re: Imagine paying $800 for a window AC?

Those we don’t speak of

I mean, I get it for people who don’t have a lot of money but can afford 20 or so dollars per week. Think elderly people on a fixed income. Same concept as financing a car or paying for a house via mortgage, although on a much much smaller scale.

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portable sheds

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Talk about a rip-off business. Renting those damn things makes no sense.

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I just want to know how these rent to own places do repos.

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I was an accounts manager(initial contract, delivery, repo man, bill collector) for two years in college. I worked for two brothers that owned a 37 store chain.

This was in the early 90s. I was young, dumb and didn't have a concern of what neighborhood I was in. No cellphone, only the company radio in the van.


Rarely would any put up an argument. The contracts we issued were 18mo/78weeks. They weren't that attached to whatever they were renting. They didn't have much time invested. They had no idea how much money they had invested.

I always had a pitch that after the repo, after their finances improved, they could come back in and rerent and finish out the contract. No penalty. About one in 20 would come back and finish out the original contract. 5 in 20 would come back and rent something else on a brand new contract.

The guys I worked for weren't big enough to buy merchandise much cheaper than retail. It didn't matter. The rental markup was the same.

Price the store paid X 3.5 divided by the term = weekly/monthly rate.

The key to keeping an account current was for the due date to mirror to the day of when they received their income. Weekly, biweekly, semi or monthly. It was common knowledge that if a contract was written up with a due date 2 days after they were paid that you set them up to fail.


We didn't rent a c though. As soon as that first 75 degree day happens in the fall, the payments would stop. Before you know it, you're staring at a backroom full of window units until the next memorial day.

People in the L.A. area use window units because they only need it a few days a year. A buddy of mine lives in Irvine and says he can count on one hand the number of times he's used his AC.

You ever look at the computers these rent-to-own places sell to poor, lowly people? They're the saddest pieces of shite computers you can imagine for like $2k-$3k.