jgrimoldy

May 04, 2011 at 3:56pm

RTO places are almost as bad as PayDay Loan places... Preying on the most vulnerable...

The only time that using an RTO makes sense is when your intention is to furnish a home for a few months.  In that case, it's cheaper than buying, and much of the headache is removed. 

To use an RTO to actually Rent to Own is a fundamental economic mistake.  Suck it up, buttercup, live on milk-crates for a few months while you save the money to BUY decent things outright.

It's like entering into a car lease with the full intention to pursue the end-of-lease buyout option.  It's as if you're looking for the MOST EXPENSIVE WAY POSSIBLE to buy a car...

fellowleo

May 04, 2011 at 2:33pm

On Aaron's web site they claim that the software was installed and used by their independent franchise owner and that Aaron themselves do not do any business with PC Rental Agent.

In other words....

Aarons Inc.: "Hey Aaron's of Casper, Wyoming. We got this complaint, can you come up to the front of the bus for a bit?"

Aaron's of Casper, Wyoming: "Yea sure! What can I do fo... Ahhhh........!"

germanogre

May 04, 2011 at 9:56am

Anyone remember the fiasco over a laptop loaned to a student by a school?
A teacher activated the webcam and watched the student at his home. He/she was
convinced he was popping pills; he claims they were Jujubes. School tried to suspend
him, parents filed charges. The school and the teacher got off with NO PUNISHMENT!

p47riot

May 04, 2011 at 8:37am

How unbelievably stupid could a company be? If this is true, then they've doomed themselves. Hard to believe that any corporation who handles leases and rental agreements for a living did not have a legal advisor warning them that this could potentially land them in bad juju. If the class-action suit doesn't bankrupt them, the loss of business nationwide will once this gets out.

jgrimoldy

May 04, 2011 at 9:22am

Unless these little intrusions are spelled out in the Rental Agreement (and they might as well be, because nobody reads those either), this will not end well for Aaron's.  I'm particularly disturbed by the photo.  What'd they do, take a picture of him with the built-in camera?  YIKES!

If a friend/relative ever did an RTO on a computer, I would insist that I have the opportunity to reload their OS without any sort of spyware...

EDIT:  'Just read the leagal complaint that was filed.  As part of the complaint, a copy of the rental/lease contract is attached.  Nothing is mentioned about any of this monitoring.  On top of that lunacy, RTO companies ABSOLUTELY REAM their customers.  They had a $900 buyout option at the end of their $600 lease.  They were paying $130/month for this thing.  They could get a 4-5 year old laptop for about $250 which would be more than adequate for surfing the web and creating/editing documents...