at my door too for another 10 minutes. Mike mustve called his "boys" and told them to leave. So tomorrow, RentaCenter will not ever have to "ever do business with me again"

You stopped in the middle of the story! What happened? I would have taken that computer, tossed it out in the street and then called them and told them to come get it [out of the street]! I would also write and complain to the corporate office. What they did is clearly illegal and unethical. It is harassment, since you had already made arrangements.