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Rental Business Aaron's Admits Role In Spying On Customers
New submitter bhv writes "After firmly denying that it used software on its rent-to-own computers to spy on customers, including capturing passwords, sensitive financial information and images of private intimate moments, Atlanta-based Aaron's has owned up to the practice in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission."
I would do jail time if I tried to pull that shit.
IANAL, but "rent-to-own" seldom really functions as a rental; it's effectively an installment sales contract in which you pay more interest than your state allows on real installment loans, in return for having walk-away rights.
IANAL, but "rent-to-own" seldom really functions as a rental; it's effectively an installment sales contract in which you pay more interest than your state allows on real installment loans, in return for having walk-away rights.
Although this is their target market, the "rent-to-own" purchases by the payday cash loan crowd, no sane people should
ever use them to actually buy something as the price is usually double or more before you're finished.
Using them as a rental is actually fairly reasonable though if you need furniture for a month or a big TV for a superbowl party.
IANAL, but "rent-to-own" seldom really functions as a rental; it's effectively an installment sales contract in which you pay more interest than your state allows on real installment loans, in return for having walk-away rights.
Quite right. With the addition that when you miss one of the usury payments, they take the stuff back, often after you have paid several multiples of the retail price of the item.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Aaron's and similar rental companies are built on taking advantage of lower income folks who are not good financial decision makers. While there is an element of that with many businesses, these rental companies take it to the extreme.
It's a rent to own store and from a brief stint working in one (quite a few years ago) I can say that most of the clients were people who had bad credit and too poor or unable to save enough to buy *new* furniture/electronics outright.
How it works? They take full MSRP (which usually gives you 100% markup) double *that* price then divide up into payments. So as an example a living room set with a $1500 MSRP (which probably cost them $700) would end up being $125 a month OR $57.70 a week (Easy Payments!). If the customer paid through the two years required to own it they would have paid $3000 for a couch they could have gotten for sale elsewhere for about $1200.
The horrendous markup is more visible in electronics (a PS2 in it's day would have cost someone close to $1000 by the end of the year rent-to-own period).
You are totally correct. The best situation for a consumer in that situation is to get furniture from either Goodwill, the Salvation Army, Craigslist, or the local newspaper classifieds. If they still want *new* furniture, then they can enjoy the used stuff till they save enough to buy what they really want outright (and re-sell the used item).
Working that job made me realize that schools *must* have a personal finances class which goes over budgeting, avoiding scams, and setting up an affordable household.
Georgia Tech, the leader in Chia(tm) technology.
Just another example of how some scheme up ways to take advantage of those than haven't any means.
Another case of someone making their money off the class that can least afford to support themselves much less someone else.
We still have those RtO centers here, I'm not surprised they do as well as they do. Personally until a year ago my family was using a tv I had gotten from my brother that he was going to throw out during a move because the vertical hold was gone. I took it home and replaced a $0.25 resistor and we used it for a bit over a year before we caught a flat screen Samsung on sale at Target for less than $200. Prior to that we had the tv we had purchased from Wally world when we got married 17 years ago, and it was working just fine.
I've never really been one to have to have the latest and greatest gadgets, to me they are just gimmicks to separate you from your money for something you get convinced you can't live without. Of course that didn't apply to computers with me.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
It serves a useful purpose, if you use it for a short term needs. When I was an undergraduate in upstate New York, the "College Housing" cartels charged more than double the market rate for furnished apartments with shorter-term leases. It made far more sense to rent an unfurnished apartment intended for the locals with a one year lease, and just pay the extra rent for the two months most of us weren't there in the summer. Since most 18-21 year olds don't own furniture, nor wanted to be responsible for moving / storing / dealing with it. we could annually rent a full living room set with a big television - no one was responsible for buying it, we didn't have to split up possessions between roommates at the end of the year, and splitting the cost of all of it between four guys for 8-10 months was reasonable. At the end of the academic term we would call up the rental company and have them pick it all up. Next fall, we'd get the latest and greatest for that year delivered and moved in. rinse and repeat.
A fool and their money were lucky to get together in the first place.
It's an immoral act to let a sucker keep his money.
Until they force someone to rent from them they aren't doing anything wrong.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Apparently they weren't "rent-to-own" but rent-to-be-pwned.
Working that job made me realize that schools *must* have a personal finances class which goes over budgeting, avoiding scams, and setting up an affordable household.
The public schools already teach this. My daughter is in high school, and she had the class last year. It is called "Life Skills". They learn to budget and invest. They write a resume, dress in business attire, and attend a mock job interview. They also learn to plan and cook meals using a budget and nutritional information. It is an elective class, but nearly everyone takes it (it is an easy A, plus you get to make and eat cookies).
The problem is that some people are just fundamentally stupid and irresponsible. No amount of education is going to fix that. The main problem is that these people can vote, so their irresponsibility is inflicted on all of us. If you run up twice your disposable income in credit card debt to pay for useless bling, then why shouldn't the government do the same?
This is why all of my furniture is made from steel reinforced concrete. Sure, the pillows are a bit hard, but it's a small cost for peace of mind!
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
splitting the cost of all of it between four guys for 8-10 months was reasonable
Seems reasonable. And for short term stuff (table for thanksgiving, big TV for Superbowl, bed for temporary guests, etc) it's fine. However the vast majority of people don't use it like this.
That said at 8 months (and a usual term of 24 months Rent to Own) you've paid up 8/24 = 1/3rd of the inflated cost. So for my example of the living room set, you and your roommates would have paid $1000 of a $1500 (full retail) living room set. At 10 months you would have paid $1250 (sale price for the item at a regular furniture store).
If you must have "new" stuff and you don't want to deal with selling/donating it at the end of the school year then it'll work. However if you don't mind used, you can furnish an entire (temporary/first) apartment for much less and make back some money at the end by re-selling or donating (and getting a tax break).
As an example my roommate and I furnished our apartment with about $200 from the salvation army, $100 for my waterbed (no bed bugs!), and whatever he spent on his bed. The $200 from the Salvation Army got us a living room set, entertainment center, desks, second couch (we went during the weekend auctions). At the end we just re-donated the stuff.
Georgia Tech, the leader in Chia(tm) technology.
Reminds me of the lyrics to "Good Times" theme song;
Temporary lay offs. - Good Times.
Easy credit rip offs. - Good Times.
Scratchin’ and surviving. - Good Times.
Hangin in a chow line - Good Times.
Ain’t we lucky we got ‘em - Good Times.
The whole point of not buying the furniture was to avoid the mess of having to donate/sell/move/divide/store it at the end of an academic year; the whole "who gets what" situation, since roommates usually changed from year to year (Someone graduates / gets sick of living with you etc). As a general rule the landlords would NOT renew leases from year to year once they realized you were actually a student since most of them also owned the aformentioned "Student Housing" where they could get quite the markup. I always managed to get a "locals" apartment initially by presenting an ID with an in-town address and showing a paystub from the pharmaceutical company I worked for part time. Was it legal for them to discriminate in this way? Probably not. Was it widespread, yes. At the end of the day, It worked for the three years I needed to play the game while living there.
Throw an exec in jail because of this? Absolutely not
I guess I disagree. As a CEO you are responsible for the actions of your company. You sanctioned a plan to use software to recover your property and did not put adequate safeguards or training in place to prevent abuse of that software. As CEO you are responsible.
This is why all of my furniture is made from steel reinforced concrete. Sure, the pillows are a bit hard, but it's a small cost for peace of mind!
Sorry to hear that you are in county lock up.
Be seeing you...
Working that job made me realize that schools *must* have a personal finances class which goes over budgeting, avoiding scams, and setting up an affordable household.
The public schools already teach this. My daughter is in high school, and she had the class last year. It is called "Life Skills". They learn to budget and invest. They write a resume, dress in business attire, and attend a mock job interview. They also learn to plan and cook meals using a budget and nutritional information. It is an elective class, but nearly everyone takes it (it is an easy A, plus you get to make and eat cookies).
The problem is that some people are just fundamentally stupid and irresponsible. No amount of education is going to fix that. The main problem is that these people can vote, so their irresponsibility is inflicted on all of us. If you run up twice your disposable income in credit card debt to pay for useless bling, then why shouldn't the government do the same?
You can not learn enough "Life Skills" in a semester of school. It's shit your parents need to teach you growing up.
Be seeing you...