Under the rent-to-own model, customers take out an agreement to buy a product, and then pay weekly instalments until they own it - similar to hire purchase agreements.
Hull city council's trading standards team launched an investigation into PerfectHome after a customer complained that she had been pressured into giving her house key to them before they delivered her television.Well, can you blame them, given the ... errr, 'clientele' they must deal with?
Trading standards officers visited PerfectHome's store on Prospect Street in Hull in September 2013 and found more keys belonging to other customers.
Lizzie from Hull, who was not part of the court case, told Radio 4's You & Yours that she had to give up her keys after buying a 50-inch TV and Blu-ray player.
She said: "I just didn't have the money to buy a TV straight away. I was paying £17.50 a week for about three years."
"On the third week when I went in to pay, they said they needed my keys in case I defaulted on paying."
"I went and got the keys cut and gave them to them. I just thought it was part of the agreement."Well, you could have just bought a tv with the money you saved up and...
Oh. That was clearly expecting too much.
H/T: CJ Nerd via email
10 comments:
I've seen TVs at boot fairs for £5 and people on sites like freecycle literally can't give away even the best CRT TVs.
But, "even though I'm broke I've got to have the biggest, best flat screen TV NOW!!!!!!"
I agree with "I've seen TVs at boot fairs for £5 and people on sites like freecycle literally can't give away even the best CRT TVs.
But, "even though I'm broke I've got to have the biggest, best flat screen TV NOW!!!!!!""
100%.
I would love to measure the enjoyment of someone watching program x on an old TV and the same enjoyment on a new TV, I doubt it would be measurable
She was paying for it wasn't she? So why can't she have the 'latest thing' (on tick)?
'Back in the day' My mom & dad used to rent one. Should they have waited untill they could afford to buy? Sorry kids, we can only afford a telly once you've all grown up & flown the nest...!
Brightside Bob
I can understand people spending a lot of money on a TV in the 50s or 60s because it was the only way to have a TV. But why today when you can get a basic model?
If someone who is broke needs a car to get to work they don't buy a brand new BMW do they?
Of course it is her money and she could what she likes with it. However it is their product and she shouldn't complain about the conditions
Who needs a 50 inch telly, especially in some dark, dingy, council flat? Surely they can look out the window and watch the unending litany of woe and despair (Eatenders, eat your heart out). At least this comes free. Well, until Mr Beale/Mugumbo kicks your door in and nicks your tele,that is.
L fairfax.
I usually read the article, but I didn't/haven't in this case.
I took Julia's post at face value & it appears to sneer at someone spending their money on things they want via installments, rather than settling for(& being grateful?) something less satisfactory.
The anology about the car isn't fair. If someone wants to 'blow' their money on BMW, that's their choice.
Is everything in your life (eg: car, telly, phone, sofa, etc) based purely on utilitarian necessity?
I don't advocate reckless spending, I wouldn't skint myself to buy a new BMW, but nor would I settle for a 'Trabant'...!
And nobody should have a mortgage either. They should wait until they can save up to pay cash for the house.
"But, "even though I'm broke I've got to have the biggest, best flat screen TV NOW!!!!!!""
Spot on!
"She was paying for it wasn't she? So why can't she have the 'latest thing' (on tick)?"
She can, if she wants.
And I can point out the total insanity of these sorts of contracts & the idiots that go into them then whinge in the local paper about how 'unfair' it is, if I want... ;)
"Surely they can look out the window and watch the unending litany of woe and despair (Eatenders, eat your heart out)."
:D
"And nobody should have a mortgage either. They should wait until they can save up to pay cash for the house."
Will your TV appreciate in value while keeping you warm and dry and safe?
No? Well, apples & oranges then.
Not apples and oranges at all Julia. A mortgage is a house on tick, just like a telly on tick. Either credit is shameful, or it isn't.
When I was a child, my parents rented a telly. Clearly as working class people, they should not have been so uppity as to want consumer goods they could not afford to buy outright.
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