I worked for Rent A Center for 3 1/2 years. I was a "successful" store mgr and store mgr of the year in my market. For rent a center to claim that they are not misleading or ripping people off would be comical if it weren't a trajedy.
I truly do not mean to degrade or belittle customers, because I had an excellent rapport and a great amount of respect for my customers, but very few of them truly understand how the rental transaction works. Half of the employees @RAC don't truly understand it themselves. The company downplays the rent to own price. Here is a good example: at RAC you buy a brand new Dell computer for 37.99 a week for 104 weeks. They give you 90 days same as cash... $1975.48. You pay for 90 days, (12 weeks), which is $455.48. Remember that this is talking about rental rates only w/o taxes etc. Anyway, after paying the $455.48 the 13th week arrives. And guess what your purchase option goes up to?...$1922.29. Who would really do that if they understood it? To top that off only 45% of your payments come off of the remaining balance after your first 90 days are up.
Meaning that if you pay $100 only $45 comes off of it. Many times people are so far into the agreement by the time that they figure this out that they go ahead and finish the agreement anyway. I would strongly suggest to people that they spend a few minutes checking out other rental agencies before going to rent a center. Rent A Center is the biggest rent to own company currently, but there are still a number of smaller competitors who carry the exact same merchandise at a much, much lower rate. And in regard to RAC harassing customers - any employee at Rent A Center who claims that the company does not harass it's customers is a liar. They treat their employees the same way they treat their customers... Which is why the employees are so hard on the customers.
For the record I am not an angry ex employee who got mad or fired for something stupid at RAC. Like many customers, I became tired of their business practices and left. The only reason I am writing this is to offer fair warning to consumers.
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