After reading the other complaints here, I sure wish I had read them before doing business with this company, as it appears I have been a victim also. I had been a loyal customer, totally on disability, when I first purchased a computer. I was always early or on time with my payments. I made a few of my payments by credit card and was told my card would never be charged unless I authorized it.
I saw the form, and I specifically told them no, I did not want automatic deductions, as I am on a fixed income and Social Security is not legally supposed to be garnished, frozen or taken unless it is for the IRS, child support or alimony. Anyway, three of the months in the previous year, if I was going to be a day late, I would call them and tell them ahead of time that I would be in by a specific date.
Then I would receive a phone call before that date saying I had broken a promise and had not called or come in as stated. I got furious and finally said that I am a person of my word, that I am not at all healthy, and that I do not need this. So I told them to pick everything up. They said they were sorry and that whoever I talked to must not have written it down in the computer right. Then I said not to call me again, and that I would be in when I said I would.
Two days later I got a letter telling me they were calling in the lease and that it was terminated. I figured fine, I was not going to go in the next day and make a payment, as now I was really upset. The following business day they called me and said that now that was two promises I had broken, and I let Jeff have it. I told him that I never made a promise to be in the first time, and that I had received a letter the day before, signed by Tim the manager, saying they were calling in the lease.
Jeff said that was a mistake. I said they could have the computer back, but not until I cleaned and reformatted the machine. He said, "Wait, wait, wait, what can we do to make it better and make you happy?" I said I did not know; I just wanted to turn everything back in and deal with some other company that would not lie to me, call me and harass me.
So he said he would remove the calling and that if I could not make a payment I should always ask for him and he would take care of it. And if Jeff was not in, I should talk to Jason. I made another payment by credit card and specifically said, "You are not authorized to charge my card at any time." He said they would not do that, that they cannot do that, because it is against the law. So I agreed.
In a nutshell, the following month I got very ill, had to go to a hospital, and lost my apartment. When I got out I left the state and tried to move into somewhere new and get settled, and then I was going to contact them. I was only 5 days late at this point. Then the harassing calls started again. Then they started making threats. They threatened to take legal action if I did not call them by 5 pm that night. My health was more important to me and this was really upsetting me, so I figured, with all of the hassles, fine, just do what you have to do with your legal action.
Then they kept calling and calling and blocking their number, but they would leave a message, and it was always nasty and rude, where my family could play the message and hear. This is against the law! This is a privacy issue, and such a message is not supposed to be left on an answering machine!
Two days went by, then three, and I thought any day I would be contacted with legal action. I could not sleep or eat and did not know what to do. Then last week I got another phone call from Jeff saying, "Congratulations! Your account is getting charged off to stolen goods and you don't have to do any paperwork," but would I please call him.
As stated above, I am on SSDI and that is my only income. I have bill pay, and had my rent and utilities all set up to pay, and I was broke after buying my meds. I got an email from my bank stating that my rent could not get paid because I was NSF. I thought, what? I just got paid on Wednesday and now I am NSF and my rent is not getting paid. So I quickly looked online at my account, and there were two charges from Aaron's to my debit card, where my SSDI is direct deposited, and they know this. They charged over $300, which is way more than I owed, and I did not authorize this at all! So first they threatened to take legal action, the next week they said they were charging it all off, "Congratulations," and then this week they took my money, which SSDI cannot be garnished or frozen.
I called the bank. They said I have to wait until Monday for the charges to post to the account, even though the funds are being held and it was fraudulent. They cannot do anything until then, and I can file a dispute, but it may take 60 days to resolve, and I would be better off contacting the source (Aarons) and resolving it with them.
So now I have an NSF fee for a bounced rent check. I will lose my house and have to live in my car, all because of them doing this? How can that be legal? How can they get away with this? It is illegal to write down my credit card information and keep it on file, and the bank and debit card people agree.
It is illegal for them to call and harass me and talk about my account with friends and family who were listed as references. It is illegal to threaten legal action and then not do it, using it only as a scare tactic (my health can't take it). It is illegal to leave a message saying the account was being charged off, "Congratulations!" And it is illegal to take funds from my SSDI and to knowingly do all of this and get away with it!
I would advise never doing business with them and never giving them your credit or debit card, as now I do not know what to do. I am going to dispute the charge and report it to the FTC, the BBB and wherever else I need to go if they do not refund my money immediately. I guess their whole idea of scare tactics works, as now they will have to be contacted by me one way or another.
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