My husband and I went through bankruptcy a few years back and needed a computer, and without credit we had no choice but to use Aaron's Rent To Own. I will say that their customer service was great. I fulfilled my contract and paid off my debt in full.
The laptop I got was efficient and did its job in the beginning. Mind you, I never let my son use this PC, and it was never dropped, scratched, bumped, or even roughly closed within the year I possessed it. Directly after I paid it off, which was a little over a grand, I started having issues before the year was up. The PC would not allow itself to be put in stand-by mode, and if you did, you would have to reboot the entire PC. I did what I was supposed to: I called Aaron's, HP, and Microsoft. They helped me the first time. However, my warranty was up by only a few months, so they were of no use. My husband would just have to take the back of the battery out and jury-rig it to turn on.
The last blow came when my son was home sick and I was on the laptop. It worked fine all morning. When I went to turn it on again, it would not power up. The light was on, but no power was getting anywhere. When my husband could not work his magic, I took it to a PC repair shop where, in front of me, they tried all kinds of connectors and plug-ins to locate the issue. It turned out to be the motherboard. After a year, really? I was horrified when they told me it would be around 400 dollars, not including labor. After looking at different prices and comparing, I knew it was not a joke price. But why would I fix it when I could have gotten a new PC with a warranty for the same price? I had to pay them 38 dollars to transfer the hard drive info to a disk. So I am out over a grand. I was and am sick.
I understand that products break down, I get it, I am not ignorant. I do believe in values, and what is right is right. I also understand from a business standpoint that this is how they make money. They purchase poor-quality merchandise and sell it for a ridiculous amount of money to people who have no choice in the matter. Does it make it right? No. Does it make me a mad patriot? Yes. Not only did I lose faith in the American dream, I have learned a valuable lesson: never settle for poor quality. If I need something that badly, I will save my money to get what I need and pay cash. I am just downhearted that these kinds of things are considered okay and acceptable.
Yes, I am mad. I am mad that my PC is done, gone. But the bright side is that I actually bought a Dell, a good product with years of warranty.
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