The Tally Man's Become The TV Man...

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

And Clearly, You Still Are...

'Calorie intake wasn't explained to me. I was seven, I was a child.'

The words of 17 stone 15 year old Brooke Walker, who went on breakfast TV to demand a gastric band operation. Because she 'can't diet', it 'doesn't work'.

She said: 'When I was younger I would eat chips, pizza, fast food stuff. Curry cheesy chips, I would have them a lot.

'I wasn't going out and burning off the food I ate. Calorie intake wasn't explained to me. I was seven, I was a child.

'Now, it's completely different. I have breakfast lunch and dinner - and small portions.

'Now I would have cereal for breakfast, lunch, a soup or sandwich - it depends each day.'

So....is it not working, then?

Brooke has since moved in with her grandmother, who encouraged healthy eating, exercise and smaller portion sizes.

After this change in lifestyle she was losing weight and enjoyed the feeling, so started skipping entire meals to see a quicker result. She said: 'I noticed the weight coming off me. I started lose more weight when I missed meals.

'I stopped eating breakfast. I stopped eating lunch at school because I didn't like eating in front of people. I was worried about what people were saying.'

Wow! That's great! So.....why on earth do you want a gastric band op?

After years of embarrassment, gastric band operation would allow her to live normally and enjoy her twenties.

She said: 'If I get a gastric band, it's not a quick fix.

'It'll be beneficial in the long run, because the weight is coming off you so you can watch what you're eating.

'Also, soon I'll start to like the way I look and I'll feel confident enough so I'll start feel comfortable going out in public by myself and make friends.'

But....you just said that the weight is coming off you?

Naturally, Tam Fry is quick to get climb aboard this bandwagon:

He said he agreed Brooke should be given the gastric band operation on the NHS, saying it could be 'the game changer' for her.

He said: 'The operation should be the last resort. You should go through the healthy lifestyle steps first. But for people like Brooke, who have been through that, it's got to be the operation by choice.'

Aha! There you have it - choice. Whatever she says, it is a 'quick fix'. Because today's youth have never heard the term 'deferred gratification', much less practiced it...